On a Running Watch

Several years ago I received an LG Android Watch under the Christmas tree. I was still using an Android phone at the time. I was excited to have one of the early smartwatches. The newness wore off quickly when I realized that the watch became merely a trigger device to take my phone out of my pocket. “You have an email” … but you can not scroll through it on your watch. There were many early device issues which still needed to be sorted out. I’ve since moved on to an iPhone.

One of the pieces missing from my Get-Health toolkit has been a running watch. On purpose I delayed making any expensive purchase. Almost a half year into my running adventure, I started to look around for a running watch to replace to decaying biceps strap holding my phone.

I haven’t found anything to my liking. The serious running watches (e.g., from Garmin) are wonderful, yet expensive and limiting in their functionality. If I am going to spend that much money on a watch, it either should do more than record my location and pace, or I should be a better athlete.

An Apple Watch is the obvious choice. Yet, I am not convinced yet. I’ve been reading several articles pointing out several flaws, taking me back to my early days with my Android Watch. Of course the smartwatches are much better these days.

However, I read that the watch doesn’t immediately synch to a GPS or your heart rate as you are ready to run. Several casual runners report they miss the first several minutes of their run. This may ultimately not be a big deal since I could get the watch to do the right initialization while I am stretching.

On most of my runs, I listen to podcasts. Apparently you can listen to Apple Music, but you can not listen to Apple podcasts on your Apple Watch.

The idea to get outside, start up Strava and Apple Podcasts and go for a run doesn’t work yet. A new $10 arm band continues to be the most appealing option, plus it allows me to snap a picture or two on the run.