Confused about pace

[lummers80]

I’ve been running holding my phone and using Strava. But last week I found my Fitbit so started wearing that too. Every time the pace is almost a minute faster on my Fitbit. So, which is correct?

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

Does your Fitbit have a GPS unit or is it just counting steps? If it is the latter then it possibly needs needs to be calibrated to your stride length.

GPS is going to return generally more accurate results for pace.

[UnfitNoMore Graduate]

Err. Possibly neither. Is the Fitbit using the gps on your phone? If not I’d say that Strava is likely to be the more accurate... if it is then it will depend on how often each tracker requests GPS position, and any difference in that will possibly exaggerate other factors like tree cover, building height etc. It may not even be possible to see the sampling frequency (pretty sure I can’t in Strava), but it would explain the difference.

[lummers80 Graduate]

Ok. Thank you. That’s useful to know. My Fitbit was connected to GPS but doesn’t appear to show the map anymore. So I think Strava is likely to be more accurate.

[John_W Graduate Ambassador]

I'd suggest measuring out your running route on Google Maps - it's my gold standard for such things (as well as my Garmin running watch) - and then see which is closest to that measurement.

Why Google Maps? Well, if you navigate to an athletics track and measure out it's 400m running track, then Google Maps tends to get it very very close to 400m.

Fitbit's GPS are not renowned for being that good and your phone's maybe be better, but we can't be sure. It's all to do with the how good the GPS is on your phone and your Fitbit.

[Tasha99 Graduate]

Fitbit isn’t accurate at all