Oh Garmin…

I’ve been meaning to write out this for a while but this past week finally spurred me into action. It’s been a trying week for some if not all (tri)athletes out there, well, the ones that use a Garmin device, which is just about all of them. Actually, now that I think about it, I guess it was only Garmin wielding athletes that have iPhones. On August 6, Garmin updated their iOS (and Android) Garmin Connect app. This is the app you use to sync all your workouts with Garmin Connect, a task most athletes do before they get in their car to drive home from the workout. You can also view your activities, do some minor editing (like change the name, activity type, etc.), and share them. Well, the latest update was a major cluster, crashing on launch for most or simply not working after launch for the rest. Here’s a screen shot of their latest reviews on the App Store.

Not that this is anything new for Garmin, most athletes have a love/hate relationship with Garmin. When working correctly, their devices are arguably the best available, particularly the Garmin 920XT. Sadly, getting to “when working correctly” can be a long and painful process. I’m not sure if it’s Garmin’s (perceived?) monopoly of the athlete GPS-based device market or just plain incompetence. My hope is the Apple Watch one day gives them a run for their money, although it certainly can’t do that in it’s current incarnation (although maybe it could on the entry level market).

It took 4 days for Garmin to post an update to their iOS app, which in reality is not that bad given App Review times and it’s over a weekend. I am happy to report the Garmin Connect app no longer crashes on launch and seems to sync with my device, yay! On a slightly less happy note, it appears Garmin still doesn’t understand basic Physics/Math, as they don’t calculate the overall pace correctly on the “laps” tab view. Here’s a screen shot.

Total Avg. Pace should be 9:18/mi.

You can’t average the “Avg. Pace” paces to get the overall pace for your run (unless you run an exact (integer) number of miles every time). Most people don’t do that, although I have some friends that try. Garmin does correctly calculate the overall average pace in other places of the app, notably the “Dashboard” tab view you get when tapping on an activity. Sigh.

I admit I have absolutely zero experience with the Android version of the Garmin Connect app but it appears you Android guys are far from immune.

As far as I can tell, Garmin has not yet updated the Android version.