Wahoo Fitness

Wahoo Fitness, now this is a company name I could see Meghan using, except it would be Wahooo, Wahooo, Wahooo Fitness. It is a a gadgeteer's dream, now they can use their iPhone to run and bike.  Their new RFLKT is an iPhone-powered bike computer that doesn't require you to put your iPhone on your bike. It communicates with the iPhone via bluetooth, displaying data such as location, speed, and heart rate. 

Cheap(er) GPS Watches

I love my Garmin 210. In fact, it has helped my training/racing immensely because it assures me I'm not dying and lets me know that I'm not losing my mind when something feels hard. And this is coming from someone who didn't really ever see the point of running with a GPS watch.

However, even though it's Garmin's "entry level" one, it's still expensive for a watch. Luckily, there are some other options out there for ~$100. The Timex Marathon GPS, Soleus GPS 1.0, and New Balance GPS Runner will all track time and distance (which they use to calculate pace). The hardware in all three watches is about the same, so satellite reception and battery life don't differ all that much. The main difference resides in the display and "features". The New Balance watch is apparently the easiest to read while running and allows you to customize the amount of time that the backlight stays on. Timex has been making watches for a while (so quality control might be a bit better), and it is actually rated in terms of water resistance to a depth of 30m (the others are not depth-rated). Additionally, Timex and New Balance have some "nicer" lap options.

The main disadvantage between these watches and the Garmin watches is the ability to upload and analyze your runs... Garmin has this, others don't. Personally, I use this feature a lot, but I know others don't. Also, the Garmin watches tend to "locate satellites" a bit quicker.

Listen to yourself

And not necessarily to technology. Yes, like Jeff Gaudette from competitor.com, I too agree that GPS watches, heart rate monitors, etc. can be very useful training aids. I analyze data from "workouts I care about" over my peanutbutter sandwich at lunch... how consistent was my pacing? how much did I slow down on that hill? how long did it take my pace to recover? did I improve from the last time I ran that route? And I don't even have a heart rate monitor! However, I want to point out something important, I do this AFTER the workout. Yes, I might glance down at my watch every once in a while during the workout, but I try and treat it as a "normal" watch and run mostly be feel. Why? First off, technology isn't perfect. Second, even if it is recording correctly, it IS normal for your pace and heart rate to change over time. Aside from terrain, navigating turns may cause your pace to slow slightly, and a tail wind cause you to speed up without any increase in effort. With respect to heart rate, there are many factors that affect it (sleep, weather, hydration, etc.), and it is not well-correlated with other training indicators (lactate threshold). Also, it is normal for your heart rate to drift over the course of a run, even if your pace and effort level doesn't increase. 

Q: Why would I use my GPS watch indoors?

Km: Honestly, I too was a little confused by the whole ability to use your Garmin indoors with a footpod "feature" (note: you can't use your Garmin "as is" indoors because it's hard to "acquire satellites" through a building; the footpod is basically an accelerometer that communicates with your watch... I think). I don't know about y'all, but I trust the treadmill to let me know just how far and just how fast I ran, which is basically what I use my Garmin for. So, why shell out the extra money for a footpod? The only thing I could think of was if you were using the Garmin Connect software as a training log, it would be the simplest way (and maybe the only) to log an indoor workout.  When I searched further, I found another "reasonable" use... if you're running repeatedly around an indoor track, it's easy to lose count of what lap you're on, which would be remedied by the GPS + footpod solution. Personally, I think the whole thing is a bit silly, but to each his on.

... figured I hadn't asked myself a question in a while, so why not? Plus, someone actually found our blog with the search term "ask kilometer"! 

GPS Watches

Although I love my new Garmin Forerunner 210, I understand that GPS watches have their time and place in training. For example, these watches are great when you want/have to change up routes, but still want to make sure to get the intended amounts of miles in (always having to "pre-map" your run gets tiresome). And, it's nice to be able to get an idea of pace before you hit the first mile marker (and even better when there are no mile markers at all)... plus, being able to download your data post-run provides valuable training information. However, I don't foresee myself ever wearing my watch inside (even though I could get a footpod, I think I'll save my money and believe the treadmill) or for track workouts. I guess I'm "old school"... I'm used to figuring out pace using my cheap Target watch... and, some of the time, my calculations are more accurate than my GPS-wearing partners.

As it turns out, GPS watches are not 100% accurate all of the time. I know many of us have observed some of the phenomena discussed in this article (aka so how long did your watch say this run was? or hmmm... we suddenly dropped a min/mile going uphill?). So where do the discrepancies arise? Anything that disrupts satellite reception (like trees, buildings, and even clouds) will degrade accuracy. The watch will not be able to properly track distance (which is complicated by routes with a lot of twists and turns), and since it calculates pace by dividing distance by run time, this will be off too. If the watch temporarily loses you, it tries to extrapolate your pace, which can get interesting (like the 40mph situation that Mr. Henton observed). For a fairly comprehensive review of GPS watch accuracy (this guy writes awesome, well-documented reviews too if you're in the market for a watch), check out this two-part blog entry (part 1, part 2).