Garbage data from treadmill runs

I sometimes need to run inside for different reasons, and sometimes my Garmin watch (paired with either a Polar H10 or an HRM-Pro-Plus) goes completely off the rails and has me running at 2:30 min/km instead of 5:30 for example. While I calibrate the distance before saving the session, Athletica (and TP too I noticed) still receives that garbage speed data and uses it for threshold and critical speed calculations. What to do about these sessions, should I simply delete them? Or is there an easy way to remove the Garmin data and simply add the correct time and distance for the session?

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Personally I I modify my 5K TT time before I move to outdoors or move onto the treadmill because then the load calculated amount is a little closer, but it doesn’t resolve the calibrated data versus the before calibrated data.

Ideally I would like to see indoor and outdoor 5K TT on profiles so load calculates right and I would like the calibrated treadmill data to pull in from Garmin for indoor runs.

I’m all outdoors now or should be for running until the winter so not going to worry about it for a bit. :stuck_out_tongue:

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When I am stuck on treadmill I use Stryd power meter - seems to be more accurate with the real pace that my feet are moving on the tready.

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I’ve been wanting to get a Stryd actually, and you’ve just given me a great excuse to finally pull the trigger and get one :slight_smile:

What I ended up doing for my runs with bad data was saving the session to the library, reinserting it on the same day and entering the correct distance, time and HR data, and then deleting the old one with bad data. Not super tedious, but for better UX maybe you could add a “delete data” button to a session.

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You could also try a Runn treadmill sensor, which is what I do for accurate speed/distance inside.

The stryd is not a bad suggestion at all, and I had the first model as well as the current model, but what I’ve noticed from stryd is running 250w (random example) is significantly harder from a rpe and hr perspective than it is outside, and it’s also significantly slower to the tune of 8-10%.

I don’t think it’s an n=1 issue as I googled around 2 years ago to see what was going on prior to purchasing the runn.

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Is there a sub service for the power meters or does it interact with Garmin?

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You need to download stryd app and then you get a stryd specific screen on your watch. Search for power sensor and you’re good to go.

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Oh boy. Time to read about power and running. Another rabbit hole to get lost in! :slight_smile: Thanks!

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:joy: so easy to get yourself stuck in all kinds of rabbit holes :hole: have fun :star_struck:

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As winter approaches, I’ll be relying on more indoor treadmill running when road conditions are unsafe. However, I’ve noticed discrepancies between the pace, speed, and distance recorded on my Garmin Forerunner watch and the treadmill display. The Forerunner often underestimates the distance by 0.25 to 0.75 miles, depending on the session. To address this, I manually adjust the distance in Garmin Connect and Athletica, which recalculates the pace and speed for accuracy.
For example, during a recent Short Interval HITT session, I set the treadmill to a 5:53min/mile pace for the 30 second uphill intervals, but my Forerunner recorded an average pace of 8:10min/mile for each of these. Would these interval distances impact the accuracy of my running pace profile compared to the GPS-based outdoor runs.

Given that I use a commercial gym treadmill and cannot utilize optical sensors for additional tracking, I’d appreciate the team’s and others’ thoughts or recommendations on improving the accuracy of my treadmill training metrics.

Many thanks, -Joe

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I also do a bunch of treadmill running. It’s not optimal, often there could be regression in running form. Injuries can also occur because the muscle recrutiment is not varied, especially if you never run at an incline.

I am on my second treadmill and the current one is a light commercial. I bought it used and have had to adjust it many times. There are a few factors that affect the readout speed of the display. The motor has a shaft with a pulley and elastic belt (not the belt) that you step on. On the other side is a bearing. In the rear, there is another shaft with two bearings on it. Basically, you can adjust the tension of the walking belt with three bolts (one in the front), and the last two in the rear. Front adjustment is only really needed if the belt alignment is off from front to rear. You can see this if the gap between the side rails and the belt is not the same in the front to the rear.

Anyway, sorry for the long post but the readout display is a function of the pully RPM or angular velocity. Knowing the diameter of the pulley the linear velocity can be found. I feel like the display is probably measuring this speed or rate of change of the front roller. If the walking belt is loose, every time you step on the belt, the motor has to take up that resistance, think of it as a brake. So that is probably why the pace discrepancies. Also if you are using a wrist based accelerometer, forget any sensible pace readings. You are better off purchasing a foot pod or like others have said, the Stryd Sensor. If you are not ready for running power (I measure but don’t really use it for dynamic feedback), then you can look for an inexpensive footpod sensor. Just remember those are also pretty inaccurate out of the box and will need some form of calibration to your watch. In my day job, I do a lot of computational mechanics and modeling of sensors so I can go down a black hole of calibration, “accuracy”. When we talk about sensor “accuracy”, within a so called percentage, it’s really a statical average of many types of voltage offset errors the manufacturer has tried to limit.

To help solve your issue, first, choose the same treadmill everytime. Find one that isn’t so bad with pace disprepancies. Second, think of the speed and incline controls basically as intensity controls. Third, maybe try to implement RPE, if pace is unreliable. Indoor pace and outdoor pace isn’t really the same as we are recruiting different muscles and the force from the reaction of asphalt is different from a moving belt. Treadmill and indoor running is mentally hard. If you do your intervals at 5:50/mile and that feels hard or just right, then always use that. Extend duration or number of intervals before running them faster. You know you are adapting when RPE drops for a certain treadmill intensity setting on the treadmill, feedback from your watch, and your overall feelings, which is the most important thing to gleam out of a training session.

I hope this helps, DM me later if you want to chat more.

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Stryd is indeed great for treadmills, as it actually measures what the athlete does, rather than what the treadmill thinks its belt is doing.

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Yupp I really like how Stryd pace actually matches how i feel on the treadmill too.

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I have Stryd pods as well, but I find my treadmill RPE is substantially higher than outdoors at the pace & power indicated by the pods. I know they have a big write-up on why, but I personally find it rather aggravating. A big part of the utility of the Stryd pods is supposed to be bridging the gap between indoor and outdoor efforts.

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