Running a race and leaving garmin at home - Page 2 - General running

Badly Drawn Bloke

14/03/2012 at 18:03

Lol - good point!

chubby bloke

14/03/2012 at 19:55

Dylan man wrote (see)

Interesting territory for me now. When I ran my last PB at half marathon in September, I ran a even steady 6.20 per mile. My last race where I blew up last week, 6 months of training later I ran 10k pace for 8 miles and then failed. I guess I should be aiming to run an even 6.10 . I am definitely fitter and stronger than 6 months ago. I really did belief I could take my 10 pace or near into a HM. Over confidence!

Am I missing something here? 10k pace is the pace that you can keep up for 10k, no more. Keeping it up for 8 miles would suggest that it's not your 10k pace, and why do that in a HM? You're a lot faster than me but I think you need to look at your race strategies.

Dylan man wrote (see)

To add to last post. It's amazing to think a measly 10 to 15 seconds per mile is the difference between failure and success. Can that kind of extra speed really push you into lactate threshold?

Yes!

Dylan man

14/03/2012 at 20:17

Chubby, agreed. In my next half I will plan a negative split and keep pace manageable!

Tricky Dicky¹

15/03/2012 at 09:18

Dylan - if you've ever seen a Lactate Threshold graph, you will realise it reveals a lot about your ability to run and perform. On the bottom is pace and on the vertical axis, you have increase in lactic Acid concentration in the blood (mmol).

A bad lactate profile will have a gradual and progressive uplift of the curve.

A highly trained athlet ewill have an almost flat Lactate profile, so no real difference in energy burnt between recovery jogging speed all the way up to steady running. But then the curve will take a sharp deflection upwards, a sudden increase in lactate. Hang on, I think I made an example graph about this a few years ago. Voila. Hopefully that reveals something to you.

http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/members/images/345267/Gallery/Lactate_Threshold_curve.jpg

Ian66

15/03/2012 at 16:23

Only once turned up for a race (a HM) without my Garmin - after a minor panic attack, realised there was nothing I could do about it, so just lined up and ran how I felt. Got to the 6 mile point feeling great, asked a fellow competitor what the time was and was amazed to find i'd been running about 30 secs/mile faster than planned.

Wasn't sure whether to slow down, or just go for it , in the end decided to keep going, and managed to stay with it and come in with a big PB, something I'd never have done if I'd been a slave to my splits.

Despite that though, I have no intentions of leaving it behind again, I'll just aim higher at the start

Dylan man

15/03/2012 at 19:18

Tricky, thanks for graphs and explanation, very interesting. I'm going to do some experimenting with difference paces and distances over the next few weeks and get a decent strategy in place for next half. I have a couple of 10ks booked over may/June but these take less planning and the chances of blowing up are more limited. Hope to get near 36 mins in one of these. Determined to get the half down to 1.20 by end summer and will target either Cardiff or Bristol. I have invested in a HRM for garmin to put a different emphasis on training paces and recoveries as well. The fiasco of Bath last Sunday has really invigorated me and renewed my interest in training techniques and the science.

Just Run

15/03/2012 at 21:07

Dylan man, after reading your post i decided to try todays run wearing my garmin so i could hear the interval beeps but not once looked at the watch. On getting home and viewing the stats i ran 800m splits of 4:02,3:55, and 3:54. My schedule said 3 x 800m @ 4:06. I ran simply by feel and was amazed at the results. I think i'll try running to feel more often, then maybe i'll have the confidence to run a race like it too.

Dylan man

15/03/2012 at 21:26

Just run, great session. I have tried what you did but can't resist a sly glance! Way around it is long sleeves?

Hellywobs

17/03/2012 at 17:30

Going back to the original question, my aim would be to take my watch so I had a record of the run, but I wouldn't look at it. But it depends if you've got the self-control not to look - I sometimes say I won't look on a training run and nearly always do at least once!

gee gee

11/04/2012 at 12:53

I always wear mine and only glance at mile splits but mainly interested in the stats etc after the race on the computer. did a hell run through mud and water etc and didn't wear it for that. didn't miss it in the race at all but as I beat my target time by 4 mins would have liked to have seen the data afterwards.

David N 173

13/04/2012 at 23:28

We have a monthly 5km race at work organised on a handicap basis - slowest sets off first and we all finish within a few minutes of each other.

I usually look at my GPS watch every km to see what pace I am going at, however I accidentally left my GPS at home yesterday, so ran without any timing indication.

Result was 20 seconds better than my PB for the course! Whether that was a coincidence or not I cannot say.

Edited: 13/04/2012 at 23:35

Fit-Running-Cat

14/04/2012 at 00:31

Similar to others, I did a 20mile training race last year and forgot my Garmin.

Ran far better and more comfortably.

Big negative split and really of 6 minutes and just picked off loads of people who had gone past.

There has to be something in this..

Maybe as suggested, set display to not show certain things so you don't try "forcing" it... Just flow and relaxed breathing.

LCB

15/04/2012 at 00:48

I did the Brighton Half earlier this year where the distance was decidedly out (official course length was adjusted to 13.4 miles) and I forgot to set my watch - the start was a bit fraught, I was late :-/
I could "feel" that the mile markers were out at mile 3 and 4 and but I trusted them and as a result I ended up getting my pace wrong and holding back the last couple of miles. If I'd had my Garmin set, I probably would have trusted that above the mile markers and paced myself better.
You don't have to look at your watch if you've got it with you, but sometimes, it makes the difference...

gee gee

16/04/2012 at 12:43

LCB, heard about the brighton half sounds like there was some unhappy campers at the end

LCB

16/04/2012 at 23:16

Yes - quite a few!
The organisers were pretty fair and adjusted the distance and times in the end, but it would have been better if it didn't happen in the first place.

Marc.S

17/04/2012 at 11:19

i just have a race day screen, with last lap and average pace on, i use manual laps and hit the button on the official course mile markers,

Johnny again

17/04/2012 at 14:37

In the old, pre-garmin days, I was a pretty good judge of pace. Since getting my first garmin in 1999, I found myself obsessing for a few years. I've gone back to running by perceived effort and my times are almost back to where they were a decade ago. (Probably coincidence).

I still wear the garmin though so I can geek out when I get home. If I'm racing well, I don't have time to look at it, if I'm not running well I might sneak a peak to try to maintain pace. I never set a beep though, I think that is bad manners in races, although fine in training. As for those who have beeping garmins but are listening to their ipods - don't take me there!

A couple of years ago I ran an off-road race where watches and garmins were banned. All runners were aked to predict their finish time. I finished 8 seconds faster than I had predicted and won a bottle of fizz for being the closest to my time. Once you know your body You don't really need the technology!

PhilPub

17/04/2012 at 14:46

I'm with Jonny. I wear my Garmin all the time, on the basis that you can't really have too much information to geek over afterwards (should you want to). However, I lost my HR chest strap a couple of weekends ago (left it at a race HQ I suspect), and it's kind of prompted me to generally rethink my "feedback during races" strategy. I'm not a slave to the Garmin anyway, but I ran a pretty decent race on Saturday being a lot more conscious of perceived effort, almost as if it was nice not to have the distraction of something else to tell you (supposedly) how hard you're working. I still had info re: splits, pace etc. to hand, but I only ever glanced at the Garmin occasionally to see how far there was left to go. (They don't have mile markers at the National Road Relays and I'd never done the long leg before!)

I may well go Garmin-less for a few shorter races over the Summer, see how liberating it feels.

Edited: 17/04/2012 at 14:48

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