Race etiquette: audible alerts?

[OakLeaf]

OK can you all tell I'm excited - sorry to keep bombarding you with questions!

I've been reading about race etiquette and it all seems pretty common sense, but one thing I haven't seen mentioned is audible alerts. I have a hard time judging my pace and it would be really helpful to me to set my watch for audible alerts. I've found that when I look at my wrist, I pull my head and shoulders back to do it and it automatically slows me way down. Is it rude to have beeping going on and annoying other runners? (I figure it's probably newbie behavior and not at all comme il faut, but is it rude?)

[Wahine]

I think that etiquette wise it's OK. For the most part you're not going to be right next to the same runner for very long so even if it bothers them they won't be putting up with it for any length of time. I have seen other runners use them. Having said that, personally it would drive me bonkers if someone was running next to me and their high HR alert kept going off. If it was a single beep intermittently to given you distance alerts or time alerts, no problem.

OakLeaf, you're doing a 5K and this is your 1st one, right? What are you planning on using the audible alerts for? What's the farthest you've run at one time? How long have you been training for this? Do you have other races planned in the near future?

I ask all these questions because, if you have a decent base and know that you can complete the 5k no problem, your legs are tough from running for a longer time and you don't have another race planned soon... I would forget about HR and just push at 90% effort up until the last 1k and then kick it inot 100%. But my legs can take it from years of running and I'd still recover quickly. If you don't have much base you could injure yourself doing this and be out of commision for a while.

Be aware that if you're planning to use HR to pace yourself on race day, and you're excited, your HR will not reflect your level of effort the same as when training. It will be higher than normal. So a lot of times level of effort is a better way to pace on race day but this is very difficult for newbies.

Good luck and feel free to ask more questions.

[OakLeaf]

Yes, it's a 5K and my first one. I'm not at all worried about my ability to complete the distance (even though my cardio base is mostly from aerobics and cycling, and I've only in the last few weeks decided to try to push my running pace, I've been running 4-5 miles 1-2 days a week for a few years now). I don't have any particular reason to save anything for later.

The main thing I'm worried about is saving my legs for the finish! Once I get faster than my endurance pace, I have a hard time judging whether I'm running a 7 minute pace or a 9 minute pace or anything in between. I know I'm going to get caught up in the excitement of the start, so what I'm thinking is to set a pace range so I don't totally burn my legs up in the first 1K. I probably don't need to set a low (the environment should do that for me), just a speed limit. Maybe just for the first 3-4K. Does that make sense?

I honestly haven't figured out how to pace myself or train using HR, because if I'm running at all (jogging, I should say ), it automatically goes to 80% of my max, and when I'm at endurance pace, my HR seems to fluctuate by 7 or more bpm, which is a whole zone. Maybe that's just error in my HRM. But I just use the graph to evaluate my progress after a workout and to set the pace for future workouts.

Thanks!

[DrBadger]

OakLeaf-
From what I understand, you want to set pace alerts on something like a Forerunner, right? LIke have it beep at you if you go faster than a 9 min/mile? I would say that isn't a problem... in the half that I ran this morning I had pace alerts set on my forerunner for the exact same reason you say.... didn't want to go out to fast in the excitement and then not have enough left for the end. I set my max pace for a 9:30 mile, and when I would go faster than that it would beep at me once. It didn't beep constantly, just once when I started going faster than the set pace (this was good in the last 3 miles where I did start running faster since I felt good, and knew I would be able to hold it to the end).

I also heard lots of other people's GPSes set to beep at them, but it wasn't annoying or anything. There were also so many people and other noises around that you really only heard your own beeps.

Good luck on the 5 K! Have fun!

[Wahine]

Setting it for pace is a good idea, because the moment it beeps you slow down and it stops. Setting alerts for HR is different, it'll beep you'll slow down but it won't stop for a while and depending how excited you are it may take a long time to come down, meanwhile you're beeping up a storm. So I'd say go for it if you're setting for pace.

Have fun!!

[Grog]

Responding to your initial concern: I don't think it's a major issue unless you're beeping all the time, which like Wahine would drive me bonkers.

This being said, my biggest mistake on my first short races was to be concerned about pace and being scared about not having enough in me to finish strong. Why? It's a race. You're excited. Adrenalin's high. Why not just go for it? You're going to have a lot more energy than you do on training runs.

I think if I was a coach training beginners I'd encourage them to leave their watch at home on their first event.

[OakLeaf]

Thanks!

Grog, you have a point, and I don't know for sure whether I'll bring it or not. Burning up my legs was never a big issue for me when I used to TT, but running is a whole 'nother thing for my body. (And of course, I did have a computer on the bike.) Maybe I'm just worrying because I used to run out of energy doing the mile in high school 35 years ago... when I had anorexia and wouldn't eat anything before an event...

And then there's the other part of me that says it didn't really happen unless there's a graph in Training Center.