The Athlete's Calculator
for PalmPilot


Chapter 6: Adding Splits


Showing and Using Totals

There is one final option for calculations, which is activated using the menus. Press the Menu button on the Pilot, select the Options Menu and then tap on Show Totals to activate the mode in which all calculations which are performed are added together automatically. If you tap the Menu button again, you'll see that the first menu item has now changed to Hide Totals; tap on this to de-activate the automatic totals feature. The Athlete's Calculator will always remember the last setting (Showing or Hiding Totals), and will return to that setting when you use the calculator the next time.

There are two typical cases in which you will be interested in totals - the case of even (equal-distance) splits, and the case of uneven (unequal distance) splits. Both are similar, although in the first case you have fewer numbers to enter.

Let's take the example in the previous Chapter - the case of running a series of 400-meter intervals on the track. Here's the sequence of operations:

  1. Tap on Clear All if necessary
  2. Tap on the Pilot's Menu button. If the first item in the Options menu reads Hide Totals, cancel the menu (tap elsewhere on the screen); if the first item reads Show Totals, tap on it to activate the Totals mode.
  3. Enter the first time: 72.6.
  4. Tap on Distance.
  5. Tap on the units pop-up menu at the right, and select meters.
  6. Enter 400.
  7. Tap on Calculate to calculate the pace of the first split.
  8. Tap on Time to make it the active field.
  9. Enter the next time: 73.4, and tap on Calculate again. The screen should now look like this:
  10. Note that the large numbers show the current split (last lap's time, distance, and pace), while the small numbers below them show the total time and distance, and the average pace, over all of the laps which have been entered thus far. To continue entering and adding the remaining laps, simply repeat step 9 as many times as necessary - enter the lap time, press Calculate, and so on.
  11. At the end, you might want to convert the distance units to some other units, like miles, so that you can see the total distance run in units more appropriate to longer distances. To do so simply select the distance units pop-up and choose the desired units. Both the latest distance as well as the total distance will be automatically converted.

What if the distances are unequal? Perhaps you do a bike ride where you ride to a mountain, ride up the mountain, ride down the mountain, and then ride home, and you want to know your average speed for the different legs of the ride. Your bike computer, of course, only shows your average speed for the entire ride, but if you measured the time and distance for each leg, The Athlete's Calculator can do the calculations for you. Or, perhaps you ran a 50K race in which you took your splits at each of the unevenly spaced aid stations. Again, The Athlete's Calculator can calculate your splits for each leg, as well as for the total race, all at the same time. You simply need to enter both time and distance for each leg of the workout or race; otherwise things are as above.

Another application - predict your finishing time in a marathon, assuming unequal paces during the race. Most marathoners figure the first 20 miles is one race; the last 6.2 another. Here's how you would calculate your estimated finishing time:

  1. Tap on the Pilot's Menu button. If the first item in the Options menu reads Hide Totals, cancel the menu (tap elsewhere on the screen); if the first item reads Show Totals, tap on it to activate the Totals mode.
  2. Tap Clear All to make sure all the fields and totals are zeroed.
  3. If necessary, tap on the units pop-up menu and select the desired distance units - miles for distance and /mile for pace.
  4. Tap on Distance and then enter 20.
  5. Tap on Pace. Let's say your estimated beginning pace is 7:45 minutes/mile, so enter 745.
  6. Tap on Calculate: 2:35:00 should appear in the time field, which is your time for the first 20 miles..
  7. Tap on Distance, then 6.2.
  8. Tap on Pace, then 815, assuming you'll slow down 30 seconds/mile during the last 6.2 miles.
  9. Tap on Calculate and you should see the screen below, indicating that your total time will be 3:26:09, representing an average pace/mile of 7:52.1 over the full 26.2 miles:


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