Garmin Acquires TrainingPeaks and TrainHeroic, Bringing Endurance Coaching In-House

Garmin has bought TrainingPeaks and TrainHeroic, the software that a large share of the endurance world’s coaches and athletes use to plan, deliver and analyze their training. For the company that already makes the watches and bike computers on many of those athletes’ wrists and handlebars, the acquisition, announced Wednesday, extends its reach from the hardware to the coaching layer that sits on top of it.

TrainingPeaks builds web and mobile tools for endurance athletes in cycling, triathlon and running; TrainHeroic does the same for strength and conditioning coaches. TrainingPeaks dates to 1999, when Gear Fisher and Dirk Friel built what the company calls the first online training log. It now counts more than 5,000 coaches and athletes in more than 120 countries, and publishes plans for third parties, Marathon Handbook among them. About 120 employees from the two businesses, based in Louisville, Colorado, will join Garmin.

The transaction is a carve-out rather than a full sale of the parent company, Peaksware Holdings. Peaksware also owns MakeMusic and Alfred Music, music-education software businesses that are not part of the deal. Andy Stephens, Peaksware’s chief executive, said the company was “thrilled to join forces with Garmin” to advance what he called “science-based training,” according to Garmin’s announcement.

Buying a partner it already works with is a familiar move for Garmin. The company acquired Firstbeat Analytics in 2020 after licensing its physiology algorithms, which underpin metrics such as VO2 max estimates, for close to a decade. It bought the trainer maker Tacx in 2019. TrainingPeaks was itself already a Garmin partner, syncing structured workouts to Garmin Connect.

TrainingPeaks runs on subscriptions rather than one-time sales: athletes pay about $20 a month, or less on an annual plan, and coaches from $21.99 a month up to $54.99 for an unlimited roster. Garmin gains that recurring revenue and the training data that comes with it.

What Garmin does with the platform’s neutrality is the question facing every user who does not own a Garmin. TrainingPeaks connects to more than 100 devices and apps, among them hardware from Garmin’s direct competitors, including Wahoo, Coros, Polar, Suunto and Apple, as well as the indoor platform Zwift. Garmin has not said whether it will keep those integrations open or steer the software toward its own ecosystem. The company has faced criticism before for limiting features on older devices.

Garmin also inherits assets that reach beyond coaching. TrainingPeaks bought the indoor cycling app IndieVelo in 2024 and owns the analytics tools Best Bike Split and WKO. Paired with Garmin’s Tacx trainers, those give the company a foothold in indoor cycling, where Zwift and Wahoo compete.

Brad Trenkle, a Garmin co-chief operating officer, said the platforms “share Garmin’s passion for empowering athletes and coaches” through training tools and performance metrics. Garmin, which has been widening its fitness range with products such as the screenless Cirqa band, did not give a timeline for integrating the two platforms, nor a commitment on whether their cross-brand compatibility will remain.