The importance of pacing for an endurance athlete is one of the most critical aspects of your training and performance.

You go out too fast and you end up suffering far more than necessary, only to limp in with a disappointing result for yourself.  Go out too slow, and although you might ‘suffer’ less, you’re still not going to be pleased with the final outcome if your overall time is in any way important to you – which for most of us – it is.  Although as I’ve discussed before, your final results or time should not define your experience for you, it is still something many of us think about to help us gauge improvement over time, assess our training, and to simply experience the satisfation of meeting an external goal.  So, I don’t recommend your result/time to be your focus, but I do recommend that it still hold value for these reasons.

Pacing has become increasingly popular and integrated within endurance training for a few years now, thanks in part to the adaptation of GPS watches.  Prior to this, in order to assess your speed/distance/pace during a training run you needed either a treadmill, a track, or specified markers (such as in a race to record your splits.)  I guess if you were really hard core you could also use a friend on a bike for a pace bunny…but you need a couple of really good buddies to recycle through if this was your pacing method of choice!!

So, I now bring to you…drum roll please….the highly anticipated….TIMEX GPS Global Trainer.  Long-awaited…but as of June 2010, this hot little “machine on a wrist” will be hitting retail and available for purchase!  Oooh la la! Welcome to the new generation – TIMEX style!!!  And I ask you…is there any other style when it comes to performance watches?  That’s what I figured;-)

http://www.timexironman.com/Products/Global_Trainer_GPS.htm

Some notable features for all you pace bunnies out there:

-GPS is driven by SiRFstarIII chipset which acquires satellite signals faster and lose connection less often than watches using older chipsets such as Forerunning 101, 201, and 301.

-Can store up to 100 waypoints with the trackback feature and 50 custom routes

-Records up to 1,000 lap times

-4 quadrant screen (LOVE THIS!!!!!)  So easy, so clear….so very TIMEX!

-PC/Mac compatible

-Ability to import performance to Training Peaks software

-Can be used with bike sensors, all TIMEX heart rate chest straps and ANT+ third party bike power sensors.

Now, let it be said, that I am a huge believer in pacing.  If you want to run a goal ‘time’ in a race, then you need to train your body to race at that pace - (amazing concept, I know!!)  Slowly but surely, we can use consistent pacing in our training to help us reach our goals, and this watch will take us there.  At the same time, I also think it’s important to realize that pacing is not the only thing that will help us reach our goals.  Two other important pieces of the puzzle are monitoring our heart rates and understanding our perceived exertion.  The former being the most critical of all. 

The Global Trainer will monitor your heart rate (and allow you to also monitor your speed, pace, distance all at the same time – if you so choose!)  Since being given a premiere version of this doozy of a timepiece at the TIMEX camp in New Jersey a couple of months ago, I use the Global Trainer for about 50% of my runs.  It’s the ticket when I want to be out in the elements and maintaining a specified pace to get my body (especially the legs!) used to running at a “x” pace for “x” time. 

Sometimes though, I just want the chronological time and my heart rate.  I don’t want to be tempted by knowing my pace (which I always am when I have the Global Trainer!)  I think…”Oooooh, I wonder what pace I’m holding right now.” Our pace can sometimes trick us.  For example, running uphill into the wind, might have us at a threshold heart rate, but our pace is only what would otherwise be considered a ‘steady’ pace. I recall having a conversation with Jerry Ziak shortly after the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2007 where I told him the pace I ran in the final mile of the race.  He then looked at me sideways as he asked me what on EARTH I was doing looking at my ‘pace’ during the final mile of a marathon.  I held my head in shame.  How TRUE!  But again, the point is that there is a time and a place for pacing.  The final mile of a marathon….not the time, people!! The energy I wasted (mentally and physically) by looking incessantly at my watch (prior to the TIMEX GPS days) could have gained me a few extra seconds, maybe putting me at a 2:48 marathon…rather than a 2:49 – in that race.  Time and a place….time and a place!!!

  Heart rate (used alone) also allows us to get a better sense for our perceived exertion.  We get to know what our bodies experience and feel like at given efforts or heart rates, and can use that information for pacing the long distance races when the variables change constantly throughout the race.  Too much dependence on pace can be detrimental, so you have to remember to keep it in balance – at least in my humble opinion. For some workouts, I just want to leave the newest technology behind and look solely at my heart rate as my gauge.  So, for about 25% of my runs I will use the TIMEX Road Trainer, which is, quite simply, legendary.  It simple, it’s small, it’s easy, and definitely not a TIMEX piece to be forgotten in these times of great evolution, with new additions such as the Global Trainer, WS4, and TapScreen.

http://walking.about.com/od/prhrm/gr/timexroadhrm.htm

So what do I use for the remaining 25% of the time for my training runs?  Nothing.  Na da.  Perceived exertion.  Scott tells me to go easy, I go easy.  He tells me to go steady, I listen to my breathing.  He tells me to go hard, I make sure everything hurts;-)

My point?  Balance between the tools towards getting faster: Pacing, Heart Rate, and Perceived Exertion.  TIMEX delivers in the first two areas…the third is up to you!