GPS Issues with Incorrect Pacing During Runs - Fenix 5

Try GPS and GLONASS, or just GPS. Other's have been posting similar issues on other forums when using Galileo. Why?  I have no clue. 

same Problem with mine. F5+. best is gps only. 3d pace and 3d istance off. on free fields all is good. if something like trees or buildings is near me pace gets bad.

Same issue here, my pace is very inaccurate with this watch when compared to the 735xt I had before it.  I run with a few other people with different watches (235, 735, 935) and my pace is all over the place when compared with them after the run.  I reset the watch last week, didn't help. One of the other runners also has a Fenix 5x plus and he gets the same bad pace results as me.

I have gpsnonly and 3d speed, 3d distance off.

Instant Pace based on GPS will never be accurate. Especially with this watch. Using GPS and glonass like others have said is a good idea. I'd skip Galileo until more satellites or dual band is available. Average Pace will be decent but if you want accurate instant pace your best bet is a foot pod. I ended up getting stryd because instant pace on my 5+ was all over the place.

I recently purchased a Fenix 5S $$$ and having issues with accuracy on pace. I use my watch as a pace coach and seriously thinking of returning it. The over all pace is fine. It’s when gauging tempo runs  at a 9 min pace, my watch ranges between 7:30 and 10:40. That’s unacceptable! I  had the Garmin 235 for the past 4 years and had no issues with pace / GPS. I hoping there’s a fix soon or I will need to return the watch. 

Hello everyone, I have the same problem, bought my Fenix 5 this summer and I’m really unhappy with the pace, I haven’t been able to train properly because of that, it jumps from one speed to another so frustrating, can I know if anyone managed to fix it? It’s so expensive that I don’t want to have to buy a new one.

Yes I purchased mine a week ago and have horrible pace per mile in accuracy I normally run anywhere from eight minutes per mile to turn in my Garmin fenex  5+ says 14

urrrgggghhhh!!!!

The slower you are the less accurate is current pace with satellite based data, that's why it works well for cycling and in a car and not for running, hiking, walking. It's better under open sky than in the woods, town, valleys.

If you want more accurate data you might use the app 'rolling average pace' but also there you need at least a range of 200m to get o.k. data.

The normal footpod works well for a constant pace but not for intervals. The only way to get  reliable data is probably a stryd, but I don't have one.

I personally work with the average pace and for intervals with the lap average pace — and my experience.

I agree with most of what was already said in this thread. At slow speeds, the Fenix 5+ GPS really wants to be in an open field with no reflections from buildings or nearby trees.

But there are some good news:

1. It mostly affects the immediate speed/pace measurement, not distance.

The distance measurement seems more or less unaffected. And it is not just a question of averaging - the average of all the immediate speed measurements during a lap can be up to 20% lower than the average speed you can calculate from distance and time of that same lap!

Lap pace seems to be calculated from the distance measurement, not just from an average of the immediate speed measurements. So your lap pace will usually be correct, even when your immediate pace is shown as being too slow.

2. A Garmin foot pod can give a consistent pace, though not a correct pace.

The Garmin foot pod tries to measure the length of your steps, not just your cadence. So in theory it should be able to measure your speed.

In reality it is not very good at showing true speed/pace/distance. Its calibration depends far too much on your running style and pace, in my case needing calibration factors between 80% and 125% in different situations. But it is usually consistent - if you have calibrated it at 6:00 minutes/km, it will usually show your true pace when you run at that pace. If you change your pace to 7:00, it may however start to show a rather constant 7:30 minutes/km pace.

So the Garmin foot pod is a good help for keeping a constant pace, not for measuring your actual pace.

So what to do?

I wasn't satisfied with my experience with the Garmin foot pod, so I bought a Stryd, which is on an entirely different planet accuracy-wise. However, that may be overkill for most people.

What I probably could have done instead:

1. Configure the watch to get distance from GPS and pace from the Garmin foot pod.

2. Configure the running activity to show lap pace and immediate pace in the same screen.

3. During a run, use my lap pace to "mentally calibrate" my target for the immediate pace.

So if I want to run some laps at 7:00 minutes/km, I could first aim for 7:00 immediate pace. After some time, my lap pace may show 6:40 instead of 7:00. This will tell me that the foot pods has an error of around 0:20 at this pace. So I change my immediate pace to 7:20, hit the lap button and after some time I again look at at the lap pace. If it now shows 7:00, everything is fine, and I can continue trying to keep a displayed immediate pace of 6:40, knowing that this gives me a true pace of 7:00.

If I then want to run some laps at 6:00, I will have to do it all over again, because now the error from the foot pod will be entirely different.

Over time I will probably get a pretty good feel for which displayed pace to aim for when I want to run at a certain pace, so I don't have to go through this procedure every time. (At least if I disable the auto calibration of the pod, so we don't have an auto calibration and a mental calibration fighting each other.)

Or as I said: Buy a Stryd. It is so accurate that most people are within 0-4% error without calibration. And after calibration they are usually within 0-2% at any speed, with any pair of shoes.