Km’s or Miles? Anyone transitioned between them?

[Realfoodieclub]

I am on the couch at the moment, (sinus infection) so what am I doing, Planning out my HM training schedule. I am thinking of going to miles from km’s.

I know it shouldn’t make much of a difference but mentally it seems quite big. Has anyone changed their own training from one to another.

I think I stuck with km’s Because I like the sound of the bigger runs but I have heard you can be more mentally prepared for your event if you train in the same unit, so I am seriously thinking about it.

What do you all train in Km’s or miles?

[UnfitNoMore Graduate]

Miles... I have no understanding of kilometres anywhere but on the track! Never used them and so miles made more sense, plus for any run there’s less of them to tick off 😂

HM and marathon are strange in that they’re neither anyway... marathon is generally referred to as 26.2 but split times are every 5k 🤪

I don’t see as it makes a difference to training... when I ran 3k it was all in “lap times” and my current 5k plan goes to 5.75 miles long run, and the only run that’s an exact number of kilometres is the last one, the race itself 😂

[Realfoodieclub Graduate in reply to UnfitNoMore]

The HM I do has mile markers, but because I don’t work in miles I sort of have no idea how I am doing and thought that if I could train in miles it would make it be less of a calculation. The main thing is my brain and my legs know how long one Km is. A year ago I transitioned from a 25 meter pool to a 50 meter swimming pool I am still counting the lengths in 25 meters 😀.

[UnfitNoMore Graduate in reply to Realfoodieclub]

I guess you could use their miles and a tracker in km?!

Little miss UMN runs in km, so we have to think if we are running together!

[Realfoodieclub Graduate in reply to UnfitNoMore]

Do you do your increases in miles? Or part of a mile.

[UnfitNoMore Graduate in reply to Realfoodieclub]

The app does a bit of both... I get every quarter of the mile represented, sometimes the long run goes up a mile, sometimes 0.75 and occasionally 0.5.

There are two flavours of their plan though, if I set up in km then I don’t see weird fractions, it still goes in quarters.

If I switch units it does look batshit crazy!

[Realfoodieclub Graduate in reply to UnfitNoMore]

I have done 4 HM’s now and I tend to make my own training plans now. I think probably 1/2 miles increment increases would suit me. Up until 6 miles then a bit bigger after that. Thank you for your input.

[UnfitNoMore Graduate in reply to Realfoodieclub]

Yeah... once 10% is giving over a mile that would make sense to me

[MutleyShuffle Graduate]

I am trying to do the same thing! The fitness band I bought when I was doing C25K was set up in km so I know all my paces/distances etc in km. Recently I treated myself to a Garmin watch and it is set up in miles. I know I could change it to km but I thought as I hope to start training for a HM soon I should keep it imperial. It's proving really difficult to get my head round though - I look at the watch and none of the figures make sense to me! Guess I'll just have to stick at it - my poor old brain is too old/lazy for this! 😬

[Realfoodieclub Graduate in reply to MutleyShuffle]

This is my worry but I keep toying with it. The thing is I can look up the road and my brain knows where the next 0.5km is so i mentally run to there and I do that a lot but I have read training and running a HM you can get a slightly better time training in miles if you event has mile markers so I think it might be worth it. I need all the help I can get 😀.

[MutleyShuffle Graduate in reply to Realfoodieclub]

Good luck! Let us know how you get on! Maybe I should check if the one I'm training for has mile markers...🤔

[MutleyShuffle Graduate in reply to MutleyShuffle]

Just checked - it does! 😁

[linda9389 Graduate]

Interesting! I wondered whether to make the switch from km to miles too. I thought it was just me being silly! I did the Great South run which was 10 miles. It had mile markers - but it also had a 5k and 10k marker, and then a countdown in metres at the end! All the way round my head was doing calculations. I did wonder if it might be more peaceful to make the switch to miles in training when it was less stressful .... but then again, I'm such a creature of habit!

[UnfitNoMore Graduate in reply to linda9389]

It’s all crazy... just looked at my app plan... all the runs are miles... then I get speed sessions in metres!

[Realfoodieclub Graduate in reply to UnfitNoMore]

Mmmmmm, is that because the speed sessions need shorter distances to work do you think.

[UnfitNoMore Graduate in reply to Realfoodieclub]

I get 200m intervals up to 1000m ones... which it could call 1k. I’m assuming the logic is they’re easier in metres if you are doing the speed sessions on a running track, which I would if I had one 😂

[Realfoodieclub Graduate in reply to linda9389]

That’s what I find, the mile markers make me do calculations as I try and work out if I’m on track. I know I have my garmin but somehow the markers upskittle me as I go round. I have between now and May, maybe my brain might be able to make it. 😀.

[linda9389 Graduate in reply to Realfoodieclub]

So comforting - for me - to know it's not just me! I had a scrambled egg head by the time I crossed the finish line To be honest, only a small part of that was down to miles v km because I too had the km's on my garmin, but there seemed to be a whole host of essential calculations that were required on a minute by minute basis! At least there are less miles than kms, therefore less markers, therefore maybe less calculations - even my garmin should buzz less often (but then would my head go into overdrive trying to fill in the gaps )

[linda9389 Graduate in reply to Realfoodieclub]

I've just hunted this old post down - I thought it was you who raised this!

I've just done my first ever Half Marathon! I stuck with km all though training, using my Garmin. Leading up to the event I had decided to go with 3 paces - up to the first water station slow; up to the fourth water station a little less slow and from there to the end at my fastest slow pace! Abi mentioned pace bands and that set my head thinking. I made a band (Blue Peter style ) based on my three min/km paces - on the band I only wrote the time duration at each mile marker (plus the four water stations). All through the event my watch buzzed away with stats every half km. I pretty much ignored them. At most (but not all) mile markers I checked the elapsed time on my Garmin against the planned time on my wrist. For me it worked fabulously. My head was doing no calculations other than was I ahead or behind. It was SO peaceful! In part that's probably because I was lucky enough to be about 3 or 4 minutes ahead of plan from 5k on. But the great thing was not trying to calculate pace ... I'm going to try it again. I loved it. There's a photo of it on my race report on the other forum.

[Realfoodieclub Graduate in reply to linda9389]

Aw bless you, that must of been a trudge trying to find the post, thank you for doing that. I Love the idea of the band, I would like to do something like that but they would have to be really big numbers for me to be able to see it without my glasses but I like the idea of working towards something like that. I did try to change to miles but I really hated it. Well done on your HM, we had to drive into London latest that day and I saw people walking around with their medals, it looked like a lovely day for the run.

[linda9389 Graduate in reply to Realfoodieclub]

It was indeed a beautiful day 😀 good luck with yours, whether metric or imperial 😀

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

I suppose, being a joiner who was brought up with the imperial system but having now fully embraced the metric system, I translate from one to the other, in both directions, as necessary...........so I fail to understand your problem.........5 miles is 8k is 5 miles.....

[Realfoodieclub Graduate in reply to IannodaTruffe]

It is a total mental thing that happens on the event, my last event my garmin played up and it didn’t show the total time of the run, so when I came to the mile markers I had no information as to how I was doing and it seemed to throw me a bit and I thought if I transitioned it might mentally make it easier.

[Duddles Graduate]

I train in kilometres, mostly on a treadmill. Upping speed is more gradual, smaller jumps of just a tenth of a kilometre an hour are a gentle way of increasing pace. A treadmill set in miles per hour has much bigger jumps. But out on the road, and with my Garmin, it is all miles. I have my pace in minutes per mile and all my records on line are in miles. Unless you need the more gradual increase of treadmill kilometres, miles make a lot more sense out on the road.

[Realfoodieclub Graduate in reply to Duddles]

I think I’m going to have to get my head around running in miles, it feels very alien right now. I’m sure I will convert 😀.

[skysue16 Graduate]

Maths and mental calculations - it all sounds very confusing 😕😬. I did try using miles for a few runs but decided that kms sounds better! Let us know how you get on.

[Realfoodieclub Graduate in reply to skysue16]

I am such a stats girl 😀, I wil,let you know how it goes

[cheekychipmunks Graduate]

Not that I’m planning on going beyond 10k yet (or even ever!), but I think kms up to 10k, and miles for anything over that! That was technical wasn’t it?!

Rather the same as Celsius and Fahrenheit - C for cold temperatures and F when it gets hot! 😅😅

[Realfoodieclub Graduate in reply to cheekychipmunks]

I think after the HM I might go back and adopt this strategy but knowing me if I embrace transitioning to miles I won’t want to go back 😀.

[cheekychipmunks Graduate in reply to Realfoodieclub]

Miles do sound impressive don’t they? Good luck! 😀

[Bloodhound1]

I have just this run W8R2 changed from miles ( at 68 I am old fashioned!) to kilometres. As I want to watch my I watch tick the kilometres off towards the big 5Z target. Can’t say I like kilometres seems foreign and I am must likely to change back to warm cuddly miles after the 5 k achieved.

[Realfoodieclub Graduate in reply to Bloodhound1]

I think for some of us it really is more of a mental thing than others, It is strange. 😀.

[mrrun Graduate]

Alternatively, you can go all out Zen and ditch both. From there you simply refer to your runs as Jasmin (HM) and Lotus (M). Let peacocks and hummingbirds be your on route guides.

I am adept at either and all, travel often so distances and measurements are all the same. Yes, many of it is down to mental barriers which l tend to block and ignore as much as l can. I dropped red Marlboro without patches and on the spot, the rest comes much easier.

[Realfoodieclub Graduate in reply to mrrun]

Hehe, I like the sound of a Jasmin run.

It is strange how to some of us it is really important and to others it is “what’s the problem”

In the kitchen I go from pounds to grams to cups and nothing phases me but I cook like it is second nature, I am ultra comfortable in a kitchen. I don’t run that way, I have never been and don’t think I will ever be a natural runner. I wish I was 😀. Maybe that’s why the change seems big mentally.

[E27M14 Graduate]

I have my garmin set to tell me distance in km, so I can easily see when i’ve done 5k, but it tells me pace in mins per mile because that’s what most of my friends seem to use and although we are not competing it gives me a nice bench-mark. As I’ve been using mins per mile all along, I now know what sort of pace I need to be aiming for and think I would be confused for a while if I tried to switch that too. Problem is, sometimes my garmin decides to change the distance back to miles without any warning, and since it doesn’t tell me units on the display some way into the run I don’t know whether I have run a mile or a kilometre..... I do find though that all this thinking about units, and the maths for the conversions, gives me something else to think about rather than whether I can actually complete this run without dying!! By the time I have worked out the figures I am almost at the end (and not dead) 😂

[Realfoodieclub Graduate in reply to E27M14]

It is an ability we seem to acquire as runners, doing maths on the fly😀. I’ve have lost count the amount of times I have seen km pace multiplied that by a half marathon to decide if it is good run 😂😂😂. You are right though it does take you mind off a difficult run.