Should I get a measuring wheel to measure certain segments of my local track?

channel your autism in positive directions.

A properly tensioned steel tape will give you a more accurate measurement than a wheel. You can also use hurdle markings and exchange zones to measure most distances.

Party dude- appreciate the advice, I've tried but so far it's been unsuccessful lol

misterdennis- thanks for the reply/help man. Unfortunately, the track I go to is pretty worn down, and combined with the fact that I don't know a damn thing about tracks, I don't even know where to start in using those markings to make measurements.

Did see some youtube videos by a gentlemen by the name of "film my run" who used a measuring wheel to measure the track and it seems to work very well. I might give it a try.

get a wheel if it makes you feel better. You can measure longer distances and it's less cumbersome than a tape. But it won't be perfectly accurate. realize that being a few inches off is pretty much consequence free. don't let it bother you.

Measuring wheel can be okay but you should check it's accuracy by wheeling it up and back the 100m straight ten times, should get 1000m.

If using it around curves you need to know how wide of the lane lines to wheel it.

A wheel will be less accurate than a steel tape. People actually use steel tapes to calibrate wheels.

So skip the wheel and just use the tape.

Also, 7/10.

Are you trying to have your workouts ratified for some governing body?

This is a really difficult issue. Keep in mind that the track will actually expand and contract very slightly based on the ambient temperature, so a mark from a measurement one day might not be accurate on another day. You really need to bring your tape and measure out your 50m EVERY time you want to run the workout.

Why do you care? You should only care about comparing similar efforts from different days. You only need marks for that, not distances.

Steel tape will be more accurate than a wheel. A certified steel tape would be even better. You can also buy a laser tape, but you can't measure long distances, so you have to do segments and combine. Try to calibrate the wheel against the tape; one of the wheels I bought reads 1% long, so in a mile, it is off by about 53 feet, which is a lot; that would be a quarter mile for a marathon. PR's for everyone!

I have one. Want me to send it to you? Just pay shipping and it's yours

Will one of you steel tape fans explain how he pulls it to the proper tension on the curve.

assuming there is a rail, would be easy to place the tape sideways

FormerAverageRunner wrote:

Will one of you steel tape fans explain how he pulls it to the proper tension on the curve.

Wow, didn't expect to get this many replies. Since I'm a complete nut about this, I'm gonna get a steel tape measure as well haha. I'm gonna look like a lunatic measuring the track with the wheel and the tape, but it really is driving me a bit crazy. Appreciate the help guys, thank you

high school xc coach wrote:

get a wheel if it makes you feel better. You can measure longer distances and it's less cumbersome than a tape. But it won't be perfectly accurate. realize that being a few inches off is pretty much consequence free. don't let it bother you.

I'm gonna try really hard and internalize this, thanks haha

You can measure the radius of the curve using string and the steel tape and some geometry.

Or you could drive stakes on the line of the curve, strech a string alone the line of stakes and measure the string after taking the string off the stakes. The more stakes you use, the more accurate the measurement of the curve will be.

Easiest way is to use the tape to calibrate the wheel, then use the wheel around the curve.

I think some of the high end survey equipment that is sold today (way out of my league) can do all this stuff and more.

One thing I know is that I've measured several tracks (high school, junior high) over the years just for the hell of it, and some of them weren't that accurate. I don't think that once a track is laid down and marked someone independent of the company goes out and measures the track to see it it correct. A guy told me a few months ago, that in northern New Jersey and old asphalt track was recently replaced by a nice synthetic surface and somehow the company missed by a lot ( a few meters) and the whole thing had to be dug up and done over.

I think I might be able to make this easy for you.

What's the location of the track so I can look at it on google earth?

A steel tape is the best way to go but there are some basic protocols to be used. First, please send it the location.

dk

I have a measuring wheel from Amazon. It's extremely accurate... less than a foot over 400 meters.

Measure the curves 20cm (about 8 inches) from the inside white line. Get some coaches tape or white duct tape and mark whatever distances you want with a small strip of tape on the inside of the track (not on the track itself.

bowbridge - thanks for the advice dude; will take it into consideration. Especially using the tape measure to calibrate the wheel. Crazy how some tracks are off like that. When you measured tracks on your own, did you use the string method, or the easier tape + wheel one you outlined after?

DKatz - Thanks for the reply! I actually figured it wouldn't hurt to do some measurements with google earth, and I confirmed some of the segments I do the sprints on (like 20m, 100m, 200m...the track does seem to be a 400m track) are accurate. I know google earth is pretty accurate for straights, and curves when you create a whole bunch of small linear lines to measure them, but I'm not sure how accurate.

The location of the track I travel to is West Vancouver. It is the local high school track there. Thanks again for offering to directly help man

fisky- greatly appreciate it, thank you man