Set it to autopause, start your ride, it will automatically pause as it's stationary, when you grab your bike it will start up again. Set minimum speed to something like 10km/hr otherwise it will start as you run with your bike through transition. Make sure brightness is turned down.

Good idea. I had just been setting it to not power off but auto pause is a good idea

I wish I could find the link for you where I learned this stuff from Quarq several years back it would be much better than
me rehashing it.

"Auto Power Down" turned Off

at transition in the morning turn on your gamin and calibrate your meter.
now leave it on and go do your swim.

when you come back to your bike and start riding just press the start button
to start recording your ride.

when you finish your ride press stop and then you MUST PRESS SAVE.
(if you don't save it your battery will be dead by the time you finish your run
and you will probably lose the file. once it is saved doesn't matter if the battery
flops)

Autopause option. If you do turn on the auto pause then you would press start
in the transition, it would pause immediately and the resume when you start riding.
again though after the ride you must SAVE your file.

There is enough battery for this however you may need to adjust your brightness,
possibility Blue tooth off.. although I have heard bluetooth uses almost no energy.

If I find the link to quarq i will post it for you.

I had a experience with this in Texas this year... I turned it on in the morning while setting up, it found the satellites and off I went to swim... after the swim I grabbed my bike, got on, and just hit enter a couple times to bring up the data screen, then hit start.

Immediately I noticed that my battery was at ~65ish percent, strange.... And I was getting no powermeter data, I was pissed. After a couple miles with no data I pulled over to a complete stop to pause it, took off again and still
Had no power.... thinking that maybe having the garmin on all morning killed the PM battery, at the first aid station I pulled over and swapped out the battery... still nothing. I went the race without it, it sucked, and my run sucked worse.

I ended up getting the low battery message by the end of the race, although it didn't die before I finished.

When I got my bike back home, everything worked perfectly.

So I guess what I'm saying, is that I'm not going to leave it sit turned on and on the home screen again. And I will test out the other methods that people are suggesting before my next race. Thanks for asking the question

Will you really lose the data if you don't hit stop and save?

I have auto pause turned on, so it pauses the ride once I rack my bike in t2. My battery has come close to dying in a few HIM's. Will it really lose the data if the battery dies?

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blog

I guess one of the important things I should have mentioned is that hopefully the first time you are doing this
IS NOT on race day ;) Remember nothing new on race day. I would say test it out at home a few times.

Power meters are all different and battery conditions for each head unit seem to vary a fair amount.

My experience is with a 15 month old Edge 520 (that I do not believe has stellar battery performance) and a Quarq
Elsa from around 2014. When I finished my bike leg the unit had been on for about 8-9 hours and there was 30%
battery left.

As for not saving the file and the possibility of losing it test it out and see what happens. I don't trust garmin very
much but have found once something is saved it can always be retrieved in the mass storage USB mode no matter
what happens.

YMMV

Good Luck Everyone!

I've had my 520 die once during a trainer ride and it still saved the ride. When I got it plugged in and running the ride was still there in a paused mode (granted this was about only 8 minutes in). I forgot I left it on from the last session so didn't realize how low the battery was.

I've also had my Edge 500 and 310 die on me mid-ride/run/swim. Those just saved the activities and called it done. But, you can't count on that to a happen every time as it could corrupt the file if the unit abruptly shuts down mid-race or activity (think the warnings on your computer about shutting down mid-update or pulling a flash drive out without "undocking" it first). It is a gamble and usually when you want the data the most is when it is least likely to happen.

Also, for my old Edge 500 I just left it on in transition and then just hit start when I got out of transition (turned off the auto-off feature). But, I haven't raced since upgrading to a 520 yet (got it this winter) and also just don't have the time (I am prioritizing differently and racing is off the table for a least another year or two).

I've done pretty much what others have said - first with my old 500 and now with a 520.

I turn 'Auto Pause' off, sync up the power meter and get everything ready, so metrics are all displayed. Once I exit T1 I hit start and I hit stop once I enter T2. I've never 'saved' until after the race, and haven't had any sort of battery issues. I always make sure that all electronics are properly charged before every race to mitigate any battery issues.

I did forget to hit 'Stop' at IMMT two years ago in my Garmin 500 - had a 10+ hour 'ride' after being allowed back to get my bike!

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