Nike Run Club tracking: I've recently started... - Couch to 5K

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Nike Run Club tracking

Curlygurly2 profile image
Curlygurly2Graduate
28 Replies

I've recently started listening to the NRC guided runs, and like them a lot s far, but the distance tracked is miles off...I listened to one for 5K yesterday at parkrun, Coach Bennett talked me through the last 400 meters, including a sprint finish, but I actually still had well over one half KM to go by the time the podcast finished....

Anyone else had this?

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Curlygurly2 profile image
Curlygurly2
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28 Replies
Instructor57 profile image
Instructor57Graduate

I certainly find there is a discrepancy between NRC Tracked runs and my Garmin, today I had a couple of hundred metres difference .Garmin was behind.

Don't ever remember them in agreement

misswobble profile image
misswobbleGraduate in reply toInstructor57

Always a difference. Nike lags behind Garmin so I’m running further than I should be I think Garmin is the more accurate of the two but who knows 🤷‍♀️

Instructor57 profile image
Instructor57Graduate in reply tomisswobble

For me Garmin. Always lags NRC 🤣

Curlygurly2 profile image
Curlygurly2Graduate in reply tomisswobble

I think if you do parkrun you can expect that to be accurate!

Curlygurly2 profile image
Curlygurly2Graduate in reply toInstructor57

Over what distance? I was given my pace as well over a minute faster recently, I know I can't run that fast!

Instructor57 profile image
Instructor57Graduate in reply toCurlygurly2

Today was just 3k

misswobble profile image
misswobbleGraduate in reply toCurlygurly2

I ignore the Nike paces and only check the Garmin results.

Curlygurly2 profile image
Curlygurly2Graduate in reply tomisswobble

Yes, I do the same, but it was frustrating when the podcast finished...

misswobble profile image
misswobbleGraduate in reply toCurlygurly2

The app can be frustrating in the extreme. When it’s on-song the guided runs are the best thing since sliced bread. When it starts acting up you’ll want to jump up and down on your phone 🤬

I’ve accepted now that there’ll be disparity between Garmin and the Nike app and I’ll end up running further than I need to. Come race day it should pay dividends 😃💪🏃‍♀️

Curlygurly2 profile image
Curlygurly2Graduate in reply tomisswobble

Ha ha, if I listened to Nike I'd run far less!!

Speedy60 profile image
Speedy60Graduate

Is the Nike app using the gps on your phone? If so, it will only ever be as accurate as your phone spec; that's true of other tracking apps, such as mapmyrun and strava too.Garmin has its own built in gps which is more accurate. 👍

Curlygurly2 profile image
Curlygurly2Graduate in reply toSpeedy60

Ah yes, that'l be it!

nowster profile image
nowsterGraduate

Often a phone has a more accurate GPS receiver than a watch, especially if there's tree cover or thick clouds. My phone recorded yesterday's parkrun pretty accurately, but the watch came up short by about 500m (ie. 10%).

Curlygurly2 profile image
Curlygurly2Graduate in reply tonowster

The opposite to me then, although we should be able to trust parkrun as a measured distance.

nowster profile image
nowsterGraduate in reply toCurlygurly2

What I meant was that the watch only recorded it as 4.49km, whereas the phone got it almost right. If I'd followed the watch's measurements I'd have had to run another 500m or so.

Curlygurly2 profile image
Curlygurly2Graduate in reply tonowster

Yes, NRC stopped at 4.5 ish KM, I still had quite a way to go to get to the finish. Same thing on my long run the other day. Never mind, I'm enjoying the coaching.

UnfitNoMore profile image
UnfitNoMoreGraduate

I questioned this with Garmin. It depends a little on the phone, but their answer was that an iPhone has very similar GPS tech to their devices, but also uses “assisted GPS” and is, in most circumstances, going to be more accurate than my watch.

This seems to be true with Apple Watch too, which in all articles I have read on the subject, is more accurate when running with your iPhone than without.

The parkrun course was at some point accurately measured. Sometimes small changes happen, and possibly a marshal has their marker in the wrong place. As far as I know under the current parkrun COVID framework, no course has been shortened but some are currently over 5k for social distancing reasons. How each parkrun has implemented this though is anybody’s guess... maybe some are short?

Curlygurly2 profile image
Curlygurly2Graduate in reply toUnfitNoMore

Possibly, but the parkrun I ran on Saturday is brand new, just three weeks old!

misswobble profile image
misswobbleGraduate

My Garmin logged my run today as 17.77 km whereas Nike app recorded 16.09 km quite a difference

Curlygurly2 profile image
Curlygurly2Graduate in reply tomisswobble

Yes, mine was about the same, I did one of the 10 mile guided runs, it stopped when I still had about a mile to go according to Garmin.

daisy0001 profile image
daisy0001Graduate

My Nike app recorded my run today as 2.34 miles and Strava app recorded 2.62 miles. I'll go with Strava 😂

Max_Rockatansky profile image
Max_RockatanskyGraduate

I used komoot and NRC at the same time, because I wanted to know if I was actually running 5km 🙂 They showed the same results. I also tested it on a known marked 5km route near me. I think it comes down to the GPS and reception to the phone.

Cantsoimgonna profile image
CantsoimgonnaGraduate

Yes my nrc is waaaay off. Finishes way to soon. My 10km one finished 7k in one time! It does make it pretty pointless. I've run with nrc, strava and mapmyrun on the same phone and all different.

Curlygurly2 profile image
Curlygurly2Graduate in reply toCantsoimgonna

Gosh, that's a BIG difference!

Cantsoimgonna profile image
CantsoimgonnaGraduate in reply toCurlygurly2

Oh I know. It did make me chuckle!

Carloshc profile image
Carloshc

I've been using NRC to track my runs since I took up the C25K last year. I first suspected it might be a bit unreliable for tracking distances when I used a treadmill and found I was running 5k in a noticeably longer time despite running at a similar pace/perceived rate of effort and so on. I held out hope that it was the treadmills that were not calibrated properly because otherwise it meant my times were slower than I'd believed!

i got a Garmin 245 a couple of months back and compared with both NRC and the treadmill - and I have to say that that Garmin is almost identical to the treadmill and lags behind NRC. For example, yesterday I did a 7.5k (going by the Garmin) in the park but also had NRC running. By the time I'd done 7.5k on the watch I'd done 8.62k on NRC!

As the watch is so close to the treadmill I expect it's the app that is out, although I do plan to visit a local track soon and sort it out once and for all!

Jericho2332 profile image
Jericho2332Graduate

I've had the odd fluctuation but usually pretty much spot on, especially for short runs like a 5k. Garmin you have to make sure your GPS is locked in before you press start (a mistake I realised I was making when my route was wrong a few times 😂) I always have my Garmin on as well as NRC so can tell that there pretty much identical over my usual 5k route.

Joster profile image
JosterGraduate

I love the NRC app and the guided runs, I've found the distances pretty accurate - I also use Strava which tends to under record so I am apparently faster on Strava!!

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