Garmin and ithlete Pro
Garmin are regarded by many endurance athletes as the ‘go-to’ devices for monitoring and logging their workouts and everyday activities. As well as providing stats during the workout your training data is synced to Garmin Connect to view more detailed insights. Connect is also an important intermediate to popular training analysis apps such as Training Peaks, Strava, and now ithlete Pro!
Syncing your Garmin Connect and ithlete Pro accounts brings together your workout and recovery data for a comprehensive picture of your training.
- Accurately assess the impact of a given workout on your HRV
- See how training performance relates to morning HRV and subjective metrics
- Understand which workouts have the greatest HRV cost
- Know which workouts best aid recovery
- Automatically create a useful training log with no manual recording
- Manage your taper to perfection
How to connect Garmin and ithlete Pro
We’ve been working with Garmin to ensure a smooth upload of your activity data from Garmin Connect to ithlete Pro in a very few simple steps:
- First, enable the Garmin widget from the tools menu on the right hand side of ithlete Pro screen
- Click on the widget and sign in to Garmin Connect to give your permission for ithlete Pro to use your data.
- Once synced, your Timeline will start to show your latest workouts uploaded directly without you having to do anything further. The first thing you may notice is that your previous training load entries have been faded to gray and new ones are in a dark black bar, with a new scale1 on the right.
Using the Garmin data in ithlete Pro
Clicking on any black bar will allow you to see the detailed data for that activity within the widget. Scroll down to reveal further information such as cycling speed, running pace and elevation gain. If you did more than one workout on a given day, you will be able to keep scrolling down and read all the details for that one too.
Data reported includes:
- Activity type
- Start time
- Duration
- Distance
- Calories burned
- Average & Maximum heart rate
- Average & Maximum speed
In summary, the new Garmin sync facility seamlessly calculates and displays your Training Loads in ithlete Pro next to your HRV and subjective metrics and gives you an automated training log without having to make any notes if you don’t want to! (Although you can always add a comment to the ithlete daily reading for anything you haven’t captured elsewhere).
Get Synced Now
Note: If you aren’t yet using ithlete Pro already take advantage of a two-week free trial now.
Introducing the Bluetooth Smart & ANT+ Compatible HRM Strap
We are further enhancing Garmin device compatibility by introducing a new heart rate monitor strap that works with both iOS / Android Smart phones as well as Garmin Edge, Forerunner and Fenix devices. This Cardiosport strap transmits both Bluetooth Smart and ANT+ for Garmin devices simultaneously, and is additionally very light in weight with a battery life of up to 900 hrs. So now you only need one heart rate monitor to use during exercise and to perform your morning ithlete reading.
1 This scale uses a calculation called TRIMP, invented by Dr Eric Bannister, which involves creating an intensity factor for the workout and multiplying by the duration of the workout in minutes. TRIMP has been validated in scientific studies and correlates highly with other popular Training Load calculations such as TSS. In order for the calculation to be as accurate as possible, please ensure your date of birth and gender are set correctly in the ithlete Pro profile, accessed from the top of the screen.
Can I switch the data to read in US units (Miles, F)? Thanks for this it’s interesting. I use Training Peaks the most and their Training Stress Score (TSS). Am not familiar with the Garmin Training Load but am interested to watch it. Thanks
Hi Greg
Thanks for the feedback. Switching units is certainly on the to-do list based on location. The Garmin Training Load TRIMP calculation we have used was the original inspiration for TSS, and correlates well. The absolute numbers will be different but should track well. This article compares the two if you are interested: https://www.cyclinganalytics.com/blog/2012/10/better-heart-rate-monitor-support
I would be really interested in synching with TrainingPeaks, where I keep all my training data. Including a lot of power based Computrainer sessions that are uploaded directly to TP using Trainerroad. Also, Garmin files need sometimes some cleaning up. I only use Garmin Connect to move files from my devices to TP. I am afraid that synching only with Garmin connect will not give the intended insight because it does no capture all my training
Thanks for the feedback. ithlete Pro is already able to upload HRV to TP, and we are just awaiting TP to give us the go ahead to import TSS coming the other way, which requires a small amount of work on their side.
Regarding the new bluetooth/ANT strap, are there replacement straps available when the elastic and electrodes wear out? They inevitably do.
Hi Chuck
Good point! Yes we do have replacement straps for $15 (£10) + postage.
Hello, when synch with POLAR V800? Thank you
Hi Sergio,
We don’t get enough requests to do something direct with Polar, however in the future we may be able to use a third party, such as Apple Health, to bring in your data.
Best,
Laura
Effort ( Trimp ) sync is a good help. Anything in the pipes for sleep ( Vivofit ) ?
Hi Yves-Marie. Thanks for the feedback. Indeed we do want to make sleep more objective, but curiously, a sleep score does not feature in the API we currently use from Garmin. You can get sleep score into Pro from Fitbit and we plan on adding Beddit (which is a dedicated & sophisticated sleep monitoring tool)
Is there any update regarding import of sleep data from 3rd parties such as garmin or jawbone for those of us who do not own a Fitbit?
Hi Richard. Good question. We’ve checked and Garmin does now include sleep data from their wellness devices in the interface. Its not a simple addition though, partly because they send durations of different sleep phases in seconds, so we would have to create a sleep score from that. Something we will add to the list for the new year!
Hi Simon any update on this?
Cheers Richard
Hi Richard. Thanks for the reminder. It is on the list, and we are adding a number of upgrades to Pro over the next few weeks. Garmin would be our initial integration, as that is the most popular with Pro users. Best, Simon.
Hi Simon
Any news on when ithlete will allow import of garmin wellness data (ie sleep)
Hi Richard. We are planning a new project right now to greatly expand the metrics we import, and this one is certainly high on the list!
Will the HRM work with the Vivoactive HR?
Wes
Hi Wes. The Garmin Training Load will be calculated for your workouts and will appear in ithlete Pro. You can’t use the Vivoactive HR sensor to do HRV readings though, as wrist based sensors are not accurate enough (yet) for HRV. Hope this helps!
Winget the garmin connect does not workComment
Hi Domenico,
What isn’t working for you? If you could please describe or screenshot the problem I can feedback to our team.
Thanks, Laura
Does it mean i can use my standard Fenix 3 + HR belt to calculate the HRV in ithlete?
I live in Asia so the shipping cost of your heart measurement devices is killing it.
Hi Arnauld,
Although we would appreciate the convenience of getting recovery data from a smartwatch, the fact is that the back of the wrist is just not a good location on the body for obtaining precise timing of heartbeats.
As for shipping, we sympathise, we don’t look to make money on shipping, but it is just that expensive for us to have goods couriered I’m afraid.
Best,
Laura
Hi Laura,
The HR strap used by the fenix 3 is accurate. Can that be used?
I stopped using iThlete Pro a while ago because the process of taking readings in the morning became so unreliable I’s run out of time.
Hi Andrew,
My apologies, I’ve somehow only just seen this comment. I know we’ve also exchanged emails so I hope you are back up and running now.
Will the Garmin heart rate strap/monitor work with the ithlete ECG receiver
Hi Steve. In a word, no, because the ANT+ standard that Garmin uses has not been included in mobile phones. The Cardiosport strap we sell works with Garmin devices as well as mobile phones, and for new devices, Garmin themselves are now including a strap which transmits both ANT+ and Bluetooth.
The ithlete ECG receiver will work with an old style Polar strap if you have one of those lying around (many athletes do!).
Best regards
Simon
Can I use the data from my Fenix 6X pro instead of using the finger sensor?
Hi Peter,
ithlete isn’t currently compatible with any wrist-worn devices.