Well, my expectations are mainly based on my experience with my previous 2 garmin watches... The 235 and 735xt. And also my tomtom. They prove they can provide decent, smooth tracks and paces.
I also expect Garmin to try and improve their previous products (fenix3) when releasing it's successor, a new high-end and pretty damn expensive watch. But it seems the issues with the F3 (perhaps not an issue for everyone and less of an issue if you havent experienced better or don't use the stats in that way) are simply popping up again and that is a screwup on Garmins side imo.
Thing is, this is the only watch I really enjoy looking at and wrt possibilities (as a daily). THe 735xt is fine, the 935 looks fine as well, but they are both really sports watches. I didn't want to wear the tomtoms as a daily (uncomfortable and not great looking), I dont like the Suunto looks, Polar same. So it's not as simple as 'buy another then' because there is no other like this...
Ah well, I'll do some more runs with it to really see how it will impact me. Unfortunately we only have a 4-week return period here so there isn't really time to wait for a long while to see if things get improved.
I guess with my next race I will either use both or just the 735xt, but after that I will run with both and if it turns out to be a dud I'll accept my losses and prolly sell it.
Doesn't matter which GPS watch Instant Pace is garbage. Only way to get good Instant Pace if you want it is to use a foot pod.
I have a footpod, the problem here is LAP pace, even worse actually (it's ok for the lap pace to vary a bit) it's the duration of the lap that pops up when you're done with your lap, due to irregular 1K laps as measured by the F5.
Have you tried turning on GPS + GONASS in the GPS settings? might get more accuracy in built up areas?
I paced at parkrun on Saturday, and my pace on the watch was up and down long a yoyo. one second 7min next 10min. I know I run at a constant 7:10 pace usually for this course. I think the firmware needs a little updating and I seriously hope it is not the hardware after investing so much money.
Thanks for the reply! Yes I had tried all of this. So I ended up replacing the watch. GPS has improved drastically. It's night and day!
EVERY watch I've used (even the 920xt) can have issues with LAP pace for the 1st minute or so. If I'm pretty sure of my pace, I never make any large adjustments based on the initial LAP pace. However if the 235 is consistent and spot on for every mile for the entire mile AND these variations in Lap pace are enough to throw off your training and races, stick with the 235 and return the F5.
You are seeing Lap Pace variation that high? Right at the beginning or a few seconds in (10s or so)?
It's even worse actually (it's ok for the "lap pace" to vary a bit especially at the beginning of the lap) it's the duration of the lap that pops up when you're done with your lap, due to irregular 1K laps as measured by the F5. Now of course if you're only running with the F5 you wouldn't know better and would have to assume your pace is messed up, not something you want to be dealing with when running 16k at MPace in the heat! So ok, it's probably an edge case of people who'll be using the F5 but it's a bit sad that Garmin are cramming in all these "for runner" features in the F5 if it can't deliver on the basic requirements of a runner, i.e. measuring regular 1k laps.
What I've found works best for me is a CIQ data field called 'Configurable Pace' that gives you an average pace over a user specified number of seconds. I use 30 seconds and it works great on both my 235 and F3.
There is one small section where the f5 lost the plot, but with that exception the tracks are extremely close to each other.
Note, I did not do anything to soak or in any way set up the f5. I took it out of the box, set it up on my phone, updated it and left for the ride.
Also Note, the distances are different because I thought I stopped the 820, but I didn't so the track carries on further. Accounting for that difference the distance accrual difference is less than 0.5%.
It would be useful if when people posted GPS tracks, they also provided their setup information such as GPS-only or GPS+GLONASS, and Smart or 1-sec recording.
