I received my Garmin Forerunner 245 last week and I was like a kid at Christmas! I had gotten an email from UPS on Wednesday saying it had arrived and was left on my doorstep 😳. My son was due to get home any time so I sent him a quick text telling him to look for it. Finally he responded with a picture showing it was in the house. Yay! I had a crazy busy day at work so I just had time that night to do the initial set up and I will admit, I was overwhelmed! There was so much information and so much it could do and I wasn’t in a great frame of mind to go through it all. I wore it to bed that night (I was curious about the sleep tracking) but didn’t wear it to work the next day because I was still waiting for the screen protector to arrive.
I had Friday off of work so I got up and spent some more time going through everything and set up my first workout. I wanted to test out the max HR so I had entered in a short but hard interval run. I thought I had it set up for audio cues but that didn’t work so I just had to double check the watch face to confirm what each interval was for when my watch would vibrate. Garmin connect had set my max HR at 185 and I reached 182 on the run. I was happy with that so I haven’t changed the HR zones yet. I’ve also already downloaded a strength training workout on it from Garmin Connect. It didn’t work but that was definitely operator error 😆. I have since figured it out and will try it again this week. I also downloaded a short breathing exercise on it that actually raised instead of lowered my stress level 😆. It will get better once I’ve figured it out and can settle into the exercise.
This morning I went out for my first run where I was monitoring my HR zones with the goal of keep it in zone 3. That was a challenge to say the least but I’ll do a separate post about it another time. It worked very well and I am looking forward to exploring this type of training this winter.
I am having a lot of fun monitoring my sleep habits - as you can see from the above picture, I had a rough night last night! I was curious to see what it was going to show since the first time I was falling asleep my son came upstairs and was talking to his dad which prevented me from falling asleep. Then as I was finally starting to doze off again, the damn doorbell rang! Some little hooligans where out wreaking havoc! I finally fell asleep just before 2:30. Ugh! Apparently I woke up for a short while as well a little while later when my pulse ox and respiration rate had dropped (according to the charts, for whatever they are worth. I am taking this all with a grain of salt). I was congested when I woke up so maybe that played a role. It is fun to see the stats though.
I’ve also been enjoying counting my steps and making sure I reach my daily goal. Yesterday was a low step count kind of day thanks to some computer frustrations but once Halloween settled down outside, hubby and I went for a walk. As we were rounding the corner to go home, I saw I was still 900 steps short of my goal so we did another lap around the park! Goal achieved! We’ve made a pact to get out after supper every night for a walk to help prevent the usual after supper laziness so this little watch and step counting may help spur us on! I’ve also signed up for a 300,000 step challenge and 50 mile run challenge on Garmin Connect for November. I’ve got a good start today with a long slow run! Let’s hope I can keep it up.
I’ve enjoyed receiving my badges on Garmin Connect. It’s my own little virtual medals to keep striving for. I uploaded some of my previous milestone runs (essentially my HMs and 20k trail race) from Runkeeper but didn’t worry about sending over all the other runs. It was going to be too much work and not worth it. I’m turning over a new (running) leaf and will enjoy reaching the milestones again.
So overall, I am incredibly pleased with my new watch! It is a much bigger watch face than I typically wear but I have already gotten used to it. I’m sleeping with it so I can see get all my sleep stats and that has been very comfortable despite the size of it. There is a lot of buzzing during the day when I go outside without my phone (as it disconnects and reconnects) and as I receive texts and phone calls so I’m not sure if I’ll keep all the Bluetooth notifications on it. I see what the next week or so brings but I wanted to put everything on it and see what I like and don’t like.
Oh ya! The other little bonus. The lovely berry watch strap matches a couple of my run tops very nicely, in addition to a lot of my everyday clothes. I do love the colour 😊. And my fitness age was 20 according to that first short hard interval run I did 😆. Oh to be 20 again! I highly suspect that will change quickly but I enjoyed seeing it.
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SaskAlliecat
Graduate10
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It'll beep-buzz-vibtrate and more Sask 🤦, I've set mine so it only shows phone calls, texts and emails....... Otherwise it's always pinging away......... Oh and the move alert 🙄 turn it off
The move alert was the one thing I didn't turn on. I thought that would drive me batty. I'm on my feet so much during the day, I don't need my watch nagging me at night 😂. I've got it set up for phone calls, texts and calendar reminders . That is plenty for me! I might change that yet, although I like the idea of being able to see who a phone call or text is from while I run. Usually, I just ignore my phone. I have those things coming through at all times except during bedtime hours. I haven't quite decided if I always want to be in contact. It's nice when I'm not on call, to leave my phone in another area of the house and just not worry about it. We'll see how much the buzzing-beeping-vibrating annoys me during my workday. That may be the kicker that causes me to change my settings.
My first run was a short hard interval run so I suspect that is why it made me so young 😂. I'm fully prepared for it to age me in the coming weeks, but I'll enjoy it for now.
I'm not sure how long I'll sleep with it. It is all so new right now that I'm just having fun with it.
I loved reading this!!
This'll be your Goldilocks watch and soon you'll get the settings 'just right.'
I agree, take the notifications off that aren't necessarily needed and see how you go. I've never worn mine at night so it'll be interesting to see how it works for you. Really love the idea of a walk after supper and the November goals you've set.
It's going to be great this time next month when you have looked at a lot of data.
Today will be the first day wearing it at work. That will likely be the test of telling me what to remove from the notifications. I don't carry my phone with me so if it disconnects and reconnects constantly as I move around the clinic, I'll need to disconnect from my phone. I'm on my feet all day so I can't wait to see how many steps I put in. Of course I can't wear it in surgery so I'll lose some data there.
I've got my week planned out. It should be a good one 🤞
I love my watch which I had for my birthday in April. I think it has really helped me keep motivated. I think it does lots which I still don't understand but just seeing the distance I can run now compared to what I thought I had run is the best thing!
That is good to hear. I hope it helps keep me motivated since I have struggled with that since Covid hit. I'm planning on trying one of their training plans soon so that should help
So excited for you and glad you love the one you went for! They are definitely worth the investment. I find the sleep the least reliable part though. Sometimes if I wake up and look at the clock and then lie really still, it thinks I'm still asleep! LOL. Enjoy getting to know each other!
It was a big investment but hopefully it helps bring my running back on track. I'm not sure how much longer I'll sleep with it but I'm finding the information interesting for now. There hasn't been anything too weird yet.
There is so much on a garmin it’s all fascinating isn’t it?
Back in April when i was increasing distance after being unwell in January I proudly ran a very slow 8k my fitness level reached new levels and made me 79 lol but it’s down to a respectable 55 now which takes 9 years off my real age
I took overnight pulse ox off because sleep with my arms scrunched under me and it kept going very low overnight
I wasn't going to turn the sleep pulse ox initially and some of the numbers seem really off so I'll likely turn that off eventually. I liked the idea of it for when I'm trail running in my hills. I used to get fairly light headed at times and was curious what my pulse ox would show then. It will summer before I can test that out though. But I'll keep it on for now and see what it does over the next few weeks.
How exciting! I love playing around with my Garmin 😃 I've turned off everything that's not absolutely essential to running, and I don't wear it at night - otherwise I'd never sleep worrying about what my watch would tell me about my sleep 🙄 🤣🤣
Oh Sask...you sound like me!! I absolutely love my Garmin, I have the Vivoactive Music, it’s fab...I have a Fitbit charge 2 before which I loved but I love this more!! Sounds like you’re enjoying all things Garmin at the moment...I’ll look for you on the Garmin app xx
I'm so please you are happy with your new watch! I love mine, I think it's just fab. The pulse ox thing was a bit weird for me, I contacted Garmin and eventually they replied and said if you sleep with your arms raised near your head (as I do) that there is often not enough blood in your arm to get a proper reading. It had frightened the crap out of me, as mine drops to levels of 73 or so..I'm taking part in research for Covid, and was sent a proper finger pulse oxy meter, and know my oxygen levels are fine, so I stopped worrying about it.
I had some good news yesterday - my previous watch was a FR 35, it developed a big blob on the screen, so I returned it to the supplier. After a bit of tooing and froing they've agreed to give me a full refund, so that reduces the cost of the FR245 quite considerably.
Please feel free to add me on GC too, I'd love to see how you get on with your new watch. Oh - did you get the dynamics pod yet?
That is great that they gave you a full refund! It was worth the tooing and froing! It sounds like the customer support is decent.
I haven’t ordered the dynamic pod yet. It is definitely on my wish list but I’m trying to figure out one thing at a time 😆. I’m sure I’ll be ordering it soon.
I took it out for another run tonight - and loved it. I ran my “normal” run and was in zone 4 which I thought it would be after my attempt at staying in zone 3 on the weekend. I had it telling my HR zone every 5 minutes and I was pretty consistent in the zone. Yay.
You’ve done the Garmin Connect HR plans? I’m thinking go should start one of them but I’m just not sure if I should do the 5 k or 10k and if I should start on the beginner or intermediate. Any advice?
The main reason they gave me the refund is they actually LOST my watch! Apparently they had no record of having received it back at the warehouse, so I had to send proof of return... I was in France for the summer, the receipt was here in UK, so I had to wait till I got back here, even then they prevaricated a bit. Never mind, it's sorted now.
The pod is really easy to use, just whack it on your shorts and off you go...
yes, I've nearly finished the HR 5K plan. You've been running long enough to do the intermediate I'm sure, it's not really that challenging apart from running slowly enough! I'm going straight to the HM plan next.
Oh wow! How frustrating 😡. I'm glad they made it right with the refund.
After today's run, I'm getting closer to starting one of the plans and ordering the pod. I tweaked the hr zones to %HRR and am very pleased with how it adjusted the zones. I could actually run my whole easy run today without having to walk to drop a zone. It was perfect and so enjoyable!
I went into heart rate zones on the app and it lets you choose based on % max hr, % heart rate reserve or % lactate threshold. If you choose % heart rate reserve, you enter your resting heart rate (I used my average weekly resting heart rate) and max heart rate and it calculates the zones. To get to this on the app, you click on the watch icon at the top, the user settings, then heart rate zones. I'm not sure if it can be done from the web browser or not.
I just checked the web browser and it is done the same way - click on the watch icon > device settings > user settings. If you click on Based on... the choices pop up.
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Tried something different…30 minute running with walking intervals 🏃♀️👍
Back in the room! 😀 🏃🏻♀️
Playing in the zones on a slow 5k 😊
