How to race against yourself?

[Penguinita]

Just wondering if there is an app or something out there where you can record your run, and then play it back again next time to try and beat yourself? I’d love something that tells me how far ahead of/behind my previous best I am. I’m useless at pacing and it’s quite hilly around here, so trying to maintain an average pace doesn’t really work! Thanks in advance!

[Cmoi Graduate10]

Hi Penguinita , I'm not sure I've understood exactly what you're after.

You can record your runs with apps like Strava, which will give you distance, pace and elevation stats, and will tell you when you've run a personal best. You can also set it to announce when you've run a kilometre, for example, and how long that's taken you.

If you want to keep checking on your pace as you run, then a running watch is the easiest way. It'll also give you lots of other statistics and training plans if you want, though I barely use any of the features of my Garmin 45s - I'm just not that interested.

But for a replay facility that would actually tell you in real time "You're 30 seconds ahead" or whatever, I have no idea, sorry.

Fwiw I'm also in a hilly area and run by effort. Setting my pace by numbers just doesn't work for me.

[roseabi]

I think you can do something like that with "Live Segments" on Strava, but it is a premium feature.

support.strava.com/hc/en-us...

[roseabi in reply to roseabi]

This free Android app works with Strava segments play.google.com/store/apps/...

[John_W Graduate10]

My old TomTom did exactly that. You could load up a previous 5k (for example) and then as you ran it would tell how you doing compared to that previous run. Quite clever.

Not aware if any of the Garmins do that

[Penguinita Graduate10]

Thanks, that Ghostracer app looks like the kind of thing but seems like it is only available on Android unfortunately. It was watching ghost racing on a car game (where you can see a faint version of yourself doing your previous best time as you go round) that made me think of it in the first place. Maybe I need to get more tech savvy, develop my own app and pitch it on Dragon’s Den. Along with a follow up 10k app for after Couch to 5k, judging by the amount of people asking about one on here! I’d be rich! 😆

[roseabi in reply to Penguinita]

This iOS app has a ghost run function: apps.apple.com/us/app/ismoo...