[Singularity]

Just wondering, do you all look at your watches during a race to see how fast you are going? The reason I ask is a friend at work (who has been racing for many years) says he never looks at his watch during a race. His reasoning is, saying you are used to doing 7 minutes miles and you look down at your watch and notice you've just done a 6 minute mile. All of a sudden you start panicking and end up slowing down because you think you shouldn't be going that fast.

 

[Steve]

I do at the mile/km markers....

 

[john.ump]

Looking at my watch is a problem of mine. I keep looking at it to see what my speed is and keep looking back to check it. I think it upsets my running and is a habit I must break.

 

[cheriton]

Just wondering, do you all look at your watches during a race to see how fast you are going? The reason I ask is a friend at work (who has been racing for many years) says he never looks at his watch during a race. His reasoning is, saying you are used to doing 7 minutes miles and you look down at your watch and notice you've just done a 6 minute mile. All of a sudden you start panicking and end up slowing down because you think you shouldn't be going that fast.

I suppose you may slow down if it was in the early stages of a distance race but on the other hand you may be in prime form and therefore running freely.

It's a handy tool mid way through a race as you may be trying to achieve a negative/ positive split I guess it's again up to the individual to decide what works best for them

Personally i do look at my watch from time to time . I don't stress if i'm a little faster or slower . If it was a minute difference either way though it would make me question myself!

Take it easy

 

[Singularity]

I do at the mile/km markers....

Yea, mine alerts me at the mile marker so I was thinking of checking it then just to see if I'm doing the time I want to be doing.

 

[richardsimkiss]

This is a dilemma I face everytime I race - I seem to run better without a watch to say what pace I'm doing, as it always seems to affect me regardless of how intent I am at ignoring it.

I'm yet to run with my garmin, though I'd love to see what my pace and HR does during the course of a race - maybe Glooston 10k tomorrow would be a good chance for it seeing as I'm unlikely to PB?

 

[Slowsteve]

and you look down at your watch and notice you've just done a 6 minute mile.

If I looked at my watch and it said I'd done a 6 minute mile, it probably means I'm in an ambulance

 

[dimple]

Yes I kept looking at mine last night, and it did put me off.

Then again as I was near the finish I could see I could just make under an hour so I speeded up.

 

[Grant]

Looking at my watch is a problem of mine. I keep looking at it to see what my speed is and keep looking back to check it. I think it upsets my running and is a habit I must break.

I've got the same habit, too. I'm going to have to break it, as I think I'm becoming a bit too reliant on the Garmin for judging my pacing.

 

[calton1954]

Always check at the Km markers during a race to see how my pace is.

 

[john.ump]

I've got the same habit, too. I'm going to have to break it, as I think I'm becoming a bit too reliant on the Garmin for judging my pacing.

I'm currently following an online plan from Runnersworld which stipulates certain paces, 8:50 for example, now I've realised that the Garmin won't show 8:50 constantly even though I'm roughly at that pace because it fluctuates with signal etc. I think I should be concetrating on the effort that the plan is after.

 

[Grant]

I'm currently following an online plan from Runnersworld which stipulates certain paces, 8:50 for example, now I've realised that the Garmin won't show 8:50 constantly even though I'm roughly at that pace because it fluctuates with signal etc. I think I should be concetrating on the effort that the plan is after.

Are you using one of the programs that you can download to your Garmin? If so, how are you finding it? I'm thinking of trying one.

 

[john.ump]

No I haven't, its just a printed out one. But I may also give it a try because the current plan runs 3 weeks short of my race.

 

[Revenged]

never use a watch during a race...

it would be a distraction...

 

[Hrun]

never use a watch during a race...

it would be a distraction...

If you need to carry a Garmin could you strap it to your leg or something so you can't see it

 

[Revenged]

don't use Garmin... a stopwatch with mapmyrun is fine...

 

[Rob]

I used my garmin constantly during my last half to monitor my target pace and it got me under 2 hrs. I'm not a good natural judge of pace.

 

[junkie_ball]

I tried my garmin on a couple of races now each time i have achieved a pB! :d I tend to check at the mile markers out of habit but only pay attention to the time i have been running rather than the current pace. I prefer to pick a runner in front of me and aim to catch them once i have managed to do that i then select my next victum! :d Tends to work for me!

 

[Granty]

Always have a look at the watch at the mile markers, use to be obsessed by looking at it but as I've begun to run at a more steady pace tend to do this less now.

 

[Katten]

I look at my garmin perhaps too frequently during races. It's very useful to keep track of your pace, and make sure you don't start off too fast, but mine does fluctuate quite a lot, particularly at the start, when it will go from 8:30 mins / mile to 3:50 mins / mile for the same stretch of steady running... :huh:

When the GPS fully locks on, and I settle into a rhythm of looking at it every few mins or so, it works very well, much better than trying to remember mile markers and distance/time converters