depending on your watch brand, "split" can mean overall running time (e.g. on a Polar) or it can be synonymous with "lap". you use the "lap" function to measure a segment of time within your whole workout, for example a 2 min interval within your whole 60min run. you just keep on pressing lap whenever you want that segment of time to start and end. another way to use it is in a race. start your watch when the gun goes off, press lap when you get out of the water, again after the bike, then stop everything as you cross the line. that way you would have recorded your swim/bike/run times indepently as well as your overall time.

Kim

Right, I should've given some details.

The watch is a Timex Ironman. I do know what a split is and what a lap is, I'm just wondering what the difference is, from a practical point of view. The watch has seperate functions for each, but they're both controlled by the same crown.

I suppose, for instance, that if I were swimming a mile, I might want to know each individual lap time, and my quarter mile splits, right? I'm wondering if that's what these two features are for, and if so, how can I make the watch do that?



Thanks!

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"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

> I might want to know each individual lap time, and my quarter mile splits, right?

Right. Unfortunately the Timex is much too stupid for that. The difference in the modes is that "Lap mode" shows the time since you started your current lap, and "Split mode" displays the time since you started your first lap. If you're in this mode, you cannot see what your current lap time is until you're ready to STOP. Then in "Recall" mode, you can cycle through and look at what the lap splits were. What's stupider yet is that, at least on my Ironman HRM, I can't figure out how to get it to switch between "Lap" and "Split" on the fly - ie. without STOPPING the stopwatch! I thought (from distant memory) that on the non-HRM Ironman you can have two displays - current lap and over time, and switching modes just switches the position of these two times?

-Zo

Thanks, Zo, that's how it is. Doesn't look like like mine can switch from "lap" to "split" on the fly either, but that's OK, I can live without it. It was just driving me nuts trying to figure out what the point of having both features was.

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"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

I have to admit, I don't understand a few things on my Timex Performance Monitor but they don't seem to affect my ability to get the information from it that I need.

What is the difference between "lap" and "split" anyway? I read the directions twice but just didn't seem to grasp it.

You're not alone.

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

See, Tom, once again we're sharing a brain. Scary. Here's what I've figgered out, I think:

Laps, to the timex, are a series of discrete events. For instance, 10 repeats of 100 yards in the pool, with a rest interval between each repeat. In lap mode, each time you stop the timer, the watch records the lap time, then when you start the timer again, it starts recording the next lap at 0:00 seconds.

In split mode, the timer keeps running. Let's say you're running a mile at the track, and you want to be able to check what your time for each lap was, in addition to your mile time. You'd start the stopwatch, and each time you finished a lap you'd hit the button. The watch will record the time each time you push the button, and keeps counting until you stop it.

I hope that's at least marginally clearer than the instructions that came with my watch, cause they just sucked.

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"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."