Indoor Run Stats are a Fraud

[Juan007]

Apple Watch is a great product, but they are misleading people on the accuracy of the "indoor run" feature. Notice that when you first do an "indoor run" on a fresh watch, the watch informs you that you need to run outdoors first for a while for calibration. During calibration they are trying to get an idea of your stride length. When you run outdoors, the watch knows exactly how far you ran (thanks to GPS) and how many strides you took, so they know your average stride length. Then they apply that to your indoor runs.

This might work for some runners, but for elite runners like myself, I try to keep the same stride length no matter the pace (180 strides per minute normally whether running 5 min pace or 7 min pace).. Apple Watch fails miserably to produce accurate results. Just yesterday I was varying my stride intentionally to make some adjustments... Apple Watch was off by 15%+.

Apple, you need to remove the "indoor run" feature or inform your users that it's not accurate. It's a blight on an otherwise great product.

 

[44267547]

Apple, you need to remove the "indoor run" feature or inform your users that it's not accurate. It's a blight on an otherwise great product.

Have you considered actually sharing your above quote with Apple versus posting on a Apple Watch forum where they may never read this. Submitting feedback to them would be something logical likely in your situation.

 

[JackieInCo]

No watch or device will ever be 100% accurate.

I wore two watches during the winter daily for about three months. No matter what workout I selected, the watch on my right hand always showed 2,000+ steps more then the watch on my left. It also gave me exercise minutes more freely, sometimes by as much as 45 minutes per day on my right watch then the left.

This is why all these watches come with a warning that they are meant to be a general representation of how you are doing because none of them are 100% accurate.

 

[PatrickNSF]

I'm not an "elite" runner – I've only run two BQs out of a dozen marathons – but I concur to an extent. The AW is not great for tracking distance and pace for indoor runs.

What it needs is either and option to input the treadmill distance after an indoor run (under the assumption that the treadmill is properly calibrated) so that it starts to use those measurements for calibration, or allow the Workout app to get distance and pace data from a foot pod.

 

[Julien]

....or allow the Workout app to get distance and pace data from a foot pod.

If varying your stride length like the OP it would not help. Without a consistent stride length and cadence there is no way for a calibrated running watch (Garmin, Apple, TomTom, etc) to estimate indoor distances.

 

[PatrickNSF]

If varying your stride length like the OP it would not help. Without a consistent stride length and cadence there is no way for a calibrated running watch (Garmin, Apple, TomTom, etc) to estimate indoor distances.

Agreed, but it would be an improvement, and similar to what Garmin offers in the 925 (and I assume the 645).

 

[Yorkdox7]

I have found the Nike Run feature to be a whole lot more accurate than the indoor run feature. I have no idea how those differ, but when I use the Nike app, it is almost exact to the distance on the treadmill.

 

[matrix07]

Apple Watch is a great product, but they are misleading people on the accuracy of the "indoor run" feature. Notice that when you first do an "indoor run" on a fresh watch, the watch informs you that you need to run outdoors first for a while for calibration. During calibration they are trying to get an idea of your stride length. When you run outdoors, the watch knows exactly how far you ran (thanks to GPS) and how many strides you took, so they know your average stride length. Then they apply that to your indoor runs.

This might work for some runners, but for elite runners like myself, I try to keep the same stride length no matter the pace (180 strides per minute normally whether running 5 min pace or 7 min pace).. Apple Watch fails miserably to produce accurate results. Just yesterday I was varying my stride intentionally to make some adjustments... Apple Watch was off by 15%+.

Apple, you need to remove the "indoor run" feature or inform your users that it's not accurate. It's a blight on an otherwise great product.

Just use the new treadmill that’s compatible with GymKit. Problem solved.
[doublepost=1527575683][/doublepost]

I have found the Nike Run feature to be a whole lot more accurate than the indoor run feature. I have no idea how those differ, but when I use the Nike app, it is almost exact to the distance on the treadmill.

I found the opposite on my treadmill so I stopped using NRC & use built-in app only. My NRC Run Level has suffered greatly.

 

[barjam]

Apple Watch is a great product, but they are misleading people on the accuracy of the "indoor run" feature. Notice that when you first do an "indoor run" on a fresh watch, the watch informs you that you need to run outdoors first for a while for calibration. During calibration they are trying to get an idea of your stride length. When you run outdoors, the watch knows exactly how far you ran (thanks to GPS) and how many strides you took, so they know your average stride length. Then they apply that to your indoor runs.

This might work for some runners, but for elite runners like myself, I try to keep the same stride length no matter the pace (180 strides per minute normally whether running 5 min pace or 7 min pace).. Apple Watch fails miserably to produce accurate results. Just yesterday I was varying my stride intentionally to make some adjustments... Apple Watch was off by 15%+.

Apple, you need to remove the "indoor run" feature or inform your users that it's not accurate. It's a blight on an otherwise great product.

Is there a product that would actually be accurate in this situation?

I think anyone who runs even someone who is "elite" would be familiar with how these sorts of devices operate inside.

 

[MJ22]

The only indoor run tracker I trust is an actual measured and marked indoor track.

Everything else is going to be imperfect. Get over it. LOL.

 

[GRT89521]

Maybe it's been stated here before but my Series 3 seems to be off by as much as 18% on indoor runs. My Series Zero and 2 never seemed to be off by as much. I've even reset the calibration once.

 

[trotter45]

Is there a product that would actually be accurate in this situation?

I think anyone who runs even someone who is "elite" would be familiar with how these sorts of devices operate inside.

I started using the mapMyrun app and use the treadmill settings and it works perfect Nike app does not work on the treadmill