# Average Power - garmin vs. strava



## givethepigeye (Aug 23, 2009)

Maybe not a big deal but the garmin avg. power was about 50 watts higher on the display than what showed up in Strava when I downloaded the ride - anyone run into this? Using an edge 500 and powertap sl+ 

Thanks


----------



## robdamanii (Feb 13, 2006)

Are you averaging zeros on the Garmin?


----------



## givethepigeye (Aug 23, 2009)

robdamanii said:


> Are you averaging zeros on the Garmin?


Thanks - that's most like the issue - stopped at shop for some tubes and set to "non-zero" avg.


----------



## tom_h (May 6, 2008)

givethepigeye said:


> Thanks - that's most like the issue - stopped at shop for some tubes and set to "non-zero" avg.


If you're using a powermeter and want the analysis to make sense, you DO want to include zero-power data points in the average.

Else,
- sprint all-out for 5 sec @ say, 1000 watts.
- coast for 3 minutes

excluding zeros would make it seem you are doing 1000 watts for that 3 minute interval ... pro teams would be knocking at your door.


----------



## campyc40 (Aug 4, 2010)

No, excluding zeros also means excluding time, so you don't end up with a 3 min avg @ 1000.
You end up with 5 sec interval @ 1000.
And isn't Strava power just an estimate anyway?


----------



## jeffmuldoon (Aug 12, 2011)

campyc40 said:


> No, excluding zeros also means excluding time, so you don't end up with a 3 min avg @ 1000.
> You end up with 5 sec interval @ 1000.
> And isn't Strava power just an estimate anyway?


If you have a power meter strava uses the data from that and doesn't estimate.


----------



## givethepigeye (Aug 23, 2009)

^this. It works fine now. Set it to exclude zeros. The Strava software must exclude zeros whether or not you tell the garmin to do so or not, ie garmin must capture all the data and pass to software. "exclude zeros" is just a display preference.


----------

