I’ve been a user of electronic sports devices for quite some time now. I started off with the Garmin edge 205 about 16-17 years ago when first getting into biking. Then I transitioned to the Garmin Forerunner 305 because I was swimming, biking, and running-all tri sports. It wasn’t until recently when I switched to the Garmin Fenix 6X pro that I realized I could be getting a lot more out of it by using the software platform developed for the Garmin products, Garmin Connect. Some of these advanced features hinged on the additional insights gleaned from using the Fenix continuously, another topic for another time.
I’ve used quite a few different software platforms in addition to Garmin Connect. Of which include relive.cc, mapmy products, komoot, and several others. I’ve even dipped my toes into All Trails, hoping it would provide me options that I wanted in a training software…pacing and estimating. Unfortunately, they did not have any products that would do what I wanted, more to follow.
It wasn’t until recently that I found Garmin Connect has a
PacePro Pacing Strategies section in their Training & Planning section. It allows you to take a course, apply a pace, adjust parameters for hill accent/decent and splits (negative or positive), and then sync it to the watch. It is a great step forward and certainly a direction that I’ve wanted to see in an advanced training software.
However, the one thing that I have found or have wanted is the ability to take analyze local routes and match that against a race to determine what percentage of the route I am on will be similar to that of a race. Even being able to take a race and match it against a route near me. Ultimately, the best training run is one that is on the same course for which you are training. It’s not every day that you can run the course, especially if you are separate by hundreds of miles.
For example, I want to run the
Scott Mountain Ultra 21 mile course next year….in Pocatello, ID which is over 10 hours from where I live. If I were able to find routes similar to sections of the course in my local area then I would be able to effectively train for it. Reverse that. How about using a run around Portland water front and see what races within X hours match that route within Y%?! There’s nothing out there that I know of which would perform a comparison in either direction-route to race or race to route.
The unique function of this software combined with a pacing software would be the end goal. A nice finishing touch would be to have environmental factors added into the mix-humidity, relative temp, solar load, wind, etc, etc. Every factor that someone might experience while running would be accounted for.
How do you take that one step further?! Predictable outcomes with required foods, clothing, etc to meet the goals.
