Garmin or me?

tiny_clanger
tiny_clanger Posts: 301 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I run about 3 times a week, around 15 -20k total. I've noticed recently that my garmin forerunner 10 has been reporting times that feel very slow compared to my perception of pace. I'd assume this was me, but my last parkrun, the official time came out 30 seconds faster than garmin, and I didn't start at the front.

My routes are suburban, in a valley and tree lined, could this have an effect?

Replies

  • DaddieCat
    DaddieCat Posts: 3,643 Member
    tiny_clanger wrote: »
    I run about 3 times a week, around 15 -20k total. I've noticed recently that my garmin forerunner 10 has been reporting times that feel very slow compared to my perception of pace. I'd assume this was me, but my last parkrun, the official time came out 30 seconds faster than garmin, and I didn't start at the front.

    My routes are suburban, in a valley and tree lined, could this have an effect?

    If it uses GPS to track, then this could most definitely be the case. GPS is only accurate to within about 50 ft, but that can do strange things like "move" the device's location 50 feet in any direction other than the one that you are going. I've seen instances where my GPS will report me as being on top of buildings or on the other side of a river from where I was. I once "ran" 540 miles in 20 minutes once because it reported me in the wrong state. Stuff happens and it's just an estimate... I'd treat it as such and use stopwatches for "official" times.
  • frostysauce757
    frostysauce757 Posts: 2 Member
    edited October 2015
    My running trail is pretty much loaded with trees. I have run the same route consistently any number of times, the distance always comes out to be +/- 10m (ten) over a 7300m run. The software should compensate for minor deviations in route, as this is to be expected when running under tree cover and what not. The biggest effect of this I see is that the 'current pace' field is pretty much totally whack when the GPS signal is not spot on. However, my kilometer times are always spot on.

    I am using a ForeRunner 920XT
  • patrikc333
    patrikc333 Posts: 436 Member
    yes, definitely

    run an official marathon on sunday, came out to be 42.6km with garmin FR220 for example, and looking at >100 other guys on strava there were a lot with garmins and distance was spread between 42.2-42.6km

    I have 4 routes to run during the week and distances are quite consistent, but it happens they vary a bit, especially when you I run under trees

    then the pace is a bit messed up as a consequence

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