# Do you pause your fitness tracker/GPS while resting or waiting?



## Memnok (Aug 10, 2015)

I purchased a Garmin 920XT a while back and and have loved it while running and swimming. In those workouts I don't generally stop too often, but when peddling up 1k elevation gain with a group, I found myself stopping frequently to rest and let others catch up. Sometimes I would pause the 920XT, and other times I forgot.

The 920XT does keep track of moving time vs total time, so I'm thinking that maybe pausing is a waste of time? I'm thinking that letting it run would also allow it to capture heart rate recovery times.

So what do most of you do? Pause or let it run?


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## ewarnerusa (Jun 8, 2004)

No pause, let it run. I've never been a fan of autopause features, to me it seems like cheating. The time to complete a ride starts when you start and finishes when you're done riding. Time continues to march on even if you've stopped moving. Strava and Garmin Connect provide moving time and elapsed times for activities, as I'm sure many other services do, so no need to cheat the timer.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

Memnok said:


> I purchased a Garmin 920XT a while back and and have loved it while running and swimming. In those workouts I don't generally stop too often, but when peddling up 1k elevation gain with a group, I found myself stopping frequently to rest and let others catch up. Sometimes I would pause the 920XT, and other times I forgot.
> 
> The 920XT does keep track of moving time vs total time, so I'm thinking that maybe pausing is a waste of time? I'm thinking that letting it run would also allow it to capture heart rate recovery times.
> 
> So what do most of you do? Pause or let it run?





ewarnerusa said:


> No pause, let it run. I've never been a fan of autopause features, to me it seems like cheating. The time to complete a ride starts when you start and finishes when you're done riding. Time continues to march on even if you've stopped moving. Strava and Garmin Connect provide moving time and elapsed times for activities, as I'm sure many other services do, so no need to cheat the timer.


I handle it as ewarner does. I used to manually pause it when I would stop intentionally for things like a long lunch break or whatever, but I would forget too often to restart my GPS. So even then, I just leave it running. It's easier for me to let Garmin Connect or Strava or whatever sort out how much of my activity was "moving time" vs. "stopped time" than it is to mess around with it while I'm out on the ride. And as ewarnerusa mentions, autopause is simply too unreliable, as it trips all too frequently while on slow climbs or on major hike-a-bike sections.


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## chazpat (Sep 23, 2006)

Yep, use to pause it but then would forget to restart it. Now I just let it run.


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## Memnok (Aug 10, 2015)

Thanks for tin input. Leaving it run seems like the best thing to do. I can see forgetting to turn in back on, I forgot to turn it off a couple times.


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## jcd46 (Jul 25, 2012)

Memnok said:


> Thanks for tin input. Leaving it run seems like the best thing to do. I can see forgetting to turn in back on, I forgot to turn it off a couple times.


The you drive off...get home and you had a max speed of 80mph lol. Happened once or twice!


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

jcd46 said:


> The you drive off...get home and you had a max speed of 80mph lol. Happened once or twice!


If you record too much, you can always trim it. Recording too little is unsolvable.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


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## jcd46 (Jul 25, 2012)

Harold said:


> If you record too much, you can always trim it. Recording too little is unsolvable.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


True.

I actually don't pause mine either, based on feedback from another thread a while back. On the road bike its easier, especially with stop lights, and trains!! but I still don't bother. Some rides are just longer than others. The longer I'm outside, the better.


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

I just wish guys doing chairlifts would pause theirs.
10km of riding and 1000m of climbing? I don't think so!


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## J.B. Weld (Aug 13, 2012)

I like auto pause.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

NordieBoy said:


> I just wish guys doing chairlifts would pause theirs.
> 10km of riding and 1000m of climbing? I don't think so!


That's definitely a manual pause situation, and I'd want to scrub out chairlift rides. Curious why you care, though? Strava segments on chairlift segments would be pretty funny for about 30sec.



J.B. Weld said:


> I like auto pause.


Well you are wrong, then! Seriously, though, you must not be as slow as I am, then. If auto pause trips on a slow climb, it reduces both the distance and the elevation climbed, in addition to messing with time based stats. The thing I use most on my Garmin is the elapsed time field, so I have an idea of how long I've been out. Pausing stops this timer, which I wouldn't care for and would prompt me to change my data screen. The regular clock is less prominent. It's not something that would be an issue on every ride, but it would be frequent enough to be an issue. So auto pause stays off.

It wouldn't mess anything up for road rides, but I settled into the way I use my Garmin a LONG time ago, before it was possible to change settings based on ride profiles, and I just haven't bothered because I have no problems with using my Garmin in this manner.


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## JoePAz (May 7, 2012)

NordieBoy said:


> I just wish guys doing chairlifts would pause theirs.
> 10km of riding and 1000m of climbing? I don't think so!


Yeah still does not work.

Even if you pause it strava will just draw a line from the two last points and add that distance/elevation gain anyway. May not add to ride time, but adds to distance for sure.

As for pausing it. I never touch mine. I start it when I start the ride or before so I don't forget and then turn if off when done. Pause is a waste as if I am tracking my performance I want to know total time. Riding 40 miles with stops every 5 min is very different from rolling the entire distance no stops or minimal stop time. It can be interesting to see people moving vs total time on rides. Now the "stop" time gets calculated by Strava if you stop the GPS or not so no need to mess with the GPS at all.


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

Harold said:


> That's definitely a manual pause situation, and I'd want to scrub out chairlift rides. Curious why you care, though? Strava segments on chairlift segments would be pretty funny for about 30sec.


Our mtb club has a Strava club and it posts up the top 5 in distance, time and elevation gained for the week.


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## cmg (Mar 13, 2012)

I use a Garmin watch to record, l generally dont pause, but when lm at the bar (post ride) it loses GPS signal then gets it again, the whole time vibrating an making noise, then l pause it to stop the vibration.
I dont stop it as l still have ~5kms to go before lm home, and l want (need) those 5kms


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## J.B. Weld (Aug 13, 2012)

Harold said:


> Well you are wrong, then!


Par for the course, I wouldn't advise anyone listening to me.

I haven't ever noticed getting any moving time/miles cut off due to climbing but that could be because I don't pay particularly close attention to the results. The trails I ride aren't ridiculously steep or techie so I don't think I ever drop much below ~4mph.

Do you know what speed auto-pause is set for and if there's a way to adjust it?*


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

J.B. Weld said:


> Par for the course, I wouldn't advise anyone listening to me.
> 
> I haven't ever noticed getting any moving time/miles cut off due to climbing but that could be because I don't pay particularly close attention to the results. The trails I ride aren't ridiculously steep or techie so I don't think I ever drop much below ~4mph.
> 
> Do you know what speed auto-pause is set for and if there's a way to adjust it?*


I THINK it is around 2 mph, and I don't think there is a way to adjust it. There may be now, though, because the last time I messed with it was years ago.

I do ride some stuff that gets seriously steep and seriously chunky, so maybe I just go places and do things more likely to falsely set it off.

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## cmg (Mar 13, 2012)

Harold said:


> ......... so maybe I just go places and do things more likely to falsely set it off.


I also found that masturbating in the middle of a ride gave some funny stats.......


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

cmg71 said:


> I also found that masturbating in the middle of a ride gave some funny stats.......


Do you use a cadence sensor?

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## Memnok (Aug 10, 2015)

Well, this thread certainly has taken a turn...


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## cmg (Mar 13, 2012)

Harold said:


> Do you use a cadence sensor?


hahaha good one, nah just started using the other hand


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## TiGeo (Jul 31, 2008)

Let it run. All the software now will handle you moving/resting etc. I have a buddy who does this and it cracks me up...as soon as we stop he is frantically trying to pause his ride...ahhahahahahaa


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## oikeith (Feb 15, 2017)

Harold said:


> I THINK it is around 2 mph, and I don't think there is a way to adjust it. There may be now, though, because the last time I messed with it was years ago.
> 
> I do ride some stuff that gets seriously steep and seriously chunky, so maybe I just go places and do things more likely to falsely set it off.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


For the 920XT you can customise the speed at which autopause will trigger via the watch's settings menu.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

cmg71 said:


> hahaha good one, nah just started using the other hand


If your right-left balance is off, a true dual sided power meter can help you optimize your training to reduce that imbalance

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## cmg (Mar 13, 2012)

Harold said:


> If your right-left balance is off, a true dual sided power meter can help you optimize your training to reduce that imbalance
> 
> Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


Im sure my training is not optimum, but l must say lm usually pretty happy with the outcome 

we should get back on topic......


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

cmg71 said:


> I should get back on topic......


Fify. I am still talking about gpses.

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## ghettocruiser (Jun 21, 2008)

No easy solution to the lift-serviced riding question.

If you record one track, you get false climbing stats. If you break it down run-by-run, you spam your strava followers with a dozen 1-2k rides.

What I ended up doing back in my DH days was logging the whole day with the phone for the instant-gratification-upload, and also saving the individual runs with a wrist-worn 310XT that I could stop and reset on the lift ride up. 

Then, at the end of the month, I'd delete the all-day tracklog and load on the numerous 310XT tracks, once the ride day had fallen off everyone's activity feed, to get my true climbing numbers for the month.

...Now that I look back on this operation, it does seems needlessly complicated.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

ghettocruiser said:


> No easy solution to the lift-serviced riding question.
> 
> If you record one track, you get false climbing stats. If you break it down run-by-run, you spam your strava followers with a dozen 1-2k rides.


My last time doing lift-assisted riding was before I rode with a GPS computer, so yeah. But I'd rather just start/stop it if it's the only way to truly cut out all the weird metrics from lift time. I wouldn't even worry about spamming strava followers. Everyone I follow does something similar with theirs. The ones who race cross will separate the race out from other riding (warmup/cooldown/riding to/from the race itself, etc). Some people split their pre-lunch and post-lunch riding into separate activities. One person I followed would do a weird duplicate thing for awhile, where she'd post the actual track from the ride, and then create a separate activity she'd label as a "workout" with the same ride time/distance on it. Splitting up downhill runs is nothing considering all that.


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