The Ref Stop

GPS Test (V800 vs Forerunner 220 vs Iphone 6)

SM

SM

The avuncular one
14th May 2016 - 3 GPS walk/run/sprint test

Equipment Used:
* Iphone 6s using MapMyRun app
* Polar v800
* Garmin Forerunner 220

All devices fully charged prior to start of test. Test undertaken on local football pitch in running trainers. Dry conditions, slightly overcast, minimal wind.

TOTAL RUN DISTANCE:

* MapMyRun - 3.98 km
* Polar - 3.31 km * adjusted to 3.58km
* Garmin - 3.51 km * adjusted to 3.78km

Due to user error when setting up to start the sprint section, I managed to lose 3 x 40m sprints (plus 40m walk back, plus about 10m each sprint to stop and reset = roughly 270m lost). The iphone app ran continuously throughout the test and lost no sprints as it was in an arm pouch (https://www.refsworlduk.co.uk/collections/bags-and-organisers/products/refstore - great bit of kit, phone was snug and didn't move all test).

FIRST SECTION - WALK, JOG, HIGH INTENSITY RUN
Walking to the test area, marking out the area of the pitch to run on (penalty area to penalty area which worked out as around 60m). Each shuttle was out and back 120m. Part of the flaw in my test starts here - I recorded the distance to run in the test, but don't know how far I walked to get there and set up the test! Major boo boo and kind of makes the entire test useless as I do not have the best guesstimate for measuring GPS data against!

* MapMyRun - 2.8 km
* Polar - 2.45 km plus
* Garmin - 2.55 km

There is also the additional distance mentioned above to add to Polar and Garmin which lands between both sections and has skewed the data for comparing watch based GPS to iphone 6. Oh dear.

FINAL SECTION - 8 SPRINTS
Course set to 40m sprint course. Marked out with strides and GPS watches to be as close to 40m as possible.

* MapMyRun - 1.18 km - top speed recorded: Not available. *
* Polar - 0.86 km - top speed recorded: 26.4 km/h - 2.27 min/km
* Garmin - 0.96 km - top speed recorded: 28.9 km/h - 2.05 min/km

Another problem here is the GPS watches had stopped during resetting course to 40m!

What have I learnt from this? When you set up a test, make sure you know the distances you are actually running to have some kind of idea of which device is more accurate!

Noticeable that the Polar was a lot closer to the Garmin than at last test, so I suspect the watch automatically puts itself into power save mode when battery is low. Which device is correct though? Who knows! Will have to do the test again with strict rules around distances.

Also, next time do not use MapMyRun, it is pretty poor in what data it provides without subscription.

What a glorious waste of time this was! Lessons learned for next time though!
 
The Ref Stop
Brilliant!
Not! :)
I have the 220 and am thinking about getting something more ref friendly (e.g. with a big double clock) so I am interested if you get this down.
On the GPS/mapping: I found with the 220 that the GPS worked quite well for tracing movement on the field 90% of the time. Jogging the perimeter showed up clearly. But some faster short runs did not show up e.g. into the corners.
My understanding is that the GPS watches are not able to consistently cope with rapid changes of direction and retain accuracy...
 
Very true. This had been more noticeable on the v800 and why I had decided to do this.

Will do the test again and this time keep better records and keep to strict distances during the test so that the data is a little more valid!!
 
I completed some running at a track yesterday - so know the exact distance I covered. Albeit, there weren't any sprints being recorded.

However, I covered 2.6km in 12 minutes. The Polar V800 recorded that I had completed 2.64km in the 12 minutes.

Here is a pretty in-depth investigation into the accuracy of the GPS running devices if you're interested in giving it a read!
 
That's pretty accurate - steady pace running is what these devices are great at. It's changes in pace and direction they seem to struggle with

Good to see the v800 put in such a good performance though.
 
CA said:
I completed some running at a track yesterday - so know the exact distance I covered. Albeit, there weren't any sprints being recorded.

However, I covered 2.6km in 12 minutes. The Polar V800 recorded that I had completed 2.64km in the 12 minutes.

Here is a pretty in-depth investigation into the accuracy of the GPS running devices if you're interested in giving it a read!
Click to expand...
Nice one.
Anyone want to hazard a guess at the accuracy of a Garmin, Polar or similar over 90 minutes of refereeing might be?
10%, 15%...?
 
I can highlight the difference between the 2 over 90 minutes. It's about a km!!!
 
That would be an interesting experiment.

If there are any refs out there both a Polar and garmin device I'd be interested to see the difference in results they get.
 
That would be me. I just screwed the pooch with the fidelity of the test!
 
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