Goodbye, Nike Sportwatch. You gave me a good almost-2 years, but it's time to move on. It took forever to connect, if it connected at all. Sometimes it would take 15 minutes to find a signal and by then I was already halfway done with my run. It crapped out so much that I was never sure what my actual pace was. So I got this new Garmin Forerunner 225. I can get it discounted through my work so I contemplated getting the 610, but I really don't need all those features. Plus this one has a built in heart rate monitor that is measured at the wrist which is a feature I was really interested in.
I took it out for a test run and I'm already loving it. Turned it on and it instantly connected in my kitchen, didn't have to go outside or spend 10 minutes walking around to get a signal. During my run the updates were really good too. There were many spots on the path where my Nike watch always dropped connection, but I suppose there is one truly dead spot because the Garmin crapped out there too. It showed me like a 15 minute mile or something. But it updated my pace within a matter of seconds, where the Nike watch took several minutes to realize I was still running. I can't push myself if it's telling me I'm running a 13 minute mile when I know that's not correct.
Distance was 3 miles, pace 9:44/min mile, it also does elevation which Nike does not (56 feet elevation gain on this run), 180 cadence (maxed out at 199)
Now for the heart rate, here's where I was really surprised. My avg heart rate was like 129. Kinda low! I did sprint a bit at the end and got it up to 175. I didn't know how to set the heart rate to display during my run and didn't want to fiddle with it while running and risk messing it up. But now I know how to do it so I can make sure my heart rate is on point during my runs. I did just get my blood pressure medicine changed so going forward my heart rate might be lower than it should be, but at least now I'll know.
The reason I want a good watch that's accurate and can show heart rate is because I want to be able to push myself to do better. If my pace is slacking and my heart rate is too low then that means I can go faster. I know some people like to run "blind" without watches or tech, but I'm not one of them. I like knowing where I'm at so I can improve, or back off if I'm pushing too hard.
Still figuring out the Garmin Connect website, there are alot of sections to it.
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