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Hello,

 

I shared this in another post, but since the owner of that (now marked as solved) thread believes this might be a different issue, I wanted to create a new topic.

 

I use an Apple Watch Ultra and the native Apple Fitness app to record my runs. I sync the activities to the Strava iPhone app.

 

I’m having issues with split paces for runs where there are pauses and resumes during the run. This also affected my PRs — now I have dozens of strange PR values (e.g., 3–4–5s/km!). There are lots of people (including two of my friends) having this issue for a very long time. It’s really strange that it still hasn’t been identified by Strava. If they looked at the strange PRs recorded with Apple Watch, they would definitely notice this.

 

Here’s my typical running scenario where I encounter this problem consistently:

• I start a run using the native Fitness app on my Apple Watch Ultra.

• I run ~3 km.

• I pause the activity on the watch.

• I wait or walk for a few minutes.

• Then I resume and run another 2–3 km.

• I repeat this pause/resume cycle a couple of times before stopping the activity.

 

Everything looks perfectly fine in the Apple Fitness app — total distance, duration, and pace are all accurate.

When the data syncs to Strava, the overall distance and pace still match those in the Fitness app, so no issue there.

However, the 1 km auto split paces— in this example for the 3rd and 4th kilometers (where pauses/resumes occur) — are completely off. In some cases, the pace is reported as unrealistically fast, like under 1’00”/km. I don’t think moving or waiting on the same spot (which is rarely the case) make any significant difference.

 

Since the total metrics are accurate and only the split paces are skewed, it seems the problem lies in how Strava processes pause/resume with the splits.

 

Thanks for the support.

Emrah

Ciao ​@egokmen. I was wondering if this could be treated as an idea (how you would see this pause time on the activity) and not just as a question. Unfortunately I don't know how to solve your issue but as far as I read it seems all is related on how Strava handles the pause splits. 

Hi ​@egokmen,

when thinking about your scenario, I thought I’d suggest a quite different approach. 

Short version: don't use the pause 🙂

Longer version: What you've described actually calls for a Custom workout on your AW, and using work/recovery intervals. It’s a great way to track an intervals run - and to keep the splits correct. Here's some basics: https://support.apple.com/guide/watch/create-a-custom-workout-apd66fcd5c5c/watchos

For scenarios similar to yours, I’d usually create and use a custom workout like this:

1. warm up (open / no goal)

2. work: distance - x km at xx:xx min/km (define pace range notification)

3. recovery: time - x minutes

4. repeat: steps 2 and 3 x times

5. cool down (open / no goal)

When you start such a workout, the watch will automatically advance to the next split once you reach the goal and will notify you; or, you can also move to the next split manually earlier if needed.

I know it's not what you're asking but it's actually how the AW is meant to be used for this kind of run, and Strava handles it correctly then, too 🙂

 

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

Yes, obviously if you don’t pause, everything works fine. However, as far as I know, Strava doesn’t show segment or interval averages for your workouts (unlike Garmin Connect and Apple Fitness, which do).

 

Since there’s no issue with Garmin—as Vincenzo mentioned—it seems to be related to how Strava handles pause data coming from Apple Watch compared to Garmin. This likely needs to be fixed either by Apple or by Strava.

 

But from what I can see, no one really seems to care:)

Still, appreciate you taking the time to respond.

 

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