"Could I have gone faster?" is the question that plagues runners after a race, good or poor, personal best or worse. Fans pondered if Molly Seidel, who placed third in the 2020 Olympic Marathon, could have beaten Kenya's Brigid Kosgei for the silver. After all, Kosgei was just 10 seconds ahead of the pack in 2:27:36. Seidel's Strava, where she released an unofficial report of her race in Sapporo, may have the solution. Seidel's Coros Apex watch recorded her heart rate, and it doesn't appear like she could have pushed much harder for the final several miles. Her pulse rate rose beyond 180 beats per minute, remaining near maximum until she crossed the finish line. Seidel was, in principle, firing on all cylinders.



Some participants wore Whoop monitors while participating at the Millrose Games, which transmitted their heart rates to TV viewers. As a consequence, race commentators might guess if a rival had enough gas in the tank to catch them on the bell lap or if they were completely drained by the final stretch. However, heart rate is only one indicator of effort that may be used to determine how hard we're working. Another alternative is a new function in Garmin's Fenix 7 GPS watch series. Real-Time Stamina is a data panel that displays how long you can maintain your current speed. It essentially calculates your capability. If you push yourself too hard, you'll burn out sooner. If you take it too easy, you'll burn out.

As a result, you'll have a longer time to complete the task. Of course, this raises concerns: Will it turn us all into robots who obey a set of rules? Isn't it true that knowing our final time takes the thrill out of racing?


What Is Real-Time Stamina and How Does It Work?

Garmin measures your stamina using three primary data points: VO2 max, maximum heart rate, and your activity log. You'll want to make sure that inputs are as correct as possible to receive the most precise figures. When you go for a run with GPS, the watch records your pace and heart rate to estimate your VO2 max—all that's that's needed to get a rough estimate of your stamina. For the best results, manually enter your maximum heart rate. Finally, make the most of your watch by wearing it as much as possible. That means keeping track of everything you do, whether it's a run or a yoga practice, and wearing it on your wrist while you sleep. Why? The gadget keeps track of your daily training load and strain as well as the quality of your sleep, to determine how well you've recovered and to account for the exhaustion the next day It's doubtful that you'll have full bars at the start of every run.


You may examine a few measures in real time on the stamina data screen. The first is "potential stamina," which refers to your capacity at a modest degree of activity. It's represented as a black bar and expressed as a percentage. Consider it like going for a little jog. Then there's "stamina," which is depending on how hard you're running—run faster, and this percentage declines quicker as well. (As shown below, this green bar sits on top of the black bar.) Because percentages aren't very useful without context, the watch may also display you how much distance or time you have left at your current effort level.



Advantages of Racing

If you're running a marathon, you may find that slowing down can assist you avoid reaching the finish line. Runner-in- While training for mountain races this summer, Chief Jeff Dengate has been putting his stamina to the test on the small but steep hills of Easton, Pennsylvania. When the road slopes upward, Jeff's pace becomes useless, therefore he used to utilize heart rate to lock in an effort. He attempts to keep the green bar from dropping too far away from the black bar as he climbs with the Fenix 7.


Where some runners can realize the important price during this feature is throughout longer races that demand a high-intensity effort. The Mount Washington motor vehicle Road Race, for instance, is associate degree all uphill climb to the highest of the tallest peak within the Northeast, with 4,650 vertical feet of rising. It’s 7.6 miles long and hits parts of twenty-two % grade. once Jeff ran it within the past, he tried to stay his vital sign around one hundred sixty bpm—any higher and he’d presently slow to a hike. But, finding that sweet spot came as a results of loads of apply. With the stamina feature, Jeff will centre on a little of the climb and decide whether or not he will maintain his steady rhythm on the stretches that get vessel, or if doing therefore can bottom out his potential stamina bar and tack minutes onto his end time.


Refueling in a more intelligent manner

Garmin’s period stamina mensuration will take some dead reckoning out of race efforts and coaching paces. it should even be ready to predict your end time. however what if it’s one thing else, like your refueling, that you simply wish to stay tabs on? Selene Yeager (a.k.a. Bicycling’s “Fit Chick”) has been associate degree endurance contestant for 2 decades. She’s competed in everything from Ironmans to gravel bike races longer than two hundred miles, and her biggest barrier to athletics success was correct refueling. For her, endless aldohexose Monitor (CGM) was a game-changer.


CGMs are around for quite it slow, principally utilized by folks with polygenic disorder to manage their blood glucose levels throughout the day. however athletes square measure investing the devices to work out what to eat, when. In a sense, a CGM will act virtually sort of a fuel indicator in your automotive to indicate what proportion gas you’ve got here your tank.


The CGM itself is worn on the rear of the higher arm and registers the concentration of aldohexose current within the fluid encompassing your body’s cells. The quarter-sized device uses a hair-thin needle that feels additional sort of a insect bite than an endeavor once applied. What’s new isn’t the wearable monitor itself, however the smartphone apps that interpret the info. Yeager spent months testing Supersapiens, a CGM app awaiting Food and Drug Administration approval, with the potential to indicate aldohexose levels in real time on your smartphone screen.


What Are the Benefits of Using a CGM?

Understanding huge spikes and drops will assist you eliminate GI problems or the emotions of a bonk, like fatigue and symptom. Most of the time, you’ll wish to stay your levels stable—but not continually. for instance, you’ll wish to stock up your muscles’ polysaccharide stores before a race, that typically needs an increase in your blood glucose. however you would like to time your prerace meal properly therefore you don’t toe the road with a full abdomen or as you’re bloody from a sugar high.


You can additionally see the impacts of various refueling strategies, like “dripping” versus “dumping.” this suggests taking in little bites of food or gels terribly frequently rather than ingestion larger amounts all directly. Ultrarunners typically make out that strategy works best for them through trial and error—and over a couple of pitstops within the bushes. (Courtney Dauwalter finds the steady-drip strategy works best for her; the other proves effective for Coree Woltering.) A CGM will assist you additional simply make out the technique that works best for you in person, since 2 athletes will eat precisely the same foods and skill completely different blood glucose responses.


“If you’re cruising on many hours into an extended event and you begin to feel off, checking your aldohexose levels will assist you confirm if you would like food or if it’s one thing else,” Yeager aforesaid. “That approach you don’t mechanically shovel in a very packet of energy blocks and end up with a case of gut rot.” Having less food within the abdomen suggests that there’s less to digest, that lets blood flow go elsewhere within the body.


Blood sugar has an impact on running performance, but it's not the only factor. Glucose levels, for example, are neither a precise indicator of energy availability nor of glycogen storage (unless when glucose is extremely low). You might feel awful during a workout even though your glucose levels are in the normal range. "Towards the conclusion of a run, I'd get drowsy and observe my glucose drop in real time. "At other times, my leg sensations—heavy or light—didn't match the glucose levels," Yeager explained.


As a result, Yeager believes that the true benefit of a CGM is its capacity to assist you in developing a fuelling plan tailored to your training. (Using it in real time can be helpful, but checking your glucose in the middle of a run isn't always practical.) Decide on your best pre-race meal, how many gels you'll need throughout a marathon, and your favorite recovery snack, then return to training and racing without your CGM. However, if you become addicted to the technology, there's no reason you can't continue to wear one on a daily basis.