Race strategy

What Stamio uses

• Your course profile: a GPX file, a Strava route or a route from your library, scaled to the race's official distance.
• Your target time: your plan's goal, today's fitness on this course, or a time you choose.
• During the race: your position on the course, your pace and your time, measured by your watch.

How it's calculated

1. 1

   The course, cut into small pieces

   The course is cut into segments a few dozen meters long, each with its grade, taken from the file's elevation.

2. 2

   What each grade costs

   Running uphill takes more energy, and downhill a little less: that's the published relationship between grade and the energy cost of running. Stamio fine-tuned it on real runs recorded by Apple Watch, and the gain on steep downhills is capped.

3. 3

   Your way of running

   "Even" keeps the same effort from start to finish; "Finish faster" starts a little more cautiously to finish a little faster. You can also set the start, how you take the hills, and a crowded start. For the marathon, a small fatigue margin is built in for the end.

4. 4

   The target time, to the second

   All the paces are adjusted together so they add up to exactly your target time: the pace of each mile, its split times and what the elevation costs you compared with flat ground.

During the race

• The strategy is offered, already checked, on your watch's start screen on race day or with its route.
• When you follow the route, the miles are the course's, not the GPS's: mile 10 falls at the mile 10 marker and the gap doesn't drift.
• The Strategy page shows your pace, your target pace, the gap in words and color, where you are on the profile, and your projected finish; the Upcoming page shows the next miles.
• At every mile, a screen and a voice: your time, your total gap and the pace for the next mile.
• If you're behind, the target pace doesn't change: the projected finish simply tells the truth. Auto-pause is off, so the gap stays accurate at aid stations.

What can throw it off

• A file with no elevation, or rough elevation: the race is then treated as flat, and Stamio tells you.
• A file longer or shorter than the race: it's scaled to the race distance; beyond a few percent of difference, Stamio asks you which one to trust.
• Wind, heat or a dense crowd at the start: they're not in the profile. The "Crowded start" setting plans a slower first mile.
• Very steep hills (over 15%): pace means little there, so Stamio plans brisk walking and a time for the climb.

What you can set

• The race: the one in your plan, one of your routes, or a distance only (treated as flat).
• The target time, the strategy ("Even" or "Finish faster"), the start, the hills, the crowded start.
• On your watch, the announcement at every mile, and the Strategy and Upcoming pages in your run screens.
• A printable pace band, so you can run without looking at your watch.

Questions