There have been a few comments recently at training about how people are using their watches, timing efforts and rests. Or not timing them, having each effort as an individual run, or all efforts just bundled in to a group run.
With most of us having running specific watches there are a few options as to what can be done to better time efforts and rests.
On my watch I can have multiple different screens, which I can select any one of or scroll through and when I’m doing a session, particularly a track session, the only thing I have displaying on my screen is “Lap Time”.
This is because on the track we have the markings so know what the exact distances are and GPS loses accuracy a little bit as it smooths the corners off.
I know the distance that I’m running and I’m aiming for a consistent time over that distance.
When I’m about to start an effort I press the “Lap” button on my watch, the timer goes to 0:00 and starts timing that effort.
When I finish the effort I press the “Lap” button again and it displays my time for that effort for a few seconds, while in the background it resets to 0:00 and starts timing my rest.
When the rest is over I press Lap again, etc.
Doing this I have accurately timed efforts and I’m accurately timing my rest, no trying to work things out, gauging my rest off other runners or just guessing,
When you’ve finished your run and loaded it up to Garmin or Strava you can view all of those individual laps and see whether you ran as you wanted to, or see how you compare to others.
To view the Laps in Strava view the activity and then select the Laps button.
In this example the Laps are;
1-3. Warmup, strides etc
4. 400m effort
5. 100m jog recovery
6. 300m effort
7. 90 seconds rest
Which repeats through the session. Click on the image to enlarge it.
If anyone needs any help in setting their watch up then please see me at training.