Forums >General Running>How to record Intervals
Runs in the rain
I went for physical therapy for a knee issue and the plan is for me to do run/walks for a while. My last run I did a warmup walk for 5 minutes, then alternated two minute runs with one minute walks, ending with a 15 minute walk. This creates confusion as to whether to log this as a run or a walk. I decided to call the activity a run, but made "Run/Walk" as a new workout type type. Now I suppose what I am doing is a type of interval training and the log seems to record what I did in one mile segments. Ideally I would like it to recognize and count slower segments as recoveries and faster paces as the intervals, but I imagine I have to either set up parameters or since the workouts often have irregular times or distances I need to manually enter the data. Unfortunately I have no idea how the interval part of the log works. Maybe someone could explain, or tell me to forget about it because it's too complicated.
Long distance runner, what you standin' there for?Get up, get out, get out of the door!
Are we there, yet?
I think you're making it too complicated. Is there really anything useful in that information that couldn't be simply summarized in the comments?
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K, 9:11:09 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
wcrunner - I did check out your log and see you record the intervals in your notes. You are right, I do tend to over analyze and don't really need the interval data table, however I would still like to know how the table is supposed to function.
The only time I record intervals are when it's a true interval workout. At this stage in my running career most of my runs use a run-walk pattern (which is why I didn't bother setting up a run/walk workout type). I prefer manually entering my data, hence I record only the intervals and not the recoveries. Including the recovery only clutters the page and I'm trying to keep info to the essentials and what I actually use.
an amazing likeness
Altair - those 1mi intervals are coming in from your Garmin. Were you to change your Garmin settings to use the 2min/1min, then you’d have log intervals of those times and can edit each interval for type = run, or type=recovery as you want.
Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.
Thanks Milktruck! It just never occurred to me that my Garmin was setting up the interval table! I'll play with it and see what I can do.
If you change your workout settings on Garmin to include Warm-up, then 2 min / 1 min -- those will still be "intervals" when imported. You will need to edit each interval to change its Type as you want.
You can also just manually 'lap' your Garmin at the end of each segment and then as milktruck states change the interval type as appropriate in the RA log. Example:
Workout:
'Start' button on Garmin
walk 5 minutes for warmup
Do x number of times:
- 'Lap' button on Garmin
- run 2 minutes
- walk 1 minute
End Do
'Lap' button on Garmin
walk 15 minutes
'Stop' button on Garmin
You have to remember to lap your watch at each segment but I find this method much easier than pre-programming the watch for each type of workout you may want to do.
kcam - Great advice and that would solve the problem, but complicated on the Forerunner 35 where it looks like you have to customize the settings to designate the return button as the lap button.
In case this may help -- Forerunner 35 setting intervals per Garmin: link to Garmin
Thanks kcam and milktruck! It was easy to set up the lap button and I tried it out today. I walked to a nearby nature preserve, the grassy dirt paths are easier on my recovering legs than the asphalt roads.
I used the lap button each time I switched to running or back to a walk. I labeled the walk sections as "recovery", which I assume is the correct way to record this. Note the double recovery entries at the start and end of the workout. I did pause the watch when I got to the path, and later partway on my walk back. Apparently the watch records the end of each pause as the start of a new lap. I am very happy I learned how to do this and have more data to look at!
Just noticed, I can set the workout to record just the running intervals, or both the runs and recovery walks as the total distance and time. Right now I have the total of both in my log, but is that how most runners do it? Or do they just count the running distance? Seems I ran 1.2 miles, but combined distance is 4.6 miles.
I've not heard of someone logging only the run segments vs. the total distance. Time and distance on your feet is the workout, with how much was run vs recovery a detail of the workout, in my opinion.
Comes down to personal preference. I do a track workout with a group on Thursdays and they like to walk the recoveries. I mark them as recovery and I exclude the recoveries from the total. On other track workouts where I jog the recoveries I will include those in the mileage total.
I generally don't bother logging the recoveries, just making a note, either the time or distance I took for the recoveries, in the comments, but do include them in the total distance for the day. The detail for recoveries isn't important to me, and unlike a like of posters here, I manually enter my workouts instead of importing them. It's also easier for me to review the intervals if the recoveries are not interspersed.