We are in the golden age of running watches. Watches can do everything from tracking your steps, distance, heart rate, stress level, sleep and playing your music. I really enjoy checking all of my metrics and I hardly ever take off my watch as a result.
Why you Need a Running Watch:
The biggest advantage of a running watch is that it heightens your awareness of your training. Peter Drucker the well known business author, famously wrote what gets measured, gets managed. It is very motivating to see your distances and health metrics improve every week.
Create Community:
Running watches also create community. I wear the Garmin Forerunner 935 watch. All Garmin watches give you access to the Garmin Connect app. Garmin Connect is a great tool for tracking all of your running stats and it also dubs as a social network. Similar to other social networks, you can connect with your friends and see their activities in your news feed. Friends will often encourage you by liking or commenting on your activities.
You can also challenge your friends to daily, weekly or monthly step challenges. These challenges encourage accountability and are a great way to stay motivated. I have been doing a weekly step contest with family members for over four months straight. I have also had a number of tough fought step challenges with my training partner Chris but I have never managed to beat him!
Finding the right watch:
Running watches are expensive but worth it. I ran for two years without a high quality running watch and I could not believe what I was missing when I finally bought a good watch. I started with the Garmin Forerunner 235. This was a solid watch for distance tracking and heart rate monitoring. Its battery only lasts for 6 hours in GPS tracking mode which is not a very long time for ultra marathons. The Forerunner 235 tracks cycling but does not track swimming or strength workouts. Lindsay wears the Garmin Vivoactive 3 which is a great introductory watch. This watch is only slightly more expensive than the Forerunner 235 and often goes on sale for less than the Forerunner 235. It tracks running, cycling, swimming and strength workouts. I was amazed that the watch can automatically sense what exercise you are doing at the gym. I wear the Forerunner 935 – one of the higher end Garmin watches. It can do everything that the Vivoactive 3 can but it has a much longer battery life. The Forerunner 935 has 24 hours in full GPS mode which is good for shorter ultra marathons. I recently wore my Forerunner in a 100 mile race which took me 30 hours to complete. I put the watch in ultratrac mode which saves battery life by taking fewer GPS readings to calculate your distance. I was disappointed by the performance, my distance was off by 10-20%. All of that being said, I am happy with Garmin and have no plans of changes brands. My watch performs well and using a Garmin watch is the only way to get access to the Garmin Connect app. As previously mentioned, the app is great to connect socially and to view all of your health stats. The apps from competing brands are not nearly as strong.
Top brands:
Suunto is another solid brand for running watches. Suunto is owned by Salomon and all of Salomon’s sponsored athletes use Suunto watches. Their newest watch, the Suunto 9 can track GPS for over 24 hours.
Coros is a new brand that is becoming very popular. Their watches have the same technology as the Garmin 935 and Suunto 9 with a longer battery life. I almost bought a Coros watch but decided against it since you can’t use Garmin Connect with it. Coros does not have a track record established yet with how long their watches last. I wanted to make sure that I was going to get at least two years from a watch with a $500+ price tag.
Racing with Running Watches:
Watches are important for timing your nutrition and hydration during races. I take gels and a salt pill every 45 minutes and drink water every 15 minutes during a race. It’s hard to stay on track without a watch. My watch died towards the end of a recent race and I was guessing as to when to eat and drink which threw me off. Luckily, I met my pacer a few hours after this happened and relied on him to tell me when to eat and drink.
I would strongly encourage all runners to invest in a good running watch. You won’t be disappointed about using that Amazon gift card for a watch that accurately tracks all of your running and fitness stats. Seeing daily, weekly and monthly progress is very encouraging and can make a big difference in helping you cultivate a running habit.
