Using Runkeeper/Wahoo HRM for skating, and other questions

suzannekatherine

I just bought a Wahoo heart monitor with the chest strap and the piece that goes with my iphone. And then I downloaded Runkeeper because it was suggested by reviewers that the app that goes with it isn't that great.

I'm going to be using it mostly for figure skating, however. I love that the app has an option for "skating" but I'm confused as to how it actually works with something like that.

When I set on GPS it says it has a weak signal but it does seem to be tracking my distance. The problem is, my movement is maybe several fast laps followed by stopping in one spot and working on stuff in a small circle or essentially in place. Or on a line which bisects my other line of movement. Therefore it says my average distance is some very tiny number and my speed is very slow. Maybe it expects the average person is going to just be lapping the rink over and over.

I know that I have to be burning calories because my HR is in the aerobic zone most of the time but I'm not sure how it calculates all that given that my distance stayed at like 0.13 miles or something the whole time.

Today was my first day using it so I'm still figuring it out and had to stop and save in the middle of my workout a couple of times because I needed to edit the settings so they wouldn't be calling out my time and distance every 5 minutes. So the second chunk of time was almost an hour and estimated a respectable amount of calories burned (256). Sounds about right. Although when I finished it it said 159 (and had for about 10 minutes) and then when I looked again it was 100 calories more. ???? But then the next chunk - the longer one - was for an hour and 20 minutes and when I got done with it and looked at the summary, it said I only burned 60 calories or something.

I decided to just take the more reasonable sounding one and do the math and average it out and that came semi close to what MFP estimates. About 300 calories less but I always assumed that since it takes less energy just to stand up and move around as I train more, I probably burn less. Not totally sure about that. I wish that last chunk had recorded accurately.

I'm also wondering about the ipod integration part. I do a lot of skipping around with my music when I skate and I'm not usually sticking with any one playlist so I was closing the runkeeper app to get into my music. Does it have to be open to keep working? Occasionally I would forget to open it back up after I changed a song.

And then the other option, which it seems to be suggesting, is to enter it manually. But I'm kind of confused on that one. When it asks for calories is that talking about burned calories estimated from like a treadmill or a site like this one? Is there any way to use it without the GPS but still using my HRM?

Or is there another app that would be better for an activity like this? Or a formula for calculating calories burned that isn't dependent on speed or pace?

Thanks.