I've been a Garmin watch user for about 3.5 years now. I had the Forerunner 220 and upgraded to the Fenix 3. The latest addition to the collection, so clearly I'm a fan of Garmin, is the Forerunner 935 Multisport GPS Watch.
One of the big upgrades from my Fenix 3 to this Forerunner 935 is the built-in heart rate monitor. I know a lot of people do HR training, so having a built-in monitor can be super useful. I know I can't stand having the strap on; sports bras are enough to deal with, I don't need to add more chaffing items to my body. If you prefer the strap, you can still use one that connects to the Forerunner 935 which can then give you even more data than the wrist function alone.
The amount of data you can get from the Forerunner 935 is outstanding. Besides heart rate, it can analyze your sleep and patterns and your stress levels. How cool is that? Though I have to say, both have been depressing numbers for me. I barely get any deep sleep and my stress levels are higher than I expected. Apparently I don't rest enough, so it's something I'd like to work on in the new year. And as far as light sleep, I'm looking into somethings that might help me get some extra deep sleep – any recommendations? I'm going to try using an eye mask again (I used to use them, but got out of the habit, but wondering if where the new placement of our bed is has more light coming at me than my previous spot and think the mask might help), and maybe trying some yoga moves before bed. Anyway...
 |
| Quick and easy to pair with my phone. |
There are a ton of different sports your can track, not just running. I've used it for cycling, and when I join a gym again, I'll be able to use it for swimming. Why would I join a gym again? Well, my husband got me a new bike for my birthday.... and now he's trying to get me to register for sprint triathlons, which means I need to not only re-learn how to ride a bike (and maybe even learn, because when I was a kid, I wasn't focused on technique, just on getting to and from my friends' houses haha), but I also have to get back into swimming. In high school gym we did swimming, so practice with strokes is more recent than when I last seriously rode a bike, but still. It's been quite a while and I'm not sure I could ever really use the freestyle stroke and go in a straight line.
I noticed for cycling, a lap would consist of 5 miles. You can change this if you want in the settings. I'd venture a guess that most people using the cycling are a bit faster than I and wouldn't need updates every mile like we do for running. I'm hoping with practice I'll get faster there too ;)
I love that for running I can have multiple data screens and set each one to be the data I want to see. My most utilized ones are lap pace and time. Other good data items to have on there are average pace, overall distance, and overall time (which for the life of me, I can't remember the correct term for at the moment haha).
The battery life on this bad boy is nearly two weeks, but if you know me and my odd anxieties, I need to charge it before it gets below 50%. It's just a weird thing I have. I prefer to see the battery on green, rather than yellow or red. It freaks me out of illogical reasons. Green is good, and I prefer to see that color more often on my watch. Speaking of...
 |
| Alerts you when you hit recovery heart rate. |
Another cool thing you can do with your watch is set the watch face. You can download from Connect IQ on your phone or the computer, and most of them allow you to customize colors and which data items are most important to you. On my old watch, my favorite was the countdown watch face. With this one, I've been using one that shows my stair & step goal and how far I've gotten on each, time, notification number, battery, and date. I was able to choose my colors for each item. You can also create your own watch faces using the FaceIt App. Another fun way to customize it to your style is to get some colored wristbands – I bought a few to try (blue and lime green), but haven't had a chance to switch them out yet. Sounds like it shouldn't be too hard, though. I love that you can make it your own, while still getting all of the benefits it offers.
 |
| Ready to run on a cold November day in Chicago. |
The watch is extremely lightweight, weighing in at only 49 grams. Way more lightweight than I was expecting. It's very comfortable to wear, but I'm not sure sleeping in it is for me. I think I sleep weird or something, because it's usually in the way or hurting my face haha. I thought that maybe after a month of wearing it every night it wouldn't bother me anymore and I'd be used to it, but not quite.
This watch is pretty baller and I haven't even scratched the surface of everything it can do yet. I think it might take me a year to figure out all of the amazing features and how it can improve my running and day to day life. Highly recommend, but if it's not quite in your wheelhouse, I'd say you could get any Garmin and be happy. The phone app syncs quickly and easily to your watch and all of the information can be found in the app and online; which they are continuously updating to make it more user friendly. I've been a fan for a few years, and I don't think I'll ever switch to a different brand because I've been so happy with their products and user experience.
 |
| Three of the same watch. Three different watch faces and personalities. |
Quick information:
- Offers advanced running and multisport features in a comfortable watch you can wear all day, and it only weighs 49 grams
- Provides elevation changes with a built-in barometer; altimeter and electronic compass help you keep your bearings
- Evaluates your training status to indicate if you’re undertraining or overdoing it and offers additional performance monitoring features
- Provides advanced dynamics² for running, cycling and swimming, including ground contact time balance, stride length and more
- Battery life: up to 2 weeks in watch mode, up to 24 hours in GPS mode, up to 50 hours in UltraTrac™ mode (with wrist-based heart rate), or up to 60 hours in UltraTrac™ mode (without wrist-based heart rate)
website | facebook | instagram | twitter
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.