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Gear Recommendations

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Gear Recommendations Good, economic watch to follow tracks?

I finally opted for a Garmin Forerunner 245. It works well, it is not very expensive and the UX to follow tracks is quite good. Some insights on my experience after over a year using it: Wris...

posted 2y ago by fedorqui‭

Answer
#1: Initial revision by user avatar fedorqui‭ · 2022-04-22T12:01:26Z (about 2 years ago)
I finally opted for a Garmin Forerunner 245. It works well, it is not very expensive and the UX to follow tracks is quite good.

Some insights on my experience after over a year using it:

- Wrist heart rate.  
It is not as accurate as the chest band. It has to be very tight and, even in that case, has some hiccups. I learned that the direct sunlight and wind causes those, so I tend to put a clothe over the wrist to minimize them. Still, it is accurate enough to have an overall idea of your heart rate during an activity.

- Not more expensive than 250€.  
I got it for around that price. Since new products are coming, this will get cheaper over time.

- Enough battery for long trails: +10h  
I have not used for such a long session, but I do feel it would make it. For example, It can be used for a full week, including several trainings, with the heart rate tracking setting active. If you deactivate that, it will last for almost a month.

- Ability to follow tracks.  
This works very well once you learn how to do it. The basic idea is that you need to upload the tracks into the Garmin Connect app and then sync them into the watch.
  - to get the tracks, I am using either Strava or Trail Router.
  - to follow them I am learning as I go. It tends to be very accurate, since it beeps in advance whenever you need to do a turn. It also notifies you if/when you are off/in course, which is very useful. In general, I do use it only after checking the track. So, do not follow it blindly if you want to run in a normal pace (otherwise, you will end up stopping at every little confusion).