Practical help to align zones between TP and Suunto.
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I am new to Suunto but also new to TP (Training Peaks). Previously I have used Garmin devices for many years. I am using Suunto and TP now for almost 2 months. I see a difference in my CTL, ATL and TSB between Suunto and TP. I have read some posts about this and I understand that it is important to align the zones between both. So I want to start there.
I know how to change zones on my Suunto Vertical but I don’t understand how to align with TP. The reason is that I see more than 5 zones for each (heart, pace or power) in TP. And also in TP I see 2 options in automatically calculating zones. The first one is clear but I don’t know what to choose in TP from the, sometimes long, method list for the second option…
For running I am using my Suunto Vertical to track my activity. I run on heart rate or pace, not power. For cycling I am using a Hammerhead and I have powermeters on all my bikes. I have my accounts connected and I see all my activities in both, Suunto app and TP. TSS on the activities are not equal but als no big differences.
So I am looking for some practical help to get the zones aligned between TP and Suunto. I consider this as a first step to get more out of my Suunto Vertical and Suunto app.
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@Johan-Ulijn hey
first of all you have to Login in your traininpeaks account. There you have to Check If your heart rate zones are same like in your watch. If not you can create there Zones manually. No Automatic Zones. Then when you have your zones updated there you will got in future same TSS values after a workout. -
@Johan-Ulijn for TSS, you do not actually need to have the same zones, just the same thresholds. Luckily TP allows to set thresholds, so if you set the threshold as the first value of Z5 in Suunto, you get the same TSS, except some rounding issue at times
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Thanks @GiPFELKiND and @isazi I have looked at both, my zones in TP and Suunto. I managed to get these aligned based on threshold for HR (for all), power (biking) and speed/pace for running. All have 5 zones now. In Suunto there is only a power zone for Cycling and only a speed/pace zone for running. The default power zones in TP I have setup for cycling and the default speed/pace zone for for running. I guess this does make sense. If I would, I could of course add speed/pace zones for biking en power zones for running.
I will monitor the results coming days after the activities.
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@Johan-Ulijn Depending on the type of running you do (I cannot speak to cycling) I find either TSS (MET) or TSS (ZoneSense) to be more accurate than TSS HR or TSSr. I run ultras and do a lot of slower mountain running. TSShr and TSSr do not reflect the effort and per Uphill Athlete I add 10 TSS pts per 1000 feet (300m) of gain and loss during my runs in TrainingPeaks. TSS (MET) or TSS (ZoneSense preferred for me) match TrainingPeaks with the added 10 TSS points for altitude gain/loss. A normal run for me 1- 1.5h will have at least 300m gain and loss.
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@Brad_Olwin Thanks for your feedback. I have looked at zonesense. I need a new heart rate belt to use it. Currently I am using a polar verity sense for one year. This doesn’t support zonesense if i am right. I always run trails but flat, in the forest. Maybe my next heart rate will be a Suunto zonesense…
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@Brad_Olwin I have discovered also something else. I also need to align the method how tss is calcultated. I saw a difference between TP and Suunto. Suunto was using tss (run) while TP was using just tss. I was looking for the MET tss in TP but cannot find it there. I just decided to use tss (hr) now for both because for running I am using hr zones and, i guess, my hr zones are more accurate then my speedzones. In the last trail run, with the aligned hr zones, the tss for both only differs 1 (66 to 67…). That is nice.
Another thing (but maybe I should post a new topic for that) there is a great gap between the form in TP (currently minus -8) and TSB in Suunto (currently +15). Last month in Suunto the TSB is moving up and down between +15 and +25. I has never been lower then +10… Since I am training with Suunto (begin July 2025), I am losing condition. That sounds very strange to me. I am training regularly (2x running and 2x cycling per week as average). What could be the reason for that?
Update: this week the TSB was +2. The first time it was so low…
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I just wanted to post an update here. The last week I have seen a TSB -10. So it is possible. I also have reviewed the thresholds and max values in the zones and made small changes few weeks ago. It looks like the difference between TP and Suunto is getting less. I.e. the difference in TSB (balance, form) is now ~10 while it was > 20.
Still I have noticed a big difference in TSS in todays activity. I went on my gravel bike for 72k, 2h38min. The TSS in TP is 269 while in Suunto it is 199. (both power TSS). How is that possible as Suunto using TP logic? The activity is recorded with a Hammerhead Karoo and synced to both, TP and Suunto. Not sure if that is relevant.
Hope to get some useful feedback. If I should post this in a new topic, just let me know.
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@Johan-Ulijn said in Practical help to align zones between TP and Suunto.:
The activity is recorded with a Hammerhead Karoo and synced to both, TP and Suunto. Not sure if that is relevant.
It is
Such activities sent over to Suunto from third-party devices won’t have proper zones while imported Into Suunto. This is a known Suunto issue going on for years.
I hear this should get addressed by Suunto in the short-term.,but that should explain the difference. You’re using TP and have everything well configured, take TP as your source of truth and update TSS in manually Suunto when needed would be my advice.SRS Ti
SRun (primarily road runner so testing SRun is a must ;))
A3P (drill mode for pool swimming 🤦🤷)
Galaxy Z Flip 3 / Galaxy S24+ -
@Johan-Ulijn said in Practical help to align zones between TP and Suunto.:
I just wanted to post an update here. The last week I have seen a TSB -10. So it is possible. I also have reviewed the thresholds and max values in the zones and made small changes few weeks ago. It looks like the difference between TP and Suunto is getting less. I.e. the difference in TSB (balance, form) is now ~10 while it was > 20.
Still I have noticed a big difference in TSS in todays activity. I went on my gravel bike for 72k, 2h38min. The TSS in TP is 269 while in Suunto it is 199. (both power TSS). How is that possible as Suunto using TP logic? The activity is recorded with a Hammerhead Karoo and synced to both, TP and Suunto. Not sure if that is relevant.
Hope to get some useful feedback. If I should post this in a new topic, just let me know.
This is a problem with import into Suunto, many have complained including a large number of field testers. I would manually adjust the Suunto TSS value. This only applies for imported workouts, I.e. from the Karoo.
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@herlas If the import problem is fixed it will be a nice fix ! thanks for the info, keep fingers crossed for this to happen and Thanks for this topic I never think about using TP to get the proper TSS for my imported activities, it will makes my life easier.
If I remember well what I read in the past the zone of imported activities are based on the Max HR of the workout (ie the max hr of the workout is considered as max hr for the zone calculation of the imported activity)
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@herlas Thanks for the feedback. And indeed as @Josaiplu mentioned, keep fingers crossed that what you heard that this problem get addressed by Suunto in the short-term will happen. @Brad_Olwin Can you confirm this as in you reply to @herlas you didn mention anything like that? For the time being I will manually update the TSS value in Suunto by the value from TP. But this is not a solution for the longer term. I am using TP Premium more to discover if it is something for me. After some time I will decide if it has added value for me than the Suunto app only. If not and if I could rely on the Suunto data, I maybe drop TP…
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@Johan-Ulijn fyi tp will provide activity TSS value even for non premium account, but you loose the week/month summary
(I’m not a premium tp user) -
@Josaiplu OK. I will not keep using premium version only to get my tss properly in Suunto. If that is the reason I could better skip to the free version as you mentioned it will provide also the tss. Currently in TP I doesn’t have my daily metrics also because Suunto doesn’t send it. Who knows what I will do. I still hope that Suunto will improve and add more functionality to their platform and I hear good news, web interface i.e… :-)… I like the approach of Suunto (using TP methodology) more than Garmins approach.
I also noticed that in my hammerhead data of the activity, my FTP setting is not updated. I will look how/where to change and adjust that. As mentioned that Suunto looks at the max hr of the improted activity, than this will probably have not any effect.
Update: not only my ftp but also the zones in my hammerhead account were not ok. I again aligned all zones, starting with TP, Suunto (both different HR zones for running and cycling) and Hammerhead.
