Display workout interval comments on Garmin devices

Feature Requests
#1

Hi, I tried creating a bunch of cycling structured workouts and sent them to my Garmin Connect account. However, I noticed that interval comments are not displayed during activity.

I read the guide on TrainerDay interval comments saying that interval comments are currently supported for Zwift only. I was wondering if it is planned to develop the same feature also for Garmin devices or if there is any impairment for doing it. I’m asking this since TrainingPeaks as well suffers the same issue. Unfortunately, comments and notes are vital for lot of structured workouts, so having this feature would be tremendously good.

Thanks in advance

#2

Interesting. I did not realize Garmin supports interval comments. I am looking at their API documentation now and it appears there is a step description of 512 characters, my guess is that is what it is.

Frequently you want the text to appear before the interval starts, so this does not appear to be possible. If the text showed up when the interval started is that good enough and is that how it works now? I would be happy to add this if it works reasonably well. It should be very easy for us, I just did not realize it was possible. Yes, TrainingPeaks does not support other nice workout features that I wish they would.

I can ask my Garmin API person too, she is very helpful.

#3

Thank you for your prompt reply. As far as I know by experience, when you build a cycling workout through the Garmin Connect web site, there is the possibility to add a “step description” as you told. The way it works, if I’m not wrong, is that during a given workout interval you can read such a step description of the current interval and (not 100% sure) of the successive interval.

But yes, for me this would be more than enough. One of the reasons I’d like this feature is that apparently Garmin don’t support simultaneous training targets (like power at x% of FTP and cadence > y rpm). Step description is an easy workaround when building workouts in Connect, but I prefer TrainerDay to manage workouts.

I’m really happy to know that it should be easy for your side and I’d really appreciate if you implement it.

#4

Thanks for the insights. Maybe we should just what you said. Rather than making you type a description, just put cadence targets in the description if they exist. It seems cadence targets are what I hear people asking for the most. This is even easier for us.

Just take our actual cadence value (if it exists) and put it in the description.
Like “RPM 60-80”

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#5

I understand your suggestion, I agree that the impossibility of Garmin to use cadence and power target jointly is probably the major limitation for most of the users. Still, I prefer having full flexibility in the textual description. I might want to add a target other than cadence (like speed) or just some textual reminder like “sprint starting from 10km/h”.

Whatever the choice, it will be relly appreciated.

#6

Ok good to understand. Yes actual descriptions is the more flexible right way. Just verifying with you. Interval Comments in descriptions should be easy also. It’s probably a month or so before we can look at this but I am really happy if people start using our interval descriptions more because we think this has a lot of potential.

#7

Wonderful, I’ll wait this feature. Just for correctness: I checked and I was wrong, TrainingPeaks does actually implement some sort of interval comment. In particular, the content of the “title” box in TP workout builder is read as the actual step description by the garmin device.

#8

Oh thanks for the clarification. I knew it was not possible to actually send text descriptions like Zwift supports to Zwift via TP (meaning setting the exact second the message shows), but I was not sure about how Garmin works or I forgot :slight_smile: I believe we send some description now to TP but I don’t remember what. We will review this and maybe improve both at the same time (TP and Garmin)