bruce19

I've got a 6.35 mi. TT w/approx. 250 ft. of elevation that I try to do once a month. Last year, at age 71, I did it at 17.4 mph. This year, now 72, I was hoping to hit 18.0 mph by Sept. For reasons that I don't understand, I actually hit 18.4 mph in July So, today I went out and rode it hard. It was a muggy but windless day. According to my Garmin Edge 200 I did it in 20.03 min. for a 19.0 mph average. I uploaded to Garmin Connect and, again, it gave me 20.03 min. for 19.0 mph. But, when it went to Strava, 6 seconds were added making it 20.09 min. which yielded 18.9 mph. Now I don't really care about the .1 mph but why does Strava do that? Just curious.

MagicHour

To hazard a guess: Strava and Garmin have slightly different algorithms for calculating avg speed over a distance? and/or could be dependent on other factors like speed sensor vs gps speed.

DrIsotope

Welcome to... Strava Math®!!

Only half joking. I've had Strava add a few seconds to rides where I literally never unclipped or stopped moving. On Sunday, GPS: 58m56s; Strava: 59m06s. Never stopped once. Today, GPS: 4h45m39s; Strava: 4h45m46s-- but I had over an hour of non-moving time. Strava just makes it up as it goes along.

I think part of it is due to GPS latency-- Strava "smooths" segments in an effort to remove jittery GPS data. Some days there's more than others.

redlude97

is the recorded file exactly the 6.35 mi distance only? Probably the difference in elapsed vs moving time. Make it a segment on strava so it will automatically compare your attempts

bobwysiwyg

My Strava WTF moment is a bit different. My wife and I headed up to the U.P. of Michigan for a two week vacation, a trip of about 530 miles.
While up there I noticed my cell battery going down faster than usual even for this area.
A couple of times I did a "close all," did a restart and finally found Strava had somewhere running since we left Ann Arbor. Tried ending and uploading to get out after and delete the event. Over 800 miles, and total climbs I would love to have done.. no, survived! 😀

bruce19

There's something I'm not understanding. If my on bike unit says I've ridden for 20:03 and it uploads to Garmin Connect at 20:03 how can Strava change that? Where did that 6 seconds come from? I really don't get it.

CliffordK

Many Garmins have an issue that they tend to track once every 5 seconds, but Strava likes once a second data points.

This becomes an issue on segments where the closest points are either before or after the start line.

In many cases, Garmin users get an advantage, but I presume they are just as likely to get penalized.

Take this segment, for example. Short and sweet!!!

https://www.strava.com/segments/12973075

The KOM ride: 47s, 34.2MPH
On the analysis page, it shows Maximum speed for the segment, 34.0 MPH, and average of 32.6 MPH

Note, Strava put the maximum speed as LESS than the average segment speed.

The issue in this case is that Strava put the end points for the ride inside the actual end points for the segment. So, the Garmin course is about 5 seconds shorter than other rider's courses. Then uses the segment end points to calculate the segment speed.

It makes it dang hard to catch the KOM.

I presume the OP has a similar, but opposite effect, where his Garmin end points are outside of the actual segment, so he had an extra 6 seconds of riding calculated in time, but not distance.

That difference will likely disappear when viewing the Strava Analysis page.

I don't know if those 5 seconds between data points is fundamental to Garmin, or is a configuration option. It might be worth looking at, depending on whether battery life is an issue.

BTW:
Congrats on the 19 MPH segment.

redlude97

Garmin connect tells you total time, moving time, and elapsed time, which one are you referring to? If moving time then the calculations can be different
https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/...e-Calculations

WhyFi

Strava Live segment results on your Garmin/Wahoo aren't Strava official. Strava even discards any info from your wheel-based speed/distance sensors, instead relying solely on their own parsing of your GPS data.

bruce19

Thank you. Garmin Connect shows me three times......"time", "moving time" and "elapsed time." Why "time" is different from the other two, I don't understand.

rgconner

"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to affect, but actually, from a non-linier, non subjective point of view it is more like a big ball of wibbily wobbly timey wimey...stuff " - Dr. Strava

DrIsotope

wphamilton

I think it's a boundary condition due to the sampling rate. I've seen something similar in a short segment, where my times were rounded up to 5 second intervals, or 3 second intervals depending on the device, yet I could see other times down to the second.

TimothyH

Strava is an order of magnitude tool.

A +/- variation is to be expected.

I don't think they guarantee accuracy.


-Tim-

DrIsotope

If you have VeloViewer, you can look at all of your efforts over any given segment, and watch the recorded length of that segment vary by at least 10%. It's the luck of the GPS ping some days. If a "measured" 1 mile segment is 0.975 miles on one effort and 1.025 on another, you can have a better PR with a lower average speed.

Or as I like to say, "When is a mile not a mile? Strava!"

MyTi

This would explain the 50 year olds averaging 27mph. 71 year old averaging 19mph now. In B4 72 year olds averaging 27mph sitting in.

wphamilton

The segment keeps the same length regardless, so Strava just divides the invariant segment length by the time, so the variation you're seeing there won't impact the segment. Except at the very end, if the final position reading is skewed off from the endpoint in one direction or another, Strava may think that you've finished earlier or later than you actually did. Which would make it off by one time sample interval.

The recorded ride length will vary which makes for some amusing results in Strava average speeds, but that's a different question

DrIsotope

This is an ever-so-slightly uphill 2-mile segment. The PR has a lower average speed than 2-4. Because it GPS logged shorter.

wphamilton

That appears to be a 3rd party analysis, not the Strava leader board. I am almost 100% certain that Strava segment leader boards are derived from the single recorded distance, which is the GPS distance from the ride from which the segment was created.

bruce19

Quantum physics makes me crazy. At least in this dimension.

bruce19

This has been helpful. Garmin Connect says.....Time: 20:04....Moving time: 19:52...Elapsed Time: 20:09. Questions remain...to wit: If I never stopped moving, what is "elapsed time" and "time?" FWIW Garmin Connect also says my average speed was 19.0 mph and my average moving speed was 19.2 mph. Strava took the Elapsed Time and gave it 18.9 mph.

WhyFi

For segments, Strava always looks at elapsed time (as they determine it from looking at the GPS data). How Garmin defines Time, Moving Time and Elapsed Time is irrelevant, but I would be curious about the difference between Time and Elapsed Time, too (well, if I had a Garmin).

99Klein 

Welcome to Strava. Their number always differ from Garmin, Endomondo, MMR... Now if you really want to kick a$$ at segments, leave your cycling computer at home and use an iphone. Side, by side, they are always faster segments.

burnthesheep

Hit the lap button on your GPS. Won't fix any silly Strava stuff, but will give you an exact milepost for doing your TT. If you know it starts at that mailbox and ends at the railroad, just do your lap accordingly.

redlude97

if you have autopause on, then the difference is in the time between when you slow down but autopause hasn't started. If you turn off autopause I bet your time and elapsed time will now match up.