How do you record your runs? Not which app, but when do you press 'start'?

[Squeakypoptest]

So I am trying out Strava to record my runs. It's kind of interesting to see my pace and I love the little maps with the wiggly red line showing where I've been. I just covered 4.29K in W8R1, which is 5 mins walk, 28 mins run, 5 mins walk. I pressed 'start' on the app when I left the house and stopped it when I returned. But have I really just run for 4.29k? Technically I walked for ten minutes of the distance recorded. Should I be pressing start when the 28 minutes starts? Does it matter? If I did a Park Run, would I need to walk the 5 minutes before starting the 5K? Or could I legit walk the first and last 5 minutes?

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate]

Well I press when I begin to run and stop it when I stop running

If you are doing Park Run before Graduation Week 9, then yes.. walk for five minutes at the beginning, run for the allotted time and then cool down walk

If you are running it at Week 9.. warm up before the start, then just run, at your own pace for the 30 minutes

[Squeakypoptest Graduate in reply to Oldfloss]

Ok, that makes sense

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

If you want to measure your runs, start the tracker when you start running, so if you want to know how far you run in W9, you only want to record for 30 minutes.

If you want to measure your entire workout, start as you leave home.

We recommend for parkrun that you stick to your C25K intervals, but you can warm up well before the start gun.

[Squeakypoptest Graduate in reply to IannodaTruffe]

Ah ok. I was waiting for w9r3 before Parkrun but I see I could just weave it in. Apparently some people walk it?

[IannodaTruffe Mentor in reply to Squeakypoptest]

Many people walk the entire route at many parkruns, so don't worry about that.

Keep back from the start line unless you want to get trampled.

Register your club as NHS C25k. Don't forget your barcode and do listen to the talk for new runners.

You will love it.

[Squeakypoptest Graduate in reply to IannodaTruffe]

Ok. I am looking forward to it

[Melo_smiles Graduate]

Great question as I wondered the same thing 🤔 my last run was Wk8 R2 and I managed to cover 4.3k but that included my warm up and cool down walk. Think I’ll just track my run next time to get a gadge how I’m doing against the 5k. Think it will take me quite a while to hit the 5k as I’m slow and steady but it will come eventually 😉

[Squeakypoptest Graduate in reply to Melo_smiles]

Me too...

[Melo_smiles Graduate in reply to Squeakypoptest]

Just realised I wrote gadge instead of gauge 😂

[Squeakypoptest Graduate in reply to Melo_smiles]

Didn't like to say... 😄

[Hidden]

Does Strava have a 5 minute delay function - I use Map My Run and so for the first 5 minutes walking is in the ‘delay start’ period it is not timed nor measured. And at the end of the run intervals I press stop. Yes the walking intervals make a difference and are counted - but at this stage that’s not so critical, when you hit the graduation week you’ll see it is all running....

[Squeakypoptest Graduate in reply to Hidden]

Ok. Will check for delay function

[RainbowC Graduate]

I use RunKeeper, but it's the same kind of thing. I can't be bothered with sorting out my phone once I've started, so I include the five minutes walks at start and end in my tracking. I know from the voice prompts roughly how far I walk at start and end, so can subtract that from the total distance to get an approximation of my run distance. There's no right or wrong answer - just do what you prefer to do...

[Curlygurly2 Graduate]

I usually record the whole thing, but I know I can walk 500 MTs in 5 minutes, so if I'm bothered about how far I've run, I just take 1 KM off the total. Simple!

[Squeakypoptest Graduate in reply to Curlygurly2]

Pragmatic. I like it.