More Love for the 935

I still love my Garmin ForeRunner 935.  You can read here about my initial love affair, but I'm now 16 months into ownership and I feel the same way.  It continues to be an awesome watch.

Here is what I continue to like:

1. Battery life: always good.  It's never died on me.  Fantastic.
2. Heart Rate Accuracy: seems spot on when wearing my heart rate strap.
3. Ecosystem: It's fairly well developed.  A lot to like about the software that will integrate (like MyFitnessPal, which I just signed up for).  Appears to be able to integrate new items like the Humon Hex (if I get around to buying it) easily.
4. Customizability of Watch Face: I've gotten stuck on the one I like, but it's great to know that I can choose whatever I want and many (most) for free.

Here are new things I like:

1. QuickFit: I just upgraded to the QuickFit band.  Though I am finding myself most typically just wearing the black band in the package of three that I bought on Amazon for $25, I like having the option.  I also have a black metal band for situations where I need to be a bit fancier.  It was not expensive, nor were the non-Garmin plastic bands.  Happy to have the option to pay full price for the Garmin-branded bands or not.
2. OK, maybe it's just one thing.  But I like it a lot.

Here is what I would change about it:

1. HRM Tri: Mine died and never gave me notice that the battery was low.  Took me a while to figure out (arguably I was being stupid).  There should be better messaging here.  Even eventually an email saying, "Hey, we've missed your HRM Tri recently from your workouts.  Is everything OK?"
2. Default Elliptical Activity: It doesn't capture enough information.  Seems obvious that it should have cadence given that you are given credit for the "steps" taken during the workout.  I can buy a better one, but feel like I shouldn't have to.  This is too obvious.
3. Cheaper Power Meters: But, alas, this is not a Garmin issue, just generally an issue.
4. Easier Integration with Treadmills: Yes, many of us don't love the dreadmill, I get it.  That said, why can't Garmin Connect when running on my phone connect via Bluetooth to the treadmill (or to the Life Fitness app) and get my treadmill milage instead of assuming it from my cadence?
5. Better Reporting: There are some genuinely useful reports provided on the Garmin Connect site about yourself.  Having now over a year worth of data,  I can see trends in the data.  But most of that is confirming what I already knew (last summer was a slow, slow time for me from a physical activity standpoint).  My activity counts and calories along with my VO2max all reflect this.  What other reports could be provided that are useful.  Encouragement along the way?  Learn "normal" behavior and encourage user to keep at it?
6. Easier Spin Bike Pairing: I've gotten into a rut when I do spinning at my gym now.  If it is in a class, I'm on bike #23.  If it is on my own, I'm on the bike on the left.  This ensures I don't have to fiddle with pairing issues.  Which are still not dealt with super well, IMHO.  There must be an easier way, especially to avoid unintended pairings when in a class full of bikes with power meters.

This has largely been a data dump of my current thinking.  I am interested to see how it evolves over time!

More Love for my Garmin ForeRunner 935

I've had my 935 for about a month now and have put it through it's paces in a number of areas and wanted to post some more feedback on it.  Here it goes.

First, with the good:

1. The battery life continues to be fantastic.  I've been working out consistently over the last couple of weeks and I'm getting about a full week between charge cycles.  And that was charging it back up when it was at ~30%.  Getting back to 100% takes some time, but I'm loving the long battery life.
2. I continue to enjoy the aesthetics of the Garmin much more than the Fitbit Surge.  I haven't yet bought a black leather band with quick disconnect fittings, but the day will come.
3. I'm not bothered by wearing a chest HRM while working out and I love that it works so well with the watch.  I have the HRM Tri and it's great!
4. I've started swimming with the watch at HRM.  It's not perfect, but it's very useful.  It tends to over count lengths in the pool, but I assume that it will get better as I get to be a better swimmer (pretty much suck right now) and more consistent with my turns.  The heart rate record is quite good (and complete).
5. Garmin Connect (GC) has so much more usefulness than the fitbit website.  Being able to compare like workouts is awesome, even if still somewhat rudimentary.  Seeing my average heartrate go up each of my five swim workouts is great - showing some improvement where otherwise I'm not feeling great about where I've gotten to.
6. I can integrate information from my gym's Schwinn spin bikes with the spin workout I record on my watch to get a better overall view of my workout.  See my GitHub project for more details.  The only downside is the loss of temperature data - which for spinning isn't too exciting.
7. The alerts are useful and the alarm still wakes me up in the morning like my Surge.
8. I like the "move" alerts that my Surge was oddly lacking.

Now, with the "could be improved" items:

1. Watch configuration is not easy.  I inadvertently set the default pool length to 25 meters when my gym has a 25 yard pool.  Its fine, I can quickly google how to change it, but that isn't going to work when I'm out on a bike ride and need to make a configuration change.  Put all of it in the GC app!  That said, I'm getting more used to the standard operations of the buttons.
2. GC should allow you to make edits to your workout after the fact that go beyond just notes about it.  When it says I did 1125 yards and I only really did 1000, I should be able to change it without downloading TCX and editing or using some other highly technical method.
3. Strength workout rep tracking is quite poor.  Probably a hard problem overall, but give me the ability to add accelerometers to other places to do a good job tracking.  I think if we could add hand (not watch hand) and foot or ankle we'd be pretty good.  Better GC editing would help here too.  I'd really like to see this get better.  I had some thoughts on this in 2008 and I don't see much progress since then.
4. Add a UV exposure meter to the watch.  L'Oreal showed a little device at CES 2018.  Garmin should just put it in their watch and track the data.  This isn't a deficiency of the current watch, just something that would be awesome to add.
5. I've only done the HRV test two days so far (yesterday and today), but I can say it wasn't super obvious how to get it done.  Oddly, when you choose HRV Stress on the watch, it will not tell you when it's detected the HRM.  Other activities give you an audible indicator that you're all set.  Also, the first time I did it, it wasn't obvious how to get it to start.  There are several screens to scroll through that I found unintuitive.  I did get it done and plan on doing this every morning at the same time.  Too early to tell if the HRV is at all useful, but we'll see.
6. Coaching or prompting could be improved.  I ran on the treadmill yesterday.  It was not my best day; I struggled to get a 5k in.  I did it, but was seriously exhausted at the end.  When reviewing my activity after the fact, I was able to see that I favored my left foot for much of the activity.  My left hip hurt a bit after the run.  I'm thinking that the two are related.  I would have liked the watch to give me an audible prompt after a minute or two of being outside of "close to centered".  I could add a cadence prompt, but not this one.  Maybe they will add?
7. I don't like that the charging port on the back of the watch is open.  I've bought a dust cover to put on it (super cheap on Amazon), but it doesn't seal enough to keep all water out of it and I'm concerned about corrosion if I leave it in after swimming.  Also concerned that the port will get messed up if I don't keep it covered.
8. I have a scratch on the watch face.  It's small, but still.  Not super happy about it.  Hopefully, scratches don't build up over the next three or four years.
9. GC should keep you logged in.  It sorta does, but a day after interacting with it, you have to do a page refresh to get anything to show up.  Otherwise, you just get a "You don't have permission to view that" message.

Overall, I'm super pleased with this watch after a month in.  Yes, it was expensive.  But it is very good.

In the future (when it isn't so crazy cold here in DC), I will be testing a couple of Christmas presents from my in-laws: Garmin speed sensor and the Garmin cadence sensor for my road bike.  I can't wait to put them on my road bike and get some more useful data on long rides.  Another thing that I would not be able to do with my Surge.

Also, I have not been able to get outside for a run since I've owned the watch.  As a result, I don't have any sense of VO2 max.  I'm looking forward to this.

So Long Fitbit

I have finally decided that I will no longer be a Fitbit customer.  It has taken a long time to convince myself that this was a good idea, but I finally made the leap.  It was on from a good (but not perfect) fitness tracking watch to something better.  I was a very religious Fitbit user from 2013-01-18 to 2017-12-15.  I started with the Fitbit One (which I still occasionally used when I wanted to wear a nice watch) and transitioned to the Fitbit Surge in early 2015.  Almost made it a full five years in the Fitbit ecosystem.  I had made it 13,086,461 steps, 29,855 floors, 6,314.46 miles and burned 4,494,072 calories before I called it quits.  Sad to be leaving a place where all my data resides, but their new tools just don't seem as good as the competition.  (Note: I plan to still use my Aria scale, but replace it with a Garmin smartscale when the Aria dies.  So, I guess I'm not totally leaving.)

I really enjoyed certain aspects of my Surge:

1. Continuous heartrate tracking
2. Reasonable battery life (days), though this was declining to only slightly more than one day if I worked out that day.
3. Vibration alerts from my phone
4. Silent alarms.  My Surge reliably woke me up for a couple of years.
5. Easy to kick off activities
6. Automatic tracking of long walks

Things that I didn't like about my Surge:

1. Rubbery band: stuck on clothing (especially my shirts with French cuffs).
2. Rubbery band: bubbled and eventually had to be replaced without Fitbit providing a name-brand replacement.
3. Black and white screen.
4. No option to pair with a chest heart rate monitor.
5. No replaceable bands.  If something happened to the band, it would have to be replaced.  No option for a nice band or a work-out band.
6. Charging port had gotten less reliable over time.  In fact, this was the proximate cause of me deciding that I needed to do something (i.e., get a new fitness tracker).

I looked at replacement options and decided six months ago that it was likely going to be the Garmin Forerunner 935.  But I also decided that I should hold off and see what else comes down the pike to determine if I would prefer somthing else.  I believe that the legitimate options were:

1. Forerunner 935
2. Apple Watch Series 3
3. Fitbit Ionic
4. Other Garmin watch (Fenix, etc.)

I ruled out the Apple Watch because I didn't really care about the smart watch functionality and didn't like losing sleep tracking.  The Fitbit Ionic has gotten some good reviews, but I feel like it would be more of the same as my current Surge.  I had an old Forerunner GPS watch for running and never once had a problem with it, so my brand view of Garmin was quite strong.

I decided that the "something better" was going to be a Garmin Forerunner 935 along with the Garmin HRM-Tri Heart Rate Monitor (and maybe some more gear down the road).  Some of the most interesting parts that I'm hoping to take advantage of are the following:

1. Other fitness measurements (e.g., VO2 Max)
2. Variable Heartrate (VHR) monitoring for recovery time estimation
3. Easy pairing with a chest heartrate strap
4. Running dynamics feedback with the HRM-Tri HRM.  As I get older, I'm most interested in staying healthy so I can continue to maintain my modest fitness level.  I'm hoping that this can help me correct or keep my running form reasonably solid.
5. Waterproof!  I can take it to the pool or swim and have no concerns.
6. Pairing with some biking measurement gear for long trips on my road bike.
7. Easily replaceable watch bands (quick disconnect).  Eventually, I see myself getting a black leather band and deciding on an "elegant" watch face for special events.

I'm still getting used to the Garmin, but I already have thoughts on the transition:

1. I'm liking the battery life.  On five days of continuous use (with a couple of one hour hikes and some spinning) now after getting to 100% charge.
2. The iOS app is solid
3. The Garmin Connect website is better than Fitbit's
4. I really like the audio prompts when I'm running telling me how my heart rate is doing.
5. I would like to see the heart rate on the screens for the various activities.  I think that this is possible, but I haven't figured it out yet.
6. Too much of the setup of the watch is done by manipulating the watch.  All of it should be accessible on the app.  Creating a new information summary page for running would be so much easier there than on the watch.
7. I do miss the touch screen cababilities on the Surge, but overall, I think it's a win.
8. Garmin should add a feature to turn on the screen's backlight when the user flicks their wrist in a manner consistent with them wanting to see the time.
9. Why does this watch not automatically connect to the Schwinn bike at Equinox to record my spinning workout details (or every treadmill)?
10. Fitbit's assertion that "Your data belongs to you!" is a joke.  Just try to export your information.  One month at a time (or one activity at a time).  No heartrate information for monthly information.  They have the data - they just won't give it to you in a reasonable format.  Even the date selector boxes are insanely designed (can't just type in dates).  Total garbage.

I'm sure I will have more to say, but this is where I am so far.  I'd obviously prefer a more aggressive price point, but this is a fantastic watch.