But the battery life still limits it to road runners, and I’d love to see even more safety features added to account for women’s safety on the run. Thanks to a number of updates, the latest version provides a wealth of useful metrics to help you improve your running technique, customise workouts and keep on top of all the non-running aspects of marathon training. I was wrong in thinking the Apple Watch wasn’t a proper running watch. As a female runner, this is one of the best safety features the Ultra has to offer, and would mean I don’t need to carry a personal safety alarm during the darker months of the year. For serious athletes, ultra- and trail runners, the Apple Watch just can’t compete.Īnd while Apple hasn’t revealed much about the Series 9, I’d love to see the siren alarm exclusive to the Apple Watch Ultra introduced. I know I can chance a training session if my Garmin is hanging on to 10%, whereas the Apple Watch is guaranteed to leave me out in the cold. A mere 24 hours is pretty pitiful when you compare it to similarly priced watches like the Garmin Forerunner 265 (up to 15 days) or the Polar Grit X (up to 7 days). There’s a lot to like about the Apple Watch when it comes to running-specific features, but what still lets it down is the battery life. Like Garmin’s location tracking, friends can also view my location on the Find My app – but unlike Garmin Tracker, this is reliant on friends with iPhones. Safety featuresĪ number of running watches have seen advancements in their safety features over recent years, so it’s good to see Apple catching up here.Ī new fall-detection feature alerts emergency services if you’re in a collision, and while thankfully this isn’t a feature I’ve directly benefited from, it does bring me peace of mind as an urban runner. If I know there’s a time of the month I regularly feel sluggish, I can chat to my coach about my training plan. One of the features I’ve enjoyed most about the Apple Watch is being able to track my cycle in the Health app, establish any patterns in symptoms and how these impact the quality of my training sessions. It’s hard to know how much is too much when it comes to running on your period. It’s also part of the watches’ cycle-tracking capabilities, with changes in temperature often corresponding with changes in a women’s menstrual cycle – including ovulation. You have to wear the watch for several nights to get a reading, but the idea is that it can be used to detect oncoming infections. One of the biggest updates from the Series 7 to the Series 8 has been the introduction of a temperature sensor. It takes energy to move the weight of your body up and down, so the lower your VO, the better. Vertical oscillation, in particular, has been useful for an amateur runner like myself. These features aren’t unique to Apple – Garmin’s Running Dynamics Pod has been doing this for a while – but it does mean all of this data is available on one device. Three of the newest features go a step further, all designed to improve your running economy: vertical oscillation (how much you bounce up and down with each stride), stride length and ground contact time. If you flick up, you can then view a dedicated heart rate page, including the time spent in each training zone (1-5). Open the Fitness app on your iPhone and you can view details of your run, including elevation, average heart rate, pace, power and cadence. In the Series 8, there’s plenty to go on in terms of optimising your running technique. Previous versions of the Apple Watch offered a single page of stats in the way of performance metrics, which was fine for the majority of people but nothing on the athlete-level feedback of Garmin and co.
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