Auto rest and trail running

dreamer_

There’s something that the Enduro has that is a good idea, an that is the auto rest. As far as I know this is or was an exclusive feature of the Enduro

When you are on a race and you stop running because you are provisioning in a refreshment station, the watch can enter in a rest mode manually or automatically (it detects you are not running in the race):

This is very good for several reasons:

It disables GNSS that time, so you don’t have weird lines in your track once uploaded to the application.
With GNSS disabled that rest time, that means that your battery is increased during your race
It has a counter that tells you how many time you are provisioning, which is a very good idea (specially when you are tired)

So that counter, means at least those 3 things at the same time.

In a very long ultra or walking through the montains, the time you are resting while provisioning, can be several hours.

Perhaps an S+ application could resolve this. That would be incredible nice.

isazi

@dreamer_ if you want to know how many times you stop, and how much time you spend walking, running, and stationary at an aid station, check the Ultra Walking S+ app.

dreamer_

@isazi thanks!. Installed. I’ll check the app in my next training.
I find very good idea the application to stop the GNSS tracking that rest time though (I don’t find a good idea to pause manually the activity because that way , you loose the real time of the activity).
If the S+ app could do it, you won’t have the GNSS weird lines while stopped and you will save some battery juice while resting.

isazi

@dreamer_ S+ apps cannot stop GPS, or alter watch data in any way. They can add to normal behavior, not subtract.

dreamer_

@isazi thanks for your help. Very good the app. I’ll try it for sure

MKPotts

@dreamer_
I’ve got an Enduro 1. It doesn’t pause GNSS acquisition, which I agree would be helpful to stop distance being added when an aid station is indoors. But it does have the rest timer screen, resetting after each stop, which I find the most useful part for making sure I don’t spend too long stopped at any one aid station.

I’m not sure the S+ app will do the same but I’ll try it. If not, I agree it would be really helpful to add this capability, either as another app or as a configuration of the lap button (as in the Enduro 1).

dreamer_

@MKPotts As far as I know, the Enduro 2, pauses the GNSS. Thanks a lot

Brad_Olwin

@dreamer_ I think a better solution than Garmin, I’ve read where the auto detect rest sometimes does not work so you don’t get some of the race recorded. @isazi’s app (yes he designed it) works extremely well and will also tell you how much hiking/walking vs running you did. Cool!

The_77

@MKPotts from memory it counts total time at each stop, and just sums up, but I barely stopped last time I used it.

dreamer_

@Brad_Olwin but even assuming the autodetect is not working fine, the watch gives you also the option to enable/disable the auto rest manually. Once you are in a long ultra, I’d prefer to do it manually in any case. I’d be incredible frustrating to run a 100 miller and have a bad recording for just that thing

So the ideal flow should be:

When you are in the aid station, you press a button or a combination to enable manually the rest counter. That disables GNSS and the recording of the GNSS line while you are moving in the aid station, and that also helps to optimize the battery of your run.
While you are there, you see only two fields. Counter with the time spent in the aid station and the total time of the race (including that time spent, because that sum is the real time of your race).
Before leaving, just press the top button to recover the GNSS and the data fields of the run.

@isazi. I did not know you were the creator of the S+ app. Thank you so much for this!

dreamer_

I have been reading a bit about this. It seems that this feature is effectively buggy in the Enduro 2 if auto detect is select, so manual select is recommended. As said, it’s more than knowing the time you are stopping. Thinking in very long races It could be interesting if the GNSS could be paused (without pausing the activity) because at the end you are stopping a lot, and in some races you are also sleeping some few hours. It could be also useful for ultra walkers to save some battery juice

Danny poleg

@isazi
Maybe consider producing an activity similar to triathlon
In triathlon you press a button at T1 and T2 and in the training summary you see how long I was at each change point
So it’s true that it’s difficult to do it automatically, but pressing a button at each feed or rest position will help a lot

dreamer_

@Danny-poleg fantastic analogy. It is a very good view and similar as what it should be. We should be able to pause the activity (without pausing the time spent) and have the option to choose to pause the GNSS. When in that pause time it would be interesting to see the time you are spending in the aid stations and the total time of the race.

As said. Stopping at aid stations is a very important part of a trail running race, It is not an addition.
It’s there and is something everybody is going to do always (perhaps if you are elite you are going to do small pauses but even in that case you’ll want to have even more that thing by default). So the actual definition of the trail running workout is not accurate. Pausing is part of the sport.

Most watches (but the Enduro 2) do have this profile incomplete with a copy of an asphalt profile with elevation support and just that.

dreamer_

Just to note that Fenix and Epix do also have the feature by default (not only the Enduro 2). So trail running is ok on Garmin. They also have enabled the manual rest for even swimming: https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-C001C335-A8EC-4A41-AB0E-BAC434259F92/EN-US/GUID-70DA63E3-4008-4406-B3E2-E914BE082BFA.html

So at the end, perhaps we should go further with this and not think only in trail running. Sometimes, in your trainings your are resting and it’s good to know the time you are stopped without pausing the activity. And you can also see that info splitted in the app, after uploading the data. I can also think in long swimming races or more use cases

Danny poleg

@dreamer_
The truth is that even in swimming it is an essential thing even though in real time there is the suuntoplus screen