Units of measurements
9 watchers
Dec 2021
7:57pm, 14 Dec 2021
178 posts
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Neal
I measure my runs in km using my phone and have them on here in miles, and I think I just use whatever seems easier at the time. My current annual target is 1200 miles, which in my head is an average of 100 miles per month or 25 miles per week. A few years ago I was trying to average 30km a week. It isn't a liking for round numbers so much as simpler numbers. If I was trying to pace myself to an hour in a 10k I would want a watch in km: it is easier to tell at a glance how far away 6:10 is from 6:00 than 9:55 is from 9:39. But if I was to go a faster I'd perhaps aim for 9:30 per mile rather than 5:37 per km. With cooking, I tend to use imperial - 8oz rather than 450g, but if I'm using half a metric packet of something I use metric or just mix the measurements up. |
Dec 2021
8:20pm, 14 Dec 2021
8,877 posts
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GordonG
my preferred unit of measurement is Smoots en.wikipedia.org |
Dec 2021
8:31pm, 14 Dec 2021
53,150 posts
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Derby Tup
Miles
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Dec 2021
8:48pm, 14 Dec 2021
221 posts
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paulcook
People who work in Imperial are used to rarely running "round number" distance races. The majority of races are 5km, 10km, Half Marathon and Marathon. There are still a few 5 mile and 10 mile races but not many, and even fewer 20 mile races, but I have ran 1 of them. I suppose 10 mile races would be the equivalent, then you can aim for 50 or 60 or 70 or 80 or 90 or whatever minutes. In over 10 years of running I think I've only run 4 10 mile races. Why do the metric people not run "round number" longer races, eg 20k or 30k ? I suppose 20k is too close to the Half, but 30k would be a nice distance, but never heard of any. Once you get to ultras then 50k and 100k are quite common for track ultras, but road/trail ultras are normally a journey between 2 points or around a loop so most ultras are random odd distances As someone who, now, mainly only runs fell or trail ultra races, I've just looked and (aside from parkruns), it's been more than 70 races and 7 years since I last did a 10k. There's plenty of fell races where there's not even necessarily a definite distance given the choice between checkpoints. At my last club, I was pretty much the only person who cared about any type of pace, but that probably hails back to my older road running days, when many of those in the club were more pure fell runners than anything else. |
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Dec 2021
8:51pm, 14 Dec 2021
222 posts
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paulcook
In response to the original question though, I log my training and mentally go by miles. But normally I just run and the exact distance and pace are very often far from important.
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Dec 2021
8:54pm, 14 Dec 2021
23,377 posts
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Rosehip
The only time I switched my watch to km was when trying for a sub-30 5K, knowing it would make the maths easier Why would I want to go for a 16.09km run? It sounds longer than 10 miles I spent my career in a chemistry lab working in SI units, but always cook at home in imperial - it’s annoying I can no longer cut a pat of butter into even ounces without weighing it. |
Dec 2021
8:54pm, 14 Dec 2021
19,554 posts
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Icy Shirt
Miles - even when pacing a 5k parkrun I look to maintain a certain min/mile.
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Dec 2021
8:18am, 15 Dec 2021
5,549 posts
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westmoors
Westmoors, so when you fill up your gas tank and it stops at exactly 50xxx at exactly 5 pm and the tachometer is at 555555 xx you don’t get a warm and fuzzy feeling? Nope. Numbers are just numbers, whole or otherwise. |
Dec 2021
8:53am, 15 Dec 2021
657 posts
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Santa Bowman 🎅🏻
rf_fozzy interesting, i agree  westmoors Good for you (https://www.sciencealert.com/we-actually-prefer-round-numbers-even-when-the-real-number-is-better-news) K5 Gus Yes i guess you are right, there are quite a few arbitrary distances in KM as well due to some lengths between old run efforts or something like that. um I meant no offense, english is my second language, and sometimes i guess it can sound like i'm being sarcastic or asking for trouble, not my intention. Will never say brit again. And i missed petrol/gas, I agree the distance per volume is far more logic for sure. In my country we use volume per distance I would love having the time in an metric system Also degrees in navigation and angles and so on . Also in swedish we have a specific word for an "common exerciser" in any sport, And "elite" common exerciser, compared to professionals that gets payed to exercise. But i couldn't find a similar word in english, i guess it doesn't exist in that way. Interesting stuff from you others, there's a mix of how you use the systems. I guess that's the best way. Maybe not "smoots" though Also one of my original thought was, if you go by only one or the other way. Will you run further or faster depending on the actual numbers. I mean 10km is a particular distance, (round number) 6,213 mi is not. 10 miles looks in a certain way, but is 16,093 km Will you gain more milage or faster times depending on if you use miles or km, just because a humans (usually westmoors) like round numbers. Very philosophical, but maybe you get what i mean. Hard to measure scientifically though.
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Dec 2021
8:56am, 15 Dec 2021
53,154 posts
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Derby Tup
I actually like that ‘bit at the end’ of a 3.1 or 6.2 mile race. It adds interest and if the course is unfamiliar is an extra challenge
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