I recently switched from using a garmin 405 w/strava to a TomTom Multisport Cardio with strava. I love the watch, but, whenever I upload my runs, a window pops up with the run on Strava, and another with the run on MySports. Usually, the pace is around 15s/km faster on strava, and the heart rate appears lower.
Does anyone else experience this? Before, with the garmin, my normal comfortable run pace would be around 4:55-5min/km. I’m a little out of shape right now, and on MySports, my pace is around 5:05-5:08. Seems reasonable, and feels about right. On Strava, it’s showing up as 4:45-4:50/km. Now all my friends think I’m killin’ it and are giving me kudos left right and centre when in fact I’m 10lbs over weight and suffering like a bastard on what should be an easy jog!
This is a persistent topic on the forums. Different systems measure averages in different ways which gets different results (auto pause, gradient normalization, rounding etc). So long as it is delivering internally consistent results, maybe it is time to soak in the glory? A fair proportion of your friends will be using the same type of device and getting great looking results.
Interesting. I’m just surprised there could be that much of a difference. I suppose as long as it is internally consistent it wouldn’t matter, but I would be pretty pissed if I thought I was running 4:40’s on the way to a PR in a race only to come to the finish line and realize the math didn’t add up right!
For now, I will just continue to revel in the strava glory I suppose.
I found the Tomtom watch and Mysports dashboard is accurate.
This is my first time racing with a GPS. I clicked RUN mode ~1 min before the start.
During the race I didn’t use pace or anything. I only glanced at my watch maybe two to three times to look at the overall elapsed time, and said to myself, “you better get your ass in gear”.
PS: Don’t dive deeper than the spec 2 Meters. You’ll blow the joystick seal
I don’t use mine with Strava, but it is more consistent than my 10 year old Garmin. Thanks for the depth tip!
I don’t think the pool function is great - always seems to count wrong. I use “freestyle” for swimming open water to at least get time, but it always overestimates distance in the water (stroke mechanics must throw it off). Had my easy-ish swim yesterday as 1:16 per 100 pace (my hard 100 with rest pace in the pool). Cool if it were true…
I don’t use mine with Strava, but it is more consistent than my 10 year old Garmin. Thanks for the depth tip!
I don’t think the pool function is great - always seems to count wrong. I use “freestyle” for swimming open water to at least get time, but it always overestimates distance in the water (stroke mechanics must throw it off). Had my easy-ish swim yesterday as 1:16 per 100 pace (my hard 100 with rest pace in the pool). Cool if it were true…
I haven’t had any discrepancies between MySports and Strava, I just looked.
I too use “freestyle” for open water, and a friend convinced me to put the watch under my swim cap. It’s giving me useful readings on my swim pace and distance there, as opposed to on my wrist.
And a second thank-you for watching how deep I take it.
I can’t take any credit for the idea at all, but what’s great about the Tomtom is that you can pop it the unit out of the band for less bulk under your cap than a Garmin (I tuck it safely into a hairband I wear under my cap).
I’ve always thought this was the riskiest of ideas. People lose swimcaps in races. Mine inch up as time goes on. I’d hate to lose a couple hundred dollar watch due to the failure of a 5 dollar peice of silicon/ 49 cent peice of latex. But to each his/her own.
I’ve always thought this was the riskiest of ideas. People lose swimcaps in races. Mine inch up as time goes on. I’d hate to lose a couple hundred dollar watch due to the failure of a 5 dollar peice of silicon/ 49 cent peice of latex. But to each his/her own.
I wouldn’t do it in a race, that’s for sure! Just training.
Like you, I generally don’t look at my watch when I’m out running or riding. The odd glance to check distance, time, etc. I just like looking at my efforts on Strava afterwards and comparing them.
I am finding the readings of the Tomtom as displayed on MySports to be accurate (and about as close to what I was seeing when I used my old Garmin with Strava). The difference seems to be uploading to Strava from the Tomtom, that’s when I turn in to a superhuman.
Garmin —> Strava = accurate
Tomtom —> MySports = accurate
Tomtom —> Strava = inaccurate
Good to know about the joystick seal! I don’t use a watch in the pool, but I’ll keep that in mind, if I’m ever sinking to the bottom of our lake, to release the watch from my wrist before I get to 2m depth in order to save the seal ;-).
