Data Field: Peter's (Race) Pacer

This is the support Thread for the Data Field Peter's (Race) Pacer.

Setup Guide with pictures: http://starttorun.info/peters-race-pacer/

Download
https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/23ea0301-30c6-4c33-b4ef-63e2b5394e76

Summary
Peter's (Race) Pacer resolves 2 issues for me when I'm running a race:

Before the race starts I want to see the time of the day (How long till the race starts?)
I often pace marathons and it used to be doing mental math all the way, now this is no longer necessary as I can fully depend on the average pace/speed, because this data field allows to correct the distance at the kilometer / mile marker by simply pressing the LAP button

While the data field's primary intent is to race races, you can also use it to run laps around the track, just set the lap distance to 400 meters and press the lap button as you cross the line!...

Intro
In it's full glory this data field uses about 24kb which is too much to run on the older devices. To enable using the data field on older connect IQ devices I've stripped some functionality from these older watches in order to let them operate within the 16kb limit that Connect IQ 1.x allows. (Items marked with (*ciQ2) are only available on the high memory watches (high memory watches are FR735xt, fenix chronos & fenix5 variants))

The data field is fully functional as is, yet donations are encouraged on the watch by a small encouragement text.

Usage
Before starting the race an initial data screen is shown (* cIQ2), this screen shows you the following data

Time of the day
Current heart rate (+ zone indication)
Configured Settings Summary (Change these settings in Garmin Express or in the Garmin Connect Android App)
Battery Percentage Remaining
Gps Signal Strength Indication

After pressing the START button the race timer will start and a new data screen will be shown, this data screen will show you the following information:

top middle configurable field: current heart rate / average pace / average speed / perfect pace / perfect speed (*)
row 1 left configurable field: average pace / average speed / current heart rate / perfect pace / perfect speed
row 1 middle configurable field: speed, smooth speed (5s average), smooth speed (10s average), pace, smooth pace (5s average), smooth pace (10s average)
time ahead / behind
race timer
(adjusted) distance covered (see adjusting distance explanation below)
estimated time of arrival

After Activity in Garmin Connect (*cIQ2)

When you opt to record the ahead Time to the FIT track an extra graphic is shown in Garmin Connect

Perfect Pace / Perfect Speed
This field recalculates as you run and gives you the pace you need to run to arrive at the finish with 0 seconds behind / ahead (eg if you run a 10k race and want to arrive in 1 hour (avg pace=6:00min/km), currently you're at the 7k point in 41:30, which means you're 30 seconds ahead, the perfect pace will thus show the value 6:10 (min/km) as you can run the next 3k 10 seconds slower to still get in time at the finish line)

Distance Adjustment
When you press the LAP button the on screen distance is adjusted to the nearest LAP SIZE (eg 5.31k will be adjusted to 5k if the lap size is 1000 meters).
When you press the LAP button by mistake you have 30 seconds to undo the last correction (just press the LAP button again)

When you miss a mile/kilometer marker, don't worry DO NOT PRESS THE LAP button and wait for the next kilometer/mile marker and press the LAP button there.

Adjusting the distance has no influence on the recorded distance (In Garmin Connect when you come back home you will see the real recorded GPS distance, yet of course you will be able to determine based on the lap marker postions where the LAP markings really were)...

Recommendations

Train with the data field before you race with it so you're used to the layout!
Have a backup second datascreen layout, in case the field crashes you can switch to the native data screen layout
If you have a Connect IQ 1.x device consider the application option to enjoy all features of Peter's (Race) Pacer: https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/ea97af1f-1e5d-4541-820c-9bd994080d4

Tested on real FR735XT, all other devices were tested in the simulator.

Top Replies

All Replies

Levon over 4 years ago

Any chance of having a setting that allows custom distances to be specified in miles? I've been using this happily on my 945 for a few months (paid for it after my first run) but find having to always use meters a bit cumbersome (it's perfect for the track of course)

For instance I want 4 miles, that's @ 6436 meters. If I want 5 miles, I have to dig out my calculator - much nicer to just be able to specify 5 miles instead of 8045 meters.

If there is a way to do that, I haven't found it - thanks.

peterdedecker over 4 years ago in reply to Levon

currently that's not available no as it requires extra memory to parse additional input formats. i've memory optimized the data field a bit so potentially i may be able to add this. no promises but i'll add a note to my to do to check this.

Levon over 4 years ago in reply to peterdedecker

Great, thank you, that's all I can ask for :) It really is a great training tool.

mdkeelin2 over 2 years ago in reply to peterdedecker

Where can I find an explanation for the configurable power zones? I love the app and just want to understand the zones better. Thanks

peterdedecker over 2 years ago in reply to mdkeelin2

you set the wattages of your zones in the app settings, the watt values are only used to color the power field.

Prahanov over 2 years ago

First of all, the app is great. Exactly what I needed. I paced my 10k run last weekend with it. While it worked flawlessly during the run and the run had been recorded, my heart rate and steps were not shown from the time I started it to record my run until I restarted the vivoactive3 music about 4 hours later. Has anyone else noticed this? Is this a bug? I haven't tried to reproduce this but would do so if it is still being developed by @peterdecker .

peterdedecker over 2 years ago in reply to Prahanov

are you using the app version or the data field version?

Prahanov over 2 years ago in reply to peterdedecker

Data field. Should I switch to the app version? (I must admit I wasn't aware of the app version before you asked me that question.)

peterdedecker over 2 years ago in reply to Prahanov

in the data field the recording of heart rate and steps is done by the firmware, I don't influence that there, so if you don't have hr it's either a bad contact with your hr sensor (most likely) or a garmin bug

in the app I make the connection with the hr sensor band from within the program (but if it doesn't work in the data field to get hr, it most likely won't work here either)

the app version has some extra screens (intro screen, lap screen) and extra functionality (ability to adjust the target whilst racing)

personally I also use the data field version as that has the advantage that you can combine it with Garmin functionality and other data fields.

webvan over 2 years ago

Always been a big fan of that DF and used it many times successfully but I had issues with it today running a 10k race with my new FR245 using the latest 6.6 version (I assume it's 6.6 as I can't see the version number in GCM but there is no update being suggested). No crashing but the time ahead/behind was NOT being recalculated properly with manual lapping for some reason.

At 3k, after the rush of the start and dodging other runners, I noticed the auto-lap was early so I lapped manually when I passed the line and didn't notice any change, a bit odd, but ok...I lapped manually again at 4/5/6/9 judging by the "drops" in the chart. At 9k I was 22 seconds ahead but was surprised to pass the line only 2 seconds ahead ! Well I suppose it removed some of the stress of not making my goal while running but I don't think that's the point of the DF ;-)

Looking at the graph it does appear that the manual lapping corrected the time (the drops) but then resumed to the previous time. Here's what it looks like at 9km :

Do you have any idea what happened ? Thanks !