Bug Report: Ionic running distance is 19-26% off tracking runs

[wegortw]

I picked up my Ionic about 5 days ago; updated to the latest firmware - 27.25.16.7 then have since went on 2 runs and 2 bike rides.

I have found the "run" exercise setting is relying way to heavily on the pedometer instead of just using the distance measured from GPS.  In all occasions I have waited to lock GPS signal before starting.

Run 1 was off by 19% as it recorded 2.8 miles when the actual GPS distance was 3.45
Run 2 was off by 26% as it recorded 2.28 miles when the actual GPS distance was 3.1 miles - https://www.fitbit.com/activities/exercise/10531606599

On both Runs the GPS was spot on for tracking the route.  Both Bike 1 & Bike 2 were also spot on for the GPS route and distance measured.  I believe this is a bug with the FitBit Ionic software and have reported it to them in Support Case #21815360 & #21826311   

My advice to those running into the same issue in the meantime is record your runs using the Bike setting, then after the workout go back and change the exercise to Run.  That is until they fix the bug 

[bbarrera]

I seem to recall that walks on Blaze used GPS for mapping only, and distance was estimated using steps * stride. Not sure if that changed with a recent firmware or not.

[ErickFitbit]

@wegortw By any chance, were you pushing a stroller during your runs?

This will be helpful in continuing to troubleshoot this with you.

[SunsetRunner]

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@ErickFitbit wrote:

@wegortw By any chance, were you pushing a stroller during your runs?

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You jest, surely.

[bbarrera]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

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@ErickFitbit wrote:

@wegortw By any chance, were you pushing a stroller during your runs?

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You jest, surely.

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Serious. We live near a paved creek trail, and I see a lot of new parents running while pushing a stroller.

[wegortw]

Yep pushing storller, reported it to Fitbit support as well (hence helped me figure out it was the pedometer for measuring distance and not the GPS)

[SimonRJ]

Weird, I ran a 5k race the other weekend and my Ionic measured it perfectly.

I also recall reading somewhere that when you run with GPS, it helps to calibrate your stride length so that your runs without GPS are more accurate.