Forums >Gears and Wears>Completion time predictor?
Hello All,
Has anyone heard of something to predict your completion of a distance based on your current/average pace? Let's say you are running a marathon and want to glance down and see if you will break your PR if you maintain your pace. It would be nice to be able to quickly see what adjustments you would need to make to hit the finish with a goal time.
Unexpected breaks in a race can throw off your predictions maintained in your head, but if you were able to start your app at the beginning, it could in effect tell you what you need to do to get back on track.
Is there any app or gps watch that will do that?
~Mike
I don't see how such an app would be very useful in an actual race. If you're behind schedule in a race the hard part is not calculating how much time you need to make up, it's actually making it up.
Runners run
I think a lot of garmin watches do this. It's called virtual pacer/racer.
Here's the problem. If you are running a marathon your gps is more than likely going to be wrong and long so you will need to learn how to adjust for that with the mile markers, especially if you are going after a small PR.
If you have a goal pace you can use the RA calculator to make yourself a custom pace band. A quick glance at that and your stopwatch at mile markers will probably more accurately let you know where you stand than a GPS.
Forerunner 920XT has a feature specifically for this purpose. For a marathon, I personally recommend setting the target distance to something like 26.4, because, as has been said and beaten into the ground many places before in Running Ahead, the GPS distance is usually a little longer than the true course distance, and 26.4 in most cases will at least get you pretty close. On the 920XT, go to Training > Set a Target > {any choice: Distance only, Distance and Time, Distance and Pace} > Custom { or "Marathon" if you want 26.22 miles exactly} > Miles > 26.40 > Enter (check mark). Then, the Estimated Finish Time field will show up on a new screen with a couple other fields, and it will update all the time during the race to give you your projected finish time. A friend of mine used this feature with good success for the Denver Marathon a few weeks ago. Previous Forerunners do not have this feature per se, but as X pointed out, its mathematical equivalent is available as virtual partner (but you still have to do some more mental math, whereas the 920XT spoon feeds you the number you can expect to see on the finish clock).
- Joe
We are fragile creatures on collision with our judgment day.
I would not be surprised if I can check my email and browse the web on the 920XT.
My 920 should arrive any day now. This feature would be a lot more useful if you could automatically recalibrate based on actual mile splits (manual lap).
#artbydmcbride
This kind of stuff is way too fancy for me.....
Champions are made when no one is watching
... in a race the hard part is not calculating how much time you need to make up, it's actually making it up.
I gotta be honest, at mile 22 I find these equally hard. Brain lock and quad lock in equal measure.
Calculating it is also a challenge when the mile markers are wonky.
Options,Account, Forums
Pace bands (pieces of paper with splits listed for each mile -- all based on a particular finish time) address this desire, right?
It's a 5k. It hurt like hell...then I tried to pick it up. The end.
At mile 22 it doesn't matter. At that point you just go until you collapse or someone wraps you in a mylar sheet--whichever comes first.
If you're that tough, awesome. Me, at M22 I need to know that the pain I'm enduring has a chance of being worth something.
Yeah I'm wicked tough.
I agree with this - the last math I attempt to do is at mile #20.
I am fuller bodied than Dopplebock