In awe

This might be boring for most of you. Probably to me too. I spent some time to hammer out my pace chart for this weekend race. I meant to do this a while back, and finally sat down to do it.

I did a simple one with pen and paper last weekend? This time, I use the power of technology to expand my chart. It can autocalculate!

You know I like to just run and not think about the math. The math itself is not hard, they are just tedious. You just have to do many of them and do them fast. Often time I do them on the fly during a run. But for long races, all the math get jumbo up in my head, especially you have to keep track of many numbers. They tend to blend together.

We usually just estimate if we are running. You kind of know in the ballpark how fast you are going and when you will finish. Two things you need are Time and Distance. With those two data, you get your pace. With your pace you can project the finishing time (or a time to a particular place, e.g., an aid station), which is what every runner care about. Those who are good at this can get a bunch of points and their time calculated.

But they do get overwhelming especially after a while. The thing is you have to continuously run the numbers because your pace change all the time! There are unexpected things happening, like someone might talk to you or you might stay a bit longer at a station, or your body might crap out on you. There are always so many variables that can affect your performance ay each moment in time. That is the hard part.

What I wish is, while I run, someone would keep track of my data. Many apps do that. I actually was thinking to write an app myself for this! I looked into so many running apps, but none of them was up to what I wanted! surprise surprise. Most only track the history but they are bad at forecasting during the run.

This is the kind of data I want. It is messy. And there are a lot of numbers.

Ya I might have gone a little overboard. I wish though I could call a friend or someone during the race to tell them where I was, and they will fill in the chart for me. Cool eh? I did not have a chart for every mile, but only at 11 key locations (aid station).

I did a similar table last year for my first race too. For that one I was right on target. This year I don’t know if I will be on target.

I stalked various forums. Several people who I think have similar performance as me, said it took them 14 hours to finish this race. So with me aiming a 13 hour finish is tough.

PS. If I have an app, I could measure heart rate, elevation, power output, etc. Then I can see my power curve. If you put in water consumption vs sweat, calories and temperature, gawly, you have quite a thing.

There you have it