Help - can't understand Garmin results

[jenniej]

Many thanks to Halfords for a wonderful service, I ordered a Garmin Wednesday night, delivered 8.30am today (friday). This was my reward for doing W6R3. So I set off with my new friend this morning to do W7R1. I run endlessly run a small park but I dont understand the results. Can anyone help?

The settings are in kilometres - it says I did 2.56km in 25 minutes (I am slow but didnt think I was that slow), and my pace was 9.46km. Distance & pace seem inconsistent - any ideas as to which is right? Could the distance be wrong as it is such a small park - not much more than a couple of football pitches in size?

[andystev Graduate]

Might that be a maximum pace (kmh)?

[jenniej Graduate in reply to andystev]

Its the basic garmin110, so according to the booklet its supposed to be average pace - which doesnt seem right to me. I did up the pace a little bit for last 90secs, so it depends how garmin calculates the average - over whole period, or max average?

[Hidden in reply to jenniej]

the garmin web site calculates the pace on the whole workout. So if you stand still too much or get in the car and forget to turn it off it will mess up your pace calculations. there is a setting on some of the Garmin watches where you can set an automatic lap of 1km - I find that useful to compare my speed at the start and at the end of the run.

[Hidden]

The Garmin connect web site is easier to use than the Garmin PC software (in my view).

Looks correct to me. Its minutes per kilometre. If you ran 2.56km in 25 minutes then it is taking you 9.46minutes to run each KM on average.

For comparison my recent pace is 5.22mins/km on a 5k run but not hard run.

My wk 7r1 was 6.08mins/km

I get my data by doing this:

Click the activity name to see the activity in more detail.

Under timing look at average pace.

Don't forget you might also have your warm up time in the log - I use the lap button to end warm up as a lap and end the run as a lap. then I have the setting on the watch automatically divide each kilometre into a lap - that makes for easier understanding of how each of the KMs went as I ran them.

[jenniej Graduate in reply to Hidden]

Ah, now it makes sense. Thanks for the info, that's really helpful. Oh well, good to know by how much I need to improve - I am sooo slow!

[Hidden]

Your times are OK. The reason we use pace rather than miles per hour is a relatively small change in speed creates a big difference in numbers so it is easier to see progress. I wouldn't worry about the speed too much just concentrate on finishing the plan. The worst thing you could do would be to lose confidence or injure yourself going harder than you are ready for.

When you are happily running for 30 minutes you can start to try and push yourself to go faster if thats what you want to do. Your speed now would have you finishing before many in a parkrun. In a something like race to life you'd be going past many runners and all the walkers.

If you want to be a speed freak you can train to improve your times but ultimately its got to be about having fun.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Duh - typos - I meant "something like race for life"

[jenniej Graduate in reply to Hidden]

thanks for the reassurance & the advice Random. I know that i've slowed down as the 'runs' have got longer, on basis I'd rather finish than stop halfway. I've entered a 5k race for life in July so hopefully will be a bit faster by then. Looking fwd to my next run now i understand this gadget!

[CaroleC Graduate]

Hi Jenniej,

It's possible also to change the settings so that they are in miles? That is under the menu button on the watch. I prefer "old money" and as soon as I finished the C25K and the B210K I switched over to miles for the BUPA ten mile challenge. As long as I remember that 3.1 miles is 5K and 6.2miles is 10K I'm happy lol.(Maths was never my strong point!)

No need to worry about your pace at this point, time to think about that once you're at the end of week 9!

CaroleC

[jenniej Graduate in reply to CaroleC]

thanks, CaroleC. I'm going to have a play on the garmin tonight & try and work it all out. It's great to have a new hobby & a toy to play with! I'm trying not to think about my pace and I'll follow your advice to leave that till after week9.