Pace Issue (Running Coach)

Try to log the run concurrently also with the phone (for example using the Strava app), and then compare both pace graphs. Perhaps you indeed do not run with as constant pace as you believe you do. You can only find it out, if you have some referrence.

I will do so and repeat back. Still I dont think I am that inconsistent. Around the 33 minute mark it is more or less a 1 min pace differenz! And that is per km not per mile!!!

JonnySure said:

Around the 33 minute mark it is more or less a 1 min pace differenz!

Seeing your HR dropped too, it looks like your effort was lower at that time, so the drop of pace is not really surprising. Without any evidence, there is no reason to suspect the watch of any wrongdoing. Post at least a link to the activity, so that we can try to see whether there are some inconsistencies in the GPS data, but I guess if there were any, you would already spot it too.

I will do another workout tomorrow and report back. Got the strava app on my phone so I can compare.

I had a closer look to the data on connect.garmin and spotted some short cut corners in the gps track. I ran more meters than the watch tracked there. I have the feeling, that the watch needs some time to get back to pace? Is there some "smoothing" algorithm that needs some time after a drop? For me the watch corrects the pace in like 10 second steps each 5 or 10 seconds of running no matter how much faster or slower I run...

JonnySure said:

For me the watch corrects the pace in like 10 second steps each 5 or 10 seconds of running no matter how much faster or slower I run...

It depends on the recording mode you selected in system settings. When you use the default "Smart Recording", the period is variable, and usually takes several seconds (depending on the changes of the entry data). When you use the "Every Second Recording", the period will be always 1s.

I am using every second. So it sampling as much data as possible.

But still:

When I stop as my dog needs to go poop ;D the pace goes to lets say 10:00 per km and when starting to run again it needs like 2 minutes to get back on track. Thats why Iam thinking that there is some smoothing algo working to not let the graphs be too spiky...

There are different types of pace - lap pace (average for the entire laps - for example for 1km), the total average pace (average for the total time of the activity), then there is the moving pace (including only tie spent moving), and the current pace is averaging over certain period too, but am not sure whether the exact algorithm is known. Besides it, the algorithm uses rounding, to prevent too frequent changes on the screen. On the other hand the rounding is not being recorded to the FIT file, for the later review in GC, it just prevents the display flickering in real-time.

Thanks for all your feedback!

I did a little tour on my bike today while recording on strava and Instinct both on „run“ (It was a slow ride). 

See the picures attached.

Insinct tracked 7,5km in

And Strava tracked 7,65 in 

Thats ok for me. BUT even when I recalculate the av. Pace with the longer distance it does not macht the waaay slower av. pace from the instinct. I mean when I train this way I will be flyiing on race day!

As the last two pictures show there is some deviation, but not that much. Still the Instinct is reporting waaay slower in this corner as it cant handle the turning that well.

What is good on the instinct is the full stop you can see in the pace graph. I did indeed come to a ful halt on three of these occasions. Just the third one (in the middle) is wrong as I turned around but did not stop there.

Hello, so I now conuded my second run and there is some stuff I do not understand.

The av. Pace between Strava and Garmin is the same. BUT after a complete stop im the middle of the run and pausing the workout the garmin was not able to get back on track.

The first few hundret meters it shows as pretty slow where I started running fast to get back on pace and on the way home the pace switched between 06:00 and 07:00 for no reason while running constantly. This cannot be right! This can be seen with the green and blue track line changing many times om just 500m on a straight line of track.

This is Strava:

Well, it would be better posting both graphs based on the distance, so that we can really compare them. You can see the distance-based pace graph on Garmin Connect Web (best viewed in the zoomed version).

Then the exact form on the pace graph is strongly dependent on the size of the floating average window. It looks like Garmin may perhaps use a slightly bigger window than Strava. And also note that the differences in pace are seemingly bigger in GC, because the Y axis shows a much narower range of pace than at Strava (~6-5 min/km on GC vs ~9-5 min/km at Strava).