kms or miles?

hubba

Rookie here as you will soon see by the question.

I've started running in the past few months and got myself a Garmin to keep track of progress. I initially set it to track km pace as I was going to be running a 5k race but notice a lot of people here use miles.

So which one do you use most? I would like to be able to compare my pace/speed to others on here.

Thanks for answering this simple question!

menoscemo

hubba wrote: »

Rookie here as you will soon see by the question.

I've started running in the past few months and got myself a Garmin to keep track of progress. I initially set it to track km pace as I was going to be running a 5k race but notice a lot of people here use miles.

So which one do you use most? I would like to be able to compare my pace/speed to others on here.

Thanks for answering this simple question!

Miles make Champions.

KM's make triathletes.

RacoonQueen

Miles are for running.

Kms are for cycling.

Fact.

Pherekydes

Metric. Only backwards Americans are using imperial.

Amz

If I want to make a run/cycle sound more impressive to my non sporty mates I use kms, always sounds much farther

ger664

FYP

menoscemo wrote: »

Long Miles make Champions.

Short KM's make triathletes.

RayCun

Are you American?
Are you English?
Are you a time-traveller from the 17th century?
If you answered YES to any of these questions, then miles are the measurements for you!

corny

Miles all the way.

Back off Brussels.

JohnnyCrash

hubba wrote: »

Rookie here as you will soon see by the question.

I've started running in the past few months and got myself a Garmin to keep track of progress. I initially set it to track km pace as I was going to be running a 5k race but notice a lot of people here use miles.

So which one do you use most? I would like to be able to compare my pace/speed to others on here.

Thanks for answering this simple question!

Tomaytos tomatos. Its all distance,just different ways of measuring it

ecoli

A 1500m runner is referred to as "a miler" not a "1.5kmer"

90% of runners count their weekly "mileage" and refer to it as mpw

We refuse to give it up atleast until i break 100 miles per week:D

donglen

I'm a rookie also with the end goal being to someday complete a marathon. As this is measured in miles and most training plans I've come across also seem to be measured in miles I find it easier to gauge where I am by tracking my progress in miles.

Miles for me

RayCun

donglen wrote: »

I'm a rookie also with the end goal being to someday complete a marathon. As this is measured in miles

Depends on where you do it A marathon is 42.2 km in some countries
Dublin marathon has mile markers, and 5k markers.

Pherekydes

corny wrote: »

Miles all the way.

Back off Brussels.

It's nowt to do with Brussels.

Most of the world has taken on the S.I. system.

ecoli

Pherekydes wrote: »

It's nowt to do with Brussels.

Most of the world has taken on the S.I. system.

Fight Conformity

airscotty

Is'nt it just that old people use miles and young people use km! If you wanna sound young and hip use km!

ecoli

airscotty wrote: »

Is'nt it just that old people use miles and young people use km! If you wanna sound young and hip use km!

I'm 22 not exactly over the hill and funny enough its only as I got older that the km started to creep into lingo never heard it growing up in the running club:D

menoscemo

airscotty wrote: »

Is'nt it just that old people use miles and young people use km! If you wanna sound young and hip use km!

Funny enough, it's the older folks on this thread that are backing KMs

huskerdu

I use kms because metric is all I use at work so it felt natural.

Also my first few races were 10k and 5ks and pacing myself in min/km is what I have got used to.

I'm not THAT old ( but I am double ecolis age)

robinph

http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=miles&word2=kilometres

Edit: Note that the graphic seems to display wrong, miles wins by...well miles.

calexico65

I just use miles myself. Probably cause the metric thing is STILL confusing me!:P

RayCun

Yes, so much easier to stick with 12 inches to the foot, 3 feet to the yard, 1760 yards to the mile :pac:

neilc

Another mile man here, definitely find it easier to gauge how far a mile is. I even convert road signs back to miles

robinph

RayCun wrote: »

Yes, so much easier to stick with 12 inches to the foot, 3 feet to the yard, 1760 yards to the mile :pac:

My miles are measured in metric, but they are still miles.

opus

Cause the first training plan I found when I start running was in KM I'm pretty stuck on that now. Think miles would be better though as most runner I know talk about mile pace so I have to pause for a while until I can work out what means in km pace

Mint Sauce

This is where am starting to confuse my self. I'm entering races that are so far measured in kms, but when I work out my pacing, its in miles.

Killerz

Prefer miles myself, but if you're preparing for a race like a 5km or a 10km, or a marathon etc that will only be marked in km (as is the case here in Canada) sometimes using km in training makes sense for comparison/ preparation purposes.

robinph

All the common road race distances are in miles.

3 and a bit miles
6 and a bit miles
10 miles
13 and a bit miles
26 and a bit miles

Don't worry too much about the "and a bit", you can see the finish line by then .

G-Money

It depends on what distance I'm doing. I used to have my Garmin set to km's as they seemed to rack up a lot faster than miles and I felt like I was getting through the workout quicker. Obviously that's not the case, and it was just a mental thing.

Each to their own, just as long as you run the distance required to achieve your goals, it won't matter so much whether your Garmin is set to miles or km's.

Emer911

Racing and training - always in miles.
I get SO confused if I see a km/min on my garmin and think I'm going way too fast!


...but them I am SOOO old

jlang

Training and counting weekly/yearly totals is in miles. I'll only run in km when the race is marked in km. Though if I bike or swim it's in km or metres.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

I can see all the confused faces of those mile followers when racing European races. Get with the times!!

tHE vAGGABOND

I have converted to 100% KM's now - all my major races and goals are KM based races this year so no point at all in training in miles, and then having a breakdown the day of the race that there are no mile markers

robinph

Kynlee Pitiful Oar wrote: »

I can see all the confused faces of those mile followers when racing European races. Get with the times!!

But even those funneh Europeans know that there is just too many km's in a marathon, so they only put up a marker every 3 miles.

Hit those markers at around your planned pace for each 3 miles and your laughing.

T runner

menoscemo wrote: »

Miles make Champions.

KM's make triathletes.

Kenyans use Kms

robinph

T runner wrote: »

Kenyans use Kms

But they run miles of them more than the rest of us do.

T runner

hubba wrote: »

Rookie here as you will soon see by the question.

I've started running in the past few months and got myself a Garmin to keep track of progress. I initially set it to track km pace as I was going to be running a 5k race but notice a lot of people here use miles.

So which one do you use most? I would like to be able to compare my pace/speed to others on here.

Thanks for answering this simple question!

People in Ireland are very slowly changing to KM so its probably best to use those if your easy either way. Have been using KMs exclusively in the last year and now think in KMs re pacing.

The fact that KMs are the the official measurement in this country indicates that Ireland is still a very, very conservative country where many people do things for no other reason than thats what they always have done. That goes especially for the media BTW!

Decimalisation was brought in by the Arabs circa 600 AD!

robinph

The fact that Ireland's road signs only half heartedly did the transition to km's for many years won't have helped in setting one method of measurement as the norm in peoples minds. Also, the word "miles" is a descriptive word in the English language which "kilometres" will never be...well not for a very, very long time anyway.

RayCun

As long as the UK and the US stick with miles, it will be hard for people to change over to kilometres. We watch their TV and movies, listen to their songs, follow their training plans etc etc, so 'miles' have more visibility.

T runner

robinph wrote: »

The fact that Ireland's road signs only half heartedly did the transition to km's for many years won't have helped in setting one method of measurement as the norm in peoples minds. Also, the word "miles" is a descriptive word in the English language which "kilometres" will never be...well not for a very, very long time anyway.

The road signs are fully converted more or less for a while now and still the majority use the imperial system led by the self proclaimed Dublin liberal media.

Pounds would have a resonance in the English language but only for people who still use them. It has fallen out of use very rapidly for Irish people in the Republic. The English language, more than most languages, is full of sayings some of whose original literal meanings may need translating as they are derived from archaic words and expressions. If Miles ceases to be used in any country then this may happen. If it ceases to be used in Ireland then miles may go the way of the pound here: we dont really use them but we know what they are.

We all know the metric system is superior from mathematical, scientific and ease of use viewpoints. We know that we should change but we wont or we'll be very slow to, unfortunately. Its not hugely important. But unfortunately it symptomises a conservatism that is extremely serious for a country that needs change quickly.

T runner

RayCun wrote: »

As long as the UK and the US stick with miles, it will be hard for people to change over to kilometres. We watch their TV and movies, listen to their songs, follow their training plans etc etc, so 'miles' have more visibility.

Dollars and sterling have a good deal of visibility too?

We are just ultra conservative. We think we're radical but a sheep breaking out of his pen is more radical than most of us.

Ill give you an example: women had to give up public service jobs after marrying and had to have a man (any man, a stranger on the street) to sign for any substantial purchase. When was this? 1972. We changed because we were TOLD TO by the EEC.

Dont get me wrong Irish people are generally very friendly and considerate at micro level with a fantastic culture: its just that we fail miserably to realise that you sometimes need to change to improve the lot for yourself and your society.

Edit: have an 8 month old daughter and have really started to look at our society through a more female lens. To say im a little concerned would be a massive under exageration. Before she is 4 our ultra conservative society will have made multiple attempte to brainwash her into believing that sport is for boys. Worse again along with mainstream media it will have made even more attempts to brainwash young boys as to the nature of women. Its not good and not likely to get better.

OK off topic sermon over!

BennyMul

should we not forget distance and use time as a measurement

your body does not know what a mile, meter, yard is but it does know what 10 minutes is.

--amadeus--

Many (most?) people over a certain age know how far a mile is, they know when they have walked or run a mile, can estimate distances between places in miles and that is thier default unit of measurement for longer distances. It's nothing against kms, it's just that if you grow up knowing that the shop is 3 miles away then you will probably never think in terms of kms no matter how accustomed you are to signs telling you it's 5km away. And if your parents, family, friends all still talk and think in miles then you will be inclined to as well. It's the difference between instinct and reason - I instinctively "feel" miles but understand kms. Now if I was doing any work (*shudder* DIY or something) then I'd be working in cms and m because the maths is easier but that's a different case.

As for the original question I train in miles but I race in kms!

gerard65

Americans use miles so thats that, Argument over

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGiYEWRzTik

T runner

--amadeus-- wrote: »

Many (most?) people over a certain age know how far a mile is, they know when they have walked or run a mile, can estimate distances between places in miles and that is thier default unit of measurement for longer distances. It's nothing against kms, it's just that if you grow up knowing that the shop is 3 miles away then you will probably never think in terms of kms no matter how accustomed you are to signs telling you it's 5km away. And if your parents, family, friends all still talk and think in miles then you will be inclined to as well. It's the difference between instinct and reason - I instinctively "feel" miles but understand kms. Now if I was doing any work (*shudder* DIY or something) then I'd be working in cms and m because the maths is easier but that's a different case.

As for the original question I train in miles but I race in kms!

Other societies would say, ah we are now using kms I must try and use those now, at least to make it easier for my children to adapt. Doing what you've always done is not always the right thing and it means that you are guaranteeing an ultra conservative society where things that are wrong, stay wrong.

donothoponpop

T runner wrote: »

Other societies would say, ah we are now using kms I must try and use those now, at least to make it easier for my children to adapt. Doing what you've always done is not always the right thing and it means that you are guaranteeing an ultra conservative society where things that are wrong, stay wrong.

I support your Brave New World, T Runner. In fact, I'd go further- rip up the veneer of progress that is the 400m running track, and replace it with an even half kilometer. Track races become 100m, 250m, then races at 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, and 20 laps. Marathon becomes an even 100 lap 50k; take that, royal box from 1908. Hurdlers will need to learn different stride patterns, but that'll cause more falls and greater youtube hits. Field events stay as they are, except for the triple jump. Teddy Tamgho against Phillips Idowu- who'll win the monster 10-leap decajump gold?

--amadeus--

T runner wrote: »

Other societies would say, ah we are now using kms I must try and use those now, at least to make it easier for my children to adapt. Doing what you've always done is not always the right thing and it means that you are guaranteeing an ultra conservative society where things that are wrong, stay wrong.

I think it was in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance that I read "Don't always ask what's new, sometimes ask what's best". I 100% agree that there are huge elements of Irish society that were rotten to the core in the recent past. And despite huge changes there are still vast swathes of society that I would fundamentally disagree with; parts of it are homophobic, racist, sexist, theocratic, right wing and reactionary. We should be looking to take what we are good at and keeping it while getting rid of the older hang-ups.

But I'm not sure that my counting out my training in miles is part of the thing holding this country back

T runner

donothoponpop wrote: »

I support your Brave New World, T Runner. In fact, I'd go further- rip up the veneer of progress that is the 400m running track, and replace it with an even half kilometer. Track races become 100m, 250m, then races at 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, and 20 laps. Marathon becomes an even 100 lap 50k; take that, royal box from 1908. Hurdlers will need to learn different stride patterns, but that'll cause more falls and greater youtube hits. Field events stay as they are, except for the triple jump. Teddy Tamgho against Phillips Idowu- who'll win the monster 10-leap decajump gold?

But all these events are already measured using the metric system. Its not about changing distances: its about changing how we measure them.

Since the metric system has been officially adopted in every industrialised nation bar the US, and in France since 1799; Its less about a brave new world and more about a very archaic old one.

thirstywork2

It has to be miles but when im on the track im going of K's.

Raycun you say miles yet your training log is done in km's


From your log;
5.09k in 31.19 (6.09 pace)

Easy recovery run, up to the local park for a couple of laps of the football pitch and then home. Someone is playing silly buggers with the 1000 mile spreadsheet...

kmtd: 151.77
Runs: 15

T runner

--amadeus-- wrote: »

I think it was in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance that I read "Don't always ask what's new, sometimes ask what's best". I 100% agree that there are huge elements of Irish society that were rotten to the core in the recent past. And despite huge changes there are still vast swathes of society that I would fundamentally disagree with; parts of it are homophobic, racist, sexist, theocratic, right wing and reactionary. We should be looking to take what we are good at and keeping it while getting rid of the older hang-ups.

But I'm not sure that my counting out my training in miles is part of the thing holding this country back

Ultra conservatism is the common element between not changing our measurements and not changing things that are very rotten in society and........ not really changing anything at all. We dont change anything until were told to or the **** hits the fan big style. Ask whats best, yes, but actually change to whats best if thats whats needed.

RayCun

thirstywork2 wrote: »

Raycun you say miles yet your training log is done in km's

no, I say kms

RayCun wrote: »

Are you American?
Are you English?
Are you a time-traveller from the 17th century?
If you answered YES to any of these questions, then miles are the measurements for you!

I think people should switch, but it's harder to do so when you're in the linguistic shadow of two imperial countries.

donothoponpop

I was being slightly facetious (and my resolution for 2012 is to train in terms of k's), but to roll with it...

T runner wrote: »

But all these events are already measured using the metric system. Its not about changing distances: its about changing how we measure them.

Since the metric system has been officially adopted in every industrialised nation bar the US, and in France since 1799; Its less about a brave new world and more about a very archaic old one.

There's nothing fundamentally different about racing a 400m track versus a 440yard one, as the races are based on units of laps. Nothing whatsoever metric progressive about the deformity that is the 1500m- why race three and three quarters of any unit?