Run Tracking - Garmin Vs Apps

the 205 is nice because it has four fields, and has a lap button. My set-up is for pace, distance, time running, and clock time. If you don't keep track of your cadence or HR, I think the F205 might be the way to go.

+1. Recommending FR 205.
 
Hey Rick, I've only had this GPS issue twice in my time using my iPhone for runs. Re-assuringly it seems everyone had GPS issues yesterday (possibly due to thunderstorms in our area).
I love having all my stuff on my phone. I like I can play my music while I run, have feedback through my earphones from the app telling me my pace, heart rate, time, ahead/behind best etc. Then there's all the charts etc. The main draw for me is I don't have to turn on the computer to see all this. I just check it out on my phone. I can compare my runs to other competitors in my area, take on challenges set by other runners etc.
I'm giving some thought to a Garmin but will have to turn on the computer and download the data to see this data. I recommend the smart phone but I've never used a Garmin or likewise to compare it to.


Thanks. I have some time before I make a purchase. My Timex Marathon fits my needs for now. It has a lot of nice features, I just haven't taken the time to figure them out.
 
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last year when i was using----oh, do i have a F410? i think so----the gps was far more accurate than the phone, and more consistent.
It was strange, the phone was not only less accurate, but its inaccuracies were always in the direction of making me look faster and like i had gone farther. And once I started verifying routes using other methods (maps on web, car odometer, bike odometer, etc), it was consistently overestimating my distances by like half a mile on not very long runs.
I'm not sure if that has to do with me being way out in the countryside on some of my runs, and being on hillier routes, but still. The garmin was very close and consistent every time.
 
last year when i was using----oh, do i have a F410? i think so----the gps was far more accurate than the phone, and more consistent.
It was strange, the phone was not only less accurate, but its inaccuracies were always in the direction of making me look faster and like i had gone farther. And once I started verifying routes using other methods (maps on web, car odometer, bike odometer, etc), it was consistently overestimating my distances by like half a mile on not very long runs.
I'm not sure if that has to do with me being way out in the countryside on some of my runs, and being on hillier routes, but still. The garmin was very close and consistent every time.
Really!? That's concerning. I take my running stats quite seriously but I can only trust my phone. I've never used anything else. This is swerving my decision back towards the Garmin again! Lol.
 
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Can anyone recommend a good Garmin for running? I've been looking out there but it's a minefield.
The FR610, 410 and 210, FR10?
Been checkin out this site.
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/product-reviews/garmin.
Some great and extremely thorough reviews.
Mixed reviews online for all models. 410 people don't like the bevel, 610 the charger and cracked screen probs. going further back through the models gives reduced features. I like the ANT wireless connect feature to upload my runs. No hardwiring to the PC etc.
What do you guys use?


I've had garmin FR110 and now have FR610. Never had any serious problems. FR110 had slower satellite finding and didn't have current pace, which is pretty nice to know. 610 has lots of features I don't need, FR210 would have most features I use, except using it for navigation. It's kinda rare usage, but it makes much easier to go for new trails and run in darkness with headlamp because you know that you can easily get direction to get back home. I have thought about getting FR10 because it has lesser datafields (so you don't "need" to look it too much while you run), is lighter and water proof. But it has few critical cons - shorter battery life (if I ever happen to start running longer than 4 hours) and not so good accuracy under tree cover - I mostly run trails.. But I don't know if typical finnish forest trees are dense enough to cause accuracy problems as they are quite small and usually not so near to each others..

I don't use garmin connect much, I sometimes upload my runs there so I can export tracking of my run. I use heiaheia.com to log my training, it has nice simple user interface where you just type all the data you want. Distance and time has it's own fields, into commentary I also put average pace and fastest and slowest lap (1 km) times. And comments.
 
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Hey Rick, I've only had this GPS issue twice in my time using my iPhone for runs. Re-assuringly it seems everyone had GPS issues yesterday (possibly due to thunderstorms in our area).
I love having all my stuff on my phone. I like I can play my music while I run, have feedback through my earphones from the app telling me my pace, heart rate, time, ahead/behind best etc. Then there's all the charts etc. The main draw for me is I don't have to turn on the computer to see all this. I just check it out on my phone. I can compare my runs to other competitors in my area, take on challenges set by other runners etc.
I'm giving some thought to a Garmin but will have to turn on the computer and download the data to see this data. I recommend the smart phone but I've never used a Garmin or likewise to compare it to.

Which app do you use? I use Endomondo Pro on my Galaxy S3 for some of the same reasons you stated. The GPS has always been good, and I like that I can use my Zephyr HXM Bluetooth HRM with it. Did 8.11 miles (by GPS) this morning on a route I drove yesterday. Car odometer was 8.1. Too good.
 
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@inakilt I use Runmeter for my stats and Strava Run for challenging other runners. The Runmeter online link you get after your run is great. A great graph laying pace, heart rate and elevation on top of each other. You can then zoom in on it and really analyse ur stats.
Check it out here.
http://runmeter.com/745217ae4f6b4757/Run-20130717-2107?r=e
Drag across the part of the graph you want to zoom in on. You can then reset zoom back again.
Strava tracks your run and all that, but more excitingly you can set challenges for people (they call them segments). For example if there's a section of a run you love, or you are super fast on, you can go online and set a start and finish point for it. It will then save that segment for everyone to challenge. It creates a leader board for the segment.
The great thing is you can go for a run and find afterwards you've run a few of other peoples segments without knowing. It automatically detects them as syncs it and puts you on the leader board. I get quite competitive with it. :)
It also detects your personal bests for you. Eg, Personal best for 1mile, 10k, 100metres etc. you get trophies for personal bests. See below.
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1375006687.217573.jpg
Really motivational app!
 
I've been wondering about a watch instead of using my android phone, but what is putting me off is that I would quite like to measure cadence, but the only setup that does that is one of the more expensive Garmins that talks to the foot pod. I have a Nike+ foot sensor already, but annoyingly there doesn't seem any way to get cadence info out of it even with the Nike watch.

That would have the advantage that it would also let me track HR, but as I'm such a beginning runner and don't really envisage ever racing I don't think I can really justify the expense to myself, whereas I could probably convince myself that the convenience of a watch was worth the price of the little Garmin, even though it wouldn't do anything my phone doesn't do.
Though thinking about it, if the watch was tracking my run, I could use the RunnersCadence app on the phone... Hmm...
 
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@flammee How's the 610? Any issues with it? I've read there can be charger issues and it's putting me off a little.


No charger issues. It has had few software crashes, but they are pretty rare, and have probably happened because I upload my runs so unfrequently that memory space has gotten full. Then after reboot it has erased about hundred latest runs, that I hadn't uploaded. :p I haven't upgraded it's software ever, so those problems are probably fixed. I usually don't update these kind of things, there's always possibility that it's like windows, updating gets things slower and less stable..
 
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A very basic question. If you are using a Garmin, it doesn't give you the map on screen like the phone does, but you can see it once it loads to the computer, right? And what happens if you run more than once between syncs? Can it store a number of runs? How many, approximately?

Edit - Ok, that crossed with a post that does confirm that the watches store a large number of runs, but can someone just confirm that the mapping is also stored, not just the stats? Thanks.
 
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My Garmin Forerunner 305 stores lots of runs and the maps do show up normally on the computer ...I suspect most of the other Garmin work the same way. I used Garmin program on the computer, I also have used the Sport Tracks program which I like a bit better than the Garmin program...but I don't use any at the moment but they fun to play around with some.
 
A very basic question. If you are using a Garmin, it doesn't give you the map on screen like the phone does, but you can see it once it loads to the computer, right? And what happens if you run more than once between syncs? Can it store a number of runs? How many, approximately?

Edit - Ok, that crossed with a post that does confirm that the watches store a large number of runs, but can someone just confirm that the mapping is also stored, not just the stats? Thanks.

It stores latitude and longitude points and creates the map from these with google or bing.
 
I've been wondering about a watch instead of using my android phone, but what is putting me off is that I would quite like to measure cadence, but the only setup that does that is one of the more expensive Garmins that talks to the foot pod. I have a Nike+ foot sensor already, but annoyingly there doesn't seem any way to get cadence info out of it even with the Nike watch.

I had a very basic Garmin FR60 and with the optional "footpod" it tracked cadence. The footpod can also be calibrated to give approximate distance as well.
 
I had a very basic Garmin FR60 and with the optional "footpod" it tracked cadence. The footpod can also be calibrated to give approximate distance as well.

That's interesting - I hadn't thought of the non-GPS watches because I really love getting a map of my run - I only really run/walk trails at the moment and half the fun is working out afterwards where I went<g>. But in one way, that would work because thinking it through, I suspect I'm not always going to be interested in HR and cadence, and when I am, I'm interested in it real-time while running, not afterwards looking at stats. Whereas the time, pace, distance and map I want to keep and compare. So I could regard the phone as my stats data collector and the watch mainly as a real-time tool and not worry that I couldn't combine the two. But it would mean I would have to carry the phone every time, as well as wearing the watch. And if I'm doing that, I already have a polar heartrate watch, and there is a good little Android cadence app, so I could buy the cheap GPS watch and just use the other two when I wanted HR or cadence.... Or, what I probably should do, I can forget the watch for now and just use mapmyrun on the phone, HR on the Polar when I want it and a metronome track for cadence. (Hate running with earphone, though! I usually just let the mapmyrun updates speak to me out loud. But I think doing that with a metronome would get me stared at<g>.
 
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Or, what I probably should do, I can forget the watch for now and just use mapmyrun on the phone, HR on the Polar when I want it and a metronome track for cadence.
Sounds like an economical solution. A lot of us who run for fun, might carry a watch or phone to collect data, but only look at it afterwards. This allows one to enjoy the moment and not get caught up in the details. Reviewing the data afterwards can provide sufficent feedback.

A lot of the major companies will be coming out with smartwatches in the next 1-2 years. These will link with your smartphone, so that you can stow you phone and just glance at your wrist for data.
 
@inakilt I use Runmeter for my stats and Strava Run for challenging other runners. The Runmeter online link you get after your run is great. A great graph laying pace, heart rate and elevation on top of each other. You can then zoom in on it and really analyse ur stats.
Check it out here.
http://runmeter.com/745217ae4f6b4757/Run-20130717-2107?r=e
Drag across the part of the graph you want to zoom in on. You can then reset zoom back again.
Strava tracks your run and all that, but more excitingly you can set challenges for people (they call them segments). For example if there's a section of a run you love, or you are super fast on, you can go online and set a start and finish point for it. It will then save that segment for everyone to challenge. It creates a leader board for the segment.
The great thing is you can go for a run and find afterwards you've run a few of other peoples segments without knowing. It automatically detects them as syncs it and puts you on the leader board. I get quite competitive with it. :)
It also detects your personal bests for you. Eg, Personal best for 1mile, 10k, 100metres etc. you get trophies for personal bests. See below.
View attachment 2438
Really motivational app!

Thanks, Looks like it is a really good app, but I am stuck on Android until my next upgrade, and it looks like it is only available for iphone. Guess I'll stick with what I've got until I can get up enough scratch for a forerunner.