๐ Metric or Imperial? Kilometres vs miles? ... - Bridge to 10K
๐ Metric or Imperial? Kilometres vs miles? Whatโs your preference? ๐
This week got me thinking about how I measure how far my runs are. If you measure your distance, how do you mainly do it? Kilometres or miles? An even mix? Tell me in the comments whatโs your preference and why!
Even though I am an old geezer, running in KM, everything else in Miles.
Road signs are in miles, as is speed in this country so it just makes sense to me to measure runs in miles as well!
I did C25k and parkrun is of course 5k, and it just seemed to stick. Also a mile always seems such a long way when you can have 3 distances of 0.5k before you get there ๐๐
Kilometres feel like you are doing more! โบ
I use kmโs - but the furthest I have run is a HM. I am toying with entering for a ful marathon next year (2024), and I may just switch to miles then, and 26.2 sounds so much closer than 42.2
I think I measure in KM because I started running using the C25K app and I havenโt really thought about changing it. Iโve become quite adept at converting KM to miles and back in my head anyway, and itโs another way of distracting my mind when things get tough! ๐คฃ
Was always kmโs and my Strava runs remain recorded in kmโs.Did not elect to change it.Since trying to go longer distances I started using miles on my watch.I prefer less notifications on longer distances.๐๐ค
Hi Tbae, not heard from you for a while, I hope you are keeping well, Alan
Yes thanks Alan.I hope all well with you.๐โโ๏ธ๐ช๐๐ค
Yes Tbae all's well with me, I have now ran 74 parkruns and 144 (not) parkruns, one of which was along the prom at Helensburgh, the same route but a bit longer than my graduation run, it will be five years on 18th June this year that I completed that now famous graduation run, remember "goin yerself" ๐ โ I have also ran 31/10Ks, 8/16Ks/10 miles and 1 half marathon, that HM was in memory of the late great Tim, IannodaTruffe..
Well done Alan on all your achievements and your HM in Timโs memory.I count my blessings that I am still out there.I am comfortable with 21miles per week and a minimum run is now 6miles.Still got a lot of distractions but such is life. Atb Alan.๐โโ๏ธ๐๐ช๐๐ค
๐ ๐๐พ
PS, is that darned hedge now cut down?
I was watching a TV programme about walking The West Highland Way, in some parts the path is in an awful state caused by the amount of people walking it, after the presenter completed the walk, the next day he climbed Ben Nevis, the "path" up Ben Nevis is even worse than the West Highland Way path, the presenter described the amount of people climbing Ben Nevis as"its like Sauchiehall Street", I am sure you wouldn't like to climb Ben Nevis again because of the amount of people doing it now.
The erosion and traffic on the tourist path from Glen Nevis must be severe Alan.
Many other more interesting routes of course Alan to the top of the Ben.
Everywhere so busy now.You have to be careful with road runs.?
Living in North Wales limits my opportunities to get home to the West Highlands.420 miles is a good days drive.
But when I do I can see the volume of people doing the West Highland Way and passing through Kinlochleven the penultimate leg before completing in Fort William.That is the leg over the devilโs staircase from Glencoe and onto the Mamores.
Kinlochleven has the only vertical 5k in the country.From the Ice Wall in the village to the top of The Maidens , 3000 feet +( a Munro) .5k to the top.The record time blows your mind.?
Happy days Alan.Stay safe and keep well.๐๐โโ๏ธ๐ช๐๐ค
Runs and walks are in km, driving distances are miles. I agree with others - you can get to a higher number more easily if you measure in km!
5k and 10k are in errm km. then I do 10 miles (16.1km) and donโt really refer to HM in distance terms for some reason. And if I ever get to marathon that would be referred to in miracle terms ๐
For all my runs, walks and bike rides I use kilometers, however, I still understand miles when travelling on a car, train or bus..
Like so many others, km were the starting point in c25k so I've stuck with them. Do everything else in my life in imperial measures! And I do feel my unimpressive runs sound more impressive in kilometres!
The metric system makes far more sense to me, so, yea, I measure in kilometers (and liters and Celsius). ๐
Iโm kilometres, kilograms and Celsius. But wind is mph. ๐
Kilometres all the way: it would be stupid to use miles in a country that doesn't.
I can convert distances well enough, and in a similar vein, car speeds (necessary when driving a French car in the UK...) but not pace numbers. There again I don't really care about those anyway!
Furlongs per fortnight ๐
Or Km if I can't work out the above ๐
Kilometres started with C25k, and now all of my notions of pace are kilometre based. I know what 6.5, 7 and 7.5minutes per K feel like. Swapping over to miles would confuse my ageing brain!๐
Kms - legacy of c25k and of course parkrun!
When I started C25K I measured everything in kilometres, up until I completed a half mararthon. Since I started training for a marathon changed to measuring every run in miles.
Depends on which is the nearest whole number. So maybe 5km or 4 miles. Iโm contrary but do like a round-ish number!
The app that got me running was Couch to 5K not 3.1 miles
In my head I do sometimes convert kms to miles after a run, or a week of runs but I still almost always run them in kms.
I think it's just because C25K is aiming for 5k, then 10k...but it has the added bonus of coming up faster than another mile on the Garmin which gives you more little boosts along the way.
The only time I differed from this was during a HM training plan that called for an extra mile each week...much easier with the Garmin set to miles, and towards the last few my brain only has energy for the run so I'm not sure I could covert it on the go!
Mostly km for me, except 10 miles is always in miles (!) and when full marathon training I seem to switch to miles for the longer distances for some reason. Probably makes it feel less daunting.
Since joining Strava I have recorded in miles but have just recently switched over to kilometres. Havenโt quite got used to it yet & think I prefer miles but probably only because itโs what Iโm used to ๐คทโโ๏ธ
miles for me because thatโs what Iโm used to and Iโm a slow learner when it comes to arithmetic.
Kilometres. We have been in the metric system for over fifty years.
Being interested in astronomy, I often use parsecs (=3.26 light years) for distance and redshift for velocities. As these are impractical for running, for this I just boring old km and km/h.
I do miles on Strava and kms on Garmin - Iโve got quite good at converting it all by using both! In my head I use whatever sounds the best at the time! ๐
My Garmin is set up in miles but is linked to Strava which is set up in kilometres. Best of both worlds!๐
5k and 10k in kms, everything else in miles (converted to kms)
Mostly kilometres, they are shorter and feel as if I've run further, I changed everything to miles once and a mile seemed to take forever, having said that I usually run to time so the distance is if secondary importance
My Strava is set to KM as my annual distance goal is the year weโre in so 2023km. My Garmin is set to miles as I have a dream of running 26.2 miles one day ๐
I was always km after c25k but I joined a running club (briefly) and they just measured everything for the group you went with in your minutes per mile so I didn't have a clue which I was .... so I changed and it has stayed changed ๐คท๐ปโโ๏ธ no idea why ๐
I do like that you can switch between systems when training up to longer distances, e.g. 5k, 5miles, 10k, 10miles, 21km. ๐
I'm a bit older so my mind works in miles but because of couch to 5k I always check my distance in both. I like to see if I've got to 5k but all my gizmos are set in miles.
I voted Kilometres because thatโs mostly what I use, but I do convert to miles in my head for any run after 12K. I think itโs to do with racing distances. There are 10K races and then a jump to 10 milesโฆ. There are rarely races of distances in between.
Increasing distance is always in Kโs as itโs much gentler than an increase of 1 mile ๐
Being European, I only had to start dealing with miles after moving to the UK. I find it interesting how lots of places use metric, including the NHS where I work, but a lot of people use imperial in their daily lives.
As a swimmer, thereโs an event which is 1500m which is about a mile, so I sometimes say I swam a mile rather than say 1500m just cos its easier to say ๐
As we began our transition to metric in 1965 when I was only 3 (ahhh, little cutie)I use km๐
I started in km thanks to C25k but now talk more about miles. Longer running distances are nearly all miles!
๐ช Katnap ๐ฑ
My treadmill is Kms only, I did C25K and have just found it easier to track progress using kms rather than miles.
miles take too long to pass! I like more splits too ๐๐ฝ most people I run with use miles so Iโm constantly converting between the two. My garmin is in ks but Strava in miles. I do aim for a weekly distance total in miles, weirdly.
I can live with either. But something I can't handle is this "number of minutes to run a km" . The faster you run, the lower the number, it seems counter intuitive to me, I can't get my head around it
Kilometres, sounds further ๐คฃ๐คฃ๐คฃ. Everything else is in miles.
I mostly use kms. They tick by so much quicker even though there are more of them, plus I have several routes stored in my mind that I can use to imagine when I have a certain distance left to go. 0.5k is a small loop round the plateau on the common, 1k is the run down to the car, 2.2k round the perimeter, 3.7k round a circuit of one of my runs in town etc. It all helps when youโre flagging! ๐
I used to run in KM but my OH had not a clue what i was talking about, so miles it is. I get some recognition ๐คฃ๐คฃ
I know this is weird but I have Strava set to miles and my Garmin on kilometres
I prefer kilometres but as I am doing the River Nile virtual run at the moment it is easier for me to do that to log miles
Ha just read all the other posts Iโm not so weird after all
For marathon training it was miles. I found it was better to count down from 26 instead of 44. Now that 10k will be my longest run I'm back to k. To do the 5k it's 3.1 or somthing in miles, to do the 10k it's 6.2 etc. The k is just more round figure lol
I always use KM, they clock up quicker than miles, and I did C25K when I was living in France where they only use KM, so it just made sense. Of course, longer races are measured in miles and then signs along the route are in miles, that really hurts my head!
I've recently joined a facebook running group, a lot of members are American. There it seems the norm that all races are in KM but when people share their pace it's in miles....so for example 5K , pace 12:30 or whatever, I think that's nuts! (It's a group for slower runners)