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).