This morning I contemplated what to do today, run-wise, after the technical SNAFU that was Wednesday’s run, everything from just taking a break, to doing a normal 10K, to a 5K to using the Apple Watch instead.
In the end, I opted to take it easier by running a 5K and used the Apple Watch only, to see how it would compare to the Garmin, particularly in terms of heart rate.
My average BPM was 150, which is the exact target I try to hit, so that was nice. The run doesn’t show any weird spikes or dips in heart rate, also nice.
It felt very cold and clammy and took me awhile to warm up. That said, my pace was fairly brisk and consistent throughout. It was kind of a weird run. I did not feel zippy at all, despite what the numbers say (average pace of 5:38/km) At the same time, I also did not feel slow, per se, just…cold and blah. I mixed things up a wee bit, post-run, by diverting onto the Freeway Trail. It’s not especially scenic in the summer and it’s really not scenic at all in the winter, but at least it was a change of pace. And I had the entire trail to myself for the entire 2 km.
At least the sun came out after the run, and I got a few nice shots of the lake.
And proved that my heart is normal, but my Garmin Forerunner, at least on Wednesday, was not.
It was also interesting to do a run with the Apple Watch after using the Garmin for a few months. If I ignore the erratic heart rate monitoring on Wednesday, I’d have to say the Garmin is a better experience almost completely across the board for running:
- The Memory-In-Pixel display of the Garmin may not be great indoors, but outdoors, even on gloomy days, it’s very readable, much more than the Apple Watch’s AMOLED display (which is great indoors)
- Speaking of readable, all the stats on the Garmin are rendered in bigger, thicker fonts, so at-a-glance info is much easier to parse vs. the Apple Watch’s thin, uniform fonts.
- The Apple Watch still keeps up interval info for an irritatingly long time
- The vibration feedback is about 1,000 times more prominent on the Garmin compared to the delicate haptic caress of the Apple Watch (and I have the haptics cranked up to full).
- The Apple Watch does always show the time, which is handy
- Accessing music is also much easier on the Apple Watch
- Pausing/unpausing a workout is simpler on the Garmin
- The post-workout info is a lot more detailed on the Garmin
Man, my hands are still cold as I type this. I’m glad my running for the week is done. I’m going to go give my hands a nice hot shower.
Bonus shot of the lake, post-run:
Stats:
Run 758 Average pace: 5:38/km Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) Start: 12:05 p.m. Distance: 5.04 km Time: 28:22 Weather: Cloudy Temp: 5ºC Humidity: 87% Wind: low BPM: 150 Weight: 162.2 Total distance to date: 5635 km Devices:Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, Apple Watch Series 5, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 12 (307 km)
