Perceived Effort vs Garmin Pace Numbers?

[quote="Schuey"]

charles wrote:

Mike MacLellan wrote: To paraphrase Schuey and Jerry - you find the Golden Road to Unlimited Relaxtion (~);-)

HaHa I missed that the first time around Charles! How I missed that I don't know but I'm sure that is the last time you will slip one of those by me.

"Take a vacation, fall out for a while,
Summer's comin' in, and it's goin' outa style
Cause your mother's down in Memphis, won't be back 'till the fall.

Hey hey, hey, come right away
Come and join the party every day."

I kept waiting . . . and waiting ;-)

I wear my Garmin for all my tempo and speed work runs, but it has absolutely no impact on how I run my workouts. It's just a recording that I can look at afterward. I try and do the same effort for all of my tempo runs. Then after the fact, the Garmin is helpful. I can see what effect different variables had on my overall pace. The fixed value is the effort. The variable is my pace. When I'm done, I can then try and figure out what affected my run. If the effort was the same between this week and last, but the time is different, why was it different? Was it hot out? Did I eat something weird? Am I in better shape? Windy? etc...

So use the Garmin more as an analysis tool instead of a pace dictator.

GregC wrote:I wear my Garmin for all my tempo and speed work runs, but it has absolutely no impact on how I run my workouts. It's just a recording that I can look at afterward. I try and do the same effort for all of my tempo runs. Then after the fact, the Garmin is helpful. I can see what effect different variables had on my overall pace. The fixed value is the effort. The variable is my pace. When I'm done, I can then try and figure out what affected my run. If the effort was the same between this week and last, but the time is different, why was it different? Was it hot out? Did I eat something weird? Am I in better shape? Windy? etc...

So use the Garmin more as an analysis tool instead of a pace dictator.

I like this. What physiological markers do you look for to determine your effort level?

Mike MacLellan wrote:I like this. What physiological markers do you look for to determine your effort level?

Good question, and I don't have a good answer. After a while, you just know. I guess it's kind of your breathe rate, but it's more than that. yeah, I'm no good at this.

GregC wrote:

Mike MacLellan wrote:I like this. What physiological markers do you look for to determine your effort level?

Good question, and I don't have a good answer. After a while, you just know. I guess it's kind of your breathe rate, but it's more than that. yeah, I'm no good at this.

Mike,

One goal of mine this spring training is to learn LT workout fast continuous run style. I watch Garmin to force me on pace, feel it, then check again. The hope is I can get to Greg's status, apparently not pace, in future training cycle.

I seem to be pretty good at this on a bike... I think. But running, it's tougher. Although, I do have certain breath counts for different paces. 1:15 for 7:45-8:45 pace, 1:12 for 7:15-7:45, but after that, it's not as consistent. Those are in:out (count on left foot) by the way.

I think I am in the minority here - I definitely live by the Garmin. If I'm supposed to run any training run below MP, I tend to rely on the Garmin pretty heavily. My HR always follows along as long as I stick to the pace. Sometimes I run and feel I am really struggling then I look at the Garmin data and find my HR was low so for me, the perceived effort doesn't always work.

JohnP wrote:I think I am in the minority here - I definitely live by the Garmin. If I'm supposed to run any training run below MP, I tend to rely on the Garmin pretty heavily. My HR always follows along as long as I stick to the pace. Sometimes I run and feel I am really struggling then I look at the Garmin data and find my HR was low so for me, the perceived effort doesn't always work.

I agree with you John. For the most part, I do the same things you do. I love my Garmin and the way that I can analyze all of my running data. There are times that I run just to run, but those runs are normally during my off cycle running.

Mrs. Schuey wrote:Question about perceived effort: I have switched from watching my paces on a run and have chosen to run off of feeling/perceived effort. The question I have is what if the numbers are better than my perceived effort? In other words, what if I perceive that I’m running at a pace where my body feels it’s comfortably working and the numbers show that it’s more easy than perceived? Am I selling myself short in training?

Sorry if this sounds like a like a silly question.

I would like to think that if the numbers are better than the perception, then you're in better shape than your perception. Because if your perception was faster than the watch shows, I would think you're not in as good a shape as you thought.

ounce wrote:

Mrs. Schuey wrote:Question about perceived effort: I have switched from watching my paces on a run and have chosen to run off of feeling/perceived effort. The question I have is what if the numbers are better than my perceived effort? In other words, what if I perceive that I’m running at a pace where my body feels it’s comfortably working and the numbers show that it’s more easy than perceived? Am I selling myself short in training?

Sorry if this sounds like a like a silly question.

I would like to think that if the numbers are better than the perception, then you're in better shape than your perception. Because if your perception was faster than the watch shows, I would think you're not in as good a shape as you thought.

What Ounce said...go with the numbers...they don't lie