During a race, you want to know where your current pacing is taking you. Between interval repetitions, you want to see your work pace without the recovery jog pulling the average down.
We built two free Garmin running apps to answer those questions: Race Time Predictor and Interval Pace. Both are available now on the Connect IQ Store.
More precisely, they're data fields: you add them to your existing running activity's data screens, alongside Garmin's own metrics. You keep recording with your normal activity profile; there's no separate recording app to start.
Which Garmin running data field should you choose?
| What you want to know | Data field | What you see during the run |
|---|---|---|
| What finish time does my current race suggest? | Race Time Predictor | A projected total time for your chosen race distance |
| How fast am I running the hard parts of this workout? | Interval Pace | Separate average pace and heart rate for work, recovery and warm-up/cooldown steps |
Use Race Time Predictor on a race or continuous time-trial screen. Choose Interval Pace when your watch is executing a structured workout with work and recovery steps. They complement different parts of training; neither replaces a pacing plan or tells you how hard you should run.
Race Time Predictor: your projected finish time as you run
You're partway through a half marathon. Your pace has changed since the opening kilometres. What does that mean for your finish time?
Race Time Predictor displays your projected total race duration, updated from the run in progress. A value of 1:44:30 means a projected finish in one hour, forty-four minutes and thirty seconds—not that much time remaining, and not a clock time. The on-watch field is labelled RACE TIME; the app may appear as Race Predictor in the field picker.
A live race projection, not a fitness prediction
The calculation blends your average speed so far with your recent progress over a window of up to 60 seconds. Recent speed gets progressively more influence as you approach the selected distance. Sustained acceleration moves the projection earlier; sustained slowing moves it later.
That makes it different from Garmin's built-in Race Predictor on supported devices, which estimates race potential using fitness and training information. This field doesn't read your VO₂max, assess marathon readiness, or convert a short race result into an equivalent performance at another distance.
It answers a narrower question: given the time and distance recorded in this activity, and how I'm progressing now, what total finish time does that suggest?
For example, steady running at 5:00/km over a half-marathon distance suggests roughly 1:45:29. If your recent pace slows, the projection can reflect that before the whole-race average changes very much.
Race distances and setup
Choose from sixteen presets, including the mile, 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon, plus ultra distances through 100 miles. For another distance, select Custom, enter a decimal value such as 12.5, and choose kilometres or miles. The default preset is the marathon, so check it before your first race.
Choose the distance before starting. Changes received during an active recording are deferred until the activity is reset; they don't move the finish line halfway through a race.
Start the activity at the race start. Record your warm-up separately: including it changes the elapsed time and distance the prediction is based on. Any number shown before the activity starts is a layout preview, not a forecast of your fitness.
The first live estimate needs at least 30 seconds of elapsed time and 100 metres of progress. Implausible distance jumps are filtered, and the field rebuilds its recent-speed window after signal gaps.
The race clock keeps running—even when you stop
Race Time Predictor uses elapsed time, not just active timer time. While the activity is paused, the displayed prediction holds; once recording resumes, the calculation includes the stopped time. That's intentional: an aid-station stop still counts toward your race result.
Once the recorded distance reaches your selected race distance, the result stops changing. It remains a watch-distance result, not an official finish time. GPS error, running wider than the measured course line, hills ahead, weather and later fatigue can all make the projection differ from what happens at the finish. It doesn't inspect the remaining course or predict future exhaustion.
After syncing, Garmin Connect gets a Predicted Race Time chart and a Final Race Prediction summary. You can review how the projection evolved, rather than seeing only the last number.
Install Race Time Predictor on Connect IQ.
Interval Pace: separate work and recovery averages automatically
An interval workout's overall average pace mixes everything together: the warm-up, the hard repetitions, the recovery jogs and the cooldown. Lap pace can help with one repetition, but it doesn't automatically give you a combined average for all the work segments while keeping the recoveries separate.
Interval Pace reads the current structured workout step from your Garmin and assigns pace and HR samples to the appropriate category. No extra lap presses are needed to classify the steps; the field follows the workout your watch is already executing.
Three configurable columns, two useful views
The default screen groups steps into:
- Warm-up + Cooldown for the easy running before and after the main set.
- Active + Interval for the work repetitions.
- Rest + Recovery for the easy or stationary sections between efforts.
Each column shows its own average pace and average heart rate. You can instead select individual step types, hide a column, and give each column a custom label of up to six characters.
Two display modes answer different questions:
- Average: combine all eligible samples of each selected type across the workout. Use it to see how your work segments are averaging without including the recovery jogs.
- Last interval only: show the current or most recently completed step of each selected type. Use it to check the latest repetition rather than blending it with earlier ones.
Both histories are retained, so switching display modes during a workout doesn't throw away the whole-workout totals. For combined categories in Last interval mode, the newest constituent step is shown—not an average of two different steps.
A practical example: track repetitions
Build a Garmin Connect workout with a warm-up, 6 × 800 m of running with recovery steps, then a cooldown. Send it to your watch and start that structured workout.
In Average mode, the RUN column combines the eligible portions of your work repetitions. The REST column holds recovery pace and HR separately. In Last interval mode, the RUN column shows the latest rep, so an early fast repetition doesn't mask a slower final one.
This also works for structured tempo repeats and timed run/recovery sessions. It doesn't choose your target pace or judge the workout for you; our training pace guide and interval training guide cover those decisions.
Transition filtering without pretending sensors are instant
Pace and HR don't settle immediately when you switch from recovery to a hard effort. The setting called GPS Warm-up Time excludes an initial window of both pace and HR samples after every new workout step, including consecutive steps of the same type.
The default is 12 seconds, adjustable from 0 to 60. This reduces carry-over from the previous step; it doesn't remove physiological heart-rate lag or reconstruct the omitted seconds. The averages describe the retained samples, not necessarily every second of a rep. For very short repetitions, a long exclusion window can remove most of the step, so choose the setting to suit the session.
Pace is calculated from accumulated distance and recording timer time—not an arithmetic average of instantaneous pace readings. Paused time is excluded, but standing still with the timer running counts. HR averages are time-weighted and can continue when distance data is missing. Unusable pace data and long sample gaps are discarded rather than guessed.
Use a full-screen field for the clearest view
A one-field data screen gives all three columns room to breathe. Smaller slots use compact layouts; narrow slots cycle through columns every five seconds, and the smallest layouts alternate pace and HR. Pace follows your watch's min/km or min/mi preference, and the display follows the activity screen's light or dark background.
A structured workout is required. Simply pressing Lap during an unstructured run doesn't supply the workout-step categories this field needs. If device firmware refuses access to workout information, the field reports that the workout API is unavailable instead of silently presenting empty averages.
Install Interval Pace on Connect IQ.
How to install these Garmin Connect IQ data fields
- Open the app's Connect IQ Store link and check Compatible Devices for your exact watch model.
- Install it through the Connect IQ app on your phone and sync your watch.
- On the watch, open the settings for the running activity profile you use. Find Data Screens, edit or add a screen, and select the field from the Connect IQ data-field category. Menu names vary by model.
- Configure the field in Connect IQ: race distance for Race Time Predictor, or columns, display mode and transition filtering for Interval Pace.
- Test the screen on a training run before relying on it during a race or key workout.
Installing a data field doesn't automatically add it to every activity profile. If you use separate Run, Track Run or other profiles, check each one. Garmin also limits how many Connect IQ data fields a device can use in an activity; the limit varies, so check your watch's limit if you already use other third-party fields.
Which Garmin watches are compatible?
Supported models span parts of the Forerunner, fēnix, epix, Enduro, Venu and vívoactive families, among others. Compatibility is app-specific, not a promise that every watch in a family supports every field. Interval Pace requires Connect IQ API 3.2.0 or later, plus working structured-workout access. Race Time Predictor has a lower minimum API requirement and its own device list.
Use each listing's Compatible Devices tab as the definitive check for your model, and keep your watch firmware and installed fields up to date.
Privacy: on-watch calculations, your normal Garmin recording
Neither field makes its own network requests, requires a Runima login or sends your run to Runima. They read the activity information needed for their calculations.
Race Time Predictor writes custom metrics into the activity's FIT recording. Those metrics follow your normal Garmin syncing and sharing settings. Interval Pace's optional diagnostic FIT logging is separate from its on-watch averages. Local calculation doesn't mean that a saved Garmin activity will never leave the watch—it means these fields don't operate a separate upload or analytics service.
Frequently asked questions
Is Race Time Predictor the same as Garmin's built-in race prediction?
No. This field projects the finish time of the activity you're recording from its elapsed time and distance. It doesn't read VO₂max or use your training history to estimate what you might run in a future race. A fast projection is not proof that you can sustain the effort to the finish.
Do I need a structured workout for both fields?
Only Interval Pace requires one. Load and start a Garmin workout with appropriately classified work, recovery and warm-up steps. Manual laps in an ordinary run don't supply those categories. Race Time Predictor works from activity time and distance without a structured workout.
Can I use them on a treadmill or without heart-rate data?
Both fields depend on the activity data your watch supplies. Indoor distance can support a race projection or interval pace average, but calibration errors carry through to the result; neither field measures treadmill belt speed independently. Race Time Predictor doesn't need HR. Interval Pace can show pace without valid HR, but its HR averages require a working heart-rate source.
Are they free, and do I need to connect them to Runima?
Both are free to install from Connect IQ, with no Runima account or subscription required. They are standalone watch data fields, not a connection to Runima's web analytics. Your normal Garmin recording and syncing still work independently.
Get the right field for your next session
Use Race Time Predictor when you want a projected finish time without doing pace maths mid-race. Use Interval Pace when you want to see the work and recovery parts of a structured session separately.
For trends across weeks rather than within a single run, meet Runima. Using the web app is a separate choice—not a requirement or an automatic sync between these fields and your Runima account.
Garmin®, Connect IQ™ and the Garmin logo are trademarks of Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries. These are third-party applications built with the Connect IQ SDK. Runima and these apps are not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Garmin.
Read our sources and editorial policy. This guide is not personal medical or training advice.
