Sub-5:00 Marathon Pace – Suunto Movescount App

One cool feature of the Suunto Ambit 2 is that you can create your own app at Movescount and add it to your Suunto GPS watch.  My first app is like a virtual pacer who will run at 7 minutes per kilometer.  This is my target pace for a marathon to get to the finish line in less than 5 hours.

I have never been able to make a sub-5 marathon.  I hope that this app will help me meet my target time.

The app will show how far behind or far ahead I am from the 7:00/km pace target.  As much as possible, I should only be 100m meters behind or 100m ahead.  If I am too far ahead, it means I am running to much than I am expected and may get tired later on the race.  If I am too far behind, it means I have to run faster to reach my sub-5 goal.

It’s a bit tricky how to make a Suunto Movecount App.  A little programming skill will help.  Here is the code that I uploaded to movescount.com. The app is pretty simple.

/* While in sport mode do this once per second */
RESULT = (((2.380952381 * SUUNTO_DURATION) / 1000) – SUUNTO_DISTANCE) * -1;

The value 2.380952381 is the target pace in seconds per meter. Or…

7 min/km * 60 / 1000 = 2.380952381

Thus, you can make your own app by simply changing the value here with your own target pace.

For example, if your target pace is 6min/km, this is equal to 2.77777778 sec/m.  Thus, the code in the app becomes…

/* While in sport mode do this once per second */
RESULT = (((2.777777778 * SUUNTO_DURATION) / 1000) – SUUNTO_DISTANCE) * -1;

You can view my app at Suunto Movescount.

The app is a modified version of a marathon app called World Record Marathon Pacer App by Movescount.  I have no intention of running at world record marathon pace.  That is why I made my own app. 😛