A pen, pair of tortoiseshell glasses and garmin watch with a white wristband sit on a notebook with a pre-printed empty list. The watchface shows a list of Garmin activities. At the top is the 'Pacing(activity)' option.

Getting started with the Garmin Long Covid pacing apps

blog |

After trying out the Long Covid Pacing Watchface on my Garmin watch, I ended up working with Jens Hansen, the creator and developer, to design and develop some easy-to-use instructions. It was a pleasure.

To learn more about the different pacing apps and when to use them, you can read my blog post Manage your health condition with Garmin smartwatch pacing apps.

The rest of this blog is an excerpt from the instruction manual that I worked on in October 2024.

The instructions in this blog post have been reproduced from a version of the official instruction manual that I worked on in October 2024. Since then, the apps have been developed further, so please refer to the official Long Covid Pacing Apps website for updates.

Quick start

There are 3 different pacing apps available, all for different uses. To get the best bespoke experience, all 3 apps can be installed, activated, and de-activated by you as you move through your day with different needs, but it is recommended that you download and install just the Pacing Watchface for now.

If you have already installed the watchface and are confident with it, you can skip to Using a vibration and sound alarm or Using pacing information during a GARMIN activity

To get started, you will use 2 different displays to track your pacing – the pacing level display and the resilience display. Both of these displays are included in the Pacing Watchface app and the pacing activity app. We will be getting familiar with these displays via the watchface app.

1. Installing the Pacing Watchface

  1. Install the GARMIN IQ app on your mobile phone. The GARMIN IQ app is used to install and configure the Pacing Apps and resilience widget.
  2. Use the GARMIN IQ app to download and install the Pacing Watchface app.
    1. Search for “Pacing(Watchface)” or “Pacing(Activity)”. The Pacing Apps are displayed.
    2. Download the corresponding app onto your watch (Pacing Watchface app, pacing activity app, or pacing datafield app).
  3. Configure your watch to display the Pacing Watchface from the menu of watchfaces available to your watch. For example, on the GARMIN Vivoactive, hold the bottom button on your watch to access the watchface menu.

2. Using the pacing displays to guide your pacing

To start, you will only use the pacing level display to guide your pacing. The resilience display becomes available after 5 days. 

Pacing level display

The pacing level display shows heart rate pacing threshold information and indicates when the heart rate limit is exceeded for too long – a value called the duration limit. 

As you go through your day, aim to keep your heart rate within the heart rate threshold, as indicated by the amount of red on the pacing range meter shown on the pacing level display. You can also determine where you are within your pacing level threshold by monitoring the percentage value.

You can use the change in the background of the pacing level display to alert you that you are overdoing things and need to rest and recover:

  • If the bar for the pacing level turns red, you have exceeded your heart rate limit for too long. Keep an eye on the pacing level to avoid exceeding the heart rate limit and take a break soon.

In this example: the heart rate exceeds the threshold for the pacing level at 183% and is labelled ‘Caution’. The red bar indicates that the threshold has been exceeded, but not yet the limit for the duration. 

Alarm screen

In this example, the red background indicates that your heart rate was too high for too long and a crash is possible. The background turns solid red and the number of beats per minute (BPM) above the heart rate limit is shown. In the example, the pacing threshold limit of 105 BPM has been exceeded by +21 BPM for over 2 minutes.

Alarm at high stress level (75% and higher)

Resilience display

After 5 days, The daily resilience display becomes available and gives an overview of how resilient your body is, based on  the previous 30 days worth of data.

Check your resilience display in the morning to understand how resilient your body is today.
The resilience value ranges from 1 to 5, with 1 being low resilience i.e. be very cautious with your energy, and 5 being high resilience i.e. your body is stronger today. 

You can switch between the heart rate and the resilience display by either using the buttons (only for Pacing (Activity)) or by pressing and holding the display (only for models with a touch display).

Next steps – Using a vibration and sound alarm

The Pacing Watchface app only provides a change in background colour to alert you when the duration limit is exceeded.  To use a sound and vibration alert for day-to-day use, you must install and activate the pacing activity app:

  1. Install the Pacing(Activity) by using the GARMIN IQ app on your phone. 
  2. Navigate in your watch to the menu of GARMIN activities. The menu displays activities such as ‘walk’, yoga, and ‘run’.
  3. Select the Pacing(Activity) from the menu. The ‘start/stop’ display is shown. 
  4. Press start on your watch. The Pacing level display is shown, with a bell icon to indicate that the sound and vibration pacing alarm is activated. This is the Pacing Activity version of the pacing display (as opposed to the Pacing Watchface version of the pacing display). 
  5. Sound and vibration alarms activate when you exceed your pacing threshold for too long.
  6. End the Pacing(Activity)
    1. Press the ‘stop’ button that you normally use to pause other GARMIN activities. The ‘end’ display is shown.
    2. Navigate ‘back’ to stop the Pacing(Activity). For example, on the Vivoactive 5 swipe right, or on some models use the ‘back’ button.
      Your customised watch face will be displayed again. Note that no bell icon is visible in the Pacing-App Watchface, indicating that you are now using the Pacing Watchface version of the pacing display.

Important: the pacing activity app drains the battery when it is activated as a GARMIN activity. It is recommended to use the watchface app rather than the pacing activity app to access the pacing display as a permanent display.

Next steps – Using pacing information during a GARMIN activity

You can customise GARMIN activity data screens to include pacing information by installing the Pacing(Datafield) app. For example, The default data screen for the Garmin ‘walk’ activity displays the fields ‘timer’, ‘distance’, ‘ heart rate’ and ‘pace’. In the following data screen screenshot, the `Pacing(Datafield)` field replaces the default Garmin `heart rate` field. 

Use the following steps to customise the `walk` data screen to include the `Pacing(Datafield)` field:

  1. Install the Pacing(Datafield) by using the GARMIN IQ app on your phone. 
  2. Add the LongCovid Pacing datafield to the ‘walk’ activity by using the GARMIN instructions to customise the data screen:
    1. Navigate to the ‘edit data fields’ menu on your watch for the ‘walk’ activity.
    2. Select ‘Connect IQ fields’ from the menu. Data Fields that are available in your GARMIN IQ account are displayed.
    3. Select ‘Pacing(Datafield)’ from the menu.
    4. Select the field ‘pulse rate’ from the menu of fields. 
  3. Start the ‘walk’ activity. The Pacing(Datafield) `pulse rate` field is displayed on the data screen alongside other fields. The Pacing(Datafield) `pulse rate` field shows current pulse rate (BPM) and uses a superscript number to indicate, in BPM, how close you are to your pacing threshold. A negative number indicates you are below your pacing threshold. 

Note: you can configure the pacing datafield to, for example, include a sound and vibration alarm. For more information about the pacing datafield settings available, see the Reference: Settings section of the instruction manual that you can find on the Long Covid Pacing Apps website.

Related Posts