Wear a watch during race?

russG

Hi all - considering whether to wear a timing device for HIM.  Options: Garmin 310xt under the cap (I do my OWS training this way); timex on the wrist, or nothing (leave the Garmin good-to-go on the bike and don't worry about race-time / let that take care of itself) 

Objective: to know whether I'm going to hit my 5:20 race goal, or if I'm in reach of 5:15 stretch goal, in the last few miles of the race... should I just forget the watch, let the management worry about my race time and focus on power and pace?  Should I go to the trouble and risk of putting the Garmin under the cap in a race?  Should I wear a wristwatch?  If I wear a watch, does it impact the swim negatively?  Bike aerodynamics or is that trivial/ridiculous?

Mark Cardinale

Russell - I'll share what i do.  I race with a garmin 910 on my wrist in multisport mode.  Then as a i race i do the following.  First, i don't look at it during or after the swim.  When i get out of the water i hit lap and then move through T1 and then hit lap again.  On the bike i toggle to my bike data page that i prefer and keep it locked there for the duration of the ride.  I do the same thing during the run.  I only flip back to my overall time when i have about a mile or so left in the run.  That way if i need to push it that last mile to come in under a certain time, i can, but i'm not looking at that number too early where it forces me to make poor decisions.  Personally, i like to have the option to view my overall time, even though i'm only checking at the very end of my race.

So question to you, can you not wear your 310 on your wrist?  In terms of drag from a wrist watch in either the swim or the bike, i wear a watch all the time when i train and race and have never sensed it was having a significant impact.

Paul Hough

I wear my plain old Ironman Timex from start to finish just to keep track of total time elapsed. If you are dying on the run, you don't need a 310/910 to tell you that. In a nod towards aerodynamics, I use a low profile design. The Garmins might as well be bricks by comparison.

John Withrow

I'm the dork that wears 2 watches. I have a Timex on my right wrist that I start a few seconds before the gun goes off. I wear my Garmin 910 quick release strap on my left wrist. I use my Garmin Edge 500 on the bike with my 910 also mounted on my bike from before the race as a power backup just in case something happens to my 500. with a few miles to go int he bike, I snap my 910 onto my wrist and turn it on to get the satellites. Then as I exit T2, I start the 910. This gives me all my "Run Only" data on my 910. but I still have total "race time" on the Timex. Some people say you shouldn't let this dictate you're race, but it is an extra little whip for me during the run. And I like to constantly do the math every mile to keep my mind occupied.

Al Truscott

@JW ... Do you wear suspenders for your race belt?

Joe Matchette

Al - don't give him ideas!!

John Withrow

Posted By Al Truscott on 10 Jun 2013 11:40 AM


@JW ... Do you wear suspenders for your race belt?

Says the guy who wears a calculator watch...  

kimmydct

Yes! I have a Garmin 910xt and also a Joule on the bike. I am constantly doing "tri math" as I race to see how close I am to goals. I don't use it to push too hard though. Conversely at Quassy it may have hurt me because I was on track for a bike PR (12 mins) but my IF was only .81 so I def. had some to spare....

Dave Tallo

if you have bike power and run pace (or RPE in the run), there's no need for a watch. In fact, I think having overall time is a liability and a danger until maybe the last two miles of a race. And even then, I have never found myself that late in a race where I have not pushed to the best of my abilities - overall time isn't going to change this (or will only change it by 5-7 seconds!)

Al Truscott

We've got two issues rolling around here ... what do you wear on your wrist (or bike or swim cap) during a race, and what should one do to ensure he meets/betters a goal time.

What I Wear: I've gone through  evolution over the years. First, it was a Polar HRM I wore thruout a race. Then, that died, and I started wearing a TINY (I think it's actually a woman's version) Timex I won a some race. Last two years, I've been using a pace watch (Garmin) on the run, along with a bike computer (Joule/PowerTap). Last race, I wore a 310XT the whole way.

I've concluded that what works best for me is to just wear that tiny timex, with the LAP time, not the total time, displayed. I never look at the watch, really, until the run, when I hit the lap button every mile. I have found knowing my total time, or even my current total lap time (like my swim time or bike time) is NOT helpful to me, it doesn't ever seem to act as a whip. I race best by RPE, and having extra data (except those run mile splits) such as total race time, HR, etc. is TMI.

But then, I've done 25 IMs, and a gazillion (all right, at least 120) total races in the past 15 years, along with all those miles training where I DO look at my HR, my pace, and note my RPE, so I think I've got it pretty locked in by now. Somehow, not knowing my time in a race makes me push a little harder. I even think knowing my watts and IF on the bike slows me down, so I may have to deal with the Joule display to account for that.

new2703

I just wear the garmin 310 wrist band and leave the watch on the bike. Couldn't even imagine swimming with that thing on my wrist. I try to keep things simple and minimize the amount of stuff I have to mess with

russG

Thanks everyone.

I've decided that "less is more"... no watch in the water.

I'll put the Garmin on the Bike before we start and I'll have that for power and pace managment; I'll also have RPE with me all day wherever I go.

I'll rely on Sun Multisports to get the timing right; and I'll find out how I did sometime after I finish.

I find it interesting, Al, that you race by RPE; we have all these calculators for power and TSS and pace and heat-adjustments to power and pace, and you're out there running based on how it feels...

Al Truscott

Posted By Russell Green on 10 Jun 2013 02:45 PM


I find it interesting, Al, that you race by RPE; we have all these calculators for power and TSS and pace and heat-adjustments to power and pace, and you're out there running based on how it feels...

Let me make it clear that, during training, I pay a LOT of attention to my HR, Pace, and how they correlate with my RPE. I'm trying to cement in the feeling of how hard a certain pace is, at certain points in a workout. E.G., in a long run, I'll pay particular attention to how different it feels to be going the same speed at mile 4 vs mile 17. IOW, I'm always trying to get an innate feel for pace/watts/HR at any moment in all workouts. I'm not one of those who's thinking about the next morning's meeting, or how the local ball team did the night before, or whatever during a WKO. When I'm training, I'm training everything, brain and attention/focus as well as muscles and heart/lungs.

Then, on race day, I rely on all that training to just take over my brain, and I try to let my conscious, thinking mind get out of the way. I have found the past 1-2 years, as I got away from racing by RPE, that the focus on the numbers brought my thinking self back into the equation, to the detriment of my race performance.The time to focus on numbers is during training.