Being in Idaho I have been doing more indoor cycling at home. I bought a Wahoo Kickr to attach one of my bikes to and use it when I can’t, or won’t, go outside to bike ride. This is usually do to weather in some way – smoke, ice, rain, snow, too dark.
The Wahoo will connect via bluetooth to my tablet and I can use different applications to simulate riding. Over the last few months I have used a few different programs for the simulations:
- Wahoo
- Zwift
- Trainingpeaks virtual
- My Whoosh
- Fulgaz
The thing is that I use a Garmin watch to track my bike rides when I go outside to ride. And when I bike inside I want to keep that tracking going. Well, all the applications will allow some form of uploading and communication between each other. Some of the applications will upload directly to Garmin Connect, and others you have to download a “.fit” file and then upload it to Garmin Connect. Neither one bothers me much more than the other. But I did find out, somewhat quickly, is that not all of the applications will upload data in a way that Garmin Connect will then process as an activity that will count toward Garmin challenges.
This annoyed me. I liked completely the challenges, but then I wasn’t able to because the virtual ride si Was doing weren’t counting toward those goals. The reason was that a Garmin device wasn’t used to record the event on some of the applications.
Here is the breakdown: Wahoo was worthless for what you got in the free application so I didn’t care about it at all. Zwift was cool, loads of routes to take, cost a bunch after the free trial, did NOT upload to Garmin to count for challenges, and was a bit too “gamey” for me. Trainingpeaks Virtual is great, very realistic from a way it worked with the trainer, limited on the routes, currently free but will cost a bit once the free period is over, does NOT upload to Garmin to count for challenges. My Whoosh is fun, FREE, rotating routes, limited number of routes, not as realistic when working with the trainer, DOES upload to Garmin to count for challenges. Fulgaz was interesting, it is actual videos of places where people have riding so that was cool, glitchy at times, made me a little queasy at times when the video was trying to match my speed, costs a little bit, did NOT upload to Garmin to count for challenges.
As a result I have been using My Whoosh pretty much exclusively for a while now. I like it, but I wish it was better.
Then over the weekend I learned about a website called FIT File Tools. It is amazing. It will take those fit files that all the different programs create and you can modify them in different ways. You can combine files to make a BIG activity. You can trim them to take stuff out. You can remove fields of data if you want. You can adjust time or correct corrupt time. You can remove peaks (in case something with the unit gets confused and says you climbed 20000ft on a bike ride when you only did 200ft).
But the game changer for me – you can change the device used during the activity. This means I can use any of the applications above and then add in a Garmin device (like my Venu watch), and then I can upload the “.fit” file to Garmin Connect and the data will count toward all challenges. WOW! I am now can use any application I want. I am going to use both My Whoosh and Trainingpeaks Virtual now. I will probably spend a bit more time on Trainingpeaks for a while since I haven’t been using it recently and I did like it more before. But maybe after using it for a while I won’t like it as much. Who knows. All I know is that FIT file tool is a game changing website for people like me.
If any of you have had similar issues in the past and haven’t found a way to fix it, I hope this helps you. You can use it for any “.fit” file. I happen to use it for cycling, but there are so many other cases where this may be helpful.