How is distance calculated on a treadmill?

[LokeAa]

I had a treadmill class this morning.

 5 min warmup –> 3 * 30 secs with 15 secs rest in between -> 2 * 1 min with 30 seconds rest – 1 * 2 min -> 60 seconds rest –> 1* 3 min – >90 secs rest 2 * 2 min with 60 secs rest -> 4*1 min with 30 secs rest -> 6* 30 secs with 15 secs rest -> 3 min Cooldown

Total active time on the treadmill was 30 minutes out of 43 minutes total. Step count 5609 gives me a cadence of 186 steps per minute. Considering this is a speed class where I start at 10.5 km/h and end at 17.5 km/h (6.5 – 10.8 mph) it sounds correct.

My stride length is 116.5 cm (45.8 inches). One should think steps multiplied by stride length = distance. That is not the case. How does Sense calculate distance on a treadmill?

[SteveH]

As far as I know distance is, as you suggest, steps x stride. But there are 2 stride lengths in your settings: one for walking, one for running. It could be that the nature of your workout means that it sometimes thinks you're walking and sometimes running and it would be difficult to check the results.

[LokeAa]

Sounds strange to me, @SteveH. I mean it is a workout app, familiar with the concept of intervals. It should detect it is an interval workout when I go from a cadence of 180+ to 0 and back again.  At the same time, it is variations in heart rate when I start and stop running.