After trying out the Long Covid pacing watchface last year, I ended up working with Jens, the creator, to try out his other Long Covid pacing apps and develop his instruction manual. It was an absolute pleasure to work with him and learn about his story. He has such grit and drive to help his partner and the wider community.
Take a look at my next blog post to find the excerpts of my quick start guides
How does it work?
Once installed on a Garmin smartwatch, the Long Covid Pacing apps warn you when you are potentially overloading your energy threshold and are at risk of a flare by using heart-rate pacing. (The threshold is determined by using several factors, which are detailed in the instruction manual manual).
Jens says that he developed the apps to help you cope with your condition and have as much quality of life as possible.
The apps have been developed as a not-for-profit project to help as many people as possible live with Long-COVID and ME/CFS.
The creator of the apps, Jens, stresses that it is important not to make yourself dependent on the pacing apps. Instead, he says, try to regain a ‘harmonious body feeling for yourself’.
The Pacing Apps and resilience widget for GARMIN are not medical products, do not claim to be accurate, and must not be used to diagnose or treat any condition. The project is a private, not-for-profit project and is not supported or influenced by GARMIN.
What app should I use?
There are 3 pacing apps that you can install on your Garmin watch – the Pacing Watchface, the Pacing Activity app, and the Pacing Datafield. (The resilience widget is designed as a standalone add-on to a Garmin watchface for people who do not need to pace, so I’m not going to cover the widget in this blogpost). You download and install the apps onto your Garmin watch by using the GARMIN IQ app on your phone.
The decision about what app(s) to use depends on the situation. For many people, having the watch vibrate and/or make an alarm sound when they are over their pacing threshold is really important. This is available via the Pacing Activity app. However, given that this uses a lot of battery and doesn’t let you use other Garmin apps or activities at the same time means it’s not practical to use it all the time.
So instead, it is recommended that the Pacing Watchface is used day-to-day and the pacing Activity app, which you’ve also installed onto the watch, is activated only when you need the vibration and sound. (Unfortunately, a limitation of Garmin watchfaces is that they cannot vibrate or make sound).
Jens writes about how his partner, who has Long Covid, uses the different apps day-to-day:
My partner, for example, uses the watch face as a normal display for the time, date, etc. When she goes shopping in town or has an appointment, she starts the pacing activity app and so she has access to the vibration and sound alarms. She notices these alarms better in noisy surroundings because of the vibration on her wrist.
For going for a walk, I have added the datafield in the standard activity “walk” so that she records “walk” but is still warned if the incline gets a bit too much.
Unfortunately, there is no one type for every occasion; but in combination, the Pacing Apps can be used to master everyday life to some extent.
The pacing apps available in the Garmin store
The Pacing Activity app is activated when you begin a ‘Pacing(activity) from the Garmin activities menu on your watch. If the pacing threshold is exceeded, an alarm with sound and vibration, in addition to a red background, is activated. Note: Due to high battery usage, it is recommended that the pacing activity app is not used continuously all day.
A Garmin Watch Face that is permanently displayed. A red background is activated if the duration limit is exceeded. This app has no option to set an alarm with sound or vibration, but it can be run permanently in the background.
Provides an alarm with sound and vibration and a red background if the pacing threshold is exceeded during a Garmin activity such as ‘yoga’ or ‘walk’. Pacing information such as `pacing level` can be displayed on the data screen alongside the default Garmin fields such as `timing’ and ‘distance’.
Can I run all the Pacing Apps at the same time?
Yes, the Pacing Watchface app, pacing activity app, and datafield app can run at the same time. Bear in mind though that the different Pacing Apps can’t communicate with each other, so the resilience display, that becomes available after you’ve been using a pacing app or watchface for 5 days, will show different values depending on which app you’re currently using.
Next Steps
Want to try out the pacing apps? See my Quick Start guide.
Melly, thank you so much!
This guide is exactly what I need, to help me set up my Garmin watch to help me with pacing for Post COVID Syndrome.
I’ve been using Jens’s pacing watchface for about three weeks, and I’ve already found out that simple things like going upstairs are affecting me much more than I ever realised – my HR shoots up right away. What I need to do now is to install the pacing activity so that I will get an alarm when I’m fully engaged in something – like for example typing a comment on a blog post – and therefore not thinking to look at my watch and check my pacing. (I’m having a good day today, brain fog has cleared, and apparently typing this isn’t a problem. But on other days…)
So thank you, thank you; and thanks to Jen’s for making these apps.