I know Garmin sucks at tracking my runs in Chicago and New York City—the GPS bounces off the tall buildings and has me running back-and-forth across the river or cutting corners through sky scrapers. That said, it’s never given me a reason to doubt its accuracy on my neighborhood runs, until this week,
I’m sure the Garmin algorithms are complicated, but …
Good Grief, Garmin
These days my outdoor runs usually follow one of just a few neighborhood routes. I have a 3-ish miles loop and a 4-ish mile loop I can stretch to 5. We were blessed with amazing weather this week, so I squeezed in two runs before work. I followed the same route both times, but on Monday Garmin tracked me at 4 miles while on Thursday it only gave me credit for 3.75! Good grief, Garmin!
You can guess which run I hope was tracked more accurately, but when I looked at the maps I could see that Monday’s was a lot more wobbly, while Thursday’s had me running in straighter lines. It did clip off a corner from Thursday’s run (not shown above), but otherwise Thursday’s shorter distance seems more accurate. ~sigh~ Of course, I ran past my starting point to round Thursday’s run up to 4 miles. 😉
Weekly Wrap
I ended up alternating strength and running days this week instead of trying to squeeze in both every day. I only did two of the three classes in Andy’s program, but also tried a new class with Adrian and took my new favorite lower body workout with Matty again.
Sunday: Core + 30 min UB Strength + 30 min Peloton Ride
I don’t usually take Cody’s classes, but he was celebrating 10 years at Peloton, so I didn’t want to miss it.Of course there was Britney Spears on the playlist!
Monday: 4.0 (?) Scooby Miles
We finally got a break in the weather and it was glorious—until I got stung in the neck about 2 miles in. 😩 I felt like a victim of a Hunger Games tracker jacker the way it came out of nowhere and got me!
Tuesday: 30 min Strength
I had to take Scooby to the vet @ 6:30 for a dental cleaning appointment, so my workout time was short. This class from Andy’s program starts and ends with core exercises, so it’s a good 2-for-1 on a short day.
Wednesday: 30 min Strength + 20 min Peloton Ride
Scooby was still recovering from his day at the vet, so instead of taking him for a run I tried Adrian’s strength class. I loved the exercises, but really wanted 15 seconds more per set or at least more time before starting the circuit again.
Thursday: Core + 4.0 Scooby Miles
It was still nice out, but I could tell the humidity is creeping up again. At least I didn’t get stung this time.
Friday: Core + 20 min LB Strength + 10 min ALW
I went all-in on strength, with separate core, lower body, and arms classes. Jess Kings’ arms + light weights class was a good one, and included front and lateral raises that can be neglected in some of the “normal” upper body classes.
I accidentally turned my alarm off at 5 am and didn’t wake up until 6:20!
Saturday: 3.5 Tread Miles + Corepower Yoga + 30 Mile Bike Ride
I figured out that if I actually got up at 6 am, I would have time to walk Scooby and do a 30 min treadmill class and still have time for a cup of coffee and piece of toast before heading to yoga. It’s a tighter schedule than I like to have on Saturday morning, but Ann’s yoga classes are worth it!
After yesterday’s oversleeping incident,
I woke up at 5:45 and got out of bed at 5:59–just before my alarm went off.
After baking and eating some banana bread, I joined my husband on a 30 mile bike ride—the cloudy, cool weather was just too nice to resist!
Then I took a long shower and a short nap! 😆
A huge thank you to Deborah and Kim for hosting the Weekly Run Down link up.
Have you noticed inconsistencies in your Garmin mileage?
![The Ultimate Coffee Date](http://got2run4me.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Ultimate-Coffee-Date.png" "The Ultimate Coffee Date")
There must be a Garmin Conspiracy going on that keeps us guessing how long our routes really are!
It’s bothersome, especially at races when you realize that your Garmin is not in sync with the race’s mile markers.
I hope you still had some banana bread to enjoy after the bike ride!
Not only inconsistencies but sometimes Garmin makes it hard to connect with a satellite! I wonder if a different brand is any better?
No matter, you got all your workouts done!
I have heard good things about Coros but don’t care enough to switch.
Another reason to leave my Garmin home. lol.
I try to run and go to the gym on different days.
Good news on the cool down. Looking forward to less humidity too.
I used to pay much more attention to my Garmin but don’t bother anymore. I have a few routes that I know the distance of and just use that. Looking forward to this week’s advertised cooler weather
I hope there’s a break in the humidity too!
Wow, your Saturday sounds really nice- running, yoga, banana bread and a bike ride! I would have switched it to a short shower and long nap though : )
Poor Scooby- I’ll bet he didn’t like that vet visit. Glad to see he was up and running again on Thursday.
Yes, my garmin can be inaccurate! That’s a pretty big gap though- 3.75 or 4. I guess it just goes to show we can’t take these distances or paces too seriously.
Yeah, I thought 1/4 mile difference for a < 4 mile run was a big error!
Great graphic for the busted Garmin brain. I swear they’re drunk at times. I Can’t recall. Have you waterskiied yet when you’ ve run CP? That happens to me a few times a year for no rhyme or reason.
Not in CP, but all the time in Chicago — back and forth across the river. 😉
I runfess I haven’t worn my Garmin in quite some time. My Apple watch serves me just fine these days. But yes, I well remember my Garmin being SO messed up during the Chi and NYC marathons. After being stung by a hornet last year, I’m still a little gun shy about running under the tree where the nest was. Yikes!
I also gut that Jess Simms’ ALW class and made (and ate) banana bread this week 🙂 That bee sting sounds really painful! Poor Scooby; those dental cleanings are not fun!
I’ve been using my Apple watch, and it seems to be pretty on track.
I hope Scooby is ok. We had to take Luna to the vet too… Turns out she was just cranky and didn’t like her food. Sigh.
A also got stung by a wasp/hornet this week, too! We just can’t win!
He just had a dental cleaning.
He’s also a finicky eater and not food motivated. The vet tried to woo him with treats and he had no interest!
Haha, I have definitely had those Garmin troubles! I have also heard that Coros is better, but I’m so familiar with Garmin and Garmin connect, I just haven’t been driven to switch. Glad runs are going well overall! I’m sure Scooby is happy!
Hope Scooby has recovered from his visit with the vet.
I usually don’t have as many problems with Garmin as I do with Strava… until this week. I won’t bore you with the details, but Garmin showed my riding average over 2 MPH slower than Strava which pulls the info from my Garmin.
That’s just bizarre!
Wow, that is very suspicious about the Garmin mileage! So weird. In my neighborhood it’s always been very consistent. In Chicago, not so much! I wonder how well it’s going to work in Berlin.
It probably depends on the buildings? Hopefully it’s fine.