Sporty watches - Your thoughts please.

[AnneDroid]

I'm wondering whether I should go more high-tech on my runs.

I have a very basic Garmin which I just use as a stopwatch so that I know how long I've run. When I'm done, it tells me a distance but I don't think it's very accurate. It doesn't have GPS or anything. Also, if I press the button to light up the display on a dark night it stops the stopwatch so I have to run under bright lampposts and pause till my poor eyesight focusses!

I also have my phone in a belt at my waist, which has music on it and Strava. I set both before I leave the house and then don't look at them again till I get home.

But I know that lots of people have sports watches that tell them their pace as they run, and measure their heart rate, etc.. To be honest, I don't even know what measuring my heart rate would tell me - other than what my heart rate is of course!

So far, all my running has been done on the basis of listening to my body. Do I feel comfortable at this pace? How's my breathing? How are my legs? Could I go a bit faster or do I feel I wouldn't have enough in the tank to get home again? Etc..

Has anyone started using technology and found it has made an improvement in your running? Can you tell me about the difference it has made? Which watch do you have?

(Of course, running with technology would necessitate running with reading glasses but that's doable I guess!)

Cheers folks.

[Irishprincess Graduate10]

Bazza1234 's the expert here on running with a heart monitor, so I'm sure he'll be around to reply to your post.

I've never run with a heart monitor and, like you, have always just listened to my body. I think if I did have one then it would probably scare me 😱

I do have a Garmin 220 however and this is great for giving me lots of stats (pace, distance, calories, cadence etc) and I particularly love the way it gives me a little cup when I get a new record 😊 but that's me and I'm driven by reward 🎖 It does depend if you want lots of stats. I know loads of people here have a Garmin 10 which doesn't have so many tricks as the 220 but works just great.

I can't say the watch has improved my running but it's useful for checking your pace and for intervals, etc and it gives you a record of all your runs which you can share with an online community (Garmin Connect). I haven't joined that because I'm paranoid and think everyone is a serial killer 😉 but you might love it 😊

One final word - I'm short sighted but the face on the 220 is big and I've never stuggled to read it. This was a big factor for me when choosing a GPS watch. There's even a little light for added clarity!

[Bazza1234 Graduate10]

I also have a Garmin 220- coupled to a chest strap heart rate monitor. I think the latest version of this particular watch is the Garmin 230. There is a lot of contention about whether it is better to run by "feel" or by the data that watches can now give us ( whether that data is pace/distance stuff or physiological stuff like heart rates.) It depends on what kind of person you are , I think. I have found it somewhat difficult to run by feel alone. A few days ago, I ran a short 30 minute course using run/walk at a certain pace. Yesterday I ran the exact same thing at the exact same time and the same overall pace - but this time using non-stop running. My purpose was to see if I could determine which was "easier" for me. Problem is that I couldn't really make a decision!! The run/walk was certainly very easy for me - whereas probably I did not "enjoy" the non-stop run as much (which is my normal thought about slow easy non-stop running) and I also thought that I started to feel a bit of stiffness in my achilles during the non-stop run.

Having said that, I am happy that I have done lots of work/experimentation using the HRM and other aspects of my running watch. They are expensive though and I used to use the RUNKEEPER app which gave me much the same info as I ran - and better still it calls out the data like average pace and distance to me aurally (no need to be looking at watch faces - although the 220 has not been a problem in that regard.)

[AnneDroid Graduate10 in reply to Bazza1234]

Oh there's another option I hadn't thought of. So I could have a phone app that would give average pace and distance to my ears? My hearing isn't so bad as my eyesight! That might be a good first step anyway to see how I get on with statistics while I run... Thanks.

[Bazza1234 Graduate10 in reply to AnneDroid]

yes - Runkeeper is very good for that - you can set it up to call out the stats to you every minute or few minutes or klms. Don't bother with instantaneous pace -- that jumps all over the place because of inherent instantaneous GPS errors, but average pace is good. You can use it by determining what the pace of different types of run should be eg easy, tempo, intervals, etc (determined by your latest bestest 5K runsmartproject.com/calcula... ) and then running to those paces.

[Miller2]

I have a garmin vivoactive so if I go swimming or cycling it can do stats for those too. I don't look at it during a run so you wouldn't need glasses. I sync it with my phone when I get home and see how I did compared with other runs. I set it to vibrate after a set distance I'm aiming to run so I know when to stop. I'm loving it more than I thought I would. I've not bothered setting it up with a heart rate monitor as I don't want to run with one on, plus it will just probably tell me I'm about to keel over so I don't fancy that. I use the watch but listen to my body on the way round. I look at the stats afterwards only.

[Millsie-J]

I am reading Fit to Run, there is a section in there about Target Heart Rate etc, but as a recent graduate I don't have this kind of technology and not sure if I will ever get to that.

I use MapmyRun which plays in the background so you can run with music if you want to......or not. You can ask it to tell you each 1 k, half k etc and the time, total time, split pace, etc etc, it just butts into the music intermittently. It also logs your route, pace, distance. It's the free app version. It might be worth a try.......I have a post run review of these basic stats....it's become a habit.

Happy running 😃🏃🏼‍♀️

[givman]

Sometimes running without a watch is good for you!!