Forums >General Running>Runforth app
I just realized that the runforth app is not very accurate with the mileage. I ran the track at a high school and I didn't even finish a lap and it said 0.25 miles ran. Now I feel bad like I've been cheating all along. Any advice, please?
I've got a fever...
GPS is sketchy for measuring track distances. It often mishandles the curves not enough data points are sampled to accurately represent that large of a change in direction.
Ditch the GPS on the track. 4 laps to a mile is a much better approximation.
On your deathbed, you won't wish that you'd spent more time at the office. But you will wish that you'd spent more time running. Because if you had, you wouldn't be on your deathbed.
The RunForth app uses the GPS in your phone to track your mileage, so it is not the app that is inaccurate, but rather is the GPS in your phone. GPS do not generally continuously sample. They may determine your position every second, every 5 seconds, or even something less frequent. They then calculate your mileage by summing the distance between each recorded position. Most GPS do best on straight line courses. Courses with significant curves (like a track) will introduce errors in the total distance.
That makes sense I guess thanks. I did however switch to the run keeper app and it was very accurate. What should I do about all my past times, I feel bad now. I don't know how off they were or if at all.
Don't sweat it. GPS distance is good enough for training purposes.
Runners run
That is the truth when it comes to training all distances are just relative.
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I am not sure that they are relative, but they are approximate.
It's a 5k. It hurt like hell...then I tried to pick it up. The end.
running metalhead
I was actually thinking about that during my morning run: As a matter of fact a race distance is also "approximate" as this is as we already know, "the shortest distance from the start to the finish" actually measured on the interior sides of the curves... and not as many believe the distance from start to finish at the centre of the course.And if you also add all the direction changes and ricocheting around other runners the distance is always different than the official, so that even in a race we cannot talk about an exact figure.
- Egmond ( 14 januari ) : 1:41:40 (21K)- Vondelparkloop ( 20 januari ) : 0:58.1 (10K but did 13.44!!!)- Twiskemolenloop ( 4 maart ) : 1:35:19 (3th M45!)
- Ekiden Zwolle (10K) ( 25 maart )- Rotterdam Marathon ( 8 april )- Leiden Marathon Halve ( 27 mei )- Marathon Amersfoort ( 10 juni)
not bad for mile 25
Every measurement is approximate. Once you realize this and adopt the standard of "good enough", you're a freer person.