The Possible Motivations for Garmin’s Acquisition of Training Peaks

With Garmin’s recent announcement of their acquisition of Training Peaks, some questions have popped up in its wake. If your first question is “what is Training Peaks?”, we’ve got you covered.

What is Training Peaks?

Training Peaks began as a platform for sports coaches and athletes to connect and for coaches to quickly and efficiently deliver coaching tips and methods to their clients anywhere in the world. 

Since its founding in 1999 Training Peaks has added many features, most notably a host of science-based tools, methods, and metrics that have been replicated and used by many fitness trackers and competing metric-based training platforms, often with integration with many of the leading fitness tracker brands.

Why Did Garmin Buy Training Peaks

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at what Garmin is getting with their purchase of Training Peaks.

Right off the bat and most obviously, Garmin gets the Training Peaks desktop website and mobile app. They also get Training Peaks’ roster of coaches and customer base. I understand much of that customer base might overlap with their own, but they could potentially be adding more future Garmin users.

Now we get to the why, reasons  upon which we can only speculate. 

The aforementioned training tools and performance metrics jump out at you. Garmin has fairly decent metrics such as pace, heart rate, training effect, and quite possibly the most maddening, performance condition. Right up front I will say I’ve never used training peaks. I am a long-time Final Surge user (as is the RTTF Coaching team).

Training Peaks Metrics

But after uploading five years worth of training data I was able to dig in and see some fairly useful metrics.

Not everything is spot on.

I think my estimated threshold heart rate of 154 might be a tad low, but I’m interested in seeing how it updates as I upload data in real time.

In addition to human coaching, Training Peaks comes with access to training plans available for purchase. If you’re a Garmin user you may be aware of the Garmin Coach feature, and, you may have even used them. 

Easier access to Training Peaks might allow Garmin users convenient access to pre-made training plans, or even one-on-one coaching. Garmin users might potentially gain access to Training Peaks Virtual, an indoor cycling Zwift competitor. 

Will This Help Garmin Compete with Strava?

If you’re a runner you most likely know of Strava, you may even use it. While the training metrics from Strava, in my own opinion, leave much to be desired, many Strava users swear by them and let Strava’s metrics guide their training. I gave up my Strava subscription a few years ago because, as I just previously mentioned, their training metrics weren’t up to par with the other platforms I was testing out.

Training metrics notwithstanding, many use Strava as more of a social media for sports. There’s a running joke that goes something like “if it isn’t on Strava did you really do it?”.

Garmin’s social aspect to their Connect App is nonexistent.

Garmin recently released their Garmin Connect + service, a paid subscription service with additional features for its users at the cost of $70 annually. With only 45 million active Garmin Connect users to Strava’s estimated 195 million, Garmin’s reach pales in comparison, as does their potential for paid subscribers.

Most of the disparity can be attributed to Strava having users from platforms in addition to Garmin such as Coros, Polar, Suunto, etc. Absent the addition of the social features offered by Strava, it’s unlikely Garmin will do much to compete with Strava when they’re more of a complimentary partner.

Or Is This About Accessing Coaching Services?

There is also the possibility Garmin is looking for access to Training Peaks’ users, from athletes to coaches. Garmin has never published the number of Garmin users who are paid Garmin Connect + subscribers, which likely means the number is a small percentage of their regular users. Many users such as myself took a look at what was offered and decided against shelling out $70 for a year of access to AI-powered insights and exclusive badges, two of the top features for Connect + users.

With ownership of Training Peaks and all that it offers, the possibilities really open up. Now this is only your humble narrator’s opinion, but I don’t see a world where Garmin successfully integrates features such as “peak pace by distance” into their workout metrics. I can see Garmin offering some access to Training Peaks for Connect + subscribers. This makes the most sense.

Strava offers its subscribers access to AI-powered Runna plans, so Garmin may be positioning themselves to counter the rising distrust of AI by granting its users access to real human coaching. And for those who can’t afford the cost of a human coach, pre-made but customizable training plans are also available through Training Peaks.

We’re at the wait and see stage right now. The announcement was made just this week so it may be a while before we start seeing significant changes for Garmin and Training Peaks. If you’ve got ideas or thoughts of your own, feel free to drop a comment below!

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