CHART READING
What a spike in your running pace graph can mean
A dramatic point on a chart is a reason to investigate. Start by checking how much time and distance it represents.
Ask whether it is a point or a sustained section
Look at the horizontal axis before reading the largest number. Does the spike last one recorded sample, several seconds or a whole kilometer? A brief outlier and a sustained change deserve different explanations. Also check whether the chart displays speed, pace or a smoothed value: faster pace means a smaller minutes-per-kilometer number.
Move outward from the spike. Inspect the values immediately before and after it, any visible route discontinuity and any pause marker. You are checking agreement among signals, not using the most exciting one as the final answer.
Why a small position error can create a large speed
Consider an illustrative five-second interval. If its measured displacement is 20 meters, the calculated speed is 4 m/s, equivalent to 4:10 per kilometer. If the recorded positions instead imply 40 meters, the same calculation returns 8 m/s, or 2:05 per kilometer.
The doubled speed follows from the doubled measured distance. It does not prove the runner doubled their actual speed. This example does not diagnose a particular device; it shows why short-interval pace is sensitive to the inputs. A whole-lap total gives the point a different scale of context.
Keep genuine changes on the list
A fast section can be real. A downhill, an interval repetition or a deliberate acceleration may explain a change that persists across multiple samples. Check the workout structure and route before discarding data. Conversely, a tidy line is not automatically more truthful if smoothing has removed meaningful variation.
Preserve the original recording while investigating. If you correct an activity, record what changed and why, then compare the corrected summary with the original. Avoid silently removing only the points that make a preferred performance story harder to tell.
Use the information the recording contains
In Runome, inspect the available detailed streams and source information. An imported summary without positions cannot support a position-by-position explanation. If a stream is absent, leave the cause unresolved rather than inventing a sprint or a GPS failure.
For a missing trace, follow the imported-data checks. If you only entered a total manually, the manual-entry guide explains which questions remain answerable. A useful conclusion is sometimes simply that the recorded point is insufficient to classify the event.