Track running: tracking laps

I have been track running for months now! And it has made me a lot more aware of pace. But quite a lot of people there are aware of a lot more than pace: they know exactly how fast they have done each lap. I had once tried to get my watch to tell me that, and it had failed quite miserably. It has a function called track running, which I didn't manage to make work for me, but that is not the only option there is for quantifying laps. There is also the "lap" function. It's not obvious! It's basically the "back" button. I was going to try that out.

I first did a tiny little try-out on the parking lot. I just walked some circles, and pressed that back button. In Strava, there was nothing to be discerned. But then I looked at the software of Garmin itself, and I saw that indeed, I had quantified laps.

That was how it happened on the track as well. Every time we came over to finish line I pressed the back button. That didn't tell me how fast I had done that lap. But afterwards, I could look it up in the Garmin app. 

Is it just a case of me not having the correct watch? Maybe if I had a more sophisticated model, I would be able to live track my laps? Quite possibly! But for now, at least in hindsight I can see how fast I have done each lap.

This time we did 2x1600m, 2x800m, 4x400m. I had just given blood the day before so I started conservative, aiming for 4:20 on the mile, 4:15 or 4:10 on the 800 m, and then I sped up on the 400m laps. I heard the people behind me be a bit shocked at the increase. But if you only have 400 meters to go, you can give it a lot of welly!

The last of the laps, one of the guys asked if he could go in front. Of course he could! And he still has quite a lot in the bag. He showed off like an arrow. I couldn't keep up with him! But that last lap was by quite some margin in the fastest.

I might have to google if maybe I can just change the settings on my watch. It would be nice if I can actually see the lap times. Surely that wouldn't be too much to ask? But if not, maybe one day I'll be such a running nerd I buy a more sophisticated watch just to get that functionality…