Will Ionic display run cadence?

[Boost01]

Great, all these fancy new features, but it still can't tell me my cadence while running.

Moderator edit: Clarified subject

[ErickFitbit]

@Boost01 To clarify, Fitbit Ionic will show you real-time and average exercise cues for the entire duration of your multi-sport exercise mode.

Hope that helps!

[shipo]

If I understood the question as it was originally posted, @Boost01 was asking if the Ionic could display the current step per minute cadence while on a run.  If I got that correct, then the multi-sport exercise mode link doesn't answer the question (or it is pretty well hidden and I didn't find it).

My guess is the answer is "no".

[Boost01]

@ErickFitbit, not sure how that is in any way relevant to the topic at hand. All serious fitness trackers seem to be able to tell the wearer their "steps per minute" AKA cadence. Nothing in the material released so far has told me that the Ionic can do this.

For such a simple feature that has been requested for well over 2 years now, this is a BIG miss on the part of Fitbit.

[ErickFitbit]

@Boost01 @shipo Ionic can display pace, which is time per mile. If you'd like to see steps per minute as an option on Ionic, I recommend creating an Ionic specific Feature Suggestion and voting for it. The more votes this gets, the more likely it is to be considered for future release.

[shipo]

I'm thinking to download the SDK to see if I cannot build my own Cadence feature.  🙂

[Boost01]

@ErickFitbit What makes you think that will work any better now than it has for the last 2 years of trying. You won't get me buying another Fitbit until this is on the features list.

[shipo]

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@Boost01 wrote:

@ErickFitbit What makes you think that will work any better now than it has for the last 2 years of trying. You won't get me buying another Fitbit until this is on the features list.

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I'm curious as I coach a lot of runners; why do you feel so strongly about needing cadence?

[Boost01]

@shipo basically I want to do whatever I can to ensure I am running as efficiently and safely as possible.

I don't want to get injured from over striding and I don't want to waste energy as I increase my distances.I also would like to ensure my running form is consistent even when I am tired out.

[SunsetRunner]

Agree.  Cadence is an important metric.  When I was a newer runner I tried to go faster by simply lengthening strides and messed up my knee after an 8 mile run.  I feel a lot of newer runners make this mistake.

I've exported the TPX files from fitbit workouts to see if they track this but the data isn't included.  I've never seen anything in Fitbit that suggests cadence is even tracked.  Too bad.  It's right in the wheel house for a step tracker!

[steveting99]

Huh? A flagship/top of the line $300 device from Fitbit can't/wont/doesn't do simple run cadence?

Its a shame that Fitbit isn't providing basic running stat(s) that competitors have been happily doing so for many years. 

Fitbit doesn't seem to get it. Can't understand why this logic continues to persist. 

[shipo]

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@Boost01 wrote:

@shipo basically I want to do whatever I can to ensure I am running as efficiently and safely as possible.

I don't want to get injured from over striding and I don't want to waste energy as I increase my distances.I also would like to ensure my running form is consistent even when I am tired out.

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I agree, but how does cadence help you in that quest?

Regarding "over striding", I teach my runners to ignore cadence, that's way over thinking things; simply keep their "nose over their toes" and they cannot over stride.

[SunsetRunner]

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@shipo wrote:

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@Boost01 wrote:

@shipo basically I want to do whatever I can to ensure I am running as efficiently and safely as possible.

I don't want to get injured from over striding and I don't want to waste energy as I increase my distances.I also would like to ensure my running form is consistent even when I am tired out.

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I agree, but how does cadence help you in that quest?

Regarding "over striding", I teach my runners to ignore cadence, that's way over thinking things; simply keep their "nose over their toes" and they cannot over stride.

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@shipo wrote:

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@Boost01 wrote:

@shipo basically I want to do whatever I can to ensure I am running as efficiently and safely as possible.

I don't want to get injured from over striding and I don't want to waste energy as I increase my distances.I also would like to ensure my running form is consistent even when I am tired out.

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I agree, but how does cadence help you in that quest?

Regarding "over striding", I teach my runners to ignore cadence, that's way over thinking things; simply keep their "nose over their toes" and they cannot over stride.

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Some people like to quantify and track their progress/data over time.  That is the point of a fitness device.  There's no reason why an advanced pedometer with an accelerometer can't track this.  I agree with you that the cadence metric shouldn't be taken alone, but some people find it useful part of quantifying their workouts.

[shipo]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

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Some people like to quantify and track their progress/data over time.  That is the point of a fitness device.  There's no reason why an advanced pedometer with an accelerometer can't track this.  I agree with you that the cadence metric shouldn't be taken alone, but some people find it useful part of quantifying their workouts.

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I would argue following simple dictums like "Nose over toes" to correct stride issues are far more important, and once stride issues are taken care of, cadence is utterly irrelevant unless or until one progresses all of the way through the ranks of runners and enters the rarified world of elites.

One of the most common things I run up against with new runners is folks who read stuff like, "Most world class distance runners race with a cadence of 180; therefore I must also strive to hit 180."  Yeah, about that; a few comments:

• Even world class distance runners do the vast majority of training at a lower cadence rates (typically in the 160 to 170 range, but that isn't relevant).
• Elite "age groupers" (i.e. older folks who typically place in races) rarely, if ever, race at a cadence of 180; they race at whatever cadence is correct for them (virtually always lower than 180).
• I am a "near elite" age grouper (I'm in my early 60s) and using the history logged with my Fitbit Surge, I can look back and draw some interesting, but ultimately irrelevant, statistics:
• Slow 18-mile Training run: 29,053 steps / 174 minutes = 166 cadence
• Fast 10-mile Training run: 14,656 steps / 86 minutes = 170 cadence
• Fast 11-mile race: 14,153 steps / 82 minutes = 173 cadence

The point I'm trying to make, is cadence is a very-very poor metric to use for training, even for elite athletes.  For a non-elite to focus on it they will virtually always do so at the exclusion of something else which is more important, and that will usually lead to injury.

[SunsetRunner]

I don't think that's the point of this thread, really. 

The fact is, and there's no way around it, is that several competing and related devices provide it. The recent Garmin, Polar, and Suunto products provide it.  AW2 has apps that provide it.  Wahoo Tickr run has it.  Foot pods provide it.  Several smart phones natively provide it to their fitness apps (ex: samsung galaxy).

So even if cadence is a big pile of BS, this thread is evidence that people care about it, have asked fitbit for it (there are several requests for it in the feature forum).  Fitbit hasn't yet provided it (yet.)Other products do.  Personally, I'm still buying the Ionic even if they don't provide cadence, but others will.  It's low hanging fruit for Fitbit. 

[SunsetRunner]

I completely respect your opinion.  I just think it's easier for fitbit to do this and helps a perception that they are focused on fitness metrics.

[ErickFitbit]

@SunsetRunner @Boost01 @steveting99 Please share the Ionic specific Feature Suggestion idea once you've created one so others who are interested may vote for it. I appreciate your feedback.

[steveting99]

There are several requests for including cadence in the Features suggestion thread. Examples are:

Run Cadence

Cadence

Real time cadence screen in fitbit blaze

Measure Cadence for Fitbit Surge

Cadence and stride length in run summary

Calculate cadence in cycling with Surge

Would you like me to include another thread feature request, just for the Iconic? Since the Iconic doesn't have cadence feature - just like every Fitbit device?

Rather than having a single thread for the cadence feature on ALL relevant Fitbit devices where the vote count can be high, there are multiple threads spreading out the request for cadence. This fans out the vote count and making the feature request appear small or negligible. Note that one of the threads only has 2 votes. Nice way to sweep away the request so it appears that no one cares about it. 

[MatthewFitbit]

@steveting99 I've merged the redundant threads from your list, which adds their cumulative vote counts together. I understand that it's easy to adopt a negative perspective around something like this, but in reality we use the Feature Suggestion forum to advocate on behalf of customers - it's a major part of our role. We don't send anyone there to dismiss their interests, and we do everything we can to guide users to existing ideas, and prevent duplicates.

A new request specific to Ionic will be valuable when we deliver this information to developers. We will also reference the more long-running threads that you mentioned, but a new request for this product is more effective for leveraging development resources.

[steveting99]

Matt,

Appreciate merging the various cadence feature request threads into one. There's still a few more such as:

Real time cadence screen in fitbit blaze

Calculate cadence in cycling with Surge

Cadence Count while cycling

sync with third party speed and cadence sensors for biking

It's interesting that the request for cadence falls across many of Fitbit's product line, and is not limited to just the Iconic.

Current products such as Charge 2, Alta HR, Blaze and the soon to be dead as the Dodo bird - Surge should have the cadence feature. If Fibit's R&D forgot to include a common feature implementation across multiple products, there needs to be re-think on how engineering resources are deployed on a common platform.