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How are total time, moving time and pauses calculated?

Updated 2026-10-30

A route you recorded — on a watch, a phone or in another app — carries a time for every point. For such a route the inspector shows a Statistics section with what the recording actually took. A planned route has no times, so it shows only the Estimate.

Start – EndThe time of day of the first and the last point.
Total timeFrom the first to the last point, breaks included.
Moving timeThe total time with the pauses removed.
PausesHow many pauses were found, and how long they took together.
Avg. pace / Avg. speedDistance covered while moving, divided by the moving time.
Uphill, Downhill, FlatThe moving time split by gradient: steeper than 3 % up or down over 100 m, or in between.

How a pause is found

A GPS file has no "pause" field. TrailRunner works it out from the times, with two rules:

Why another app shows a slightly different moving time

Every app uses its own rule, and none of them is written into the file. A few minutes of difference are normal. A pause also takes in the last metres you walked up to the spot where you stopped.

Why a route has no Statistics section

Its points carry no times. That is the case for every planned route, and for a course you downloaded — an event's official route, a tour from a website. Some of these carry times a planner wrote: every point at the same speed, or every point the same interval apart without a single stop. TrailRunner treats such times as planned and shows the Estimate. Editing a recorded route replaces its points, and with them their times, so the section disappears after an edit.

Ascent and descent appear in the Statistics section for a recording. See the difference between ascent, descent and elevation.