No. GPS watches are not necessary. Just a standard stopwatch will do the trick. I personally recommend the Timex Ironman Stopwatch. They usually last for 5 years or so and only cost like $25 or so.
No. GPS watches are not necessary. Just a standard stopwatch will do the trick. I personally recommend the Timex Ironman Stopwatch. They usually last for 5 years or so and only cost like $25 or so.
I use the interval and custom workout function, which is helpful if you are doing a series of tempos or something like that. I also find the heart rate can be useful in reminding me to slow down on recovery runs. Besides that, I don't use anything besides time, pace, and distance. Much of the rest can be worthless and/or misleading.
Oh, and some of the entry level Garmins don't let you use custom data screens so you are only limited to a few data fields on the watch at one time. Annoying software limitation, but some find it very important.
Metrics schmetrics.
Wowzers wrote:
I use the interval and custom workout function, which is helpful if you are doing a series of tempos or something like that. I also find the heart rate can be useful in reminding me to slow down on recovery runs. Besides that, I don't use anything besides time, pace, and distance. Much of the rest can be worthless and/or misleading.
Oh, and some of the entry level Garmins don't let you use custom data screens so you are only limited to a few data fields on the watch at one time. Annoying software limitation, but some find it very important.
For the custom workout function, do you set up whatever workout you want to do, say 16 X 400m, and the watch tells you when you have gone the appropriate distance? Can you customize the rest time too? Because that sounds like a very useful feature that the FR 35 does not have.
I have the Polar m430. Cool looking and seems to function. But the heart rate readouts are highly erratic.
I set it correctly, wear it as directed (even shave my left wrist, all the procedures.
At rest or running it vacillates randomly from 46-120 only vaguely corresponding to my running pace or effort.
It's the fourth attempt at using one of these things.
I also have the m430, and one trick to get an accurate hr reading is to wear the strap as snug as possible without irritating your wrist. This can be hard to do since the watch is so large and bulky. I swear it was made for neanderthal hands. And always have it on the same tightness every time you wear it. The heart rate fluctates so much since the sensor shakes while you're running, so it can't detect your hr accurately. Believe it or not, the hr sensor on the polar is actually one of the most accurate on the market, so if you don't get an accurate reading with the polar, you won't get accurate readings with any other watch.
I have the Garmin 235 and I really like it. Got it for 170, but the GPS was more accurate than my old one which was the base version. I would recommend it, gets signal faster and easier to see splits, just a better watch overall.
Can't remember which watch wowzer said he had but I am guessing if the watch says it has the customizable workout feature then yep you can. You build the workouts in the Garmin app and just upload/sync prior to your workout and it will tell you when to go when you hit your mark and recovery, etc. If you use trainer peaks (I use the free version), you can launch your workout from the watch when next to your phone and it will import whatever you have scheduled for the day as well.
I had a TOMTOM watch which died.
There is ONE function I liked in it and the GARMIN 35 does not have it. It's the RACE function. You could run against your ghost , a precious race, and the watch would telle you if you were first or second, and then the gap in meters. It was fun.
I don't know if any GARMIN watch has this function.
Thanks John! On it.
"Worth" depends on what your goals are in running, and if you believe a different watch will help you achieve those goals.
If your goal is to improve and get faster, consider that there are many runners in history that were faster than you are, and they did not wear a watch while running.
Rhodium Nights wrote:
My only complaint about the watch is its poor battery life.
To me you answered your own question. I have a basic FR 230 that I bought on sale for about $160 about three years ago.
But I agree with your basic comment, I only use the basics of; run-time, distance, pace and time of day (all displayed at once) and I'm good to go on my 100 milers. But with a battery life of about 16 hrs, I recharge on-the-fly using a little battery charger. I know there are some with longer batter lives out there, but this one is fine for now.
I like having some idea how for I have to the next aid station, which can be 8 or 9 miles apart sometimes.
wccelder wrote:
Can't remember which watch wowzer said he had but I am guessing if the watch says it has the customizable workout feature then yep you can. You build the workouts in the Garmin app and just upload/sync prior to your workout and it will tell you when to go when you hit your mark and recovery, etc. If you use trainer peaks (I use the free version), you can launch your workout from the watch when next to your phone and it will import whatever you have scheduled for the day as well.
Ahhh that is a pretty cool feature that would really help me smash some workouts without having to go to a track! Thanks for the insight!
Rhodium Nights wrote:
cheapskate wrote:
the only feature I'd pay more to have is longer battery life and maybe heart-rate monitor. otherwise, pace/distance/time is all i've ever needed and used and it hasn't kept me from meeting my running goals.
The 35 has the heart rate monitor, although I'm not sure how accurate it is.
The crappy battery life is definitely annoying, and it will probably lead to me upgrading eventually
Considering all the functions you are asking it to do in a small package, I would say battery life is pretty good. You said the battery is at 50% after a marathon. So unless you are doing an ultra, it seems sufficient. So you have to plug it in every night. Is that hard?
jamese1045 wrote:
I have the Polar m430. Cool looking and seems to function. But the heart rate readouts are highly erratic.
I set it correctly, wear it as directed (even shave my left wrist, all the procedures.
At rest or running it vacillates randomly from 46-120 only vaguely corresponding to my running pace or effort.
It's the fourth attempt at using one of these things.
The wrist HR monitors are notoriously bad. Chest strap is superior!
I found out I had more ground time on my left foot than my right and jumped to much when running- wasting energy. Its smart for improving technique
This is the correct answer. No watch is necessary. If you’re wondering whether it is worth the money, that’s a totally different question.
I went for my first 15-20 years running with a $25 Timex Ironman. I finally picked up a “baby” Garmin (as I called it) and was thankful to not have to map out my runs when I was out of town. I’m sporting a Garmin 35 now, which is more than feature-rich enough. The only upgrade I would consider is a foot pod to increase the accuracy of my running distances (per a Fellrunner article). All this said, it is preference...nowhere near necessity.
Rhodium Nights wrote:
Wowzers wrote:
I use the interval and custom workout function, which is helpful if you are doing a series of tempos or something like that. I also find the heart rate can be useful in reminding me to slow down on recovery runs. Besides that, I don't use anything besides time, pace, and distance. Much of the rest can be worthless and/or misleading.
Oh, and some of the entry level Garmins don't let you use custom data screens so you are only limited to a few data fields on the watch at one time. Annoying software limitation, but some find it very important.
For the custom workout function, do you set up whatever workout you want to do, say 16 X 400m, and the watch tells you when you have gone the appropriate distance? Can you customize the rest time too? Because that sounds like a very useful feature that the FR 35 does not have.
Yes. You can customize distance rest everything. You can also set the intervals to go by time, distance or lap button press (which is nice for warmup and cool down) . The vivoactive 3 has this too (which is a better value watch than the 245 imo)
Luv2Run wrote:
Rhodium Nights wrote:
The 35 has the heart rate monitor, although I'm not sure how accurate it is.
The crappy battery life is definitely annoying, and it will probably lead to me upgrading eventually
Considering all the functions you are asking it to do in a small package, I would say battery life is pretty good. You said the battery is at 50% after a marathon. So unless you are doing an ultra, it seems sufficient. So you have to plug it in every night. Is that hard?
Well, I might do an ultra someday, although the only one I'm interested in is the timed kind, aka 24 hour run on a 1 mile flat track.
No, plugging it in every night isn't hard. As I said in a few other posts, being able to set up the custom workouts is a big draw to upgrading to the 245 version. And maybe having music too...
I only mentioned the battery life because it is really the only flaw of the 35. The 245 just has more features as we know
FinnJ wrote:
I found out I had more ground time on my left foot than my right and jumped to much when running- wasting energy. Its smart for improving technique
Wow that's a pretty cool thing to be able to find out from the watch! Which one were you using, the FR 245?