The Running Thread - 2026

[Dopey 2020]

Are you able to set your watch to alarm you on the intervals? When I ran with my wife and daughter at PW, my daughter had an app on her phone that would alert her when it was time to run and time to walk. I know she wasn't the only one as I heard the same along going off all over the course. My wife used to have the Galloway clip on thing that would do the same. It would be convenient if you could set that up on your watch.

Yup, I use an Apple Watch with their workout app, but there are several apps that will work. I keep it on silent so it taps my wrist and displays either work or recovery depending on which along with distance from last interval for a quick reference of am I close to pace. While running I keep total time, HR, current pace, and average pace on the display. It can also signal audibly in AirPods if I wanted to go that route.
The downfall with their app is you can’t set it to infinity, only up to 99 intervals so if you are doing short intervals over a long run you would need a different app.

 

[rick1zoo2]

Yup, I use an Apple Watch with their workout app, but there are several apps that will work. I keep it on silent so it taps my wrist and displays either work or recovery depending on which along with distance from last interval for a quick reference of am I close to pace. While running I keep total time, HR, current pace, and average pace on the display. It can also signal audibly in AirPods if I wanted to go that route.
The downfall with their app is you can’t set it to infinity, only up to 99 intervals so if you are doing short intervals over a long run you would need a different app.

I use a COROS watch and it's app that can be set up for intervals. It will give a few warning vibrations so you know its coming a few seconds before each. But what I actually use for RWR intervals is the Runkeeper app on the phone, and why I like that is it will notify you with a voice through headphones and it's separate from the COROS, so I can decide to follow it or not. I also have trouble seeing all the numbers on the watch screen (not going to run with my reading glasses) so I do like to have the Runkeeper on the phone going at the same time anyway. Sounds odd, but it works for me.

 

[nancipants]

Interesting. This is what I like to do too but I worry it’s killing my time overall. I guess I’m worried that when truly taking that break, my run portion will have to be way faster to get back to my pre RWR pace. My fastest half was 2:02 and I really want to be around that, and closer to the 2 hour mark.

FWIW, my walking speed is much faster when I'm doing RWR, versus when I'm just walking. My running momentum keeps me going faster and I usually clock around 15-16 min/mile on my walk intervals. Whereas if I'm just taking a walk, my fast speed is 17-18 min/mile.

I do acceleration gliders every week as part of Galloway training, and they've really helped me transition between running/walking and keeping a faster pace while still bringing down my heart rate.

 

[WDW 4 ME]

do acceleration gliders

I will look into this! Thank you!!!

 

[Dopey 2020]

A great month for me, stuck to the plan, had an awesome time at SS and crushed my marathon. Did 2 easy miles on the dreadmill today to get a feel for my recovery and feel good. I will try to get 10 or so over the weekend before taking another break to go see DD graduate from ERAU, wow! That happened so fast I can’t even comprehend time anymore. We’ll see after that, I think I may need help as my addiction grows. I’m seriously looking at a local marathon at the end of May, I’m not sure what happened to only running Disney races.

 

[RuntheMouse]

April training:

• 131.95 miles
• 8 strength training sessions
• 4 cross training days
• A new 1 mile PR
• A new 5k PR

April was VERY good to me. Feeling really dialed in with my training. The 5k race was a last minute add to test the waters. I have a 10k next month which is my spring A race. Hopefully things will keep going as well as they have been.

 

[rick1zoo2]

April totals:
Run: 92.86 miles, 10:54 ave pace.
Walk: >28.4 miles

Running included the Springtime Surprise Challenge races. Today was final run of 4 miles before the Broad Street 10 miler on Sunday, hoping for a decent time. I feel better now than during the SS, running feels easier and quicker, maybe because it's a lot cooler here.

 

[KCO5988]

April Recap:
124.4 miles run
4 races (including SS)
1 Half Marathon PR

 

[Erika10021]

April was a great month for running!

Running: 81.2 miles
Walking: 28 miles
Total: 110 miles

A 10k PR
A 10 miler PR
First time my average pace per mile for the whole month was below 13 minutes per mile!

 

[fatmanatee]

So with RD in the offseason and Spring race season winding down soon, is this a good time to talk watches? Specifically Garmin, I know quite a few of you have them and I think I'm just about done with the inaccuracies of my Apple watch. Been looking into my options and eyeing the Forerunner 570, unless there's a refresh coming shortly (entirely possible given this came out in May last year). Any thoughts? Will probably buy sometime in the summer so if they end up doing the refresh we'll see.

 

[PrincessV]

So with RD in the offseason and Spring race season winding down soon, is this a good time to talk watches? Specifically Garmin, I know quite a few of you have them and I think I'm just about done with the inaccuracies of my Apple watch. Been looking into my options and eyeing the Forerunner 570, unless there's a refresh coming shortly (entirely possible given this came out in May last year). Any thoughts? Will probably buy sometime in the summer so if they end up doing the refresh we'll see.

If I may, I’ll put in a plug for Coros instead. Caveat: I use very few of any GPS watch features, so superusers may have different opinions, but I replaced my old Garmin with the base Coros model and have been VERY happy with it! Worth exploring the brand’s lineup and comparing to Garmin, IMO.

 

[Dopey 2020]

So with RD in the offseason and Spring race season winding down soon, is this a good time to talk watches? Specifically Garmin, I know quite a few of you have them and I think I'm just about done with the inaccuracies of my Apple watch. Been looking into my options and eyeing the Forerunner 570, unless there's a refresh coming shortly (entirely possible given this came out in May last year). Any thoughts? Will probably buy sometime in the summer so if they end up doing the refresh we'll see.

Always a good time to talk watches. From my rabbit hole dive I almost went from apple to coros last year but right now I’m still very happy with my apple. I’ll still be following this though, like shoes, I can’t get enough tech talk. I am curious what model apple you have and what you don’t like.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Watches: Most people, IMO, use a very small percentage of the functions available when it comes to garmins (I'm not familiar with other brands.) I started with a forerunner 35 and then traded up for a vivoactive because I wanted a few features the 35 didn't offer. But honestly I've turned off so many things on my VA because they just drain the battery faster and are ridiculous (respiratory rate? pulse ox? from my wrist? Oh please!), or I just flat out don't use them. Every time I think maybe I should look at watches I manage to remind myself that mine does everything I need still, and the battery can last through a 9hr race no problem. I feel like they keep cramming "stuff" into watches on the tech side so they can charge more, when it doesn't really cost them much of anything to add it.

Pick the watch that has the features you would use, that falls within your budget, with an interface you like. I really like my combination touchscreen and 2 buttons (for start/stop and lap.)

Now tell those kids to go get off my lawn.

 

[fatmanatee]

Always a good time to talk watches. From my rabbit hole dive I almost went from apple to coros last year but right now I’m still very happy with my apple. I’ll still be following this though, like shoes, I can’t get enough tech talk. I am curious what model apple you have and what you don’t like.

It's kinda two-fold, and maybe I'm just overly frustrated about not hitting expected goals, but part of it is not having a good sense of my pace and if I'm on track to hit those goals. It's possible I just have to figure out a different app to use or something.

The second issue is that the battery runs out on me before I finish marathons. Happened with NYC two years ago, so I have no data on that run. So I'm sour on that, have heard that Garmins battery is better. Older watch now, and probably in line for an upgrade of some sort anyway due to the battery being less effective.

On top of all that, I'm curious about the additional features that a Garmin watch might have.