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Cadence problems

Almost every run i get sporadically cadence readings half of what it should, i.e red points with a cadence of 86 seen in the image below.
This is pretty frustrating as i used average cadence to monitor my running cadence over time. I have tried a factory reset to no avail. Is my watch defected, or is it a "normal" problem?

Regards.

0 michaeljswann over 7 years ago

I saw the opposite when I was using wrist based cadence and I looked at the watch to check something (it spiked over 200 strides per minute).

Do you recall what you were doing at the time? Have you tried using the overlay feature to identify what was also happening? Do you have the latest firmware?

I solved it by buying the footpod and measuring cadence that way.

Not that cadence is a metric I track, but the spikes bugged me enough to do something. It also makes for more accurate pace when indoors or not using GPS. It does take a few outdoor runs using GPS for the calibration to settle down, but it's a truer indication of cadence than using the wrist based cadence.

0 oystlean over 7 years ago

Yea, I got the latest firmware. What do you mean with the overlay feature? It may be that the drops happens when i scroll pages while I run? Ill try to consequently to not do anything with the watch while I run and see what happens.

0 michaeljswann over 7 years ago

In Garmin Connect you can view more than one metric at a time. Simply click the expand button on one graph (two arrows at 45 degrees) and then choose up to two other additional metrics to overlay. You can use that to see what you were doing at the time you had the anomalous cadence readings.

The mobile app will also allow you to do overlays, but with only two metrics at a time.

When it happened to me it was easy to identify when as I would hear the autolap beep at 1km and I would look at the watch to see what the split was. On the cadence graph this showed up as a spike at that point in the session. Scrolling pages would also do it as you stop swinging you arm naturally while doing so.

0 Wenkt MY over 2 years ago

Hi. Did u solve this issue? I've experience the same. Happened after a few months using them. So frustrating. I've reset the watch but still the same. It happens to my 245 and 945. Natural arm swing. No phone or bottle at hand during running. Even i stop glancing at the watch for the sake of testing the cadence data. My avg cad is 180-190. But the graph will shows half of the cad around 90 at most of the points during the run session. Just like your picture.

Can garmin representative reply on this?

0 jmattbacon over 2 years ago in reply to Wenkt MY

Exact same issue here. Are you still experiencing this issue, 1 month on?

My cadence switches between 180 and 90 during the run, skewing the average cadence values to 110–130 SPM typically.

I've been in contact with Garmin Support, had several back-and-forth emails, but the only suggestion has been to restart the Garmin. Since then, radio silence. It's quite annoying, as I did used to use the cadence reading to keep my form in check. Historically, it worked fine, then suddenly this issue arose.

0 7504590 over 2 years ago in reply to jmattbacon

same here. Suddenly having this issue in the past few weeks. In contact with support lots of hassle and no solution yet.

0 Wenkt MY over 2 years ago in reply to 7504590

I have replied in another thread. Try to record a video of you running and check your arm swing. Also u can try give your watch to friend for a try. I have solved mine. Even i thought my arm swing is the same but it is not in the video. Another thing to try is go into strength mode, and try do pushup, if the watch record the rep accordingly, then your watch hv no problem. Good luck.

0 7504590 over 2 years ago in reply to Wenkt MY

I appreciate your reply here and trying to help but unfortunately all the points you raised failed to make any sense to me:

1 does the video thing mean forerunner series watches measure cadence for selected arm swings?

2 does the friend thing mean forerunner series watches measure cadence for selected people?

3 i bought the watch for running and I expect it to measure my cadence during running as advertised. Just because it works for push-ups doesn’t mean it’s fine because it sure doesn’t work for running and I honestly couldn’t care less about whether or how it works with push ups.

0 Wenkt MY over 2 years ago in reply to 7504590

Sorry for the confusion. I thought you are already understand how garmin watch works.
Accelerometer is the sensor in the garmin watch which measure your movement i.e. cadence. So the sensor detect hand movement of running forward and backward swing.

Possible reason u have the problem is because your hand movement wasnt like normal running i.e. your hand goes sideways/ upward-downward instead of forward-backward. also happen when u run for a long time and hand start feeling tired, and your hand movement is not that obvious. Also happen if u run holding phone and water bottle.
The reason I suggest for the video is because im too confident with my arm swing is not the problem initially. So i gave my friend (avid runner) to try and the cadence data has no problem (which means the watch accelerometer is ok). So i asked him to record my video of running and from there I knew my arm swing needs to be improved.
The reason I suggest for push-up is just to test the accelerometer function. Because by doing push up (which is very minimal wrist movement), the watch can detects how many repetition precisely. If you cannot push-up, you can try other easy movement i.e. biceps curl etc.

Hope the explanation now make sense to you

0 Emma S over 2 years ago

I have this exact problem. I've had the watch for three years, and I've never had a cadence recording issue when running outside, even though my arm swing isn't always super consistent. In the last month of outdoor runs, my watch has stopped tracking my cadence with any consistency. It will get stuck at a cadence of 123 when my feet are hitting the ground at 180-190 spm, easily. What's worse, because my watch is tracking a lower cadence, it also assumes I'm running more slowly--blips in cadence correspond with unrealistic drops in pace (I run 8:00-8:30 usually, but my watch records a pace of 11:00-10:00 minutes whenever the cadence locks at 123).My GPS is turned on--I checked. It's almost like my GPS connection cuts out and that makes my watch lock my cadence at 123-ish and slows my pace, then compensates once I regain the signal by recording a higher pace and cadence than I'm actually doing (200 spm and 6:20 pace, for example).

I've tried a reset once. Planning on doing it again.