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

webvan over 7 years ago

Great, removed and reinstalled :
- custom distance issue fixed
- no more CIQ crash screen when lapping at my desk

Got it for the "bonus" info, I think the "Average Pace" would be more useful on the a race screen than the TOD unless there are memory use issues. What do you think of changing the red in the Ahead/Behind field as soon as you're behind?

Should be able to try it during my MPace tempo session on the track tomorrow.

peterdedecker over 7 years ago

custom lapsizes also caused an "IQ" issue, i've also changed lapSize to a number instead of a float, so again you'll need to remove and reinstall, sorry about that...

rritt1 over 7 years ago

Limits on FR235?

Hi, I've been playing with the DF for a couple of days now. I really like the layout, but it seems I'm not able to use all the features with my FR235. E.g. There's no initial data screen before I start the run. I know that's something you removed from older devices because of memory limitations. But I'm assuming this shouldn't be the case with the FR235. Maybe I'm wrong there?

When I look at the app in connect IQ, it lists the size as 15kb.

peterdedecker over 7 years ago

Hi glad you like the field.

Believe me if it weren't necessary I wouldn't remove functionality. in fact I had to put in a lot of extra effort and go the extra mile to use advanced coding techniques such as build exclusions just to be able to build it for the fr230, fr235 and fr630 which all have only 16KB of memory space available.

The figure you see in the connect iq app store is the size it takes on disk, not the total amount of memory it will consume (you also need space to store variables and such...)

The image above shows how the app shows on a fr735xt (19.65k disk size) but it's the peak memory that is the important number, in the case of the fr735xt this can not exceed 26k, in the case of the fr235 this can not exceed 16k (I've crammed in the maximum as it's very tight with peaks till 15.7k).

@webvan: I'll think you have a point it should be red as soon as it's behind, I'll change that in the next version

rritt1 over 7 years ago

Thanks for the reply. Looking back at the description, you do list the FR235 as a device with limited functionality. I think I was confused because the screenshot of the pre-race screen seems to be taken from an FR230/235.

webvan over 7 years ago

No MPace session on the track after all, probably tomorrow, so I couldn't check the distance correction but I went for a nice steady run at a target pace of 5:00/km making for easy calculations. Here's what I found :
- no crashes with the auto-lap
- Time behind/ahead was spot on from the best I could tell. I was briefly slower by 1" at the beginning and saw it go red so you must have uploaded a new version and GCM must have updated it automatically, thanks for that
- I was feeling good so I didn't stick to the pace for once and found that the label turned blue when you're ahead by 1', nice touch and something I'd like to see during my next HM or M ;-)
- The info in the top and bottom parts is pretty much impossible to read while running. The "toggling" doesn't help but even so it would probably be hard. The text seems to be gray ? Maybe a black+bolded would help ? Also do you think you could put the configurable field in the top part in the middle and put the TOD on the left if it needs to be kept.

Anyway great DF, thanks again !

peterdedecker over 7 years ago

@rritt1: it's a pic of the FR735XT, but it looks pretty similar to the FR235. The biggest change in the design is the icons on the buttons :)

@webvan: I'll have a look at moving things around. I don't have space to pull in another font on the FR235 (no memory free) and you can't bold the existing System fonts, they are as they are...

webvan over 7 years ago

ok !

Back from my 8k MPace session on the track and I'm happy to report that the DF worked like a charm ! I was lapping manually each Km and I saw it recalculate on the spot to display the correct distance, the correct average pace and the adjusted time ahead. Very useful ! I even tested the "lap cancellation" feature by accident after lapping at the wrong time and that worked fine too. It's too bad GC can't cancel that lap too.

There's one info I wish I'd had from time to time is the current lap time to do my own math at the 200 and 400 marks but just for testing purposes really and it's easy enough to switch temporarily to another field if you want to do a sanity check. I was showing "Pace" and it was quite stable, probably thanks to my footpod, will try Smooth Pace 5 or 10 the next time. One info I had little use for on the other hand was the TOD ;-)

It wouldn't be an issue for an actual race but today I had to start a new activity for the MPace part which was a bit inconvenient during and after to review on GC, could there maybe be an option in the settings for a "Warm Up" lap like Garmin do for their programmed workouts?

Thanks again for a great DF !

peterdedecker over 7 years ago

Pretty big update, bumped the version to 1.3:

reviewed memory consumption to be able to add the perfect pace functionality to low memory watches. The current functionality will probably be pretty final though for low memory watches as I just have no more memory to play with...
Added configurable top middle field, it can contain one of the following items: time of the day, avg pace, avg speed, heart rate, perfect pace or perfect speed.
In Row 1 left field Perfect pace and Perfect Speed is also a configurable option now.
Removed extreme left and extreme right fields for low memory devices
made the appearance of extreme top left (tod) & extreme top right field (battery percentage) configurable for the 735 XT
Shortened ON TARGET text to PERFECT so that the text fits in the box, suggestions for other words are welcome
fixed target speed setting for high memory devices.
Changed the settings pages (if you can not choose the new settings values you may need to remove the app and reinstall it)

Perfect Pace / Perfect Speed - What is it?
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) and currently you're at the 7k point in 41:30, which means you're 30 seconds ahead, then the perfect pace will 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

Currently shorten Perfect Pace to PP and Perfect Speed to PSPD.

@webvan: I might add the current lap time functionality but this won't make it on the low memory watches, as said I just have no memory to play with there... As to the warm-up suggestion I don't think that belongs in Peter's (Race) Pacer, ok I also do warm-ups when I do races but I don't want the distance covered in my warm-up to be part of my race distance so I make 2 seperate recordings on this (if I record my warm-up at all that is)

010ArroW over 7 years ago

Thanks, it must be something with the FR235 version then because I can't see a way of setting that very top left field :

Average pace corrected for the distance by default would be useful in any case. Race for the Gold and a previous DF (with no lap correction) showed the "Pace needed to meet the goal" but I didn't find it as helpful as an accurate Ahead/Behind Time. It might put the DF over its memory allocation anyway?

I was wondering if it could be used to run intervals on the track where GPS devices notoriously overestimate the distance by about 3% but there would have to be a way to set the end of the interval and lapping at each 400 to correct the distance would create laps in Garmin Connect...Adding up seconds in your head is probably easier and if you can still do the math it's a sign you're still in a reasonable shape ;-)

Its not working here on the #235 as well.I see half top fields :-(