Workout app and MapMyRun Distances Are Inconsistent

Based on other threads i have seen, i think choosing Outdoor Cycle in fact only use the GPS to report which is why it is accurate for you. For runs and walks, their support thread seems to indicate they do not report GPS but only use it to make the accelerometer smarter. I guess an easy test (although have no idea what they have calibrated for outdoor cycle) would be to run but choosing Outdoor Cycle to see if the distance measurements are the same.

Firstly, says who? Apple Watch measures distances down to the hundredth of a mile/kilometer and lets you set goals down to the hundredth of a mile/kilometer, yet you're not supposed to expect hundredth-of-a-mile accuracy?

Secondly, people have reported discrepancies that exceed a quarter mile.

Lastly, calibrating the sensors uses the GPS to allow the Watch to better estimate your distance traveled when not carrying your phone. This is done by taking your phone with you on outdoor activities. The issue being discussed here is with the distance being wrong while carrying the phone. Obviously if that distance measured is wrong while calibrating (which is what an outdoor activity while carrying your phone is), then calibration will end up being incorrect as well.

My walks are accurate too, I don't run so can't test but if running and walking were treated differently (other than for calorie burn) it would be a little bizarre. It's quite clear from Apple's literature that GPS isn't limited to cycling.

The Apple Watch is obviously using GPS data from the phone when in outdoor cycling mode (and it's pretty accurate for me), so I think it's reasonable to expect similar accuracy for an outdoor run with the phone. The fault isn't our expectations, it's in the implementation of the outdoor running mode (with paired phone). Given how they're marketing the device ("a smarter way to look at fitness," "an advanced sports watch), it's definitely a huge flaw when the watch is showing your pace as 2 minutes slower per mile than it actually is, and assigning calories too low because of it.

This really shouldn't be that hard to fix, so I look forward to updated software.

I certainly have no idea how it all works but if they werent attempting to treat it differently then why have a separate activity for it? A plausible answer could be some analytics applied to stride length in terms of expected strides based on height/gender and error correcting based on the individual. For example, fitbit lets you set these manually -- walking stride length and running stride length.

I havent seen any literature related to cycling but for walking running, they are very specific about using the GPS to calibrate the accelerometer vs using the GPS to measure your distance. For cycling, not sure you can do anything but use the GPS.

Why have a separate activity. That's obvious, you burn more calories running the same distance as walking it.

I don't see why your suggestion is plausible, it uses GPS outdoors, not your strides (unless you don't have your phone), but then that's not the situation being discussed here.

Calibration is for measuring your stride to use indoors, not outdoors unless you have no phone, Calibration has no relevance in this discussion.

You can believe what you want, but they dont market it as a GPS watch and thus there is nothing to fix unless you submit feedback (which i have done). And they are very specific (or in interpret it as such) about whats it doing when you walk / run and that is to use GPS to calibrate the accelerometer. And thus you are getting steps based distance and pace, not GPS-based. Submit feedback on it and in the interim choose Outdoor Cycle when you run. I assume it will just report the GPS data which is what you want. But I assume there is no pace associated with cycling so that will be the compromise.

I agree that the different calculations for stride length, etc. for walking vs. running make complete sense -- when you don't have the phone with you. Why would you have the watch throw out perfectly good GPS data in favor of less reliable stride data based on generalized calculations? I suppose you could argue that you don't know if the GPS data is necessarily "perfectly good," but it seems to be much better than the stride data for many of us.

I've only had the watch for 2 weeks, so I'll be interested to see if the run accuracy improves over time. Maybe if the GPS consistently tells a different story than the stride data, the stride data will correct itself over time. Just hypothesizing/hoping.

Yes, but the article on Calibration says the purpose of said calibration is so that the Watch can be more accurate WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE YOUR IPHONE ALONG. No where does it either state or imply that when you have your iPhone along, the Watch will not make use of the iPhone's GPS information.

dhy8386 wrote:

... And thus you are getting steps based distance and pace, not GPS-based. Submit feedback on it and in the interim choose Outdoor Cycle when you run. I assume it will just report the GPS data which is what you want. But I assume there is no pace associated with cycling so that will be the compromise.

NO, that's incorrect.

dhy8386 wrote:

Agree, but I have never seen it described that it specifically uses the GPS to measure distance, only calibrate. So then maybe its my bad if it says that somewhere else.

Think about what you are suggesting for a moment. 😕

I have submitted feedback, but thanks for the reminder. I hope everyone else is doing the same.

This is exactly how they market it: "GPS. Along with its accelerometer, Apple Watch uses GPS on your iPhone to more accurately measure distance and speed during workouts you do outside — like walking, running, and cycling."

So, yeah, I expect it to do that.

Well, Watch OS 1.0.1 has been released, which claims to have improved run/walk distance and pace calculations. Let's hope this takes care of our issue!

For me personally, walking was spot on, although 1) I don't walk as far as I run, and 2) I carry my iPhone in my pocket (vertically) when I walk vs. in a belt pouch (horizontally) when I run, which is something people have theorized caused issues.

Is it any better now that youve used it for a while? Or still the same inconsistency?

are you running both apps at one time? I found some apps like Runkeeper, Stava & MapMyRide don't track equally if running at the same time.