Top Row Left to Right: Polar M600, AppleWatch Nike+, Fitbit Charge 2 Bottom Row Left to Right: Epson SF-110, Polar M200, Garmin Forerunner 35, Garmin Fenix 3 HR |
Activity Band
Fitbit Charge 2 ($149.95; $179.95 Special Edition) Now on Sale See Pricing Below!
The Charge 1 was the #1 selling activity band and the Charge 2 is sure to keep that title! With a 4X bigger screen and the same price the device and platform adds a host of cardiac, sleep, and activity features all super easy to understand as well as far more complete phone notifications. It now has automatic activity detection, VO2 Max estimate, breathing exercises, and a basic (very basic) phone GPS connected run mode.
As a run watch, most runners will likely supplement with a GPS watch or another app as it needs to be phone connected and there is currently no pause or auto pause function. As a cardiac and activity companion backed by the excellent Fitbit app it is second to none. I keep mine on 24/7 on my other wrist to keep track of my resting heart rate, sleep patterns, and VO2 Max. Oh, and it can be styled with numerous replaceable fashion bands and even comes in a Special Edition, including a lavender band gold accent version.
As a run watch, most runners will likely supplement with a GPS watch or another app as it needs to be phone connected and there is currently no pause or auto pause function. As a cardiac and activity companion backed by the excellent Fitbit app it is second to none. I keep mine on 24/7 on my other wrist to keep track of my resting heart rate, sleep patterns, and VO2 Max. Oh, and it can be styled with numerous replaceable fashion bands and even comes in a Special Edition, including a lavender band gold accent version.
Value GPS Watch
Epson Runsense SF-110 $79.99-$89.99
Basic GPS Watch with Wrist HR
Polar M200 $149.95
The new waterproof M200 breaks a new price barrier for a GPS watch with wrist heart rate, 24/7 activity and sleep tracking, and phone notifications and is one of the lightest, full featured watches on the market. The only catch is that while the innards are rock solid, the watch materials are not the most polished and substantial (durability concerns?) and the screen while visible in sunlight is not as bright as higher end watches. Use any of over a hundred different sports profiles.You also get Polar's excellent Polar Flow app and website which includes training plans, motivational Training Benefit analysis and a complete dashboard for sleep, activity, and training. Polar was the original fitness heart rate monitoring company and their experience shows. Battery life is 6 days including an hour a day of training.
Mid Range Run Watch with Wrist HR
Garmin Forerunner 35 $199.95
Photo: Garmin.com |
High End All Sports All Activities Watch
Garmin Fenix 3 HR (Originally $599 and up) Now On Sale see below!
With the Fenix you get additional Running Dynamics, VO2 Max and Lactate Threshold estimates, and Recovery features not found in the Forerunner 35.
Battery life is outstanding according to Garmin: up to 40 hours in UltraTrac mode; up to 16 hours in GPS training mode; up to 2 weeks in smartwatch mode (with 24/7 HR monitoring). My only knock this is one heavy watch at 86 g, more than double the weight of the Forerunner 35 and it is not always the most comfortable on the wrist given the big, somewhat sharp buttons.
Really Smart Watches with GPS on Board
Apple Watch Nike+ (iPhone only) $369 (38mm), $399 (42mm)
iPhone only
Truly it is a fabulous useful wrist top companion as much as it is currently an only OK run watch with the existing Nike+ app. The Nike+ watch run app is still pretty basic with only Pace, Time, Distance, and heart rate displayed. It does call out your average pace over its built in! speaker every mile. So, there is no average pace currently displayed and current heart rate is the only available metric which can't be rotated into view as the center super visible in any light metric. The Nike+ watch app, Nike+ Run Club, provides plenty of motivation and coaching and even clues you in to future weather when you schedule a run time. With time, Nike and others will improve their run apps for the watch.
The Watch OS provides many ways for the user and app developers to customize watch faces and functionality. Other run GPS apps for the Apple Watch can be expected. The dedicated watch operating systems such as those for Garmin and Suunto will have increasing difficulty competing with Apple and Android based watches.
One place those other watch OS can compete with is battery life. I get between 5-6 hours of running time in GPS plus HR mode vs the double digits for the Garmins and Suunto. All day use has been better than Apple's spec of 18 hours as I have gotten more than 26 hours of battery life including over 2 hours of running on a single charge.
It's incredibly easy to swap bands. I got a black Nomad band for more "formal" wear.
Polar M600 $330
Android and iPhone(limited)
Earphones
Bose SoundSport $149.95 and SoundSport Pulse $199.95
Bose SoundSport Pulse Photo: Bose.com |
Complete Performance Physiology Monitoring System
Whoop Strap 2.0 $500
Extensively used and tested in the lab and by pro and college teams over the last few years, it is now available to the public. Whoop combines HRV and resting heart data with your prior day's activities' heart rate, sleep time and quality to give you a recovery score at wake up, cluing you in to how ready or not you are to follow, for example, a "planned" workout.
During the day the band measures heart rate data from workouts and other stresses of life. No phone is required to record and there is no screen on the device. As data accumulates during the day, the band reports data back to the app generating an evolving Strain score influencing how much sleep you should shoot for to: Peak, Perform, or Just Get By that night. At sleep wake up and after workouts ( there is a phone based GPS run tracker built into the app) you can also optionally answer more subjective questions such as did you have screen time, caffeine and alcohol consumption, did you sleep alone or not! are you rested or not, how sore you are, were you able to complete a workout without stopping, etc...All of this data helps fine tune the algorithms for recovery status and sleep goals. Not just for sport, Whoop can help those in high stress occupations surgeons, traders, etc... come to mind be more aware and improve on daily status for "performance".
What I have I found to date? I tend to recover very well and get adequate sleep but am, due to soreness and inefficiencies from form issues, likely not running hard or far enough day to day. Clearly on those sore but well recovered otherwise some hard cross training is in order!
The Whoop Strap 2.0 is a great but pricey gift idea for the high performance athlete and those who train hard and work hard but need better grounding and advice on recovery and sleep. That would pretty much be any athlete!
Run Form Sensing System
Lumo Run $99.99
Lumo captures data for and helps you work on
- Cadence-steps per minute
- Braking-change in forward velocity
- Bounce-vertical oscillation
- Pelvic Rotation
- Pelvic Drop
The app is beautifully designed and includes videos of the pre run tips you will hear on the run to hit reasonable goals and for after, exercises to help you further improve on those goals.
Shop for these Gifts below. Sales through these links help support Road Trail Run.
Save $150 on Fenix 3 HR. Other Garmins including 235 on Sale Too!
Running Warehouse here.
Backcountry.com here
REI here
8 comments:
Awesome reviews. Are you still using the Whoop? Any other details or thoughts on it? I am intrigued, but not an elite athlete (btw, have the lumo, apple watch and bose headphones and your thoughts are spot on I think). Thanks!
Thanks
Regarding the WHOOP write up, it's Heart Rate Variability (HRV), not VHR.
Thanks for heads up Steve!
Thanks. This was very helpful. I thought the Polar was the way to go, but it was helpful to hear it from someone who put some real thought into it.waterproof fitness tracker
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