Garmin 'sampling' rate iffy

Hey, so with my Garmin forerunner 205, I donwload either to the Garmin Training Centre of Fetch Everyone, or both.

 Trouble is, the sampling rate seems too frequent - that's to say, I end up with lots of spikes and troughs on the pace curve if I use Garmin Training Centre, and loads of meaningless 'splits' if I use Fetch Everyone. 

For example, yesterday I did an interval session and I ended up with a table of paces from 4:45 a mile to 10:00 a mile - all the intermediate paces, too. I reality, I didn't run a single mile at 4:45, but I've no idea what pace I did run at.  This is in Fetcheveryone.  I want all the intermediate paces averaged out for the work sections of my interval training, not analysed for every acceleration and deceleration, however small For example, it would make sense to have an average pace for a kilometre, 800 metres, or similar.

 Same deal in Garmin Training Centre - the graph of my pace is too up and down as the sampling rate is obviously too fast.  I'd like to smooth the data out.  Does this make sense/ ring any bells with people?

 Cheers

Sounds like you want to be using the lap button to sub divide the session into separate blocks of data, each of which will then have distance, time and pace worked out.  

I think it is possible to set the Garmin up so that it automatically places a lap each time you pass a location, so if you set it to do this at the start and end of each interval, you've be able to see the hards and recoveries as individual laps.

Obviously you can just hit the lap button at the start and end of each effort, but can be a bit too easy to miss.

Thanks Inter and Helen.   H, hmm, I know about the lap button, but it seems that if I use auto lap, it records both the effort and the rest, because I'm passing through the same point once each lap.

So with my hill session the other day, I started at the bottom of the hill, sprinted up and walked down, but have an average pace for that lap, work and rest included.  How do you do what you are describing - remove autolap and hit lap at the top and bottom?

 Do you have to hit start, first ? so 'Start' and then 'lap' straight away? Or does hitting lap set the watch automatically and you don't have to hit start too?

 Your help very much appreciated as it's driving me nuts and I've got a powerful training tool that I can't use to its full potential.

Or try the auto lap, as described on pg 14 of the book. Theer are options that mean it will start a lap at each time you pass specific marked points. So mark the start & end of your hill, and it should allow you to separate the efforts & recoveries.

Thanks peeps.  This is starting to make sense.  Helen L, don't have the book so have had to work it all out by trial and error!

Okay, so today I used the intervals function for the first time.  I intended to set 90 seconds rest but fluffed it and first of all set 1 hour 30  minutes instead, which I only discovered after running my first interval of 400 metres. I reset it and fluffed it again, setting 30 seconds instead of 90.

So off I set, regardless, aiming to complete 8 further laps of 400 metres, now with 30 seconds rest instead of 90.

 I completed 6 laps with the rest period at 30 seconds, announced correctly by the Garmin counting down and beeping at me.  The times were all very close together, at around 1:40 (ignoring  my first lap before resetting the watch, which was 1:20)

However, annoyingly, the Garmin has recorded my average pace including the rest period, at 8:22.  It has also recorded my fastest pace,  5:13 a  mile. But what I really wanted was my average pace for the work, not including the rest period.  Is this possible?  Obviously I can get individual lap times...

 Thanks, folks.

I think that might be beyond the realms - the only thing I can think is that in training centre, you have the option of a drop down on the bottom right, that says 'Is this a resting step?' and defaults to No - I have never looked to change it, but perhaps if you set it as Yes, it will remove it from the overall calculation, though I would not expect it to.

Also, you might want to take a look at this helpful guide, which is what I used to start my own workouts.

DC Rainmaker

Dan_B, thanks!   Isn't it a bit surprising that they designed the interval function in such a way as to give the average pace worked out from combined work and rest?  I can't think of anyone who would want this data!

Still, very much appreciate your idea.  What's to lose by trying it?  So I will, thanks.  Thanks also for the link.

Cheers,  QFS

No problems, hope it helps.

For my workouts, when I am doing intervals, i have to cover say 1000m in 5:08 for example, then in Training centre I merely look at the key points I am interested in and ignore the others - the same for if I have a mile warm up, and then 3 miles at X pace, and a mile cooldown - yes the average for the whole workout will be for 5 miles, but I know it's the middle three i am interested in.

Good luck!

Ok, so I was making come tweaks to my workout tonight before I went out, so decided to use the 'Yes this is a rest interval' setting for warm up, RI's and cooldown - net result is it made zero difference

Not a sausage, so all you can really do is take the times off the seperate totals at the end, and maybe stick just your times efforts into Excel or something if you want to do some indepth analysis.

As long as I hit my targets I tend not to care too much, but I guess if you want to see a trend over time, then you may need to single out the timed efforts.

When I do an interval session I turn off the auto lap button then press lap after each 400,800 etc.

I then have the rest period then lap again when I set off.

The result is you get the speed of the 400,800's but obviously the whole average pace is low as the rest is taken into consideration.

This is the true overall pace though.

 If you don't want to log the rest just stop the timer when you rest and only log the running laps.