What workout formats can be imported into Cadence?

Cadence supports importing its own .json files, Intervals.icu’s .json files, as well as standard .erg, .mrc, and .zwo files.

Why don’t imported values match?

When importing .erg and .mrc files, if there’s an FTP set in the file, then Cadence (and other services, like Intervals.icu) converts that into a threshold percentage.

Converting to a percentage makes the effort comparable across athletes by scaling it to each person’s FTP. A 50% target represents the same relative effort for everyone, while a fixed value like 200 watts could be easy for one athlete and intense for another.

.erg and .mrc are just a text files, so you can either remove the FTP line so Cadence uses the exact watt values instead, or you can adjust the FTP so that it’s more accurate.