Time in motion as the default time

6295018 said:

The point is that I don't want to suspend the activity, because I'm also interested in the elapsed time.

If you pause the activity, then the elapsed time is unaffected. So you can simply pause the activity while you’re not moving. (You will lose information about your heart rate while you’re not moving, if that bothers you, as well as not knowing the exact length of each individual pause, unless you dig into the FIT file or use certain apps like Stryd to view the data.)

6295018 said:

But for example, Strava app shows the time in motion as the default and the elapsed time is in detail.

Actually, if you pause your activity at least once, then Strava acts just like Garmin (and shows time/pace without trying to figure out if you were moving or not.) This means that if you a workout with lots of rest, for example, the time/pace displayed by Strava will be a lot faster if you never press pause during the workout.

https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001188684-Moving-Time-Speed-and-Pace-Calculations

What is the difference between moving time and elapsed time?

Elapsed time is the duration from the moment you hit start on your device or phone to the moment you finish the activity. It includes stoplights, coffee breaks, bathroom stops, and stopping for photos. Moving time, on the other hand, is a measure of how long you were active. Strava will attempt to calculate this based on the GPS locations, distance, and speed of your activity. For runs, we will forego our calculation if you use your pause button and respect the moving time directly from the device instead.

6295018 said:

That's not entirely true with that Strava. It actually shows the moving time and is elapsed in detail. Which makes me more valuable. (if not, the main time will always be bigger)

I understand that. My point is that the behavior you described (where strava calculates moving time for you) only happens if you don’t press pause during your run. If you press pause during your run then it acts very similar to Garmin. It says “moving time”, but it’s really just using the activity time from your Garmin without trying to figure out which parts you were moving or not.

And as you know, Garmin also shows activity, moving and elapsed time in the activity details, so it’s no worse than Strava as far as the details go.

6295018 said:

However, how accurate is the automatic pause in the watch? I mean, how well does they know that I stopped moving or just didn't change my movement from fast walking to extra slow walking (hill type). Where will I move my wrist or hand minimally?

I don’t use automatic pause, so I couldn’t tell you. I pause manually. I would guess they have a speed/pace threshold for moving similar to Strava, which is a 30 minute per mile pace.

https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/216917157-Strava-Training-Glossary-for-Running

This article also explains the moving time thing in Strava, in greater detail than what I pasted above:

—

Moving Time

The moving time feature on Strava is used for all running activities that don't depend on fair competition (races and segments). We calculate moving time in two ways.

• If the runner doesn't use the pause feature on their Garmin device, we will automatically detect when the runner is resting, and we will calculate moving time and pace using only GPS data. The moving threshold is anything faster than a 30-minute mile pace for running activities.
• If the runner chooses to pause their run activity on their Garmin device, we will honor that choice and represent moving time according to the time and pace that is shown on the GPS device.

6295018 said:

And, what time is displayed on the main activity detail page? Because if the displayed time is neither elapsed nor moving, then which one? Because once I start using automatic pauses and the elapsed time doesn't change, will it help me in anything?

The displayed time/pace is the time that the timer was active (i.e. elapsed time minus pauses.)

e.g.

- I start my activity and run for 30 minutes

- I pause for 5 minutes (during which time nothing is recorded.)

- I unpause and run for 30 more minutes.

My (unpaused) activity time is 60 minutes and my elapsed time 65 minutes. Moving time is the portion of the unpaused activity time that you spent moving. 

Garmin TL;DR:

Elapsed time: the amount of time between the start and end of activity, regardless of any pauses. Same as the Elapsed (time) field on your watch.

Activity time (shown in the summary): amount of time that the timer was active/running. Same as the Timer field on your watch. You can also think of this as “stopwatch time”, as if your Garmin was a simple stopwatch. Or you can think of it as “elapsed time minus pauses.”

Moving time: amount of time that you were moving, while the timer was active/running. Not displayed on your watch (calculated after the run is uploaded to Garmin Connect)

The difference with Strava is that Strava only has moving time and elapsed time. Strava shows your moving time (after auto-removing "non-moving time” by default) as the “main time”, and if you pause your activity at least once, then moving time is actually Garmin’s “activity time”, regardless of whether you were moving for the whole activity or not.

Also, if you tag your run as a race, then Strava no longer removes time spent not moving from your “moving time”. For races, “moving time” is just the normal “activity time”, without removing non-moving time.

Strava TL;DR:

Elapsed time: same as Garmin

”Moving time” (shown in the summary): 

- By default, this is your activity time, minus any time that you were not moving, as determined by Strava. (Same as Garmin moving time)

- If you pause your watch at least once, it’s your activity time (without removing non-moving time) (Same as Garmin activity time)

- If you tag your run as a race, it’s your activity time (without removing non-moving time) (Same as Garmin activity time)

6295018 said:

Currently, when my activity is synchronized to Strava, I have a different time in the Strava (probably moving time - it is always smaller than on the garmin). And I would like this time to be seen in garmin as well and I don't know how to do it or if it can be done at all.

Is the moving time in strava similar to the moving time in Garmin? I would expect them to be similar. Garmin and Strava may not be using the same threshold/algorithm for detecting movement, though.

I don’t know if this helps, but:

- For runs which are not interval workouts, I just pause the watch when I’m not moving. (While waiting for red lights, etc.). My “activity time” (the main time shown in Garmin and Strava) is always the same for both Garmin and Strava. I try to make sure I pause my watch at least once, to avoid the thing where Strava auto-removes “non-moving time”

- For interval workouts, I don’t pause the watch when I’m not moving, because I want to see my stats (like HR and time) for my rest periods. In this case, my time/pace is different for Strava and Garmin, but I don’t care because the totals/averages don’t matter for an interval workout.

- For races, I obviously never pause my watch.

That’s just my personal preference. Some people like to pause their watch during workouts, so that the rest is deleted and their strava pace looks even better (because any jog/walk rest is not considered.)

In my case, I think mainly of the activity of long-distance walking, where it is about tens of km

I will give a real example of one of my activities. I'm not pausing the watch at the moment. I just turn it on at the beginning and save the activity at the end.

My elapsed time on the watch is a 12:46h walk. (same as Strava)
The time 11: 32h is displayed in Strava.
In garmin I have a movement time of 10:51h.

I don't see Idle time for the Walk activity (I can only calculate it manually). However, it can be seen that times vary. And for me, the more valuable time is 10:51 or even what the Strava shows. Because I stopped for food, a photo, on the way, he ran on one section, but otherwise he was still moving. If I wanted, I could keep going nonstop - that's why I would like to see real time (without taking photos and eating on the fly) and not activity time.

I guess I have no choice but to try automatic pause, because I don't want to do it manually due to 10s. But I don't know how accurate it will be then. I don't want me to lose a 1km walk because of that, because the watch paused every time I take a few seconds of photos. And if that's what you're saying, if I use the adjustment at least once, then Strava won't "fix" it.

What is the main difference between walking and running? I mean in terms of activity. I don't know if I should also use the Run activity type for walking. Some people do that.

6295018 said:

I guess I have no choice but to try automatic pause, because I don't want to do it manually due to 10s. But I don't know how accurate it will be then. I don't want me to lose a 1km walk because of that, because the watch paused every time I take a few seconds of photos. And if that's what you're saying, if I use the adjustment at least once, then Strava won't "fix" it.

Well, I think that pausing the watch yourself (and pausing it at least once) is the easiest and most flexible way to "control" the "summary" (activity) time that is shown in Strava and Garmin. The other option is to not pause at all and have Strava show a shorter time than Garmin in the summary.

Even though Garmin doesn't show you the number you want in the summary, at least it shows all 3 times (activity, moving, elapsed), compared to Strava which only has moving and elapsed, but the definition of "moving" changes depending on whether you pause your watch and whether you tagged your run as a race. Strava's way is probably more user-friendly, but Garmin's way gives you a bit more data.

6295018 said:

If I wanted, I could keep going nonstop - that's why I would like to see real time (without taking photos and eating on the fly) and not activity time.

If you pause your watch whenever you're not moving, then what you describe as "real time" is the same as your activity time. What Strava does with using moving time after the fact as your activity time is basically autopause after the fact. Same with the numbers that Garmin shows for moving time/pace -- that's basically like applying autopause after the fact. (Ofc the algorithms use by Strava, Garmin Connect and your watch's autopause feature to detect movement may not all be the same, and the may not all give the same results)

6295018 said:

What is the main difference between walking and running? I mean in terms of activity. I don't know if I should also use the Run activity type for walking. Some people do that.

I wouldn't do that if you care about your (running) VO2Max -- I think recording walks as run activities will mess that up, since the watch will think you ran very slowly and it might impact various calculated performance metrics like running VO2Max.

It's also possible that Garmin or Strava's moving threshold is different for runs and walks, although I find that unlikely. (e.g. 30 minute miles is also a very slow pace for walking.)

I suppose that the categorization of run vs. walk also affects your numbers for Strava challenges.

I would prefer to use an automatic pause, I'm just worried about the result. (I don't know how well the watch can detect changes in movement from stop to walk) How many times do I stop, for example, for just a few seconds, where I take a photo and continue and still do not want to squeeze the watch by hand at all.
But I'll just have to try it someday. I'm just afraid I'll ruin my activity statistics that day if it doesn't recognize movement changes very well.

I don't see another option. Otherwise, I would probably leave it to Strava and not pause the garmins in any way. Thanks for the info. I'll have to try, then. It would be great if Garmin added to Garmin Connect the ability to display the preferred time for movement time instead of activity.