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Setting Pace Alerts

I'd like to set up a pace alert for my upcoming race.  But there's a fast pace alert and a slow pace alert.  I can't figure out which one is which one.

Let's say I've got a target pace of 7:00 minutes per mile.  So I want to set alerts for 6:55 and 7:05.  My first guess is that the 6:55 would be the fast alert and the 7:05 would be the slow alert.  But I might have it backward.

So, do I have it right, or do I have it backward?

  • Try it on a training run?

    You will soon get annoyed with it. GPS based pace as reported by Garmin goes in 5 second steps. This is largely due to the limitations of GPS. 

    I have a pacer datafield on the connect IQ store that might work for you. Instead of deriving pace directly from GPS it works on a calculation using total distance and total time compared to target pace. It is called interval pacer but if you set the warm up time to zero, the interval distance to your race distance and the number of repeats to 1 it works very well for racing. It tries to keep you within a second or so of your target.

    If you do decide to use it I suggest trying it on a training run first to make sure you understand what it is telling you.

    https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/76a82ab6-1a2b-43bc-bd34-a5810199be1a

  • You could also have a lap pace data field and set your laps at half a km or something so that the page is a realistic figure rather than an instant snap shot which can be really misleading.

    you called also add a data field of previous lap pace or average lap pace etc. 

  • I highly recommend testing this before.  I would have a wider pace target range in your high/low.  But yes you have it right.

    In every race I have done and workouts - I use 'lap pace' as the indicator because hills, wind, turns, etc will all mess with live pace and make it seem erratic.  I use custom workouts a lot that I presetup, so if i want to do a hard 3 mile run as part of a workout, I do half mile laps in the workout, with a target pace range of 6:45-7:15.  The start of each .5mi lap is a bit up/down for 30sec...but then it averages out pretty well.  Easy to watch to see if Lap pace is going up or down at any moment.  If i get to bottom of decent hill, i make note of lap pace at that point... and expect to give up 5-20 seconds by the  time I hit the top.  Then I am able to chip away at that time loss on the descent.

    the 'configurable pace' datafield is a good one as well that creates a customized sliding window average of current pace.  So its the last 30sec or 1minute...or 5minute average pace.  Was really helpful with the erratic pace values from the Forerunner235 I had before.  The 945 has a better GPS averaging live pace value in my experience.

  • Yes, I would also suggest using longer intervals for pace target, such as half mile [or half km in my case] for reasons stated above. Works very well, and even then the aforementioned 10sec range seems too narrow [depending whether there is hill/turn etc. at the very start of interval]. 

    To OP: good luck in your race!