Keep watch ON or OFF during triathlon (assumes bike computer being utilized)??
Most people use bike computers on their bikes during races. Do most of you keep your watch ON during races or turn it OFF while running your bike computer? In addition, if you DO keep your watch on, do you start/stop it for transitions e.g. record transition times, or let it run through the transitions and only start stop once each swim/bike/run interval is complete?
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For me, I usually leave my watch behind in transition, regardless of race distance.
For HIM or shorter, I'll leave the watch ON in my transition bag/spot. I won't be on course THAT long (I hope) to have the battery wear that far down.
For IM, I'll turn it on in the morning before the race start, to locate GPS, then turn it off until I get it out of my T2 "go" bag.
I do not use my Garmin 920 for transitions or swim or bike (Garmin 510 mounted on bike). If it's a "race", I let their timers take care of those tasks.
For Ironman, I wear my Garmin 935 on my left wrist and a Timex on my right wrist (but I'm a weirdo). I start my Timex as I cross the starting line for the race and leave it run all day. I use a Garmin 520 Bike computer for my bike race data. I leave my watch off (just telling time, but not tracking satellites) and will only turn it on if I need it as a backup if my Bike Computer craps out. A few miles before the finish of th ebike, I turn my watch on in run mode so it will find the satellites and I start it as I exit T2, because I really only use it for the run.
If I actually cared about tracking my swim (which I don't), then I'd start both watches as I start the race. And I'd shut the Garmin off when I exit the swim. The race results at the end will keep track of my transitions for me...
I have a 310XT that I use for bike run but like John also have a Timex watch with the cumulative time. I don't have a specific bike computer so should things crap out on me I just have time and RPE. I'm not interested in my transition specific time during the race the watch in the past was for overall time and in a couple IM instances making the cut off.
I also wear two watches. My Garmin 920 for Bike and Run and a Timex on my right arm. My Garmin has a quick release that is mounted on my bike. Then in T2, I quickly take it of and wear on the run.
I start the Timex at the start of the swim and just let it run in chrono all day. If my Garmin fails I will at least have cumulative time.
I love this question. Over the years, I've used a number of different strategies. For a while, I only wore a watch for total time. Other years, I wore nothing until T2, when I put on a watch to get my mile splits. Also, I went thru a spell putting it on in T1, to avoid getting the wet suit hung-up on it as I took my sleeve off. The best use I;ve found for wearing a watch during an entire tri is to peruse the data afterwords - to learn what I actually did to help figure out what went wrong, and what went right, and maybe learn something new. So this year, I;ve been wearing my Garmin Fenix from the git-go. It has a dedicated Triathlon mode, and all I have to do after starting the watch about 5 seconds before the gun goes off is hit "Lap" when I enter and leave transitions. If I care to look at the watch, it displays exactly the same metrics and pages as I see during single sport modes. But I don't really pay too much attention to it until the run starts. Then, mile splits, cadence, HR, and "power" are all things I observe and sometimes act on. But Some races, I mis-fire on the buttons, and I have to re-start it when I get out on the run. Point being, I don't care about my overall total time, or even my swim or bike times, as long as I have been executing to my plan in regards to power, pace, fluids, and fuel. But in an IM run, things can go south pretty easily if you don't pay close attention from mile 1 to executing within a relatively narrow window.
To answer the specific question asked, if your watch does not have the triathlon specific function built in, then I would just hit lap when starting each leg. The less moving parts, the better, no? So Bike time would contain T2, eg. If you want to break T1 and T2 times out for later review, well, they are always available from the race web site, or from your analytic program.
If you've got a Garmin 935, or a Fenix, or maybe even one of the older ones like 920, they probably have that built in triathlon mode, which is very easy to use.
Nothing on the swim. Bike computer on Bike. Run watch goes on while exiting T2. I love data but when racing want simple simple simple.
I was just a cyclist back in the day, so always have had a bike computer. I’d run, but didn’t track data. When I started doing tris, I got a 910 and I’d track everything on the watch, but would also use a 500 on the bike. This year, I upgraded to a 920 and a 510, and I did the watch for swim and run and the 510 for the bike. I like the bike computer—easier to see and set up data fields that I want. After reading this, rethinking using the watch for the swim. Other than capturing the swim time (which I could get from official timing), I don’t look at the data.
I do what @John Withrow except for the second watch. That is just weird.
I use a watch (Garmin 935 now) for the entire race, and have an Edge 520 separately recording the bike. Sometimes the watch does not catch the bike because I hit an extra button (or miss one) in transition. And sometimes the bike computer overheats and shuts off like at IMC. Using two devices gives me a better chance of getting full data from the bike. With the 935 I also have stopped using a separate heart rate monitor, and have the watch broadcast heart rate to the Edge.
I also have the watch set up to use a custom activity that goes swim-bike-run-bike-run. That way, if I see that I hit an extra button in transition I can cycle through to get it back on track.
I use it for the swim, then bike computer.
I only use it to know where I stand on timing by knowing what time I start.
Then on the run I use the watch with only the AVG pace screen, I dont use other data
I ever only use a bike computer no matter the distance
Sorry, I only use a bike computer. Even at 5 am, grammar counts
I have the 935 and use it in triathlon mode. I also use it for transitions. BUT...I use my 520 bike computer for my bike data during all rides and races. I am a slower athlete and need to figure out what to shut off (bluetooth, etc) so I don't lose my "whip" during the run with a dead battery!
I like having swim data, and comparing my actual ride time with stops with the 520 data which has auto stop. If I could only pee on the bike! ;)
I have the 935 and I leave it on for the entire race start to finish. it's my back up for my Bike computer. My old garmin 520 failed me 2x in the 2014 season. It was very odd, both failures were during the bike of IMMT & IMAZ. I'd not had the failure before, between the 2 IMs or after the 2nd IM.
In both cases, I simply rotated my watch to the inside of my wrist where i can see my four fields of choice & continued without anxiety while i rebooted my 520 which then began to pick up power again.. how odd..
btw, I now use the wahoo Elmnt bolt bike computer.
Less is more.
920 on wrist turns on for swim.
810 on bike (520 has a better screen) pegged to NP 3s averaging and lap average.
920 on wrist turned back on for run.
No need to take off or put on a watch, just button mgmt during race.
SS
I do what Shaugn does. 920 for swim mostly to look at distance I swam and GPS map after to see whether I stayed on course. 520 for bike and 920 back on for run.