Recording bike journeys with pauses in the middle

Archon2
Archon2 Posts: 462 Member
So, I've been wondering how to handle this issue and maybe someone here has the answer. Here are a couple scenarios:
  • You are out riding with a group for three hours, stop for an hour lunch at a restaurant, and then your group finishes the remainder of the ride for another two hours
  • Or, you commute to work for an hour ride in the morning, then work for eight hours, and then ride home in the late afternoon taking another hour

In both the above, I'd prefer if Garmin, and later Strava, would show the entire day as one complete ride with the long middle pause subtracted. However, I think if you resume it, these rides would include the very long pause in the middle. It there any way to handle this aside from just breaking it up into two separate activities, and thus have a double entry for the day on Garmin Connect/Strava/RideWithGPS?

Replies

  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    My Garmin 610 can do it. You can pause the "recording" wihtout stopping the workout. I do this when I have to stop to clear a trail (mountain biking), stop to fix a flat, etc. Obviously your stops are longer than what I do, but it's the same principle.

    What device are you using to record?
  • Just_Ceci
    Just_Ceci Posts: 5,926 Member
    I'm not sure about the others, but if you have Strava set to auto pause rides, it will give you a total time and a moving time.
  • Archon2
    Archon2 Posts: 462 Member
    I'm using a Garmin Edge 500. When I tried this, I hit the stop button to manually pause the ride. It eventually powered itself off after sitting idle for a while. Later, I turned it back on, and hit start to resume. Later after uploading to Strava, it showed the ride to be for the entire time and also calculated things like average speed and such for the full time. Perhaps I screwed something up? I would not mind (that much) if the ride was shown for many hours, but moving time was accurate, along with the averages being accurate.
  • Lukejacksmum
    Lukejacksmum Posts: 30 Member
    I have the Garmin Edge 200. If you go into settings on your Garmin and switch auto pause on that will sort your time and speed for you :)
  • TheBigYin
    TheBigYin Posts: 5,686 Member
    jacksonpt wrote: »
    My Garmin 610 can do it. You can pause the "recording" wihtout stopping the workout. I do this when I have to stop to clear a trail (mountain biking), stop to fix a flat, etc. Obviously your stops are longer than what I do, but it's the same principle.

    Same here, on the Garmin 800 and 705 (so its not just a current generation version thing)...



  • veloman21
    veloman21 Posts: 418 Member
    edited June 2015
    I have a 500, as mentioned above enable auto pause and you will be sorted.
  • ntnunk
    ntnunk Posts: 936 Member
    I think this is actually more an issue with Strava than with your device. I suspect that if you look at the same ride on Garmin Connect your average speed, moving time, etc. will reflect accurate numbers and not factor in the stop.

    I love the social aspects of Strava but they do weird stuff with data summarization and analysis in a lot of instances.
  • Archon2
    Archon2 Posts: 462 Member
    ntnuck - maybe that is the problem. Anyway, I'm trying it again today. I commuted in to work (18miles), and this time I just hit STOP and then powered the Edge 500 off. When I bike home tonight, I will just power it on, hit start, and I guess I'll see what GC and Strava show.
  • Archon2
    Archon2 Posts: 462 Member
    veloman21 wrote: »
    I have a 500, as mentioned above enable auto pause and you will be sorted.
    Thanks veloman; I do have auto pause active, but this pause is really long! So I have to power it down for it.

    Maybe it was Strava messing things up as ntnuck thought. But I guess I'll find out soon.

  • mikeyrs
    mikeyrs Posts: 176 Member
    On my Garmin Edge Touring, which I would think would be the most appropriate device for interrupted recording, if you stop the recording, the activity is ended and you are given the option to save or trash the activity. I do not believe the activity can be later continued after using the STOP command. I'm not sure about the behavior of the Auto-Pause feature on my Garmin Edge Touring. I'll have to investigate this issue a bit more.
  • Archon2
    Archon2 Posts: 462 Member
    Well, just to report back after my test today, it looks like both GC and Strava show the ride with the long pause removed for most of the calculated values. So why did I think this was a problem?

    After some more research, I think I may have incorrectly flagged a ride with a long pause in it on Strava as a trainer ride. If you pause a trainer ride, the paused time is calculated in for the whole duration. At least that is what I read on a Strava forum. So the could possible explain what I was seeing.
  • pyrowill
    pyrowill Posts: 1,163 Member
    I use a smart phone to track my rides, using both Runkeeper & Strava. I regularly commute 11 miles each way with 8 hour break inbetween. Apart from the obvious battery drain the middle bit (as GPS would still be running) would have on my phone I also don't think it's entirely accurate of my performance to think of it as one long ride. Since I have 8 hours of rest, food etc. An hours break sure, not 8. I make it two rides.
  • Archon2
    Archon2 Posts: 462 Member
    That is a good point, pyrowill. I wasn't thinking of it like that, I was just thinking I wanted one entry for all my commute time in one file. But that is an argument for breaking it up.
  • Kupe
    Kupe Posts: 758 Member
    I agree with Pyrowill, I commute 20km in to work and depending on the weather and time of year between 17 - 20km home. I log the rides individually as they are 2 separate ride and the ride home is inevitably slower than the ride in, due to 8 hours at work, time of day and general smell the roses as work is done for the day.
  • Dragonnade
    Dragonnade Posts: 218 Member
    AFAIK Strava identifies riding time from stationary time and only uses the ride time for the calculations. Hence my weekend ride was 5:43 riding of over 7 hours total duration.

    However if anyone uses a Polar for their long rides that have breaks in them, I feel your pain. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
  • TheBigYin
    TheBigYin Posts: 5,686 Member
    Kupe wrote: »
    I log the rides individually as they are 2 separate ride and the ride home is inevitably slower than the ride in, due to 8 hours at work, time of day and general smell the roses as work is done for the day.

    Back when I used to commute by bike, my ride in was invariably shorter and slower than the one going home - partly because I started at a ungodly early hour so I took the most direct route to work, and partly because I bloody hated being at work, so I was in no hurry to get there. Going home, it was the afternoon/evening, usually in daylight, and I'd all the frustrations and irritations of a day sat on my backside in an office to decompress from... There'd be times when I'd actually go out and ride a century at TT training speed three days a week after work, only going direct home on Wednesdays (to get fed and back out for the club chaingang) and Fridays (so I could get to the pub with my mates for a :beer: or two.)