Pedometer measuring same distance differently

Freiheit

I noticed lately that my pedometer,which is on my IPOD ,is giving different readings for the same distance,especially if I go faster than normal. Today I had ran at least a quarter,maybe even a third of a mile beyond what it usually registers as a mile before a mile was registered .

If thats too convoluted,I had ran at least a mile and a quarter before my pedometer/ipod announced that I had ran a mile. Today I was going much faster than normal,I had noticed this discrepancy before,especially on faster runs.

Has anyone else had this problem?.

I thought that certain races in the past were a bit short because my pedometer registered them a bit short but im not sure now. I thought that apple would have a more accurate device,it should be accurate for E145.

rom

Freiheit wrote: »

I noticed lately that my pedometer,which is on my IPOD ,is giving different readings for the same distance,especially if I go faster than normal. Today I had ran at least a quarter,maybe even a third of a mile beyond what it usually registers as a mile before a mile was registered .

If thats too convoluted,I had ran at least a mile and a quarter before my pedometer/ipod announced that I had ran a mile. Today I was going much faster than normal,I had noticed this discrepancy before,especially on faster runs.

Has anyone else had this problem?.

I thought that certain races in the past were a bit short because my pedometer registered them a bit short but im not sure now. I thought that apple would have a more accurate device,it should be accurate for E145.

Its why people use GPS watches

ger664

I use a polar foot pod. It allows for calibration, and at different paces I do have to adjust the calibration to keep the accuracy. However the difference if I do adjust the offset is not that big maybe 2-3% between Easy runs and 3K/5k pace.

huskerdu

A pedometer counts the number of steps that you take and multiples it by the length of your step. It is entirely dependent on the length of your step being correct.

I have no idea how exactly the IPOD pedometer differs from any other one, so i have no specific advice. €145 for a pedometer sounds a lot. What features does it have to justify that.

For that money I guess that its counting of steps is accurate.

How have you calibrated the pedometer ?

At a guess, it sounds like your stride length differs a lot depending on your pace.

Have you tried finding a distance that you can measure accurately, and try running it at differences paces and see how the pedometer measures it.

menoscemo

huskerdu wrote: »

A pedometer counts the number of steps that you take and multiples it by the length of your step. It is entirely dependent on the length of your step being correct.

Generally when we run faster, the length of our stride is much longer. As you say, a pedometer just counts your steps and assumes each one is the same length.
I had a pedometer (NIke+) and it was the biggest waste of €50 ever. I used to do a 5k loop and if I ran fast it would measure 4.6km, if I ran it slow it would measure 5.3km. I keep the same cadence when running fast or slow so no matter how fast or slow I ran, I would get run the same distance for a fixed time according to my Nike+ watch :rolleyes:.

€140 is a ridiculous amount for a pedometer as you can get a GPS watch for significantly less than that price.

Head The Wall

The apple marketing machine snares another fool and their money. Is this the price of being "cool"

As people have said pedometers are unreliable at different paces.
Also an ipod is a music player foremost not a running tracker.
The problem is with the nike pedometer mesaurement that trasmits the data to the ipod, not the ipod.
(presume that you're using nike +?). If not, it's an internal pedometer, likely to be even more unreliable that a nike one in your running shoes.
GPS watch is the solution.

Freiheit

Ok the strides when I go fast are a lot longer than the usual slow jogging that I do. That explains it.

It is Nike yes and indeed I bought the I-Pod as a music player,the pedometer was a bonus,I now realise however that it's accuracy is limited,certainly not reliable in races then,when I will certainly be going faster than normal much of the time.