Indoor walking - wrong distance.

Former Member over 7 years ago

Hi, when walking indoor on a treadmill I am alway getting wrong distances, about 20 %. But when running the distance is more or less spot on.
I am using both a garmin foot-pod and a HRM-Run.

Today I did some testing.
I went to my stadium and first walked, then run, 1000 m. Additionally on my right wrist I was using a garmin vivosmart 3. I was only using the HRM-Run that is connected to the Fenix 5.

Om my first attempt the fenix 5 showed 1.18 km, while the vivosmart was more or less spot on.
I did the same attempt one more time, both time I was counting the steps, and made sure it was all correct with the custom side length settings.

I then ran 2000 meter, still in tredmill mode (to keep the GPS out of this). This time the the Fenix 5 showed me 2.03 km while the vivosmart was only 1.79 km. This could be due to wrong counting of steps. Not so easy to count when you are running..

But this makes me believe the the running dynamics in the HRM-Run is confusing the watch while walking. And also looking at the stride length data from the time I was walking they are jumping all over.
So as a hart rate band this is unless for walking. Would be better if it was giving no data, rather then data ruin my statistic.

I have also noted when I am using my foot pod outside walking (it is set up to speed always - distance inside) the pace is complete wrong. Distance is right (GPS) but speed is completly out. about 7 min / km in stead of 9.

Am I doing something wrong here, or is all this sensors useless for walking?
I really got the HRM-Run just for the hart rate purpose, got a good deal to same price. But staring to regret this now.

I guess not a big deal as this is all designed for running. But I do quite a few km pr week walking too, indoor, and would like to have some degree of accuracy.

0 AllanOlesen67 over 7 years ago

Anyway, I have discovered the foot pod is completely useless for walking, showes a pace about 7, when reel speed is around 9.30.

I have sort of the same experience, though not as severe. The foot pod will overestimate my walking speed with 10% when it is calibrated for running.

I don't know if a Stryd foot pod would perform better. It is said to be much more accurate at different running paces, but I don't know how it handles walking.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

You can set custom stride lengths for both running and walking through GCM. Just make sure you access this through the general settings menu on the top LH side, not through the settings for the specific device.

Actual the problem is that you cannot do this.
Either or, if you enable/disable through through genenral settings or for the specific device it will enabke/disable for both units.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

I have sort of the same experience, though not as severe. The foot pod will overestimate my walking speed with 10% when it is calibrated for running.

I don't know if a Stryd foot pod would perform better. It is said to be much more accurate at different running paces, but I don't know how it handles walking.

Yes, if I run 10 km and then walk 10 km back, I can not really be bothered removing the foot pod. Or change the calibration values.

Found a work around for walking outside.
Set lap distance to 1 km, and instead of speed use lap speed. At least then you are getting GPS speed, and not what the pod is reporting.

I have good experiences with wahoo cadence for biking. Maybe the wahoo stride sensor is better then the garmin? I think the garmin now is pretty old