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 pick.
• 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, in 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 costs more energy, 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 on Apple Watch, and the downhill gain is capped on steep descents.

3. 3

   Your race style

   "Even" holds the same effort start to finish; "Finish faster" starts a little more conservatively 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 final miles.

4. 4

   Target time, to the second

   All paces are adjusted together so they add up to exactly your target time: each mile's pace, its splits, and what the elevation costs you vs. flat ground.

During the race

• On race day, or when you pick its route, the strategy shows up on your watch's start screen, already checked.
• When you follow the route, miles are the course's, not the GPS's: mile 10 hits at the mile 10 marker and your gap doesn't drift.
• The Strategy page shows your pace, target pace, gap in words and color, your spot 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 stays put: the projected finish simply tells the truth. Auto-pause is off, so your gap stays accurate at aid stations.

What can throw it off

• A file with no elevation, or rough elevation: the race is treated as flat, and Stamio lets you know.
• A file longer or shorter than the race: it's scaled to the race distance; if they're more than a few percent apart, Stamio asks which one to trust.
• Wind, heat or a packed start: they're not in the profile. The "Crowded start" setting plans a slower first mile.
• Very steep climbs (over 15%): pace means little there, so Stamio plans a power hike and a time for the climb.

What you can set

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

Questions