My mobile phone packed in last month. I only need a phone for people to contact me in an emergency and could have bought a very basic one for less than £10. I really wanted a smart phone so that I could track my running progress. Got a Huawei Y300 because my IT expert son said it was good value for money. Downloaded Endomondo and set off with high hopes of knowing exactly how far my 4.4km (off Google maps measuring) actually is.
First run = 0km (hadn't pressed go, pilot error) Today I know I set it off because the voice said Go. When I got back from my first Stamina run and managed to do it as far as the last 5 minute faster run, I looked and it told me I had run 0.02km. WHAT??? It felt much more than that!
Any suggestions what may be the problem?
Written by
Beek
Graduate
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Apart from the fact that the satellites appeared to be on strike this morning, Beek, I can only suggest that you need to stand around outside for a couple of minutes for the GPS to get a fix on you, before you start your workout. It will tell you whether it has found you or not. I am far too impatient, so Runkeeper recorded my 7k+ run as 0.28k this morning. Who needs technology when they've got legs?
Thanks for that tip. In't technology brilliant! I wondered if the thick mist could shield the signals. The phone did say that the satellite signal was excellent though.
I've had the use of a smartphone for about 3 months and am really just having a go to see if it's worth spending the money - I have this strange idea that phones are for phoning and texting with.
Anyway, I found and downloaded endomondo and at first it was great, but for the past 3 weeks it's really not done very well at tracking where I am.
Firstly, check that you've allowed apps to use GPS to pinpoint your location. (On my phone this is under settings, location services and then I choose GPS satellites).
I've usually found it has a slightly higher chance of working if I do this before opening endomondo. On the endomondo screen you should see a little message saying "locating" or some such, then it will change to "GPS excellent" and it then knows where you are and will track you. To be fair, it probably won't manage very well inside, so in the good old days when mine worked without a problem, I'd set it going while I was doing my warm up walk, then by the time I was ready to start running, it knew where I was so I could then press start.
Don't know if that helps, or if it helps you to know that you are not alone (but I thought it was just my relatively cheap "starter" smartphone that wasn't very good). I DO know that it's very discouraging to trudge round for however long and find you've run 0km!
Thanks RNB, I will make sure that the signal has located me next time before setting it going. And I will check the settings for GPS. Don't know about you but Endomondo is always trying to get me to spend money on upgrading and I hesitate to press anything in case it downloads something I don't want (i.e. £4.99 monthly bill!)
Maybe there's an advantage to living here - it would only cost me $20 a year - so about £16! Haven't bothered signing up though yet (especially with ongoing GPS issues) so I just put up with those annoying upgrade notices.
I really wanted to get a better handle on the true distance run. I measured it via Google maps and it was 4.4km. I ran further last time because I want to run 5km and then start checking my progress with the time taken. I'll go on their web site and look for more tips! Thank you for your advice!
Google maps is more accurate than phone apps in my opinion. I have tried Endomondo and Runkeeper and both give a variety of different distances for the same route, up to 0.4k over a 5.6k route. I don't think paying will give you better GPS fixes, it is down to the hardware and phones are just not as good as dedicated GPS systems, eg. Garmin, Nike+.
Runkeeper is great for setting up intervals but I treat it's readings with a pinch of salt. The weather and tree cover or tall buildings all affect the accuracy.
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