How do I manually record lap times?

[MonteC]

When I am in a race I want to be able to manually click my watch to check my time at the mile markers and also have the watch display the cumulative time.  Each subsequent mile or lap would start the watch timer over to a new lap or mile.  This is done very easy on any Garmin but I cannot figure this out on the Ionic.   

The reason I want to manually check the miles is that GPS is notoriously inaccurate and I want precise timing.  This would be helpful for doing track work and interval training as well.   

Anyone know how to do this?

[Giampi71 · Accepted solution]

When selecting Exercise->Run press the gear on the top left and then Show Cues manually. At every lap then press the top right button and you will get your manual lap trigger!

[Andyfor]

Thank you very much for your contribution.
I'm interested in buying a Fitbit Ionic and I just read different posts in this forum that says the manual return mode is not optimal.
I would like to know if each time a lap is manually triggered, the clock shows the distance and time for that lap (NOT the accumulated time), and if after finishing the training and synchronizing the Ionic, the details of each lap (time and distance) ) are available in the application.
Thank you in advance.

[Giampi71]

Hello @Andyfor and welcome to the community,

I'm happy to answer yes to both your questions.

[Andyfor]

Thank you very much for your kind answer.

I finally found a Fitbit retail shop here in Buenos Aires (there is only one), but, believe ir or not, they don't allow me to try the Ionic. Only to look it thru a glass :(. 

Is there any possibility you take a picture of the Ionic screen at the moment you press the manual lap button so i can see it? The device is very expensive here in Argentina, so i have to double check this  feature before buying it. 
Of course any other picture related to the manual lap feature will be very welcomed.
Thank you very much again.

Best regards,

Andrea

[Giampi71]

Dear @Andyfor,

unfortunately I'm injured and therefore I had to stop my running sessions. However today afternoon I can go for a walk and simulate the run to take the pictures you're interested of. I hope it can suffice.

[Giampi71]

@Andyfor Find attached some pictures taken during my walk at lunch time simulating I was running.

You can see comparing with the last picture that the avg paces given when you press the lap button (or in case of automatic laps) is specific for the single lap and not the cumulative avg pace.

1 - Just tstarted2 - After 6 mins3 - first lap (manual)4 - let's see average pace5 - let's see my HR6 - calories7 - lap 28 - after nearly 40 mins9 - lap 310 - final pause to finish the run11 - confirmation request11 - session recap12 - laps recap

[SantiR]

Hey @Andyfor! I'm replying to your post on this thread as well as this is the thread where the pictures you asked for are being shared. Hope you find them useful.

@Giampi71 Thank you very much for standing out and sharing these important pictures. I'm sure they will be very helpful for other users too.

Please let me know if further assistance is needed. 

[Andyfor]

Hello @Giampi71!

Thank you very much!

This is by far the best contribution i 've ever had.

And as @SantiR said, it will help other users too. 

I noticed that in the final screen,  the ionic shows the detailed pace and time for each lap, (sad it's not not time and distance, but it's ok).

Just a last question (i know i'm bothering you, believe me): some users complained about GPS disconnection or innacuracies. Which is your experience?  I intend to use the Ionic in long distances at training (20km and more), and may be at the next Buenos Aires Marathon, and it would be sad to have disconnections or inacuracies.
 Thank you very much again.

Best regards,

Andrea

[Giampi71]

Hello @Andyfor,

I can only express my opinion of the matter of run tracking of the Ionic that is very positive.

Generally the main complain of the users is that it appears that the Ionic is using the GPS only for tracing the track while it uses the stride length to calculate the distance. One of the evidences is that if you try to track a running session while in the car the Ionic shows distance 0 (the same does not happen if you use a Bike exercise).

I can not confirm or deny what method the Ionic uses (Fitbit support has been always very silent on this matter, something I actually don't understand and don't agree) but my experience doesn't support this theory. In fact I tried several time to upload the gpx (or tcx) obatined from Fitbit.com to external services such as Strava or Runtastic and always got the same identical results.

I have 2 explanations:

- Fitbit uses the accelerometer to actually detect if you are running (or faking) and invalidate the result in the second case (might be a request from Strava)

- Fitbit uses indeed the stride length to calculate the distance in a dynamic way (meaning it recalculate the stride length at regular intervals to compensate eventual GPS errors).

In either case I think Fitbit should be more transparent.

Having said the above in the past I made several comparisons of running tracking devices that I own (I love gadgets and I love running although now I'm on a break due to a severe backache) using the DC Rainmaker tool. 

My overall experience has been the following (I have Tom Tom Runner 2 and Polar m600):

- Ionic has a good GPS, slightly worse than Tom Tom and much better than Polar (that loses signal quite often)

- The HR monitor is excellent, at par with Polar while Tom Tom is quite bad

- Overall the Ionic is the best of the 3.

Unfortunately my DC Rainmaker Analyzer license is expired so I can't share the full analysis, nevertheless I can attach the screenshot of the entire comparisons (I have here for you 2 full comparisons).

Only few additional comments from my side:

- Ionic is not a specific running watch, it can track only basic sessions, it doesn't have a good interval training option and it doesn't have any outstanding features. It doesn't even have goal based sessions (such as run 20 km or 2 hours) although the newly released Charge 3 has them so it might be only a question of time.

- My running style is very steady, I like long run and for what I do the Ionic is perfect, other runners might looks for different experiences

- If you keep the display on, my experience is that the battery lasts only a couple of hours, maybe slightly more, you can easily run a full marathon (my best time is 4h15') while listening music with auto on display

- IMPORTANT: the actual pace is given only at interval of 5 secs so you can have 5'50, 5'45" but not 5'42"for example and anyway the actual pace shows can have quite big oscillations (similarly to what I experienced on Tom Tom and Polar).

Sorry for long message, if you need more don't hesitate to ask.First testSecond test

[Giampi71]

Hello again, 

I realized that the pictures attached can't be legible. You can download them from the following link

[Andyfor]

Hello @Giampi71!

Sorry for not answering for so long but I wanted to give you thank for your help with this photo, here it is and I am very happy with my Ionic watch.
Thank you so much and Happy New year!

Andrea

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @Andyfor, I hope you're doing well, thanks for taking the time to reply. 

I appreciate you have come back and for sharing your gratitude to the people who've taken the time to help you. We're very glad you're happy with your Ionic and for sharing your picture, it's a great one!

In case you have some spare time, I would like to invite you to visit our Discussions board where you will find great tips and encouragement from other members and if there's anything else I can do for you, please keep us posted. Happy New Year!