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

peterdedecker over 7 years ago

I see.

I've added another test with mixed units and it looks like you found a bug.
I've moved it to the top of my todo list, but meanwhile while it's not fixed you could temporarily set your distance unit to statute or temporarily not use the pacer data field.

peterdedecker over 7 years ago

Released Peter's (Race) Pacer v4.1:
* Fixed calculations for people that used mixed statute/metric units for pace and distance

webvan over 7 years ago

Thanks for the latest updates. Reconfigured my FR935 as "Row 1 Left" had "Smooth Pace" instead of "HR" but that field stays blank now (HR is shown ok on other pages and in the splash screen before starting). Maybe I should delete and reinstall ?

EDIT - yes that did the trick !

dannirr over 7 years ago

Thank you Petert

dannirr over 7 years ago

Peter

Is it possible that settings - particularly the donation code - gets saved even when an update is installed?

peterdedecker over 7 years ago

It's a "known issue" that when you use Garmin Connect Mobile to update an application it does so by deleting the application and then installing the new version, in the process it also deletes application settings.
When you use Garmin Express on the pc (or mac) then the update process does not delete the application but just overwrites it, this way you also are able to retain your settings.

So the answer in short: use Garmin Express to update if you want to retain the app settings when you update the app :)

Thanks for the latest updates. Reconfigured my FR935 as "Row 1 Left" had "Smooth Pace" instead of "HR" but that field stays blank now (HR is shown ok on other pages and in the splash screen before starting). Maybe I should delete and reinstall ?

EDIT - yes that did the trick !

In version 4.0 I've introduced a breaking change (the internal representation of the fields is numbered differently (but consistenly over the configurable fields now)), a delete and reinstall is needed for the app settings to work in this case.
Normally upgrading from 4.0 to 4.1 should have gone smoothly though, but given that it was not to long ago that I released 4.0 you might have still been on an older version...

peterdedecker over 7 years ago

Pro tip: you can combine Peter's (Race) Pacer and Peter's (Hi Vis) Pacer into 1 activity profile and what's more they don't need to be set up to have the same goal time!

As an example yesterday I ran a trail marathon which had a pretty challenging terrain: the race consisted out of three 14k laps which were completely off road: jumping over trees, ducking branches, climbing mine terrils - some of which were way too steep to run for me... The challenging terrain in mind I set my goal time in Peter's (Race) Pacer to 4:30. On a second screen I set up Peter's (Hi Vis) Pacer with a goal time of 4:00. In my wildest dreams I did not expect to meet that goal ever, but one never knows and it's always nice to break the 4 hours barrier...

There were no mile markers in the race so I didn't have to use the distance correction feature but when I passed the first time the finish I was about at 14k on my watch so I knew at that time that the complete distance would be close to the marathon distance. I had accumulated at the 14k point 13 minutes of ahead time on the 4:30 schedule so I knew hitting my 4:30 target should be a piece of cake.... I was still feeling good but did not dare to look at the second screen yet which had my 4 hour schedule. I didn't want to force me that early on in the race and kept running on feeling / heart rate, beefing up ahead time against the 4:30 schedule....

At kilometer 32 I had a look at the second screen and I saw I was 48 seconds ahead on the 4 hour schedule, knowing that I had another steep mine terril climb to cover I knew it was going to be really though to be able to reach the 4 hour goal. With only 10k to go I dared to start pushing myself harder and started racing as hard as I was able to. I gave all I got and after the last steep mine terril climb at the 37.5 kilometer point I was 2 minutes and 1 second behind on schedule. It was going to be nearly impossible to crack the 4 hour border, there were no though climbs anymore but it was still off road with plenty of ducking and jumping trees ahead....

(story continued in next post)

peterdedecker over 7 years ago

Some graphics to illustrate:
The behind/ahead time for Peter's (Race) Pacer 4:30 target

The behind/ahead time for Peter's (Hi Vis) Pacer 4:00 target

Being so close near target I kept running as hard as I could and saw the behind time slowly decreasing...
Admittedly I was lucky the distance was 100 meter shorter than what my watch expected, but without having known my ahead/behind time against the 4 hour schedule I would never have pushed me so hard and would never have made it in time....

Now I gave all I had and finished in 3:59:46

I've raced marathons a lot faster than this, but I've never been as pleased with a result as this time!

peterdedecker over 7 years ago

Released Peter's Pacer (The App) v2.0 - BREAKING CHANGE - Remove and Reinstall app (new internal numbering for configurable fields)
* Synchronized code with Peter's (Race) Pacer v4.1
* Added support for FR920XT, Vivoactive HR, D2 Charlie
* Added lap screen (showing current distance, current distance correction, avg speed, ahead/behind time). The lap screen is shown on automatic and manual lap press.

Example of lap screen on d2 bravo titanium:

dannirr over 7 years ago

Hi Peter

With respect to smoothed pacing: there is not a huge difference between 5 and 10 seconds, and honestly the pace is still quite erratic. Any chance of a smoothed or average pace over 30 sec or a minute?