Garmin 610 fails

Don't have the 610, but the two garmins I've used over the years are good for ball parking your run - usually within 2-5%. There are three different paces from least to most accurate: instantaneous, lap pace and overall pace. Make sure your looking at the correct one, and it isn't unusual to have the first one off by 20 seconds. The fewer turns, the more accurate they are so the track is not going to be too accurate, and I'm confused as to why you'd use one there in the first place.

They are not 100% accurate. My 610 is pretty damn close every time. Why are you looking at your watch so much? Just check the split, whatever it may be, when it is done.

The time is still correct on the track. So just add or subtract the distance and you can do the math for the split easily. Actually, the garmin connect program will do it for you.

Had my 610 for a year now and overall very happy with it. Called garmin to complain about the band and they sent me a new one for free. Watch froze up on me once and they figured it out over the phone with no attitude. Only complaints are the pins holding the band to the bezel, and the charger attachment that doesnt always stay on.

If worse comes to worse go on Google Earth and route your run via path.

Yeah, I've been having a problem with those pins too. They seem to come out on their own at the most inopportune times (usually during a race).

The only other issue I seem to have with it is that it can be very inaccurate early on in my runs. I get the feeling that just because the watch beeps that satellites have been found does not mean it is really ready to go. The watch needs to be on for a couple of minutes to ensure accuracy.

To the op: the pace that is displayed on the watch seems to be the average pace since the start of the current lap. It is not necessarily your current pace over the last 10, 20, or 30 seconds. This threw me at first too, having been used to Polar products.

And yeah, sometimes when you review the data from an interval workout on a track and you see big changes in elevation...it is a bit disconcerting...

I have had one for almost a year now, and love it. I've used it on the track and at faster paces, it seems to cut the corners a bit so the lap paces is faster than what I'm actually running...but I don't used that part on a track anyways. (i've seen the elevation on the track too, also, running over bridges show's an elevation drop to the river, so I've disabled the adjustments in garmin connect).

I've used it several times along paths that I have wheeled out mile splits, some straight or with 50-70 degree turns, and it's usually within a couple steps of the mark each time. Usually right when it laps it shows a pace that's incorrect, but after 20-30 sec. it's back on the correct pace. Overall, for the ease of use, and how accurate it's worked for me, even if it was off a couple seconds per mile, i wouldn't trade it.

NP1112 wrote:

Why are you looking at your watch so much? Just check the split, whatever it may be, when it is done.

.

Why would you get a garmin if you didn't want to look at the pace? Might as well use a regular watch.

Why would you get a garmin if you didn't want to look at the pace? Might as well use a regular watch.

I had my watch display total distance, total time, and lap time. I added heart rate to that if I ever bothered to wear the band. If I knew I was half way through a given mile at 3:30 into the lap, I was running 7:00 pace. Didn't really need my watch to tell me that my instantaneous pace was 7:00 (or 6:37, or 7:48 or whatever, that pace wasn't accurate for me and tended to bounce significantly.) A Garmin rep told me that Average Pace was the most accurate, and became more so the farther into your run you were, dependent on running even splits of course. The 610 is a fine watch, and I put 1000 miles on mine.

That being said, I was given a Nike Sportwatch and never put my Garmin on again. Well, I wore both of them on my first two runs and they clicked within 3 seconds of each other every mile, because I wanted to test their relative accuracy. But after that, it was Nike all the way. Just a sleeker watch, in my opinion.

Average pace is the most accurate? Well, not if you want to know what pace you are running at RIGHT NOW. I have it set on lap and instant pace. Sometimes its useful to know what pace you are running at.

I learned early on with GPS watches--beginning with an early Garmin six or seven years ago--that you have to give up on the current-pace feature. Just go with current lap pace. That's a running average of your pace in the current mile you're running. In the first quarter-mile of any "new" mile, the pace will vary somewhat, but by the time you've reached half to three quarters of a mile, if you keep steady pace, you'll be pretty close to your actual current pace. So if you're running interval miles on the road, you'll know what pace you're currently running.

But forget about GPS watches giving you a precise, moment-by-moment register of your actual current pace. They just don't quite do that. They vary 10-20 secs./mile.

kudzurunner wrote:

I learned early on with GPS watches--beginning with an early Garmin six or seven years ago--that you have to give up on the current-pace feature. Just go with current lap pace. That's a running average of your pace in the current mile you're running. In the first quarter-mile of any "new" mile, the pace will vary somewhat, but by the time you've reached half to three quarters of a mile, if you keep steady pace, you'll be pretty close to your actual current pace. So if you're running interval miles on the road, you'll know what pace you're currently running.

But forget about GPS watches giving you a precise, moment-by-moment register of your actual current pace. They just don't quite do that. They vary 10-20 secs./mile.

Ah the famous kudzurunner, thanks. I'll change it into average pace. The reason its been so frustrating is that I've had friends telling me it work great for them, I guess they didn't tell the whole truth.

why in the heck would anyone care about "average pace". That's not going to help you when you're running.

I guess you guys will just need to how to run like a real runner.

Strap pin fall out whilst you were running yet?

Show "Pace - Lap". Set auto-lap to 1 mile or whatever you want.....

I predict there is a 50% chance you will return this watch for another one within a year.

SCIENCE! wrote:

Why would you get a garmin if you didn't want to look at the pace? Might as well use a regular watch.

I had my watch display total distance, total time, and lap time. I added heart rate to that if I ever bothered to wear the band. If I knew I was half way through a given mile at 3:30 into the lap, I was running 7:00 pace. Didn't really need my watch to tell me that my instantaneous pace was 7:00 (or 6:37, or 7:48 or whatever, that pace wasn't accurate for me and tended to bounce significantly.) A Garmin rep told me that Average Pace was the most accurate, and became more so the farther into your run you were, dependent on running even splits of course. The 610 is a fine watch, and I put 1000 miles on mine.

The real-time pace is not accurate because of the distance between GPS trackpoints.

Compare the Garmin footpod to the Nike one.

Just run, baby.

If the average pace for current mile thing bugs you (like if you're doing intervals based on time), just hit the lap button when you stop and start the interval and you'll get an average pace for each fast and slow chunk of time.

For long reps on the track, I find the Garmin "auto mile" thing gets in the way sometimes since it doesn't always sync up with what you need. For example, if you're running 2K reps, it can be a little challenging to figure out if you're on pace or not. In that setting, I just hit the lap button every 800 m (and then after the final 400), which makes it easier to keep track of your pace. Then I just add up the times once I'm home.

Minnie wrote:

If the average pace for current mile thing bugs you (like if you're doing intervals based on time), just hit the lap button when you stop and start the interval and you'll get an average pace for each fast and slow chunk of time.

For long reps on the track, I find the Garmin "auto mile" thing gets in the way sometimes since it doesn't always sync up with what you need. For example, if you're running 2K reps, it can be a little challenging to figure out if you're on pace or not. In that setting, I just hit the lap button every 800 m (and then after the final 400), which makes it easier to keep track of your pace. Then I just add up the times once I'm home.

On a track or measured course I assume. I ran 800 repeats earlier in the week and the distance was consistently 0.49 miles. However, there is no guarantee that it's a 100% accurate. Anyone who depends on GPS or a footpod to accurately measure distances is naive to the extreme.

And my reps were all within 2 seconds of each other, without even glancing at the watch.

I bought the GPS watch because I was still very new to running at the time. Learning my body and pace. Sure I look at it every now and then for the "instant" pace feature. But mostly now go based on how I feel. I still like the watch to know how far I have gone and at what pace just to know.

The pins fell out on me once, luckily I was just using it as a timer at the gym. I put super glue over each pin hole and have no more problems with that.

I usually get the thing connected a few min before I start my run, with some walking around. Just for the reason that sometimes it is off or takes a while to completely sync up.

I tried the nike watch for a couple weeks and it was junk compared to my 610.