What should I show on my watch?

Runner Questions: What should I show on my watch?

This is a common question for runners new to power.

There’s no correct answer, apart from the obvious – you should show the metrics you want to monitor while running!

That said, personal experience (and Facebook conversations) suggest many runners work through something like the following.

Power is unfamiliar

You add power numbers, but you also keep pace or HR as these are the metrics you’re familiar with (so you can cross-check your intensity).

Power seems very ‘spiky’ (you’re showing real-time power), so you try other power numbers – smoothed power, lap power, average power etc.

Power + HR + Pace = Confusion

You find that whichever power metric you show, it doesn’t always match your pace or HR, with each metric changing differently when you encounter hills.

It feels confusing.

And you’ve begun to explore your post-run power metrics, which leads you to use lap power.

You decide to focus on lap power, relegating pace and HR to secondary pages (so you can still look at them if you need to).

Power + Form metrics

You show lap power, but you add metrics like cadence or Ground Contact Time to work on your form while you run.

And then you find it’s difficult to do both – maintain power targets and work on your form.

Less is more

Eventually, you realise that power is simply a way to train your perceived exertion – how hard it feels when you’re running.

You adjust your watch display to show two (possibly three) metrics:

⚡ lap power – so that you can run to interval targets

⚡ 3s or 10s average power – so that you can use this ‘smoothed’ power in place of ‘spiky’ real-time power to judge running a little harder (or a little easier) than your target, bringing your lap power back on target.

⚡ you may also add previous lap power – so that when running intervals, you can check your last work interval power during recovery intervals.

Some runners switch to show percentage of Threshold Power, rather than Watts (if this is an option) – this has proven useful when learning to ‘run by feel’.

The above sequence is not unusual and may even be necessary to become fully comfortable with Running with Power.