September 30th, 2008
Had a happy 7 w/8 100m strides today. The weather is gorgeous, really felt like Fall is just around the corner. I guess technically it’s here already, but until I get a run under 60 degrees, it’s still the end of Summer to me.
A nice thing for frequent commenter and blogger Dogpound and I, we were linked on a cool Scranton City blog yesterday. It’s an article about Steamtown, check it out.
So I forgot to mention the other day I did something astounding last Saturday…left my Garmin at home. Yep, I used my Ironman watch for the first time, bought days before the Garmin, but never used. The thing is more confusing to me than the Garmin but after scouring the directions sheet for too long, I figured out how it works.
What drove me to it was the usual thing of wanting to deal with my Garmin dependency in general, but also, I’ve been annoyed with Garmin’s inaccuracies lately. I finally noticed that a great part of the path where I run is marked, albeit on the ground and very faint in some areas, but enough that I could check my real time against the Garmin. What an eye-opener it was on Sunday’s 18-miler.
I wore the Garmin that day, but took it off auto-lap, pressing the lap button whenever I passed a marker. I went a little crazy with it because I was so intent on finding out what’s really going on, that I ended up with 50 laps! Obviously, it kept me happily occupied during the run.
What I discovered was, when you use the lap button to mark laps and then look at the resulting pace in Garmin Training Center, the distance multiplied to make a mile (.25 mile x 4) does not equal the Garmin avg. pace listed in the program. This is a big deal and changes the average totals. Sometimes it’s faster, sometimes slower, but rarely equivalent to the Pace in TC or on the Garmin itself, while in use. However, if you do a programmed workout on the Garmin (like 5×600), the multiplication works, it’s just manually entered laps that don’t equate.
What does this mean? It means it’s better to manually mark laps in a race (as I’ve been doing) and also, in a race, to ignore the pace information completely (beyond instantaneous, even avg. lap pace) which pretty much invalidates the use of the Garmin except for analyzing later. Now maybe this has something to do with where I live, I know when we were out West (and closer to the sky), it was perfectly accurate, and maybe when the trees lose their leaves that’ll make a difference, but I’m more mistrustful of my Garmin than ever, which ends up being a good thing, as now I will use the park markers more often.
Oh, and you can imagine that upon discovering this, I totally mistrusted my whole training history and had a major freakout, but with a little help from mapmyrun.com, I discovered my intervals and tempos were correct, nothing wildly off there. Whew! But tomorrow, I’ve got 8 w/3×1600 and I’ll be using the mile markers, so make that 3xmile. I’m going to go ahead and wear the Garmin for uploading afterwards but tomorrow, it’s just a big fat watch.
Posted in Running
12 Responses to “Innocence Lost”
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I’m using it for my intervals, even though I will do them on a track. Though I am NOT going to wear it for steamtown! The think I think that has been the most helpful with it is the heart rate, but then I get caught up in everything else.
I’m still going to wear it at Steamtown as a watch and to keep me from going out too fast, but even that is questionable now. It’ll be nice to have the data afterward.
Don’t we just love our gadgets. I think the technology will get more accurate over the years.
Now when they come out with the gadget that runs and burns calories for me, I’ll pay double!
In my taper period, I made up a wristband for my regular route and practiced pacekeeping with it and a watch. I don’t have a Garmin, and the practice came in useful. I should think the Garmin will be worth wearing just for the instant pace reading. We need all the help we can get, in those first few miles. Going just 00:10 too fast can lead to trouble later.
Jim, I like the paceband training idea, I sure love them during a race. As for Garmin’s instant pace reading, that’s famously the most unreliable one because it makes up for GPS variances on the fly, so sometimes it’ll give you 8:48, then 7:20, then 10:29 in about as much time as I took to type this. Avg. lap pace is the more trustable one, but not still perfect.
It can be super helpful at the start of a race…depending on the signal, otherwise, it can trick you into thinking you’re running at a different pace. Until you reach the first marker, there’s really no way to know how accurate it is for that particular location. And while you can set up a window to tell you the satellite accuracy, even if it’s in the low 20s (usual for my area), it can be off enough to matter.
I think I am breaking up with my Garmin. The last straw was after he refused to work at the start of my marathon on saturday even though he was fully charged. I’m not sure I’m taking him back either (charged or not). At the last minute a friend who came to watch the race loaned me his ironman watch and I was able to see my mile splits and I also had a homemade paceband to help, so maybe I don’t need Mr. Garmin after all. I’m confused and ambivalent about the whole affair with him-he really plays with my head. He refused to work at the NYC half in July too (after having been fully charged overnight!!!) and he always does this to me five minutes before the start…hmmph…
Lol, Lisa, that is priceless. The lout! I don’t blame you for splitting up with him, talk about undependable. He done you wrong!
Now, please don’t be jealous, but my Garmin (though obviously flawed) has never waned in that department and continues to be turned on by me, run after run after run. Makes me tired just thinking about it.
Yeah, I had a little marital spat with my Garmin at the PDR. I was glued to the thing and thought I was right on pace to meet my goal. Apparently anyone using a Garmin had problems in the city which threw them off. I would have easily come in where I wanted to be had I not lightened up because the watch showed me going too fast early on. Not sure I’m ready to put it on Ebay just yet, but I now realize it’s not perfect (neither am I so we are still a good match).
I have to say I have only recently started reading your blog. However, everyday that I read it I just smile. You have the greatest insight about all things running and I enjoy every post. Thanks for keeping us informed and good luck at your race!
It never fails — someone will wear their Garmin to a race and will gripe at the end that the course ran long (okay, so I count myself in that group for my first marathon!) I’ve NEVER had Garmin register 26.2 miles on the dot. There’s just no way you can run the course exactly how the race directors have measured it. That said, I do like wearing mine in a race, but will mentally keep track of how I’m doing should Garmin not sync up with the mile markers.
Christi, thanks a million for the cool comment! You’re a total doll and managed to plant a huge smile on my face, so now we’re even. Hugs and smoochies to you!!
Betsy, I was guilty of that for my last race, but only because someone I know whose opinion I trust had the same anomaly (and it was a short race). I felt like a whiner thinking it, but then again…I am!
In my first marathon, when Garmin hit 26.2 I was no where near the finish line. When it hit 26.45 and I was STILL no where near the finish, I decided to quit looking. My final Garmin measurement was 26.97! Of course, that was during the Marathon du Medoc, and I veered off course several times to hit the wine stations and take pee breaks in the vineyards