Last week after training a client at the 55+ community, I stuck around to try a little tech experiment on the clubhouse indoor track by walking three individual miles to test three different tracking modes on my Garmin Lily 2 Active: Indoor Walk, Indoor Track, and the standard Walk mode. I quickly discovered that tracking an indoor track walk accurately is a bit of a challenge!
Three Modes: All Struggle Indoors
According to Gemini, Indoor Walk disables GPS entirely and relies solely on wrist swing and cadence to calculate speed and distance. Indoor Track uses built-in GPS combined with specific track-mapping algorithms. The standard Walk mode is the traditional GPS tracking I use outdoors, which is normally incredibly accurate but struggled with the tight, repetitive turns of a small indoor layout. I quickly discovered that tracking an indoor track walk accurately is a bit of a challenge!
According to the sign on the clubhouse wall, exactly 23.7 laps on the outside lane equals one mile.
I diligently counted my laps for each mile, but at the end of each segment, my Garmin fell laughably short of the actual distance:
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• Indoor Walk mode: 23.7 outside lane laps = 0.11 miles
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• Indoor Track mode: 23.7 outside lane laps = 0.26 miles
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• Walking mode: 23.7 outside lane laps = 0.46 miles
TheFinal Verdict
What’s the final verdict of my little experiment? I went right into my settings and deleted the Indoor Walk and Indoor Track modes from my watch’s quick-start options! 😉
Questions
- • What modes do you use most on your GPS tracking device? ~ walk, bike, and indoor bike
- • Have you ever experimented with your GPS tracking device? ~ yes
- • What brand of tracking device do you use? Garmin, Apple, Coros, Suunto, Wahoo, Polar, other? ~ Garmin
That’s a pretty revealing experiment
23.7 laps = 1 mile… and your Garmin basically said “best I can do is vibes” in every mode.
It seems that counting laps is still the most reliable system, which is slightly ridiculous in 2026 but here we are.
Your experiment reminded me of this article that another blogger pointed out to me recently:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/29/well/move/run-5k-van-tub-tiktok.html
If I were to ever walk on the indoor track again, I’d just walk for time and call it good. 😉
Thanks for the link – running in tiny circles sounds ridiculously hilarious. I’ll read it later when I get a chance.
I don’t often track my walks. Just my races.
Our gym track is supposedly 15 times around=one mile. Not sure if it’s accurate.
Outdoor track 4 times around=1 mile.
Our rail trail also has mile markers. I use them when I run.
I often wear my Apple Watch and for races my Garmin.
Mile markers on trails sure do help track mileage if you’re not wearing a tracking device. Before I started running on the W&OD Trail (which has mile markers) and before I had a GPS tracking watch, I had to drive my planned route in advance so I could plan out my distance for my training runs.
I have a Garmin, but I’m pretty casual about it. Like I don’t wear it if I’m running on a treadmill, and every once in a while I leave for a run without it (accidentally) and just go “Oh well!” I usually run the same routes outside, so I know how far I’m going. And I don’t really want to know my pace, lol.
The only time I’m anal about the Garmin is when I’m doing a long run- then I need to know those miles!
It’s great that you can let it go and not really care about your running stats. I ran for so many years before GPS watches were available and had no idea what my pace was unless I ran at a track or marked the mileage first with my car that I now embrace the information a little too much. I’ve become a real stats nerd. 😉
Interesting! I’ve tried using my Garmin for the treadmill–it wasn’t even close. I only use it for outdoors activities.
My new Garmin is usually pretty close to my treadmill distance and when I hit stop, I have the option to save it as is or adjust my Garmin distance to match what the treadmill shows (which is what I always do).
Oh, that’s interesting! I never really thought too much about indoor tracks. I usually use the outdoor settings on my apple watch because that’s normally where I run and walk. I know that my treadmill mileage can be a tiny bit lower than what my watch shows, but I always chalked that up to user error.
My Garmin is usually pretty accurate to the treadmill distance if I swing my arms just so, LOL. I do have the option to save it as is or adjust the Garmin distance to match what the treadmill shows which is the accurate one (and what I always do).