Dan's Darn Data

My Garmin Forerunner 45

Data is my life. Maybe not quite so much as when I was a Project Planning Analyst who spent his working life measuring and analyzing project and software data. But data and its measurement is still in my bones. I’m now on my fourth (I think) Garmin Forerunner device, and for a runner who loves data, it’s the cat’s meow. I don’t have to guess anymore, and I have access to more data than even I know what to do with.

Feedback is important and helpful to activities that are being measured, as running is. For most of my running, especially that being done with friends and/or some of the daily, not-so-critical runs, I’m not so concerned with an individual training performance. But I am indeed keen on measuring some training runs and especially races. These are the instances where feedback is critical. Generally, the more instant, the better. But feedback over longer times and distances can help as well.

There are, of course, many individual differences in this regard. Some of my running friends, including some very good runners, care much less about measurement than I do. But then, most people on the planet care much less about measurement than I do. I’m weird; I know.

In this post, I am going to discuss the Garmin Data Fields that I use, and how I use them. I hope this information will be helpful. These are available on my device, the Forerunner 45. It’s possible that other models may have other data fields, perhaps even some very useful ones. But I can’t imagine any that might be better than these for providing instant and subsequent feedback for runners. Please leave a comment if you know of any.

The Garmin Forerunner 45 allows the user to define and configure data screens using the various fields. I prefer to display three fields per screen. I’ll show the screens and fields that I use and how I use them.

Screen 1 – Distance, Timer, Pace

This screen comes up first once my device acquires the satellites. For many daily runs, it’s all I bother to use. It provides the most basic data that I want to be made aware of: how far have I run, how long have I been running, and what pace am I going. Here are the Garmin field definitions.

Distance

The distance traveled for the current track or activity.

Timer

The stopwatch time for the current activity.

Pace

The current pace.

Screen 2 – Lap Distance, Lap Timer, Lap Pace

This screen comes up second for me. I use Garmin Laps for both laps and what they call Intervals. My Lap distance is set at one mile, so anytime I run more than a mile, I get more than one Lap. Some runners fine-tune their lap distance for various runs or races. For example, some may want to set the Lap distance to 1 kilometer for a 5K race. Since I don’t use Intervals, when I do run an interval workout, I simply press the Lap button when I want to record the beginning or end of an interval. This way I get to include the recoveries as well as the faster running. Whether or not you use Garmin Intervals, you would probably agree that the Lap feature is best for races of any distance. I keep this screen for most of the time for most races, tempo runs, and as mentioned, interval workouts. During a race, I can tell at a glance how far I’ve run for the current mile (my Lap distance), the elapsed time for this mile, and most useful of all, the anticipated split, aka the Lap Pace. I can’t overemphasize the importance of Lap Pace to my running. Whereas the Pace field tells me my pace at any instant, it can vary widely and does not provide a good overall picture of how I’m doing. By showing the anticipated split, Lap Pace really lets me know how I’m doing. At the start of each mile, it can vary by quite a bit, but then, as the mile progresses, it becomes more and more accurate and more and more steady. It allows me to constantly monitor how I’m doing. If you learn nothing else from this post, let this be it: USE LAP PACE for your racing!

Lap Distance

The distance traveled for the current lap.

Lap Time

The stopwatch time for the current lap.

Lap Pace

The average pace for the current lap.

Screen 3 – Distance, Heart Rate, Average Pace

I use this screen less often, but it’s handy when I do want to know one of these metrics. I show distance redundantly here for perspective on the other two fields. I do relatively little monitoring of my heart rate during runs. It can be interesting to look at later, and it’s interesting to compare it with perceived effort and to observe it by lap or over the entire run. But if I do want to know my heart rate in real-time, it’s here. Of course, I’m aware that some runners may a great deal of attention to their HR and HR Zone for training runs. I don’t. I probably should. The Average Pace field is interesting. It’s the average pace over the entire run up to this point. So it’s a little bit like the Lap Pace field but over the entire distance instead of for the current mile.

Distance

The distance traveled for the current track or activity.

Heart Rate

Your heart rate in beats per minute (bpm). Your device must have wrist-based heart rate or be connected to a compatible heart rate monitor.

Average Pace

The average pace for the current activity.

Screen 4 – Clock

Clock is not one of the official Garmin data fields, so I don’t know how I managed to configure this screen. But sometimes it’s handy to know the current time without messing up the data for a run currently in progress.

As noted, I use Screen 1 the most, and sometimes I don’t even look at the others. Also as noted, I use Screen 2 the most for intense training and for racing. When I do want to change, however, it’s quite easy to toggle between them.