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Nike + accuracy!
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Hello,
I have just got back from a sunny run and did the same run as last week where I logged 10.2 miles. This morning my nike + told me I only did 9.2 miles so was a bit miffed! I logged onto mapmyrun as soon as I got home which told me I had done 10.7. HELP!
Does anyone else have any problems with nike + ? Is it worth getting a Garmin and what is the entry level model? I have an irregular HR and the HR monitors in gyms have never picked me up so I was always a bit reluctant to get a Garmin with an HR monitor........
Any ideas would help?
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Comments
Nike+ not know for their accuracy! TBH once you have been running for a while, you can probably judge a run more accurately by the time it takes you and your perceived effort whilst doing it.
Garmins are more accurate, but not totally so (neither is mapmyrun). If you bought a Forerunner with a HRM you wouldn't have to use that bit of it, however why pay for it? The 205 doesn't have the HRM, and can usually be picked up for just over £100.
If you don't mind running with brick on your arm (actually although they are bulky, they aren't THAT bad) and you are on a more modest budget you could pick up an old 201 from ebay (several on there for about £40, but obviously the auctions aren't finished yet). The receiver isn't quite as good as the 205, so occasionally you might lose the signal for a bit (though when it finds you again it just imagines you have run a straight line from the last point, and that doesn't usually lead to a very big inaccuracy).
Thank you! Will have a look on ebay....
I find Nike+ fairly accurate but it depends on the pace. You should try calibrating it (if you haven't already) and then see how it is. Mine is almost spot on at 8 minute miles, but that changes slightly at different paces or sessions involving different speeds.
For the money I think its very good after its been calibrated.
Alternatively buy a couple of 25000 scale Ordnance survey maps of your local area and measure the distance you run on a map.
I now know the mile marker points on several routes from my home - I usually pick some feature that is easily remembered.
A local race goes along one of my routes and based on the markers they put up I reckon I have the accuracy down to a hundred meters or so at any point.
Of course this assumes that you run in your local area most of the time.
I find mine fairly accurate - although when I did a longish run on Friday which was out and back the return route was 200m longer???
Still 200m over 8 miles is a got enough tolerence for me.
I had meant to carry on with my post, but then forgot!
I would say ti depends on what you want to do as to whether it is worth it though. If you tend to run a few routes regularly, and don't really want to constantly monitor your pace whilst running, the only real benefit you get with a garmin is downloading the data automatically onto the pc if you keep a running log.
Otherwise, I'd just use mapmyrun, or some other mapping software, measure each route once on there, so you know reasonably accurately what the distance is, then just time each time. I have certain points on each run where I press my lap button, so can tell the kind of time I am "on for". I find this more reliable than trying to monitor my pace "on the fly" with my garmin even with maximum pace smootihing.
I think you will get a more accurate measurement of distance using a mapping software rather than OS maps and bits of string (or one of those wheeley things with a fancy name), but definitely buy the maps though because they are just simply lovely things you can spend hours poring over!
I've had a Nike+ for almost 18 months, and I would say that as long as you REGULARLY recalibrate it (I do mine every week) it is more-or-less accurate over flat distances but is no use when hills enter the equation. It also doesn't seem to work as well if you are running with non-Nike trainers (although I did get a really good sensor pouch from Amazon for about £4 which fits onto the top of your laces)
It seems to be less accurate if your sensor is "old". I've been through 3 sensors now, which I feel is unacceptable even for a cheap'n'cheerful product. My freebie RW running watch still works fine over 2 years on!
I'm annoyed with myself for spending £50 on a piece of equipment that is at best basic, and at worst, wildly inaccurate and unreliable.
I should have bitten the bullet and got a Garmin after the first sensor packed up ... am now asking family to make donations to my Garmin Fund instead of buying me birthday presents. Fingers crossed I'll have a shiny "new" 305 on my wrist at the end of July