How to combine two activities that did not start and end at the same location

[Hameed]

Is it possible to use the Gotoes tool to combine two separate activities that didn't start/stop at the same location?

Very specific example:

I walked from my home in the neighbourhood for an hour and ended the activity back at my home.
I then drove to a park near my home later that day and walked in the park for an hour.

Is it possible to combine these two activities into one activity?

[fulmar2]

Hi there -

One thing you could do it upload your files to the tool and try for yourself. But yes, the tool is meant to do that. Note that on applications such as Strava and Garmin, there will be a straight line connecting your activities.

[Hameed]

Thanks, but it "messes" up the speed, time and distance as it thinks I "walked" to the park and now my speed seems a lot faster because of the distance covered while driving.

[fulmar2]

To eliminate the part in between, you need to check the “ignore big gaps” checkbox. Then you should set a reasonable distance to ignore- something longer than the distance between your GPS points, and smaller than the gap between the two activities.

Depending on where you are viewing the activity, I may have other recommendations. For example, if you are using Strava or Garmin Connect to see the file, you’d be best served by exporting as a FIT file from my tool - because FIT files can encode “hard stops” in activities. GPX cannot do this. TCX can support this, but Garmin and Strava don’t always respect the embedded stops and instead come up with their own.

[Hameed]

To eliminate the part in between, you need to check the “ignore big gaps” checkbox. Then you should set a reasonable distance to ignore- something longer than the distance between your GPS points, and smaller than the gap between the two activities.

Depending on where you are viewing the activity, I may have other recommendations. For example, if you are using Strava or Garmin Connect to see the file, you’d be best served by exporting as a FIT file from my tool - because FIT files can encode “hard stops” in activities. GPX cannot do this. TCX can support this, but Garmin and Strava don’t always respect the embedded stops and instead come up with their own.

Thanks very much, that helps a lot!

I record the activities on a Garmin watch and then upload them to Strava.

So basically what you're explaining is that I can accomplish what I'm trying to do as follows:
1. Export the two separate activities from Strava as .fit or .gpx files
2. Merge them in your tool and check the "ignore big gaps" checkbox, set a reasonable distance to ignore (longer than the gps points between the two activities) and smaller than the gap between the two activities (are you referring to time here for this point?)
3. Export the merged activities as a .fit file and upload back to Strava (ofcourse I have to delete both activities from Strava first)

Did I understand the process correctly? Thanks again for your help!

[fulmar2]

Yes. Did you try this? One more thing: If you click “Randomize ID tag” down at the bottom, you may be able to upload a duplicate file (for testing so you don’t have to delete the originals). Doesn’t always work, but the tool attempts to “trick” Strava into thinking it is a different activity.

[Hameed]

Yes. Did you try this? One more thing: If you click “Randomize ID tag” down at the bottom, you may be able to upload a duplicate file (for testing so you don’t have to delete the originals). Doesn’t always work, but the tool attempts to “trick” Strava into thinking it is a different activity.

I'll try it tonight as I walked in the morning near my home today and I plan to walk again somewhere completely different tonight after dinner.

Thanks again for all your help!

[Hameed]

To eliminate the part in between, you need to check the “ignore big gaps” checkbox. Then you should set a reasonable distance to ignore- something longer than the distance between your GPS points, and smaller than the gap between the two activities.

Depending on where you are viewing the activity, I may have other recommendations. For example, if you are using Strava or Garmin Connect to see the file, you’d be best served by exporting as a FIT file from my tool - because FIT files can encode “hard stops” in activities. GPX cannot do this. TCX can support this, but Garmin and Strava don’t always respect the embedded stops and instead come up with their own.

I just attempted this with some old activity files I had and I don't see the options below. See attached screenshot. I can donate if that's the issue

"ignore big gaps” checkbox. Then you should set a reasonable distance to ignore- something longer than the distance between your GPS points, and smaller than the gap between the two activities. "

[fulmar2]

Remember above, I said that you can only ignore big gaps with TCX or FIT… you need to select one of those output formats in order to see the distance options (they will appear when a valid export option is selected). GPX doesn’t support distance, so you can’t add distance (or ignore gaps in the distance).

Brian

[Hameed]

Remember above, I said that you can only ignore big gaps with TCX or FIT… you need to select one of those output formats in order to see the distance options (they will appear when a valid export option is selected). GPX doesn’t support distance, so you can’t add distance (or ignore gaps in the distance).

Brian

Thanks. I just tried it. The two activities were individually as follows

Activity 1:
Moving Time: 1:03:59
Distance: 6.22 km
Elevation: 25 m
Calories: 206

Activity 2:
Moving Time: 1:32:17
Distance: 8.38 km
Elevation: 17 m
Calories: 528

The merged activity doesn't quite match the sum of the above two activities
Merged Activity
Moving Time: 2:39:05 - this is 7 minutes more than the two activities
Distance: 17.78 km - this is 3.18 km more than the two activities
Elevation: 77 m - this is 35 m more than the two activities
Calories: 1657 - this is 923 calories more than the two activities

The parameters I used were Ignore gaps more than 20 mins and ignore distance more than 5 km. The distance between the start/end of each activity from the other was 4.4 km (Google maps navigation).

[fulmar2]

The time won't be exactly the same as the individual parts. That is because of how Strava calculates time. I have a FAQ on that in this forum where I go into detail on how to solve this:

viewtopic.php?p=250&hilit=stopped+time#p250

The distance won't be exactly the same either (but it should be close). This is because you're using GOTOES to re-calculate the distance. You can get it closer by reducing the distance / time to ignore. 3 minutes is a safe time to ignore, and for distance, try something smaller. Also, you might want to check the "Try and insert stopped time" checkbox.

Finally, even if you do all of the above correctly, Strava does not always "respect" distances in TCX files and decides to recalculate it's own distances. Sometimes, you can trick it with the "ignore big gaps" selection - so it looks like you were stopped... but the best way is to use "ignore big gaps" AND export as FIT from GOTOES. This is because the FIT File format allows us to insert "hard stops" where it looks like you were not moving. Thus, Strava ignores any distance during a hard stop.

I mention all this in the FAQ link above, but here is how Strava looks at stops:

https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/art ... Auto-Pause

[Hameed]

The time won't be exactly the same as the individual parts. That is because of how Strava calculates time. I have a FAQ on that in this forum where I go into detail on how to solve this:

viewtopic.php?p=250&hilit=stopped+time#p250

The distance won't be exactly the same either (but it should be close). This is because you're using GOTOES to re-calculate the distance. You can get it closer by reducing the distance / time to ignore. 3 minutes is a safe time to ignore, and for distance, try something smaller. Also, you might want to check the "Try and insert stopped time" checkbox.

Finally, even if you do all of the above correctly, Strava does not always "respect" distances in TCX files and decides to recalculate it's own distances. Sometimes, you can trick it with the "ignore big gaps" selection - so it looks like you were stopped... but the best way is to use "ignore big gaps" AND export as FIT from GOTOES. This is because the FIT File format allows us to insert "hard stops" where it looks like you were not moving. Thus, Strava ignores any distance during a hard stop.

I mention all this in the FAQ link above, but here is how Strava looks at stops:

https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/art ... Auto-Pause

Thanks very much again for your help!

The .FIT export option is grayed out for me. I'll donate and then I'll try it again when that option is available

I don't have the checkbox for "Try and insert stopped time"..... see attached screenshot

[fulmar2]

I don't have the checkbox for "Try and insert stopped time"..... see attached screenshot

Yes, you do have that checkbox (it's in the Calculating Speed Box). It is grayed out because you haven't selected FIT.

FIT is the best way to "Get what you want." I think I already mentioned this, but Strava has started to override more and more of the information submitted in TCX and GPX files. GPX files couldn't contain much information to begin with, but Strava comes up with their own version of moving time, stopped time, speed, etc. when looking at TCX. Luckily, they do respect FIT files. I have worked thousands of hours to fine tune the FIT exports... which is why I ask for a donation to enable their use. The service is free - and the basic service works well for 90% of users. But when people want to "get everything exact," that is when they need FIT.

[Hameed]

I just sent you $.

There is no checkbox to "Try and insert stopped time"

[Hameed]

nvm! seen it now. thanks!

[Hameed]

Time and distance are still off. Elevation and calories are a lot closer to the sum of the two activities now.

[fulmar2]

Hameed -

I received your files and removed the email link (for my own privacy). Here are the settings that I used to produce a corrected file for you:

Please look carefully at all of the settings that I selected. Notice that I used the "override distance" and "override calories" and "override elevation" at the bottom to get the stats that you desired. Also, please note that the distances/calories/elevations that you quoted don't match the contents of the actual files you sent me:

Activity 1:
Moving Time: 1:03:59
Distance: 6.22 km
Elevation: 25 m
Calories: 206

Activity 2:
Moving Time: 1:32:17
Distance: 8.38 km
Elevation: 17 m
Calories: 528

The fact that there isn't a match is OK, but that might explain why you weren't seeing what you expected. I went ahead and used the values you sent (quoted above) and used a calculator to add up the totals for what you described as "Activity 1" and "Activity 2".

The final result looks like this on Strava:

Please notice that calories, distance, and elevation should match the sum of the stats you sent above. Also, note that the Moving time does NOT exactly match what you sent above. The reason for this is because my tool needs to re-factor the moving time when it does the distance calculations. Moving time isn't a clear-cut thing. The reason it is not clear-cut is because of a fact known as "GPS drift." This means that if you're not moving, it is still possible to accumulate "movement" in GPS points. As a result, your GPS has an accelerometer built in that tries to guess if you're really moving or not. Based on that, it will accumulate (or not accumulate) moving time. That works fine for a single activity on the GPS...but my tool needs to re-calculate everything from scratch when it builds one single file from two separate GPS files. As a result, the calculation is not privy to the accelerometer data (that data is not saved)... so my tool has to conduct a "best guess" based on the GPS position (latitude/longitude) instead.

If you really need a perfect moving time, you can repeat my settings above, and play around with the "Smooth Speed" slider... and you can also play around with the "Ignore Big Gap" time (i.e. setting it to something really low - maybe somewhere between 2 and 10 seconds). If you do this, keep the big gap distance around 1,000 meters. This would be a test-and-repeat method where you would keep changing the options until you got what you wanted.... and it is unlikely that you will get EXACTLY what you posted above - but you can probably get it sufficiently close.

[Hameed]

Thanks very much Brian! I just looked at the files again that I sent you and one of them was not the same one I had quoted above.

Your explanations and your fantastic tool will now allow me to merge multiple activities that don't necessarily start and end at the same place, which is the main reason I started this thread. So, problem solved!! Thanks a million again!