Race an Activity + Courses

I think this is a feature request, unless somebody can tell me that I'm doing it wrong...

We have...

"Race an Activity" which lets you race against a prior track:

  • Provides ahead/behind status/time
  • Provides ETA/ETC based on your current pace only and race distance remaining
  • Is only dependent on time and distance traveled (could be anywhere)

"Course" which lets you follow a route:

  • No ahead/behind status/time, even if your course has time info
  • Provides ETA/ETC based on your current pace only and course distance remaining (based on actual position in course)

What I really want is to combine these two things.

Best: include the ahead/behind status/time with Course navigation if it has time data.

    or 

Better: upgrade "Race an Activity" to make your ahead/behind status/time and ETC be dependent upon your actual location in the course (not just a comparison of distance traveled)

Do any of Garmin's other watches already do this?

  • Don't know if this works with the Instinct, but with the Fenix 5 there's a workaround that addresses these issues.

    • Enable the "Virtual Partner" data screen in the activity settings. The F5 will ask you to set a target pace, but this will be ignored when racing an activity.
    • Select an activity type and hold the menu button, but don't select "Training"/"Race an activity". Instead, select "Navigation"/"Activities" (to race an activity saved in history) or "Navigation"/"Courses" (to race a downloaded course). Then select "Go" or "Do Course". You can do this before or after you start recording.

    That way not only will you have access to course navigation features, but you'll also be able to scroll to the virtual partner screen to see your time ahead/behind.

    There are a couple of limitations:

    • If you want your target pace to be recalculated dynamically based your previous activity and your current position, then you have to race an activity saved in history. If you race a downloaded course then the target pace is your previous average pace for the entire course.
    • ETA isn't consistent with time ahead/behind. It's a simple extrapolation of your average pace for the current activity.

    See https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/fenix-5-series/239355/how-to-race-an-activity-hint-don-t-race-an-activity