Fitbit Ionic for a Spartan Race

[Crypticwritin]

I have a Fitbit Ionic and on July 2018 i have a Spartan Race Ultra, so my questions are:

Anyone did a Spartan Race with a FitBit Ionic? It worked perfectly?

Anyone knows if it's a nice watch to deal with a race with this characteristics?

Does the battery will live enough to end the race? (3-5 hours of race).

Thanks!

[SilviaFitbit]

A warm welcome to the Community @Crypticwritin! It's really great to hear you're going to do the Spartan Race Ultra, all the best for you in this race. 

Regarding your questions, I was looking on the forums and I couldn't find anyone who did the Spartan Race with Ionic or with other tracker just people asking the same as you but I guess they never came back to share their experience.

I wouldn't recommend using it as I was checking and this race contains many activities that can damage your watch and since it's a race maybe you won't damage it but there will be moments where you won't have the control of the situation. In reply to the last question, the Ionic's battery should last up to 5 days. 

Hope this clarifies any doubt! 

[Crypticwritin]

Hi Silvia,


Thanks for the reply.


Maybe i explained wrong when i was asking how much time are able to work during a long race, i mean, Those Spartan Races like Ultra can get so far on time, maybe 3-8 hours, it depends... My questions was if Ionic will be able to not get K.O. in the middle of the race... With the GPS Location and so on, to get all the race registered.


Could you answer if it can survive alive on this long race?


Keep in touch.


Miguel.

[bmw54]

---

@Crypticwritinwrote:
Hi Silvia,

Maybe i explained wrong when i was asking how much time are able to work during a long race, i mean, Those Spartan Races like Ultra can get so far on time, maybe 3-8 hours, it depends... My questions was if Ionic will be able to not get K.O. in the middle of the race... With the GPS Location and so on, to get all the race registered.


Could you answer if it can survive alive on this long race?

---

Partial answer: I've had my Ionic out for more than 3.75 hours with GPS on. At the end of that training run I still had more than 40% battery left. However it had lost GPS connection midway and spend more than half the run with 'connecting' on the screen (which is not unusual).

Now I have a replacement Ionic (first one went big-red-x and died). This one seems to be maintaining GPS connection longer. I'll test it again on another 26 mile run this weekend and let you know how it fared.

[Crypticwritin]

Hi @bmw54,

Thanks for your reply!

Yes! Please give me your feedback went you finish this weekend your 26 miles race, because it's the most important that all the race has to be registered, it will be my first Spartan Race Ultra and i want it all saved.

For me the most important is: First the GPS connection always working perfectly and secondly, if the battery can take alive for a big long race with the GPS on.

Also if someone knows this answer would be welcome guys.

Thanks!

[bmw54]

I understand your expectations and I share them of my 'device'.

However, you should not make the assumption of perfect service - especially of the Ionic. Assume that it (or whatever other device you wear) will fail.

Between now and your event, I'd recommend you focus your training on 'internal' strategy and do some of your training runs with minimal consulting of Ionic. That way you'll have the advantage of intuitive pacing and not feel lost when Fitbit loses GPS. I lost GPS connection at the 20 mile mark of Boston Marathon a few years ago. For that last 10K my tracker (the Surge) was telling me I was running 12 minute miles. In reality I was moving at 7'50". It was disconcerting but in a good way.

I'll keep you posted... 

[bmw54 · Accepted solution]

@Crypticwritin: 

I finished my training run this afternoon and have reviewed results: 

In 3 hours, forty minutes, Ionic battery went from 100% to 67%. In my opinion, that's pretty good.

However...

for two separate periods in that time GPS connection was lost. When that happens you get unpredictable pace and distance cues and results. Here's how the mapping appears, the lost connection times are represented as straight lines (over water, buildings, through forests):

Ionic almost always loses GPS connection after 8 to 10 miles. Sometimes the exercise just crashes.

Fitbit seems to recognise these risks and doesn't use GPS to calculate pace and distance. Visit the 'GPS Inaccuracies' thread for a full dramatic treatment of this topic. In short, the Ionic uses stride-length and step count to calculate pace and distance.

When you're in a race, the Ionic is at its worst: the faster you run (with longer stride length, fewer steps) the slower it thinks you're going. In a 5K race, Ionic usually measures distance at 2.2 to 2.5 miles.

This has been true for both my original and replacement Ionics.

To buffer against all that nonsense I also run with my fitbit Surge (or leave Ionic in the locker). It doesn't lose connection and appears to use GPS to calculate distance and pace. It actually measured today's run at 26.2 miles (as I'd pre-planned using google maps). Plus it didn't show me running over the reservoir.

I don't know what level of performance you're expecting from your Ionic. If nothing else it seems to clock elapsed time correctly as well as step count. Heart rate is another matter, handled at great length in other topics.

Good Luck!