Forums >Gears and Wears>Losing satellites mid-run?
The first time my Garmin lost satellites when I was mid-run, I just kept going and assumed it would find them again at some point, but it never did. It just kept counting time, but not distance.
So the next time it happened, I stopped and rebooted the watch, found satellites, and then restarted.
But I was wondering- if you lose satellites and keep going, does it ever find them again? Does restarting the watch help other than giving me something to do while I'm waiting for it to connect again?
an amazing likeness
Over the years, I've only had this happen a few times, so I don't have a huge sample size -- but I've found (and it makes sense) that you need to stop moving for the Forerunner to re-acquire the needed GPS sats -- just like when you power it up pre-run, it doesn't do well if you're moving. Reboot isn't needed, press stop to turn off the tracking, pause to let it lock onto the needed sats, then start to continue on.
Your track data will have a hiccup and a wacky straight line from the last good point to the new starting point, and the average pace will be off for the rest of your run...as you can imagine when it straight-lines a chunk of distance out of the route you actually ran.
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GPS will not work in the mountains.
Feeling the growl again
It happens. Trees, tall buildings, and terrain (mountains, tunnels, ravines) can cause it. As MT indicated, it will sync better if you stop moving.
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The Irreverent Reverend
I have occasionally run through tunnels - one in a race, and one along a trail near where I live. Sometimes I hear the "beep" that I've lost satellite contact. Immediately it resumes, though, when I exit the tunnel. I have also started runs with my Garmin connected, gone inside to a restroom, heard the "beep" of a lost signal, but then stepped outside and resumed running without a problem. I haven't had to do anything special to get the thing to reconnect.
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Menace to Sobriety
Usually they will reaquire on their own as long as there's a relatively clear view of the sky. Distance will be extrapolated from the last point before losing contact and the first after reaquiring. If you run a lot of turns in between it'll short you.
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Good info. I've lost connection and had it resync while paused before, but wasn't sure if it would ever resync when stopped. I've lost connection on the run twice in the past week, though- boo! Sounds like I'm better off stopping to resync unless I have a good reason not to.
My Garmin 310XT lost satellites on a run and they came back about a quarter mile later. Since I was running down a straight road, it didn't affect my time or distance.