Garmin Just Bought TrainingPeaks. The Questions Every Coach Should Be Asking.

Yesterday Garmin announced it had acquired TrainingPeaks and TrainHeroic from Peaksware Holdings. 120 employees join Garmin. Financial terms were not disclosed. That's roughly the sum total of what we know.

When Today's Plan closed in 2024, we helped a lot of coaches find a new home. It was disruptive for them, and we learned a lot about what coaches actually need when they're forced to move platforms. So when something like this happens, we pay attention.

Nobody knows what this means yet, and that includes Garmin

The press release talks about "empowering coaches and athletes" and a "shared mission." I have no reason to doubt those intentions are genuine. The people at Garmin who pushed for this acquisition almost certainly believe it.

But intentions and outcomes are different things, especially inside large organisations. What actually happens after an acquisition tends to be shaped less by the original vision and more by the incentives of the acquiring company over time. Garmin is a hardware business. Its revenues come from selling devices to athletes. That is not a criticism. It is just a fact worth holding onto when you think about what TrainingPeaks might look like in three years.

Nobody, including the people who signed the deal, can tell you with confidence what TrainingPeaks will look like in 2028. Acquisitions are genuinely hard to execute, and the gap between what a company intends to do and what it actually does tends to widen as the years pass and the priorities of the acquiring business exert their own gravity.

The specific questions worth sitting with

If you're a TrainingPeaks coach, I think there are a few questions worth asking now rather than waiting for the answers to become obvious.

Will non-Garmin devices keep syncing? TrainingPeaks built its reputation on being device-neutral. Your athletes use a mix of Garmin, Wahoo, Polar, COROS, and Suunto. Garmin now owns the platform and competes directly with most of those brands. Nobody has said what happens to those integrations long term.

Will pricing change? Garmin has openly stated its goal of making Garmin Connect+ more valuable to subscribers. Bundling TrainingPeaks into a Connect+ tier is an obvious move. That could mean price changes, access changes, or both. Nobody has said either way.

Will the platform keep getting better? TrainingPeaks has been stable and reliable for years. Part of that stability comes from a focused team working on a focused product. The question is whether that focus survives inside a much larger organisation with very different priorities.

Who is the customer now? This one is the most important and the least discussed. TrainingPeaks grew because coaches trusted it. Coaches are a relatively small market. Athletes are a large one. And Garmin's business is built around athletes. That shift in centre of gravity may not change anything visible for a while. But it changes the lens through which every product decision gets made.

What I'd encourage coaches to do

I'm not suggesting anyone should panic or make a hasty decision. TrainingPeaks is not shutting down. Your data is not at risk. And Garmin may well invest heavily in the platform and make it better than ever.

What I would encourage is this: don't let the next few months drift by without at least understanding your options. The worst time to evaluate alternatives is when you're forced to. The best time is when you have space, nothing urgent is happening, and you can make a calm comparison.

If that means looking at Training Tilt, I'd genuinely love to show you what we've built. We're coach-only, self-funded, and have been profitable since 2014 without selling to athletes or answering to shareholders. We support Garmin, Wahoo, Polar, COROS, Suunto, Zwift, and Strava. We've been through a migration before, when Today's Plan closed, and we built the tools to make it as low-friction as possible.

But even if it doesn't mean looking at Training Tilt, just take the time to look. Your coaching business deserves a platform you've chosen deliberately, not one you're staying on because switching feels like too much effort.

For now that's the only thing I'd suggest.

Cam Langsford Founder, Training Tilt

What we're offering TrainingPeaks coaches right now

If you want to explore Training Tilt, here is what we have put together:

Free supported migration. We'll help you import your workout library, athlete data, and training history from TrainingPeaks. No spreadsheets, no rebuilding from scratch.

8 week free trial. Long enough to run both platforms side by side, move athletes across at your own pace, and make a calm decision without any pressure.

1-on-1 onboarding call. A personal walkthrough with someone who understands coaching and the software coaches use.

Device neutral, by design. Training Tilt syncs with Garmin, Wahoo, Polar, COROS, Suunto, Zwift, and Strava. Whatever devices your athletes use today, they keep using them.

Start your free trial. then email me at cam@trainingtilt.com and I'll extend it to 8 weeks and/or book a demo with me directly.