Running with GPS

That is me checking my watch for my mile split at mile 22 of the ING NYC Marathon.

Running is a lot of things for me. It’s my favorite form of cardiovascular exercise, for sure, and I love testing myself by racing. But running is also my stress relief, my time alone, a way to catch up with friends, a weight maintenance tool, and a way to gauge my fitness. The reason I happen to be running on any given day predicts whether I’m looking at my watch to see my mile splits, or heart-rate. Sometimes I don’t bother. Sometimes I’m checking my pace per mile several times within the mile. But here’s the thing – I’m always wearing my GPS watch, and it’s always ticking off those runner’s stats, so I can check them later. That way, even if I’m out running with a friend solely as a chance to catch up on gossip, now I can even go home and compare to my past ‘gossip run’ statistics. I know. I’m competitive with myself, I can’t help it.

The ghost runner… my nemesis.

When I started running, I used those free running logs that come with a subscription to Runner’s World magazine. Comparing runs meant manually flipping through until you found the last time you ran that distance. Splits were recorded only if I had logged them on the watch I wore. If I didn’t know the distance I’d run, I would go online and find a mapping website to check. Currently, I use a Garmin Forerunner 405, which I really love, since it does all of the above, plus more. I also love it because it was a gift, so it was free and I never had to do any of the comparison shopping I would normally do if I was spending a lot of money on a gadget. (Currently on the Garmin site, the 405 with the heart-rate strap is $250, or just $200 on Amazon. Bear in mind there are a ton of newer Garmin models available now, so this is now one of the less expensive options).

Its only downfalls are it sometimes seems to take forever for the satellite connection, and I am just crazy enough to walk around and wait to start running until I have the GPS connection in place; it also needs to be charged, and while the battery life seems pretty good to me, it takes a long time to charge it fully. If you forget, and were planning your long run that day, you may have to run sans technology (the horror!). But it’s super easy to use, and I can see up to three statistics of my choice on my little screen. The bezel screen means you can cycle through two extra screens, so if you want to see more than three statistics, you have the option of scrolling as you run. That’s a little too fiddly for me, so I never use that option. For those inclined, you can even see a ghost runner of whatever pace you care to program. The little ghost runner annoyed me too quickly when I would run slower than her, though, so she doesn’t grace my screen anymore.

If you use this watch, I recommend checking regularly to see if there are updates, since the updates fix little glitches or add features (mine now powers itself off if I leave it in the training mode after I’ve finished logging my run, so it’s less drain on the battery).

When I get home and upload the data to my laptop onto the free Garmin Connect website, I can check average and high heart-rate, my splits, elevation, best pace per mile, average pace per mile, and then I can compare several runs at once. This was so helpful during training for the ING NYC Marathon, and recently I’ve found it to be encouraging again now that I find myself running slower than usual, but a little faster every time I go out (pregnancy was a marathon of its own for my body). I haven’t found a way to export the data from the Garmin Connect site to excel…but that may be my lack of tech knowledge! One feature of Garmin Connect I really like is that you can search for other users’ course anywhere in the world. If a user logs their run and indicates it’s available publicly, all their stats are there for you to see. What’s great about this is if you’re in Paris and want to do a 4 mile run, you can search for that, and find local users’ running courses. I mean, you’ve got to negate the cheese and baguette and wine somehow!

Here’s a screenshot of my marathon effort on the Garmin website. I can also look at the splits in detail, or in ‘Player’ mode I can playback the race course, with graphs showing elevation, speed & heart-rate.

If I were in the market for a shiny new GPS watch, there are a lot more options out there these days. Apart from the Garmin watches (to which I am clearly partial), Timex, Nike, and Polar all have GPS watches available.

Image courtesy timex.com

I found the Timex Run Trainer with a heart-rate strap available for $125 on Amazon. From various online reviews, it seems the pros and cons are as follows:

• Sleek, not bulky.
• Good for triathletes, since it also computes for swims and rides.
• Quick satellite acquisition; within 2 minutes (also see the cons list – different reviewers had different experiences!).
• Good price point – $125 including the strap is really inexpensive for a GPS watch with the heart-rate strap.
• Hands-free start/stop modes. You can program the speed you want to use as the threshold for timing, so if you do a speed interval, and then your pace falls off dramatically to below your set threshold, the watch automatically recognizes when to time the split. Or, you can program splits for length of time (it records every 8 minutes for example), or distance (so you can can record quarter miles as splits).
• If you already have a Timex or Garmin heart-rate strap with an Ant+ logo, it will work with this watch, so you can save even more money and buy the watch without the monitor.

• Uses Training Peaks as its download site for run info. While you can see the basic data, to get the specifics you’d get for free with Garmin, you have to pay for a subscription to their premium service.
• Slow satellite acquisition; up to 7 minutes (who knows which reviewer is correct!).

Image courtesy nikerunning.com

Next, the Nike+ SportWatch GPS, which I have to say is super cool looking, although kind of big when you see it on a wrist. But then, most GPS watches are still on the bulky side. I found it on Amazon for $169.99, without a heart-rate monitor strap. You can use it with a Polar strap, so if you already have one of those, you’re all set.

PROS:

• Takes about 2 minutes to find the satellites, according to some reviewers
• You only have to tap the face to create a split. I think this function sounds great it theory, but I wonder how sensitive it is.
• The run info downloads to the Nike + website, which is also pretty cool-looking. You can set goals for yourself, or try a challenge they suggest. There are also free training plans, which is a great feature.
• The USB recharger/uploader is built in to the watch strap! So you can’t lose it! Genius. 
• You can use an existing Polar heart-rate monitor strap.

CONS:

• You can only see your heart-rate once a run has been initiated. So if you’re wearing this during weight-training, for example, you won’t be able to check your heart-rate.
• No way to export your data from the Nike+ site to your own computer.
• Some reviewers found the satellite acquisition slow.

Image courtesy polarusa.com