Sports Watches Strongly Recommended for MCP
Trainees
by John Steitz, MCP Coach
Sports watches for distance running need not be expensive. A $20.00 or $30.00 Timex Ironman watch from Walmart or Target may provide all that you need. I have been using the same $35.00 Timex Ironman watch for the past four years (albeit now on its second watch band), and it still provides me all the information that I require.
The two sports features which distance runners use most often are the Chronometer and the Countdown Timer. Some watches include lots of other feature, some of which are handy, some of which you may never use. Newer models incorporate the sports watch features with a heart-rate monitor and/or a GPS system. But you will pay a lot more for either of these gadgets.
The Chronometer records elapsed time, and most watches allow you to break up and entire run into “laps” or other period for your training. On a track, you turn on the chronometer at the beginning of the run, and then every time you pass the starting point (and start a new lap) you press the “lap” button and the watch calculates a new elapsed time, retaining the record of each previous lap (up to a given maximum, generally 30 laps or higher on new watches). By comparing the various lap times, you see how your run progresses (or digresses) the further you run.
On a road race, a chronometer lets you calculate your time for each mile, or each section of a course separately and also lets you total your overall time for that race or training run. If you use your chronometer to measure your time for one mile (generally, a mile in the middle of your run, not at the ginning or end of it), you will learn your “pace” per mile, and can use that to match yourself with running partners, or to measure your progress. By comparing differing times over the same distance, on various runs, you can gauge the effectiveness (vel non), of shoes, pacing, heat, sleep, time of day, hydration, nutrition, and other variables on your running ability with an *objective* measurement. Sometimes your subjective feel for how fast you are running is not accurate, and a chronometer can show you when you are doing really good, and when something is amiss.
On MCP long runs, one simple application for a chronometer is to measure the time elapsed on both the “out” and the return of an “out-and-back” course, which are 80% of our long run courses. On these courses, each of the two legs is exactly the same distance, so any difference in time reflects your pacing, and your efforts are various points of the run. A common training goal of distance running is to run a “Negative Split” – where (if both halves of the course are the same distance) the time on the second half of the run is less than the time on the first half. To run a negative split, you have to start the run *really* slow, compared to what you feel you could be doing, so that you will have the energy left to keep up that pace – or even improve it – during the second half. For anyone who ever “went out way too fast” a chronometer can help you train yourself toward a better pacing strategy.
A Countdown Timer, is just that, a timer that starts at a given hour/minute/second setting and then counts down to zero and beeps at you. Most watches have a repeating feature, where once the timer reaches zero, it jumps back to the starting value and does it all over again….and again…and again….as long as your run lasts.
[I once ran a marathon where my watch had gotten its timer knocked out of repeating mode, and I had to do a three-button reset every few minutes to start the timer anew, because I didn’t want to stop and fiddle with the watch to get it back into repeating mode. It was annoying as heck – but that race was still my second-fastest marathon time, ever (!)]
You use the countdown time to remind you to do something
during your run….either to take a scheduled walk break (instead of the
unscheduled ones you do toward the end of a long run <g>), or to drink
fluids, or to eat a gel, or to stretch, or whatever. For my Penguins using the “
There is no standard button or menu configuration for sports watches, and each one is a mini-puzzle when you first start using it. Generally, all the watches in a watchmaker’s family (e.g. all the Timex Ironman varieties) have very similar menus and button arrangements, so sometimes you can guess correctly. When all else fails, read the manual.
Play with your sports watch during your short, mid-week runs. Then, when you are comfortable with it, start using it on your long runs. By race day, I believe it will be a valuable tool for you, and may make this training season, and your efforts on race day, easier and more enjoyable.