If your activity file has a distance stream, GOTOES can take that file and then merge it with a reference GPS track. Gotoes will utilize the speed and distance that you covered in your real activity to determine "how far along" the reference track you have moved during each data point. Because of the way the tool works, it is best if you upload a high enough resolution GPS track as your reference file. Also, please note that at this time, the tool only accepts GPX files as reference files.
Here is how it works:
Step 1:
Upload your regular activity to GOTOES. This can be any type of activity in any file format... but it MUST have a distance stream. Standard GPX files do not store distance, so most likely you will need to be using a TCX or FIT file in this step.
Step 2:
Choose the fake track option that you would like to use. GOTOES has a built-in option called "Circle" which will draw a map out in the Pacific Ocean around a random island. The idea here is to ensure that the elevation and other data on your activity is treated properly by Strava... but not to mess up any existing leaderboards. If you want to learn more about what happens when you use the "Circle" option, you can click here.
You can also choose "Custom," which will give you the option of uploading a reference track. From here-on-out, the tutorial will focus on the "Custom" option instead of the "Circle" option.
Step 3:
A new window will open if you select "Custom - new". In that window, you can choose your reference file. The following rules are important:
- The file must be GPX
- The reference file should be relatively high resolution. If the points are far apart, you can use the GOTOES interpolate feature to improve the point density on your reference file before utilizing it in this tool.
- If the total distance of your reference file is less than the total distance of your activity, GOTOES will loop back to the start of your reference file and continue mapping from there. Therefore, the tool is best geared towards looping reference files. If your reference file is not a loop and the distance of your activity exceeds the distance of your reference file, you will get a long, straight line from the end of your reference file going back to the start.
Step 4:
After you select the file, it should automatically upload. Errors will be in red. If you have no errors, and get the green message saying "You can now close this settings window," then that means everything worked. You can close the window and move on to step 5. If you get a red error message, try and fix it. If you cannot figure out the issue, please Contact me for help.
Step 5:
Now you can click the 'Make Fake Track" checkbox. This will use the custom reference track that you uploaded to regenerate the latitude/longitude of your activity file. Everything else (time, cadence, power, heart rate, etc.) will remain the same.
Step 6:
After you have clicked the checkbox, you should get a progress indicator, and then a message letting you know how many trackpoints were created successfully.
Step 7:
You can close this window by clicking anywhere in the gray area. To verify if your reference file has truly been added to your track, you can click the blue "Edit Points" button:
RESULTS:
Here is an example of a Before and After. This user had their GPS running inside the gym. Before, they just had a wandering track. This user created a circle track (notably low resolution, but this is the example that I had). You can see that their Cadence, Heart Rate, Power and Speed data is the same before and after.. but the map is better. Theoretically, you can create a "perfect" track if you make a reference track with a higher point density.
Deleting Stored Reference Tracks:
If you ever want to remove the stored reference track from your account, just go to the GOTOES login page and click the little trash can icon by the reference track:
Also note that if you toggle between "Circle", "Custom - new", and "Custom - existing," the page will reload and any changes you have made on the final export page will be lost. The reason for this is that GOTOES needs to revert your GPS track to its former settings.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are using this feature to also override the elevation on Strava, see THIS LINK on how to fix that if it did not work.
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