I’m addicted to my Garmin.
From last September until April 2012 I ran Garmin free, but now that marathon training has taken over my life, I can’t imagine training without it.
I still race and run mostly by feel, but those numbers that flash on the screen of my trusty running companion often determine how I feel about my running performance and dictate my goals for the marathon.
I know that when running a race with a time goal in mind, that in order to achieve my goal I’ll need to average a pace that’s faster than the one that is shown on my watch.
However, I don’t think I realized just how inaccurate of a training tool it’s been until I ran side by side with Lora on Sunday. Here are our individual Garmin stats in a side by side comparison:
There’s a huge difference between running a marathon at an 8:05 pace and an 8:20 pace.
Are you dependent upon using your Garmin to achieve your time related running goals? Are you surprised by the significant difference between our two watches?
I’ve been feeling the same way about my Garmin the past few months. I’m not training for any races right now, but I haven’t been using it for the timing, rather just the mileage. It’s frustrating when it doesn’t work, especially since we’ve paid a lot for these devices.
That’s insane Jess! The one with the lesser ending mileage was it a newer Garmin?
I think it might be.
I ran Garmin-free for the first time in forever on Saturday and it was very freeing. I get too wrapped up in the numbers as well and I know sometimes it’s WAY off (like when it says I had a top pace of 7:30 – I couldn’t run that fast if being chased by zombies!). I still use it for most of my training though, but it’s nice to get away from it every now and then.
My Garmin has been a mess lately — apparently there’s another round of solar flares happening, which tends to screw up GPS’s. I try not to live and die with my Garmin, and only use it for long runs + speedwork, NOT easy runs. For easy runs when I know a pace difference of 10 seconds can really bum me out, I map a route ahead of time and run without timing it… removing that pressure makes training much more enjoyable!
Wow that is dramatic! I tend to start my Garmin, then stick it in my sports bra (weird as that sounds) until the last half mile or so. If i have it on my wrist, I become obsessed and it ruins the experience.
I’m curious now how inaccurate it may be though–the difference between running 7:45 pace and 8:10 (as some of your miles are) can make or break my mental attitude during training.
I just ran with my new Garmin for the 1st time on Sunday. It was also my 1st half marathon. I particularly wanted just so I could keep an eye on my pace so I didn’t start out too fast. I’m not a “racer” so hitting splits isn’t my goal. But that damn thing was jumping all over the place! It would jump as much as 2 minutes/mile different while I was running the same pace. I would love to think it’s just a solar flare and it won’t be that jumpy forever.
I once ran a leg of long distance relay race with a Garmin on my wrist and my Iphone for music. Of course my I phone also has cyclemeter which is an Ap that tracks the same things my Garmin tracks. So I’d look at my watch and then the phone would chime in telling me some other really crazy metric. The difference between the two was quite humorous.
All in all these devices don’t really do exactly what we want them to do, but I do use them to notice if I’ve slowed down a great deal. If I start to fatigue I can often trick myself into thinking I’m pushing just as hard, but my Garmin is accurate enough to show me that I’ve lowered my pace. It’s also much more accurate when I cycle, because it’s not based on GPS but rotations of my wheel which is a known metric.
My garmin comes with a foot pod and the advantage there is that it does show me my steps per minute with some accuracy. That to me is a better metric of my running form then pace is. Often when I slow down I’m taking bigger strides, so more then anything else that’s what I love my Garmin for. Thanks for the post, when are you going to post about the innacurracy of calorie counting aps and the like?
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This is crazy. I assumed Garmins were nearly perfect. I ran a 15k this weekend and it said that it was 9.17 miles. I just went ahead and assumed that the race was wrong and not the Garmin. I guess this is eye opening for me. I can’t believe that your two splits were so completely different. Were you running in the fog or under trees?
I spoke with a Garmin rep at an expo once because I had so many questions about my POS watch (the inaccuracy, the constant dying battery and resets, the crazy pace variances and swings).
The rep said it is very important to always check if there is a software update because it will absolutely throw off the pace/distance if you are using an older version of the software. Sidenote: He did tell me that the model I have is the worst (405) due to the touch bezel!
There are some crazy distances there! I can understand why some people would rely on their Garmin as knowing your actual pace while you are running without having to know the distance markers is a great thing….as long as it’s accurate. I’ll stick to my plain old watch, time my run, and then find out my pace once I’ve figured out my mileage 🙂 Nothing fancy but it works for me!
Whoa that is some major difference. My 205 is way more accurate than my newer “fancier” 910. It will sometimes think I am far off the path where I am and add mileage…such as the time when it said I was running a 5 min pace. I can feel my paces pretty decently and know when it is just totally off, but it is one tool (for races I do look up the times I want to hit certain splits though). My guess is something like that happened especially with that 6 minute mile and added a bunch of distance and after that your two watches never matched again. Running through buildings makes it much more likely to happen too…One interesting thing would be to look at the route that the gps plotted that you ran. That is one way to pick up inaccuracies.
I always had my suspicions when the maps on Garmin Connect would show me running directly through a lake, or cutting across some grassy area I certainly didn’t run on. But the side-by-side comparison was just insane!
I don’t have a garmin but I use mapmyrun app on my iPhone sometimes and I used it Sunday and it was acting weird too. Usually it shows my fastest pace and the number there is some really long about 10 digit number. I wonder if there’s somethig messing with the satellites
So why the differences? That is crazy.
I definitely run Garmin free 75/25 of the time. I enjoy my runs more when I do.
Hi,
I think garmins are generally pretty accurate, speed is just distance and time – time is easily measured, distance is measured as long as the satellite reception is ok all the time. I often find in certain places I lose reception and the speed jumps around a bit and then it assumes you take a straight line between your previous and the next time it picks up reception. Then the distance is less but the time is the same so it thinks ou were slower. I’m guessing that’s what happened to make the difference between the two. (sorry if that was all obvious!)
Becky :- the instant pace is pretty jumpy because it jumps etween satellite points, but overall it gives a pretty good indication. I don’t think running is really something for which you can aim to get better than a good indication of your speed because you’re affected by so many other things like wind, ground, incline, weather.
I love mine for just giving me an idea how far I’ve run and a good idea of speed. Ultimately in a race you do your best and if you just miss a cut off time it probably isn’t because the garmin got your speed slightly wrong?
my 16-year-old son is a Garmin 305 junkie. hehe. He’s had it for over a year now and loves it, but the “beeping” sound just recently stopped working. Did some quick online research and found that this sorta this is common with the 305 due to sweat/moisture. Oh well. No more beeps for him.
I have a Forerunner 410 (or something like that, high-level model about three years old) that I’ve never actually tested for accuracy, but then I won a duathlon and got a FR60 as a prize this past spring. The FR60 doesn’t have satellite & I was shocked to find out how inaccurate it was. BUT with all these watches, you can calibrate them on a track. So I did that with my FR60 (which is how I found out that it was about had me running about 8% faster than what I was actually running), and it’s been good since then. All of this is, in my mind, a good reason to do speed workouts on tracks and properly measured distances.
Wow, that’s crazy! I have problems a lot with mine but those are obvious as it shows me running off the road. I always figured if the map showed me on the road I was good…
I guess GPS is only accurate to a certain extent. Maybe I need to run “naked” more often!
I have been reading your blog for a while andthis is the post that finally made me comment. I have been having problems with my Garmin lately, the worst of which is the length of time it takes to find a signal. Yesterday morning it took so long I was moving all around the corner like a fool, waving my arm in the air, desperately trying in vain to get a signal, while this group of adorable elderly women about to enter the church across the street stared at me as if I were high.
This happened to me too the other day when I was running with my friend. We measured out a 5-mile route and stuck to it. But when we finished, my garmin read 4.78 miles instead of 5. I have a newer Garmin so maybe that’s why?