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Run pace slower than it is.

Former Member over 7 years ago

Hi all.

I have a V3 and really like the watch, the Integrated HRM is accurate and the daily features are fun.

The running pace however is way off. I’ve ran several times now and tried the different options such as average pace and last lap, as well as the 1 second recording. I’m a seasoned runner so can gauge my efforts accurately and was shocked when I was putting in a 7min mile effort to be told I was going mid 8 min pace with occasional 9 to 10! However it hasn’t improved so I had a feeling my effort was not recording right so tonight I wore my Polar V800 too as a rest.

Sure enough at the start of the run the V3 was showing the usual 10 min starting pace whilst the polar late 6mins which felt right. The V3 was catching up but by the end of 1 mile it was still a minute out and by the end of 5.5 miles it was still 10 seconds a mile out. It showed a shorter distance also. .

I can’t use that for any serious training or racing as it’s not accurate enough.

Is this common, or is the watch dodgy? I’m thinking it’s a gps connection but no idea.mthanks for any input.

R

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

I too have found myself being disappointed by the real time pace displayed on my watch. I went out for a 6 mile run wearing my Vioactive 3 on one wrist and an old Tomtom runner on the other. The Garmin consistently reported a real time pace of around 20 seconds slower than the Tomtom but when it displayed the Lap time pace it was inline with the Tomtom real time pace. After completing the run and checking Garmin Connect the pace recorded on the app again was inline with the Tomtom real time reporting. I'm unsure why the Garmin real time was so far out

0 Paulo over 7 years ago

I also know that the instant pace reported by VA3 is slower than the real pace.
I can compare with other runners that usually train with me and have watches of other brands. When we increase our speed my watch is the slowest one to show the new pace. Even my old 225 was better than the VA3 regarding to instant pace.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

When using GPS to measure speed, there's always a trade-off between accuracy and responsiveness. In many cases I suspect that we would get a better instantaneous pace measurement from simple stride cadence, particular if the watch calibrated stride length from GPS over a cumulative distance of miles. Perhaps the VA3 already does that. Or perhaps other vendors' watches do?

I only wish I were still young enough to be concerned about small-ish variation in pace. These days my pace is invariably as fast as my crunchy arthritic knees and hips will let me run. I don't need a watch to tell me how fast that is -- nature's own biofeedback system is more than sufficient :/

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

I am having the same issue and when I called Garmin to exchange the watch because of its wild inaccuracy in pace calculations, I had to go through an ordeal. First I was told to use the "walk" function instead ?!!! Then they tried to pass off a refurbished watch to replace my new defective one and then would only send the new watch after I returned mine. It's finally been sorted but I am not impressed and will think twice before getting a Garmin watch again.

0 9702510 over 4 years ago

I wonder running on hills could bring an impact. Would VA3 GPS capture your elevation change as well? I recall years ago on Google map in San Francisco areas with many hills would show a distance not too far from point A to B but the walking time estimate was so much longer than the usual walking on a flat area.