My coach uses TrainingPeaks to set up trainingsessies which I export as mrc to PerfPro.
If I am not mistaken PerfPro can convert fit files into erg/mrc.

I’ve tried importing the FIT workout files into PerfPro, but it doesn’t recognise them as far as I can tell.

This would be an ideal solution if it does work - has anyone actual done this? If so, how?

I also previously used Training Peaks to export ERG/MRC files, but my coach now uses Today’s Plan (for good reasons) and broken ERG/MRC export is one of the gremlins that has emerged.

Go into PP Studio. Open workout file. Select all files to show. Import fit file. You can now ride it as a course but not as mrc/erg.

nevermind... I see you're using Today's Plan not Training Peaks. Different TP :)

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What's your CdA?

Sorry, but that doesn’t work; I just get an error “No activities found in this history file”.

Perhaps not surprising, as this isn’t a history file.

I do thank you for trying to help, but I fear you may have misunderstood my question. I am attempting to import a file intended specifically for controlling a smart trainer. Not trying to replicate the intensity of a course I have ridden previously.

Well this sucks. The Today’s Plan team was in Kona and pushing hard to get coaches and athletes to move from TrainingPeaks to their platform. One of the things they touted was how programming oriented their team is and how they are willing to add features, code, etc if requested by their user base. Not working with PerfPro is a deal breaker for me:(

Jim Vance was coordinating with Today’s Plan in Kona so maybe he’ll see this and weigh in urging them to fix this feature as it works great from Training Peaks (even though they refuse to allow workout imports and force users to rebuild workouts using their builder).

Here is a PerfPro workaround Drew offered several hears ago for using a Garmin FIT workout file. https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...mputrainer_P4984065/ This process sucks so it might be worth checking options with him. PerfPro is supposed to be suppprted by Today’s Plan though their Kona reps admitted they had not been in contact with Drew in quite a while.

Thanks for that. I tried the workaround you linked to, but it didn’t work either unfortunately.

I suspect it’s OK for converting historic activities (hence all the stuff about smoothing), but I need to convert workout type FIT files for which there is no history (because I haven’t done the workout yet!)

There’s some confusion here because people assume FIT files only contain ‘history’, whereas there are several types. One of which is a ‘workout to be done’, just like ERG or MRC.

My impression so far of Today’s Plan is that they’re innovative and responsive, but the user experience and quality is a long way behind TrainingPeaks. I’d switch back if I could, because the ‘workflow’ is painful.

Question, have you built a structured workout in Today's Plan and tried to export that? Or are you simply just taking a workout created with text and trying to export that?

With the workout builder, you can create a workout like:
Warm up: 10min zone 1 - zone 2


Main interval: 1h
Sub interval: 30min zone 2 - zone 3
Sub interval: 30min Zone 3 - zone 3.5


Cool down: 10min zone 1 - zone 2


So the issue is likely that you haven't built the workout with the workout builder, as mine is functioning just fine, exporting the built workouts via ERG and MRC files.


Try that and let me know.

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Jim Vance
http://TodaysPlan.com.au (Disclosure: I am contracted with Today's Plan)
http://www.CoachVance.com/
Twitter @jimvance

See my reply. It is working fine for me.

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Jim Vance
http://TodaysPlan.com.au (Disclosure: I am contracted with Today's Plan)
http://www.CoachVance.com/
Twitter @jimvance

That’s *really* interesting.

The workouts I’m trying to export *are* structured workouts, using the built in tool.

So this implies there is something broken in the way Today’s Plan interprets these in the export process, which means that some workouts are exportable and others are not.

Can you post a screenshot of one that works for you, and I’ll compare it with mine, in the hope it reveals something useful.

Message me a screen shot of your workout, built in the workout builder, and I will let you know if there is something, or if I need to dive further into this.

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Jim Vance
http://TodaysPlan.com.au (Disclosure: I am contracted with Today's Plan)
http://www.CoachVance.com/
Twitter @jimvance

I think I know what the issue was for your files, (sub-intervals within the main set), and we have addressed the issue in the latest update released yesterday. Please try again to download the workout and upload to your preferred 3rd-party platform, and let me know if the issue still exists. Your version should be v3.0.1819 or higher for this fix to take effect.

The issue dealt with the main set construction, where if you had sub-intervals, it caused some errors, if not written a certain way. I was testing on workouts without sub-intervals in the main set. But the current update should fix this, so please check and let me and fellow Slowtwitch users know if it has been resolved or not.

Also, I want to use this as an opportunity to note how quickly Today's Plan responds to issues, where many companies maybe don't bother. This company moves quickly and advances the product and platform with nimbleness. I would encourage users to test it out, as it is continuing to progress and innovate in this space.

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Jim Vance
http://TodaysPlan.com.au (Disclosure: I am contracted with Today's Plan)
http://www.CoachVance.com/
Twitter @jimvance

Well... it seems they have fixed the error message, but it still fails to reliably deliver a functional workout file, either in MRC or ERG files.

For example, here's a screen grab from PerfPro...



See those surges between 11 and 26 minutes? There should only be 4 of them - see the warmup section of that workout from Today's Plan:

I also have no idea why Today's Plan thinks it should ramp up the first block, and ramp down the last one. I don't see anything specifying that in the workout creator.

And all those zeros in the middle? They are present in the ERG & MRC files. So PerfPro appears to be importing correctly, but Today's Plan is generating nonsense.

So, while Today's Plan may be responsive & innovative, it appears they don't test their code releases very well...

Really frustrating (and imagine my coach is tearing his hair out too!)

And here's another example.

This time with a really simple workout, created from the ground up with the workout builder: 5 min warm up, 4x20 second surges with 40 seconds rest, then straight into 2x20min sweet spot with 10min rest, then a 10min cool down:



And Today's Plan spits out the following garbage in the ERG file, with 16x20 second surges.


Attached is the ERG file if anyone wants to look.

Amusingly (hah!), if I change the number of surges to 2, I actually get 4....

I hypothesised that the code is actually squaring the number of repeats I asked for. So, if I ask for 3, I thought I might get 9.

And, surprise, surprise...


Why it does this for the initial surges, but not for the sweetspot intervals later on is anyone's guess.

But there's clearly some shaky code at work in the background...

Final post on this topic for a while (apologies for the multi-post spam).

While trying to replicate Jim Vance's suggestion above I made a small mistake in the workout editor (setting one interval to 30s instead of 30min). This is *really* easy to do, and isn't obvious until you look at visual 'bar chart' representation of the workout (at which point I realised my error, and deleted my associated post so as not to mislead others).

A TrainerRoad/TrainingPeaks/Zwift style picture of the workout would be hugely useful in finding these kinds of errors.

Martin,

Thanks for this. I can tell you the team has been hard at work today, addressing these specifically, that you've brought up. Some of the errors also dealt with the way the workouts were built with "static rest" while prescribing a wattage value. Also writing the value for the watts for the set while the sub-intervals have different values caused some issues, since we had a prior work-around for that specifically. And then there were a couple bugs, based on how complex the workout was that was built. All these are things they had to go and find the bugs for, and modify the code.

I want you to know that we have heard this, and there will be a new build coming in the next few hours to hopefully deal with all these issues, (it may already be available, v3.0.1834), as they've been testing for these specific issues, before the release of the build.

So hopefully in few hours you'll find all the issues have been fixed and resolved. We will also consider your suggestion of the picture of the workout, to better find errors for the user when they write workouts, and see if this possible.

Thanks, and stay tuned for the update. If there are more edits required, please let me know,

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Jim Vance
http://TodaysPlan.com.au (Disclosure: I am contracted with Today's Plan)
http://www.CoachVance.com/
Twitter @jimvance

Thanks Jim.

So far so good - the sessions I have in my schedule now appear to make it through to sensible ERG files, and from there into PerfPro.

Only time will tell whether future sessions translate as effectively, but it's a good start!

Thanks for your assistance!