Hi guys,
I've been absolutely in love with my FitBit for about a year now - but in 2019 I have 3 10k and a HM lined up - so I'm thinking about making the move to the Garmin.
What do people think? For those with Garmins - which one would you recommend?
Bit of a strange answer from someone who has neither (yet)... but I know a few real life actual runners, who seem to think that Garmins are the way forward, and that fitbits and interestingly Apple Watches are less suitable for serious runners. I don't know why that is, and in fact my church vicar who is an ultra-marathon runner has an iWatch so that's clearly not a hard and fast rule lol! I too would be interested in hearing from users of both.
Incidentally, I'm currently stalking one of these: buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/p/5... but hopefully at a cheaper price 
Most runners want their watch to provide information about their pace as they run. As I understand it the Apple watch is fine for this, but Fitbits focus on step count rather than pace (some models do have heart rate monitors now too), and most models have to be used with a linked phone.
I have a Garmin vivosport, and really rate it. What sort of features do you want from it?
When my children aren't on the PC I'll try and upload you a picture of the stats output you get.
I wasn't expecting it to do intervals, but it does (I think John Lewis were trying to upsell me!). Also the stress and sleep data was an unexpected bonus.
Hi Becky. I have the Garmin Forerunner 35. I love it! It’s one of the cheaper ones but it does all I need it to do. I particularly like the pacer. You can set it to the pace you want to run at and it will let you know via beeps and vibrations if you are ahead of pace, on pace or behind pace. It also records intervals which is great if you run the same route - you can see your improvement at a glance. I also love the fact you can change music tracks at the touch of a button without fumbling to get your phone out of your pocket!
One negative is that personally I think it’s quite masculine-looking. I have very small wrists and it’s quite chunky on me. I only wear it when I run. I have a Fitbit Alta which I wear 24/7. I just swap wrists when wearing my Garmin on a run 😊
Well, I'm still running with my very old Garmin Forerunner 10 - and still in love with it! 🙂I use it for time/distance/pace/splits and then upload my data to admire all the info on Garmin Connect! Being an old model, I have to plug it in to the PC to upload, which is a bit of a pain but obviously you won't need to worry about this on newer models. I am strangely averse to counting steps or monitoring my heart rate/stress and sleep(!) - preferring to run by how I feel, so despite looking at newer watches I keep ending up thinking that the one I have already does more than I need/want. If I do update, I would stick with Garmin though.🙂
I now have a Garmin 235. I used to have the Fitbit Alta HR and used MapMyrun and/or Strava on my phone for running.
I have to say I love the Garmin for running - stats are way better than the Fitbit, and include cadence which I didn't get from my other approach. The readout is really clear and very customisable too. I can look or not, a I choose, rather than have an app reading out stats every so often which can sometimes be stressful. I get more notifications to the watch than I could with Fitbit, and you get to see more of those messages too.
What I don't like - the sleep data isn't as good I don't think (but not a huge issue) and, sadly, it is chunky and ugly!
If only Garmin would make a more stylish ladies watch!
I had a fitbit for a year and just sold it on eBay! I now have a Garmin 35. Perfect for me. I don't wear it all day, it is not pretty but I love it for running .
When I first got my Garmin Forerunner 235 I hated it, purely because it showed that I had been overestimating the distance covered in my C25k runs! We have now made peace! I like the fact that total time, changing lap time and distance are easily readable as I run and therefore help me manage my pace, and I find the analysis on the app, including cadence, is very helpful too. Never used anything else so can't compare. One thing a few of us discovered last Sunday. You might need to disable any link between the garmin app and the IPhone Health App. The Garmin app kept crashing, but everything was ok once the Health app link was switched off(this is an option in the Health App settings and is easy to find and disable).
Used to have a Fitbit Blaze. Switched to a Garmin Forerunner 235 since April and it’s great. Fitbit used to drop runs and was a pain in the rain as wet clothes kept catching on the touch screen. Garmin hasn’t missed anything and the info on pace etc as you run is great. Plus you can set workouts (e.g. interval training) and download them to the watch. Definitely would recommend a Garmin.
I think the general trend seems to be Fitbit/Apple for general interest (steps etc), Garmin (or Polar or Suunto or Tom Tom) if you think you want to get a bit more into running. They are all pretty ugly as far as I'm concerned, but function dictates form I guess! I'd not wear my Garmin all the time, I have wee stick wrists so I'd look a bit daft.
With regards to models, it all depends how much you want to spend—you simply get more features as you go up the price list, so it's worth having a think about budget. I have a forerunner 235, it's possibly fancier than I need but I do enjoy the few extra bits of functionality over the cheaper models (programmable training, connect IQ etc) and don't think I particularly miss anything from the more expensive ones.
I have the forerunner 35 and it does more than I need it to do. I too only wear it for walking or running . I like the way it downloads to Strava and also gives me control of my music so I can leave the phone zipped away.
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