Segments - just how reliable is it

The thing about the time that is shown on the standard segment page is that it is the time of the virtual partner(s) relative to you and not your time.

I suspect that you also have auto-select on for the VP.

So in the first case the VP was behind you so they had a +ve time. In the second case the VP was faster you so they have a -ve time relative to you.

Think of it as though your current position on the segment is a timing gate for the VP. If the VP has a negative time they got to the gate before you. If the VP has a positive time they will get the gate after you.

Smart recording will not impact the time on the unit, but could impact the time that Strava or Garmin computes for the segment as they will have less data points to use to determine when you cross the start and finish lines. I would recommend switching to using 1 second recording. 

Thanks for the reply but i still don't understand why my moderate effort was 26mins and my 'all out effort' was 28 mins...

I did have something auto select - i didn't know what it was.

And what is this 'connection' thing in the segment page....

And why does VP come into this ? I thought segment is all about comparing the ride to someone's better times (PB, leader in the leaderboard, KOM).

I'm quite shock to hear that VP still has a role in this. If yes - who controls or determine the VP speed?

How can i use segment to compare to my previous rides effort then?

VP in this case is any of the virtual times you are chasing it is just a generic term for the virtual racer. So it could be the KOM, PB, Connection

The connection thing is telling me you are using Garmin Segments. It is the time of one of you Garmin Connect connections/contacts.

The Edge units can be configured to dynamically change the target time based on how you are doing so that you always have a time to chase. For example if you start fast it my use the KOM, but as you slow down below your PB time it switches to PB. If you slow down below what one of your connections has done it will switch to that.

The setting is under 

Training -> Segments -> Segment Options -> Auto select effort

i'm needing more testing on this thing called segments. I remember now that my above attempts where i had said i had done an all out effort....i did slow down a bit towards the last 50 m to see exactly where the segment would complete - so maybe i had slowed down enough to warrant the 28 min timing......anyway i'll test some more.

I did some testing this afternoon - did 3 rides - the 2nd ride was the fastest, segment was completed but somehow i never found it in the leaderboard....?

Garmin connect segments - What steps are required for a successful segment recording:

• do i have to record the ride (right lower button) for the segment to be triggered?
• at the completion of the segment - does the times get recorded automatically? - is it necessary for me to save the ride to record the segment

I did set disable the auto-select but still couldn't find a way to manually choose another target time...i had 2 timings on the list....do i need more to be able to choose?

The ride needs to be recorded, saved and unploaded to Garmin Connect for the segment leaderboard to update.

Garmin Connect or Strava are the official arbitrators of their segment times and need the ride data.

To select which time you wish to use as your target you can either set that before you ride the segment by going to the segment under training and opening the leaderboard and tagging the time you want to use. You can also do this mid-segment by pressing the context menu button (top right button) while on the segment. This will give you access to a menu item to change the selection.

aweatherall said:

So in the first case the VP was behind you so they had a +ve time. In the second case the VP was faster you so they have a -ve time relative to you.

I thought the timing was my time. So it's the VP's time compared to me. Kind of weird way of looking at it.

It can cause confusion. I typically change the layout of that page to use the elevation profile instead of the linear racer as many of my segments are on hills. I then set one of the data fields to be time ahead/behind. This eliminates any confusion. The downside is that you can see the time of one racer, where as potentially the linear racer can show multiple racers

 

This is what i used today - i went buckeroo banzai again and made sure i started the ride record and when completed i saved the ride. My timing was correctly recorded in the segment portion this time.

I'm surprised no one ever mentioned how confusing this timing thing is....i'm thinking that +1.34....what does it mean - i'm faster than my personal best by 1.34 minutes? If yes - it's the wrong way to show it.

most cycling timings would read that as Personal Best plus 1 minute 34 seconds....so that means i'm slower.

but if you look at the white circle (my personal best timing?) - i'm ahead - so anything to the right of the white circle would be a 'plus' timing. If i'm slower - that means i'll be to the left of the white circle - and it should then read a minus timing....would that be correct?

The timing can be confusing. It is similar to down hill racing with timing gates.In this case your posting is the timing gate.

If the time is +ve the white circle will get to your current position after you did. E.g. +1:34 after you.

If the time is -ve the white circle passed your current position that much in front of you.

OK - thanks for the confirmation. The white circle would be the focus then.

Summary:

• negative timing (left of white circle) - means i'm slow
• positive timing (right of white circle) - means i'm faster.