SyncMyWorkout's merge feature lets you combine a garmin watch activity that you recorded during a peloton workout with the workout's stats that are in peloton. As a result, you end up with a single activity in garmin connect with metrics from both sources.

Requirements

The merge feature does add complexity to the SyncMyWorkout system, so if you don't wear your watch during your Peloton workouts, or you don't care about the merging behavior described below, it's totally fine to keep the feature off.

If you do want to use the feature, there are a few requirements that must be met for it to work properly:

1. The feature must be turned on. The Garmin section of the settings page has a checkbox that toggles the feature on/off.
2. The watch recording and peloton workout must be considered matches. To be a match, the watch recording has to start within +/- 2 min of the peloton workout's start time, and the total elapsed time of the watch recording has to be within +/- 4 min of the peloton workout's elapsed time.
3. The watch recording must be available in Garmin Connect when SyncMyWorkout goes looking for a match for the peloton workout. If you have Strava connected to SyncMyWorkout this is less of a concern because SyncMyWorkout will wait (for a set amount of time***) for your watch recording to make it to Strava. However, without Strava, SyncMyWorkout checks your peloton account once per hour, and if it finds a new Peloton workout it will check your Garmin account right away for a matching watch recording. If a match isn't found because the watch recording hasn't been uploaded to Garmin yet, the workout will be uploaded without merging.

*** When you have the merge feature turned on and Strava connected to SyncMyWorkout, you can configure how long you want SyncMyWorkout to wait for a matching watch recording to make it to Strava. You'll find ths setting in the Strava section of the SyncMyWorkout settings page.

If you have the merge feature on but you forget to record things with your watch, this is not a problem. SyncMyWorkout will still automatically upload your peloton workout to Garmin Connect.

How does the merge feature's auto-delete option work?

When you have the merge feature checkbox enabled, you can enable an additional checkbox labeled "delete watch recording after merged upload".

When this is turned on, SyncMyWorkout will delete the watch recording from your Garmin Connect account if (and only if) it has been merged with a Peloton workout.

Please note:

• Strava's API does not support deleting activities, so SyncMyWorkout can't delete your duplicate recording from Strava. You'll have to manually delete it yourself.
• SyncMyWorkout doesn't delete the watch recording from your watch. This means the newly uploaded version of the activity that is in Garmin Connect (the copy that contains distance, speed, power, etc) cannot be synced down to your watch; your watch thinks it is a duplicate of the recording that is already on the watch. This isn't necessarily a problem - you still get credit for everything. However, if you want the version of the activity that is in Garmin Connect to be sent down to your watch, you shouldn't use the merge feature.
• SyncMyWorkout doesn't delete the watch recording from your watch. We have had a few reports (3 as of today) where users plugged their watch into their computer to use Garmin Express, and Garmin Express re-uploaded the watch recordings that were still stored on the watch. This resulted in duplicate activities in Garmin Connect that had to be manually deleted. To date this has only happened with the PC version of Garmin Express. If you use Garmin Express, you should be aware of this possibility and consider deleting activities that are on your watch before plugging it in to your computer.

What gets merged?

Today, SyncMyWorkout can only preserve the time series stats from a single source during a merge operation (either from the watch or from the peloton). The time series stats are the metrics that are collected every second during your workout; the ones that you can see graphed over time at the end of your workout (for example: heart rate, power, speed, cadence).

If the peloton version has power data, then SyncMyWorkout keeps the peloton time series. If not, then SyncMyWorkout keeps the watch time series.

During the merge operation, regardless of which time series get preserved, the title of the activity will be updated to match the title of the peloton class. Additionally, the following summary metrics will be extracted from the watch recording if they are available (not all watches generate these metrics):

• nutrition & hydration
• respiration rate
• stamina
• running dynamics
• self evaluation
• training effect*
• intensity minutes**

* As of April 2023, Garmin will now calculate Training Effect when SyncMyWorkout uploads Peloton workouts without needing the merge feature! This Training Effect score is generated using your HR and cycling power, so it is more accurate than what you would have gotten from your watch recording alone. (link to Garmin's Training Effect FAQ)

** It's possible to earn intensity minutes without the merge feature: if you pair a garmin HRM-Pro chest strap to the Peloton, and you sync your HRM-Pro with the garmin app on your phone after your workout, Garmin will assign intensity minutes to your workout even if you didn't record things with your watch and use the merge feature. (link to Garmin's intensity minutes FAQ)

If you have any further questions about this feature, don't hesitate to reach out to our support team!