One of the key things we realized early on is Strava’s API, while comprehensive, doesn’t provide access to all of the data available in our workout files. At first we approached Strava about providing access to the file and that wasn’t an option. In hindsight we now know Garmin restricts this type of thing given they too have a developer program.
One of the biggest pain points for us started in July 2017 when Strava elected to remove the Power Stream from any Run activity. My understanding is they were getting complaints about how data was impacting their Fitness and Freshness charts as they don’t distinguish between run and bike power. That caused all of our Stryd and Garmin Running Pod users to lose their Run Power Thresholds over night:(
Another point of frustration is in our Bike Classifier in that predicting between similar bikes (e.g. multiple road bikes) is very difficult simply using the ride telemetry and patterns. What we really wanted was the list of sensors feeding your head units on every ride. They tell us which bike with near certainty.
We decided in late 2017 to establish an agreement with Garmin to solve this problems and expand the amount of data we can analyze.
The result has far exceeded our expectations. The amount of data that comes from the Garmin Fit files is staggering. Our new challenge is how to map this information properly for use in new and exciting insights.
Here is how it works today and what you can expect in the coming weeks:
- Athletes are asked to Authorize strive.ai to receive their Garmin raw device files
- Garmin pushes the files to us at nearly the same time Strava pushes Activity Create messages
- When we sync your Strava Activity we look for Garmin Files and establish a link between the two
- If a Garmin File is present for the activity we source the data from it instead of Strava’s data streams.
- We replicate the same variables we use in our Standard Factors (e.g. Altitude, Cadence, Temp, Warmup, etc) so our Base Factors feature continues to work.
- We capture all of the extended data (e.g. Running Dynamics, Left/Right Power, Moxy Muscle Oxygen, etc) from the Garmin Files and store averages of each that correlate with your Thresholds.
- Our plan is to establish more advanced Factors that correlate these extended variables to your Thresholds. For example, how does Ground Contact time impact my running power or pace?
- We still require a Strava Activity to process the information. We simply change where the data for our analytics is sourced from.
We’ve been testing with about 25 athletes and Garmin just approved us for Production. We’re going to introduce changes to our mobile app to prompt users to authorize Garmin if they haven’t as yet. It’s not going to be required but it is needed to get the Run Power and improved Bike Classifier.
Our vision is to do much more with this information so stay tuned!!!