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 6 years ago

Very strange problem for me today with my FR935 running FW 7.60. I was pacing a 10k in 45' this morning and had double checked that this is what was shown on the "splash screen" after setting this via GCM. Well as soon as the race started I was in the green with data that didn't seem consistent. Then it went blue and I ended with a 15' ahead time with a final result of 9.90km/44'30". It's hard to understand what happened, it doesn't even seem to be a miles vs km issue (all my settings are in km) ?

If I hit start without moving I can see a PP of 6'00 so it seems my 10k/45' settings get converted to 10k in 60' ? Even stranger I can see the PP going down 5'59, 5'58, etc...when I'm not moving. A calculation seems to have been "reversed" somewhere ;-)

peterdedecker over 6 years ago

Sounds odd, I don't have an immediate explanation either.

I just double checked my unit test results of the pacer project and all results are turning up green, so this reassures me that calculations in the field should still be ok. It could be that your specific case isn't handled by a unit test, but it doesn't sound like you did anything out of the ordinary.

I'll have a deeper look.

So you have:
- target distance: 10k ? or custom distance: 10000 ?
- target time: 45min? or target pace/target speed goal?
- how are your lap settings? auto lap size on watch? lap size in pacer?

webvan over 6 years ago

1. target distance: 10k
2. Target type : Target Finish Time - 0:45:00
3. Autolap : off - Lap Size in meters : 1000

Running version 4.6

Not sure which version I was running in December but I ran 2 10ks with these exact settings (only target time was different) and it worked fine.

peterdedecker over 6 years ago

I did a test this noon with your settings.

I'm not in shape to run a 10k in 45' at the moment, but the behind time the watch accumulated was on par... so it seems to work correctly on my watch. In the top field the perfect pace adjusted itself to the speed increase I should have hit to make the 45' goal.

Something to double check:
- distance and speed units? are they both in kilometer?
- can you try with target finish time 45:00 (instead of 0:45:00) - it should make no difference (both formats work on my watch)

webvan over 6 years ago

Thanks for looking into this, using 45:00 did the trick and going back to 0:45:00 broke it...except I noticed there was a space after the 5, so 0:45 :00, with 0:45:00 it's all good, sorry about that t

peterdedecker over 6 years ago

Ah yes. Thats normal behavior then because it cant parse the spaces in the middle of your target time it defaults back to the default target...

strange that on the initial screen it shows the non parsed target. It shouldnt do that so i'll have to look into that

peterdedecker over 6 years ago

Released Peter's (Race) Pacer v4.7:
- (only for connect iq 2 devices) added option to warn with a vibration and/or beep that your pace is dropping and you are going behind schedule (it only warns when you're going from being ahead schedule to going behind schedule). The option defaults to being off.

webvan over 6 years ago

Thanks for the update. Since you're adding alerts, could there be an option to be warned of an upcoming mile marker, say 100 meters before so as not to miss it ?

peterdedecker over 6 years ago

Why not just use the autolap as the warning signal, that should be considerably close to the real mile marker, no?

webvan over 6 years ago

Could be slightly after too, but I can't see myself using autolap and getting all confused/losing the benefit of distance adjustments.