We take endurance sports very seriously, so our attention tends to focus on mid-level and advanced GPS sports watches and devices. However, Garmin just updated their entry-level lineup of watches with the new Forerunner 45 and 45S, and before you dismiss them as insufficient, take a closer look. It turns out they're actually powerful workout trackers, and may have everything you need.

There are two separate model names because this watch is available in two different sizes. The smaller watch is the 45S, which has a 39 mm case, and the larger is the 45, which has a 42 mm case. If you don't like bulky sports watches, this series takes care of you. If you're looking for a more advanced sports watch with a smaller case from Garmin, your next option up is the pricey Fenix 5S Plus.

One of the ways this new generation of watches is radically different from the old Garmin Forerunner 35 is that the display is color as opposed to monochrome, and round as opposed to square. It's also worth noting that the screen has a diameter of 1.06" (26.3 mm), and it's the same on both sizes. The larger Forerunner 45 simply has thicker bezels.

Another big change in the new generation of this watch is the inclusion of Garmin's five-button control layout, the same as you get with the Forerunner 245 and 945. The old Garmin 35 only had four buttons, which made some operations require more presses and menu hunting. Now the experience is seamless throughout the Forerunner lineup, so if you transition from a higher-end Garmin — you'll be right at home.

The basics of the Garmin Forerunner 45

The new Garmin Forerunner 45 is loaded with all of the basics that people expect in a sports watch. It's got the ability to track workouts via GPS with pace, distance, and intervals. It can lock with a few different satellite systems, such as standard GPS, GPS + GLONASS (a Russian satellite system), and GPS + GALILEO (a European Union satellite system). The battery life is excellent, with 13 hours of operation with both GPS and heart-rate running, and 7 days of life in smartwatch mode.

The Forerunner 45 tracks your activities throughout the day and tracks your sleep at night. It has smartphone integration with notifications for texts and calls, weather information, calendar sync and more. Like the last generation Garmin 35, an optical heart-rate monitor is built in, and it's an improved third-generation version of the Elevate HRM, so it provides decent accuracy.

Advanced features

It's now possible to load custom structured workouts into the new Garmin Forerunner 45, which you can easily create in SportTracks and send to the watch, which is impressively powerful for an entry-level device. In addition, you can also now set up custom alerts for your heart-rate zones, pace, distance, and more. The 45 will also automatically estimate your VO2 Max.

One area that separates the new 45 from the more advanced Forerunner watches is its compatibility with Connect IQ, Garmin's app ecosystem. The 45 is able to access and use watch faces from Connect IQ, but it can't use custom data fields or full apps. It's great that you can use watch faces, because there will be hundreds to choose from. But it's a bummer that you can't run full apps and data fields, because there are some great ones, such as Workout Builder by Genus Wrist, and fun (yet motivational) stuff like Beers Earned Plus.

Other notable updates to the Garmin Forerunner 45

Stress Tracking and Body Battery - New Stress Tracking and Body Battery metrics keep track of how much stress you're enduring, and measure how much energy you've spent throughout the day.

Assistance Alert and Crash/Incident Detection - If you accidentally crash on your bike, or stumble and fall on a run, the Garmin 45 can alert your emergency contacts and provide them with your last GPS location. Plus, if you haven't had a traumatic crash or fall but you still want to let your emergency contacts know where you are, you can hold down a button on the 45 to do so. These features require that you have your phone with you.

Additional Sports Modes - The Forerunner 45 has the following sports modes: Run, Treadmill, Bike, Cardio, Walk, Indoor Track, Bike Indoor, Walk Indoor, Elliptical, Stair Stepper, Yoga, and Other.

Final thoughts...

Until now, stepping down to the Forerunner 35 (and the models that came before it) came with several tradeoffs, like losing functionality, a different interface, and limited capabilities. As you can see, the new Forerunner 45 and 45S have changed this story. They have been significantly improved, and the sacrifices you make in using this level of device have been reduced. And if you're a weight weenie, the 45S weighs a svelt 32 g, whereas the full-featured new Garmin Forerunner 945 is a hefty 50 g.

The new Forerunner 45 does have its limitations. The lack of full Connect IQ is one, plus you're limited to three data fields per screen, and the metrics are not labeled (as you can see on the white 45S in the picture earlier in this article). As you scroll through the data pages, only the metric labels are shown on screen and they're replaced by the numbers after a few seconds. This would take some getting used to, but isn't a deal killer. Even with the downsides, the Forerunner 45 and 45S are clearly watches that provide a great amount of utility to both beginner and serious endurance athletes alike. 

A bunch of important, new fitness tech equipment was announced this week, with Garmin rolling out the Edge 530 and 830 bike computers and three new GPS watches — but Wahoo won't be left out of the conversation, because they just unveiled the new Element Roam. Basically, if you were a fan of the popular Wahoo Elemnt Bolt bike computer but you wished it had a color screen and built-in navigation, then the new Elemnt Roam will make you happy.

This is more than just an Elemnt Bolt with a few added tricks. For starters, the new Roam is larger. It has the same sized screen and two rows of LEDs like the original full-sized Elemnt. In fact, it's more fitting to think of the new Roam as an update to the original Elemnt. It has the same appealing aerodynamic industrial design as the Bolt, but in a larger form factor.

The aerodynamic design of the new Roam extends to the included accessories. It comes with an out-front bar mount that seamlessly blends with the body of the device to minimize wind resistance. You can choose to tighten an included locking screw on the mount that will fasten the Roam so it cannot be removed. This is necessary when weighing your bike at a UCI-sanctioned race, and it's also a handy theft deterrent. A mountain bike friendly stem mount is also included.

The display isn't just a colorized version of the one that comes in the original Elemnt, it's completely different and has a more advanced implementation within the device. Instead of being slightly sunken into the unit like the older designs, the screen on the new Roam is flush-mounted to the surface, which reduces glare and improves readability. Plus, the exterior of the screen is made with damage-resistant Gorilla Glass.

What isn't new on the Wahoo Elemnt Roam

All of the functionality found on the original Element and the Bolt is included on the Roam. This means that the much-loved companion smartphone app setup and integration is all there. Built-in auto-sync with SportTracks is also present on the new Roam, so when you complete a workout it will automatically be sent to SportTracks so you can use the best analysis and planning tools available.

The layout of the buttons on the Elemnt Roam are identical to the original Elemnt and the Bolt. In fact, if you know how to operate one of Wahoo's other bike computers, you will immediately be able to pick up a Roam and start using it. Like the older models, the display is intentionally not a touchscreen. Every command is carried out with button presses, so you never have to worry about liquids or bike gloves impeding your control of the device.

New features on the Wahoo Elemnt Roam

Even though much of the new Elemnt Roam feels familiar, the device has many new features that have never been on a Wahoo bike computer. Most of the new features revolve around the new navigation capabilities (except for the first one we cover below). Unlike Garmin bike computers that only come with maps of the geological region you buy them in, the Elemnt Roam comes preloaded with global maps of North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. You can also download maps of Russia and Africa if needed.

New ambient light sensor and backlight control - The new Elemnt Roam features an ambient light sensor, and the ability to set the unit to auto-adjust based on the available light. So, if you're riding along in bright, direct sunlight but suddenly ride into a dark tunnel, the Roam will detect the light change and automatically turn on the backlight of the display when you're in the dark. The sensor is also active and useful when riding indoors on a bike trainer

Get Me Started - This is a clever navigation feature that can help you get to the starting point of a route that you want to ride. Imagine you've got a ride that you want to do in a different location. When you drive to the location, the area where you can park your car is a bit out of the way from the route. The new "Route to Start" feature will tell you where to ride to get to the starting point of the main route you wanted to ride.

Saved Waypoints - Using the same scenario described above, before you pedal away from your car to get to your main route, you can save the location of where you parked your car on the new Elemnt Roam. This way, when you complete the route, you can easily pull up turn-by-turn instructions for how to get back to your car. Your saved locations show up as blue hearts on the map. This feature isn't perfect, though, because you currently cannot give your saved waypoints unique names (such as Home, etc.). The Roam automatically populates the route name with the closest street name.

On-demand Re-routing - When you're out riding a specific route, the Elemnt Roam can give you turn-by-turn directions to get back on route, should you accidentally take a wrong turn. This works exactly the same way re-routing works with automobile GPS navigation systems. If you get off course, it's no big deal. The Roam will simply recalculate your route and tell you where to go to get back on track.

Shortest route back to start - If you're out riding and you realize that you would rather get back to your starting point as quickly as possible, rather than following the original route which may have more twists and turns and additional milage, the Route To Start (Shortest Route) feature on the Elemnt Roam will do this for you. 

Retrace Route - If you go out for a ride and just wander around following your bliss, you can use the Retrace Route feature to get back to the start. This will turn your ride into an out-and-back, because the Elemnt Roam will direct you turn-by-turn to follow the exact same route going back your original starting point.

Mountain bike route partnerships - The new Elemnt Roam features integrations with mountain biking apps. You can easily sync data from MTB Project and Singletracks to the Roam over WiFi or Bluetooth.

Wrapping up...

There's a lot to like in the new Elemnt Roam. The pure ease-of-use of Wahoo's mobile-first approach to bike computer control should be a big selling factor. The pot is sweetened with attractive features like the color screen, navigation, the 17-hour battery life, indoor KICKR smart trainer control and more.

When Wahoo released the original Elemnt, and later the Elemnt Bolt, they continued to refine the devices by updating the software and adding more and more features. This is going to be part of the story with the Roam as well, as a new, detailed elevation data feature is set to be released in June of this year. If you've been tempted by Wahoo's bike computer offerings in the past, the new Elemnt Roam is their most advanced product to date, and an excellent buddy to bring along on your cycling adventures.

We're happy to announce that SportTracks now fully supports auto-sync with the Suunto app! Whether you use an older watch like the Ambit, Ambit2, Ambit3 or Spartan series, or a newer model like the Suunto 3, Suunto 5, or Suunto 9 — your workout files can automatically be sent to SportTracks so you can access the best fitness analysis and planning tools available. We've been committed to supporting Suunto users for years and we're excited to continue moving forward.

Get it running

Even if you don't have a Suunto watch you can still track workouts with just the Suunto app and have the data automatically sent to SportTracks. Here's how to get it working...

1) Download the Suunto app on your mobile device

If you don't already have a Suunto account, you will need to create one to use the app.

2) Select your profile in the upper right corner of SportTracks, then select "My account" 

2) Select the "Sharing" tab on the left, and then hit the "+Connect" button. 

3) On the next screen, select Suunto App

From there you will be brought to a page to authenticate yourself. This may require logging into Suunto. When logged in, you will be asked to give SportTracks permission to access your Suunto account. Click the "Authorize" button. Lastly, select the "Finish" button and you're done!

What about Movescount?

Suunto is in the process of phasing out their Movescount platform in order to focus on the Suunto app. SportTracks has supported Movescount since early 2015, and will continue to do so. Movescount is currently scheduled to be decommissioned in the summer of 2020. If you have a watch that works with Movescount, you don't need to make any changes immediately, just be aware that you will need to switch in the next 12 months or so. Suunto provides a solution to digitally transfer your training history from Movescount to the Suunto app.

The fact that SportTracks is integrated with the Suunto app means you will have seamless access to the best fitness planning and analysis tools available. From the flexible layouts, to the powerful Training Load and Performance charts, to our much-loved workout filtering and editing, SportTracks gives you incredible power with an easy-to-use workflow. We're proud to continue our support Suunto's excellent endurance sports watches today, tomorrow, and beyond.

If you experience sharp pain on the bottom of your feet when you first get up in the morning, after you've been sitting for a while, or after a run, you may be suffering from plantar fasciitis. You're not alone; this is one of the most common injuries in running. This post gives you the basics and explains a few simple techniques to get healthy.

First of all, it's useful to know how to properly pronounce plantar fasciitis because you will likely want to chat about it with other runners. Since dictionary pronunciation keys tend to be confusing (do you remember what sound "æ" makes?), let's do it the dumb way. You pronounce it like this: "Plan-Tar-Fash-Ee-Eye-Tus."

Each of your feet consist of 26 bones, 30 joints, and over 100 muscles, ligaments, and tendons. They're pretty complex. One of the harder working parts is a band of tissue called the plantar fascia, which starts at the bottom of your toes and runs all the way to your heel. The repetitive nature of running can cause this tissue to tear and become inflamed, which results in the awful, shooting pain.

This syndrome isn't exclusive to runners. It also impacts overweight people, pregnant women, those who wear shoes with poor support, and workers who spend a lot of time on their feet. In fact, plantar fasciitis is also known as "Policeman's Heel." If you are stricken, it doesn't mean your running career is over, however, you will need to change your routine and take action.

Before you commit to self diagnosis, strongly consider seeing a physical therapist. The pain and discomfort can be intense, so visiting a qualified medical professional is the best option. Just like the size of your feet, healing plantar fasciitis isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. Different people respond differently to various remedies. Here are a few things to try...

1) Stretch your feet

Before you step out of bed in the morning and endure those sharp pains, you can help your feet on their way to recovery by first giving them a dedicated stretch. Follow the example in the video above (remember, stretch from the balls of your feet, not your toes!). If you don't have the band used in the video, you can use a rolled-up towel instead.

2) Roll a massage ball under your feet

Those colorful, spiky balls aren't just for Schnauzers. Roll one under your feet for several minutes, several times a day. It isn't an immediate cure, as you will find yourself continuing this rolling process day after day, but it should gradually help ease the pain. If you don't have one of these massage balls, you can use a tennis ball or a frozen water bottle instead.

3) Stretch your calves

Muscle tightness can contribute to the pain of plantar fasciitis, and your calves can be a helpful area to focus on to get back to normal. Perform standard calf stretches like in the photo above. It's best not to do this right after you jump out of bed in the morning, though. Warm up your calves with some light foam rolling, after you've done some foot stretches and massage ball work.

4) Track your progress

It can be invaluable to keep a detailed log of your injury and recovery. When you look back at your training history, you will know exactly when you dealt with the injury, what you did to get healthy (and what didn't work), and how long it took. You can also analyze any changes in your training or stresses that lead to the injury, to avoid repeating them. SportTracks is ideal for documenting your stretching sessions, keeping searchable notes in your workouts, and writing daily notes in your calendar. 

There are more ways to relieve plantar fasciitis, but the methods explained in this post are the most simple, effective, and easily approachable. As to when you should start running again, that's up to you (and your doctor). You may feel well enough to do some easy runs after a week of steadfastly massaging and stretching, but don't push it. Always listen to your body (and your physician), and be willing to put in the time and effort required to fully recover.

This month we're launching improved wellness tracking in SportTracks, starting with integrated sync from Garmin Connect for steps, active time, distance, and calories burned from your activity tracker. When combined with your workouts, training and goals, wellness tracking can give you a better wholistic picture of your health.

To access these charts, go to your Health page and click the settings gear icon in any chart panel:

You can choose from the following values to show daily data:

• Activity distance: Distance traveled by activity tracker
• Activity level: Total time in active or highly active phases
• Calories burned: Total calories from activity and BMR
• Steps: Total steps counted by activity tracker

The summary chart will also display your weekly total and daily average from the last week, in addition to the total for today:

Data is updated as your watch gets synched to Garmin Connect. So the today total may be from yesterday if you haven't synched the activity tracker yet. If your activity tracker synchs throughout the middle of the day you may see a partial total up to the last synch time. This is normal and the daily totals will be updated later as new info comes from Garmin.

To show additional details for a day's activity, click and drag on any chart in the health page. Details for the region will be shown in a popup dialog.

Garmin tracks wellness data in 15 minute increments, so the detail chart shows totals for that time period throughout the day. You can click the next and previous arrows to move through each day.

If you're using SportTracks on multiple devices, remember we allow customization to each specific device, so you'll have to add charts to both your desktop and mobile browser.

Sleep tracking details are in the works - look for an update soon as we continue to support wellness data in SportTracks!

"The New Stryd" was just announced, and it's the next generation of the much loved running power meter footpod. Everything that made the last version appealing is present on the new one: excellent power and efficiency metrics, industry-leading pace and distance accuracy, and long battery life. The big new additions are built-in air resistance detection (so you can tell how wind impacts your power) and a slew of other sensors that can push its already impressive capabilities even further.

We spoke with Angus Nelson from the Stryd team to gain a deeper understanding of how the innovative capabilities of the New Stryd can help you improve your race times, and how you can fully utilize your post-workout run power data analysis.  

While it looks nearly identical to the old one, the New Stryd has a bunch of new goodies under the hood. On the surface some slight changes have been made to accommodate the air-resistance detection features, and they extend to the new shoe clip that aids in allowing air to flow into the footpod where it's analyzed in real-time.

Running with the wind...

Instead of being presented with new air-resistance metrics during your runs, the additional watts added from headwinds (and subtracted from tailwinds) will be rolled into the power number you see on your watch. Nelson puts it like this, "The overall usage of Stryd will be the same: a single number to guide training."

When you run with a power meter, the moment you start going up a hill you can glance at your watch to see how much more energy you're using on the climb, and adjust your exertion to hit your targeted power number. This way, instead of wasting lots of energy to go up a hill slightly faster, you use the energy you save to go much faster on other parts of the race course. With the New Stryd, you will be able to immediately adjust your effort to changes in the wind. And what you miss in the moment, you can circle back to in post-workout analysis.

Nelson explains it this way, "In post-run analysis, athletes should primarily be looking to answer the following questions: Was I overexerting myself when running into steady head winds? Was I adjusting my effort to wind gusts? Did I try to ride the tailwind too hard or not enough? Most of these questions should be able to come through clear enough in the power data." SportTracks is fully compatible with Stryd's power data, and detailed weather information is automatically added to every workout in your history with GPS data, including wind speed and direction — giving you the full story of what happened on race day for deep analysis.

Using run power data to draft effectively

Drafting strategies come up occasionally in running, but they're definitely not as prevalent as they are in cycling. "Drafting has not really broken into running because the benefits are hard to feel and extremely hard to measure," says Nelson. With the New Stryd you will be able to see how much energy you're saving when tucked-in behind another runner as opposed to being fully exposed to the air resistance. This changes the game.

To illustrate the impact of wind on runners, Nelson points to a research paper about "The influence of wind resistance in running and walking and the mechanical efficiency of work against horizontal or vertical forces." There are two key points to consider in the report:

1. In running and walking against wind, O2 intakes increased as the square of wind velocity.
2. The energy cost of overcoming air resistance in track running may be 7·5% of the total energy cost at middle distance speed and 13% at sprint speed. Running 1 m behind another runner virtually eliminated air resistance and reduced V̇O2 by 6·5% at middle distance speed.

The takeaway? "Drafting to overcome air resistance becomes a factor when the athlete is very fast (in windy or still-air conditions)," Nelson explains, "...or the athlete is running into the wind (i.e. an amateur has to overcome air resistance at running speed + the wind speed). If a runner drafts in these conditions, they can save a significant amount of energy. They can use this knowledge to make strategical racing decisions, such as separating from the pack for a final breakaway."

New temperature and humidity sensors

As far as other new stuff goes, the New Stryd now features temperature and humidity sensors. Like the new air-resistance feature, the weather metrics generated by these sensors are not presented separately, they're used in aggregate to help calculate power. But that may not be all there is to it in the long run. "In the future, we may use them to report temperature and humidity directly to the user," says Nelson, "The possibilities are vast here."

You can order one today from Stryd.com. Units won't ship until late July, but if you get in line now, you can be one of the first people who will know how to accurately gauge their effort based on hills and movement in the air. In the meantime, you can brush up on the basics of running with a power meter and read our hands-on review of the last version of the Stryd footpod (which has a lot in common with the new one). The New Stryd brings some exciting new innovation for both elite and average runners alike, and we're looking forward to trying it out.

One of Japan's most beloved fiction writers doesn't go running everyday to find inspiration for story ideas, or to mentally develop his characters and plot lines—he does the opposite. He runs for the sheer pleasure of turning off his thoughts, entering "the void" as he calls it, and mindlessly listening to the same Lovin' Spoonful albums over and over again on an aging MiniDisc player.

You might assume that someone who intentionally plods away in a thoughtless void endlessly listening to "Do You Believe In Magic?" isn't the type of person who is serious about their sport—but you would be wrong. Haruki Murakami started running in the early 1980's shortly after he started writing, and he completely committed himself to both endeavors. He continues these pursuits today just as ardently as when he began.

Running and writing share a complementary bond, and this mysterious link is the focus of his book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Having read and enjoyed his fiction in the past, I was curious what he had to say about the sport we both love.

If you're not familiar with Murakami, he writes in the magical realism style with a distinctly Western sensibility, yet, in my opinion, everything he puts to paper has an ethereal sharpness that's unmistakably Japanese. His words have a knack for making the mundane feel completely engaging. He keeps you comfortable with plainspoken prose, yet often surprises with surreal twists and beautiful turns of phrase.

No talking cats in this one

One way this work is different from other Murakami books is that it's a memoir. It reads like a thoughtful journal, or a detailed training log with barely any technical information but lots of heart. Instead of meeting characters who drink tea with six-foot tall frogs or walk through stone walls, you learn about Murakami's daily life, his health-first approach to fitness, and his most memorable training runs and races.

Among them are 25 marathons, a single 62-mile (100k) ultramarathon, and several Olympic-length triathlons with open-water ocean swims. At first the book makes you feel like Murakami only runs to clear his head and to avoid putting on weight, but it's soon abundantly clear that he's madly in love with the sport. He goes through ups and downs like we all do, but remains committed to throwing one foot in front of the other.

A surrealist's training strategy

This isn't a book you read to learn about training. There are no tips on how to shave minutes off your marathon PR. The appearance of tech is minimal. He mentions using a stopwatch, and he keeps a handwritten log that's mainly a record of how many miles he has run each week. He never mentions having a GPS watch, or using a heart-rate monitor.

Murakami does employ some basic strategy to train for races. He focuses on trying to accumulate milage to get strong for the marathon distance, and he shares vague details about diversifying his training, mixing difficulty levels, running hills, and intentionally peaking intensity a full month before race day, followed with some tapering.

Early in the book Murakami talks about how he isn't competitive, but it seems like he spends the rest of the book talking about the thrill of passing other runners in races, and the shame of getting passed. When he has the occasional bad race, he expresses deep disappointment. There were many times I wanted to reach through the book and suggest he try a more structured approach, such as polarized training coupled with a periodized plan for the entire year. For someone as passionate about running and so emotionally tied to his finish times, I wish he experimented more with training methodologies (or discussed it more in the book if he had).

Running and writing: The great affinity

As upset as Marakumi gets when he performs poorly, he is capable of seeing positives. When a targeted finish is missed, he is content with the outcome if he feels he tried his best. He directly relates this outlook to writing. Sales figures from books, awards, and critical praise do nothing to satisfy him as an artist. The only way he finds contentedness is when he feels his writing was the best it could be. No other factor matters.

Most of what I know about writing I've learned through running everyday. —Haruki Murakami

All told, this book is a pleasant window into a charmed, inspired life. It is possible to feel a bit envious at times. The guy regularly spends months at a time living in Hawaii. He wakes up early, focuses on writing for a few hours, then gets in his daily 6-mile run through the lush scenery. Later, he'll do his 1500m swim and cap off the day with freshly grilled fish and vegetables. That said, you never forget the talent and aplomb that got him there.

This book is a 180-page love note to endurance sports. Murakami is a shy man who is most comfortable when completely alone, but he also deeply appreciates the close company of fellow runners at races. In triathlon, he struggles with group-start swims and often feels intense fear on the bike, but he keeps coming back to the sport again and again. Why? He mostly just likes the people. His introversion melts away completely when he's surrounded by oddballs who dedicate the majority of their free time to training. He's at home.

If you're already a Murakami fan and you want to get to know him a little better, this book is a great way to do that, whether you're into running or not. If you don't know Murakami, this book can reaffirm your faith in running. Even when you have it all: millions of dedicated fans, the ability to live comfortably from your art, total artistic freedom, primo Hawaiian running courses and fresh fish with soy sauce — you still have dark days where you need to physically force yourself to run. And just like in your life, running pays back threefold when you get the miles done. You're happier, healthier, and somehow less alone, even when you run solo.

Following on our update last month that added step and wellness tracking, we've now added detailed sleep metrics sync from your Garmin device, including information about sleep phases and wake times. One of the most popular feature requests on the SportTracks Uservoice forum has been been completed!

How to track sleep in SportTracks

To add the sleep charts to your health page make sure you're using a Garmin Device that tracks sleep, and click the "Customize" gear icon in the top right corner:

Choose the size of the panel you want to add to your page, then select the gear icon on your new panel and select the "Sleep time" metric:

When the new sleep panel is added to your health page, it will display the total, daily average, and today's sleep time for the date range you have selected, with hover tips for any date you mouse over:

You can view details for a particular night's sleep by clicking and dragging along a section of the graph and see your various sleep phases, including Deep, Light, REM, and Awake times. This data from Garmin is impressively accurate, and can be valuable for helping you understand the quality of your recovery, and how it impacts your performance. You can use the left and right arrows to page through nightly details:

The customization available on the health page lets you to arrange your sleep data alongside the metrics of your choosing. Instead of your sleep data being sequestered away on an isolated page away from your other health and training data, you have control of where it goes and what goes next to it, so you can see the bigger picture of your fitness more logically and efficiently.

Enjoy!

I’m generally not very big on reading “running books”. I tend to find them superfluous, cliché, and often just downright cheesy. But this spring I found myself DEEP in a marathon training motivation funk. Physically, I felt ok. I was even (mostly) hitting the paces in my prescribed workouts, but this training cycle just wasn’t sparking joy for me. Desperate for some sort of inspiration to muddle through to race day, I came across Let Your Mind Run among the book offerings at the running store where I work. I recalled once having been seated at the same table as Deena Kastor at a work conference dinner and thinking that she was, indeed, a lovely and delightful ball of positivity. And the subtitle of her book suggested that it was possible to “think my way to victory”, which in my mind suggested that this book may unlock my inner marathon superstar by training ONLY my brain. (Versus training my brain AND doing regular running.) In any event, I was desperate and this book was there, so I bought it and began reading it voraciously as my last hope to salvage a crumbling marathon training cycle.

Part memoir, part guide to positive thinking

This book is a memoir of Deena Kastor’s running career and a chronicle of her development and practice of positivity and gratitude as a training tool. I was certain that the solution I was seeking for my own running slump lay in the mental aspect of training, so I was optimistic that Deena could help. (She is a very successful runner, after all.) But I was also skeptical that this book could turn out to be overly touchy-feely or unrealistically “if you believe it, you can achieve it!” “Ok, Deena! I’m counting on you to help me right this sinking marathon training ship!” I think I said aloud to myself as I settled in to do some inspirational reading.

And I truly did find this book to be helpful and enjoyable. Deena’s running talent and accomplishments in and of themselves are downright awe-inspiring, and she and co-author Michelle Hamilton present them in an easy, conversational, unpretentious way. I liked and appreciated the way that Deena walked the reader through not only the external experience of each race, but her inner monologue on every run. I thought she did a lovely job of constructing the evolution of the mental aspect of her training as she progressed from unbeatable high school superstar, to burnt-out collegiate athlete, to America’s fastest female marathoner, to coach, mom, and running icon.

Deena keeps it real

Additionally, I was moved by Deena’s sharing of the wisdom, inspiration, and motivation she drew from her relationships with her first professional running coach, Joe Vigil, and her husband, Andrew Kastor. I found the warmth, authenticity, and intimacy of these two relationships to be palpable. For me it was a nudge to reflect on and feel gratitude for the relationships I draw strength and positivity from in my own life. Furthermore, I appreciated that Kastor did not just preach positivity in the book. She was a true student and practitioner of the concept. She found knowledge and inspiration to fuel her practice in books such as The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield and The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. She also built very intentional habits and behaviors outside of her training, such as keeping a gratitude journal, meticulous planning and executing optimal sleep and nutrition strategies, and creating simple methods to find and enjoy positivity in even the most mundane daily tasks.

This stuff really worked for me! (Kind of…)

So, it’s true, Deena got my buy-in with this book. I really, actually found myself saying things on runs like “This hill is making me stronger! That’s what Deena Kastor would say!” Sometimes I said things out loud to my friends and sometimes I just said them in my head, but there is no doubt that reading this book made me more aware of my inner running monologue and armed me with some corrective strategies to address and reframe it when it veered towards the negative. (Which was often.)

How did my big goal race go, you ask? Well, I’m sure that my pace over the course of the marathon looked like a bit of a dumpster fire to my friends watching their race trackers at home, and it is true that it was the slowest marathon I’ve run in a while by a long shot. However, I am proud to say that upon realizing that it wasn’t my day to run a PR, I was able to reframe the experience, regroup, and truly enjoy the day, and the energy of the course. I crossed the finish line with a huge grin on my face, hand in hand with one of my favorite, dearest running friends feeling joyful and proud of my positive frame of mind. I do feel that Deena and Let Your Mind Run are at least in some part to thank for that.

In conclusion...

I picked up this book looking for a panacea for my abundant personal training woes. Although it did not turn out to be that, as that is a perfectly unreasonable expectation, I truly did find some valuable and applicable takeaways from it. Of course, I found Deena’s physical training routine, her emersion in “the athlete’s lifestyle”, and her sheer talent and ability to be most unrelatable, albeit, an interesting read. But her honest, comfortable tone made her as a person seem very accessible and relatable, and I DID find that I could apply her sport psychology and positive thinking tactics to my own training and life in ways that yielded real improvements. Call me a big, cheesy running nerd (because that is what I am) but I just think it’s really neat that I, a meager middle-of-the-pack recreational runner, am using and benefitting from the very same mental training strategies as Olympian and American marathoning legend Deena Kastor. Perhaps you would find that to be neat as well? If so, I recommend giving this easy-reading, positivity-packed book a read!

The majority of runners out there are fairly serious about their sport, but they don't need all of their gear to be top-of-the-line. That's why "mid-level" running watches are so important—they're used by the largest number of serious athletes. Garmin recently updated their mid-level offering with the new Forerunner 245. As someone who used the 220, 230, and 235, I was curious what improvements had been made, so I got a new 245 to find out. In this post, I share my personal experience using this watch, and compare it directly to the Forerunner 235.

Physical differences between the Garmin 235 and 245

On the left, the new Forerunner 245, on the right, the old Forerunner 235

The body of the Garmin 245 is slightly smaller than the 235, and you notice it right away when you strap one on your wrist. Even though the reduction in size is minimal, you can sense and appreciate it. The 235 was already lightweight and not terribly bulky, and the 245 improves in both of these areas by weighing only 38.5 g (the 235 weighs 42 g) and shrinking to 42.3 x 42.3 x 12.2 mm (the 235 is 45.0 x 45.0 x 11.7 mm).

Technically, the display on the new Forerunner 245 is slightly smaller than the one on the 235, but it  seems like it's larger. How? The bezel is smaller, but more importantly, the display on the new 245 is a complete circle, whereas the 235 is flat on the top and bottom. That tiny bit of screen real estate goes a long way. It makes the 245 feel less compromised, more fluid and complete. Plus, the backlight looks slightly brighter to my eyes.

On the left, the old Forerunner 230, on the right, the new Forerunner 245

Rather than an iterative update, the new 245 gives the impression that it's a completely new generation. The materials are largely the same—except the buttons are now metal instead of plastic—but overall it feels like a higher-end watch. In the recent past there was more of a tangible gulf between the 200 and 600-series Garmin watches, but now they're much more alike.

Working out with the Garmin Forerunner 245

I ran with the Forerunner 220 for 2 years, then I upgraded to the 230 and was really impressed with the advancements made between the two models (you can read all of the details on this in our Garmin Forerunner 230 vs. 220 article). After using the new Forerunner 245 for a month, I can confidently say that it's a meaningful update packed with solid upgrades and advancements.

For starters, I immediately appreciated that it has more sports modes. The old 220 was almost strictly a running watch, the 230 and 235 added more sports modes to incorporate cycling and others. The 245 takes this further by including a built-in pool swim sports mode, which is very useful. With the 230 and 235 you could get around this by adding the Pool Swim Connect IQ app, but having it natively on the watch is a much better experience. Using the Pool Swim app on a 230 or 235 gives you basic metrics like distance, time, stroke rate, and more, but the 245 provides more useful swim charts and advanced metrics like SWOLF and stroke detection.

One issue I had with the 220, and a bit with the 230 and 235, was that they could be slow in acquiring satellite connections. My experience on this front with the 245 has been positive. It usually finds a satellite signal within 30 seconds when working out near my home. The first time I took it out-of-state, the 245 took around 2 minutes to connect with satellites for a hot trail run in South Carolina. The connection time was similar, if not faster for a muggy run I did in Florida. All in all, the GPS connection performance has been satisfactory.

Color-coded map tracks showing speed changes and wavering

Like most sports watches coming out these days, the Garmin Forerunner 245 uses a new Sony GPS chipset that provides improved battery efficiency, but comes at the cost of accuracy. When analyzing the maps of my runs in SportTracks, I could see how the 245 sometimes wavered compared to where I actually ran. It isn't terrible, but this is one area where the outgoing 235 may be stronger. Hopefully the 245 will gain more GPS accuracy as its firmware is updated going forward.  

Let the music play...

There are two variants of this watch, one that has the ability to store and playback music, and one that's music-free. The music version costs $50 USD more, and as someone who enjoys tunes and podcasts while running, that's the one I opted for. I was able to load a few albums onto the 245 with my premium Spotify account, and it all worked pretty well. Be warned, though. When you run without a phone, you're also likely running without a camera. If an Instagramable moment happens on the run, you won't be able to capture it.

Learning how to use the music controls while you're running takes a little getting used to. The first time I wanted to turn up the volume, for example, it took a few minutes to figure out. It's been nice having music on my running watch. I can leave the phone at home and still rock out while running. I used the 245 Music with my first generation Apple AirPods, and the two worked very well together. The music sounded great and it got loud enough to satisfy.

I do wish it was a little easier to load new music onto the watch. In order for that to happen, I need to be on my home Wi-Fi network, I need to have enough free time to fiddle with the watch and search for music (this would be easier to do with a phone app), and the battery of the watch needs to be above 50%. I've found that it's rare when these three variables come together. It's still a nice feature to have and I'm glad it's there.

On top, the old Forerunner 235, on bottom, the new Forerunner 245

Other improvements and features

The optical heart-rate monitor on the new Forerunner 245 has been improved over the 235. I tend not to be too much of a stickler about heart-rate data, but I do get annoyed when I see HR errors in my workout data. Looking at the workouts I've done with the 245, the heart-rate data seems to be exactly where it should be. This watch also has another optical sensor called Pulse Oximeter, which measures the saturation of oxygen in blood. When training at altitude, it can tell you how well your body is adapting. You should see your SpO2 level stay steady, but your heart rate will decrease after a few days of training. It can also be beneficial at sea-level as well, especially if your SpO2 is low. This can mean you're not getting enough recovery, even when you feel rested and ready to work out.

The 245 also has a bunch of fitness metrics that were not found in the 235, such as a very simple Training Load chart, VO2 Max estimate, a race predictor, and more. I prefer to use the Health page of SportTracks as my main performance chart, but it's nice having mini charts to glance at immediately after a workout. I populate some of the charts in SportTracks with data from the 245, such as Training Effect, Steps, Sleep and more. I appreciate the simplified Training Load interface on the watch, but SportTracks gets data from multiple sources (not just Garmin), and I can completely customize the layout to my liking. I can also easily filter date ranges and see how planned workouts will influence my fitness, and I can see upcoming race dates in the Training Load chart and plan to have my trendlines peak on raceday.

More good stuff in the 245:

• A new charging method - Instead of a clip or a cradle, the new 245 has a plug that sticks right into a port on the back of the watch. I personally prefer the new "plug in" method.
• Basic navigation features - These were not in the 235. You now get breadcrumb trail maps, and a "return to start" feature in case you get lost.
• Additional functionality in the Power button - When you press and hold the Power button on the 245, you access a menu of useful tools, such as a timer, a stopwatch, a way to contact people for emergency assistance, and more. 
• It's much easier to change watch bands - You could change bands with the 235, but you needed tiny screwdrivers to do it. You can change the bands of the 245 without tools. It comes with a nice silicone strap, but I found that I prefer nylon, hook-and-loop style straps, similar to the Apple Sports Loop. I found one I liked on Amazon for $10, and I can quickly swap it any time I want.

Wrapping up...

Could the Garmin 245 be better? Sure. I wish it had Garmin Pay, because it's handy to buy groceries without digging your wallet (or your phone) out of your pocket. The 245 is a great fitness tracker, but the lack of a barometric altimeter means that it doesn't count stairs, and you can't use Garmin Running Power. It also lacks the ability to track open water swims (you need to jump up to the 945 for that, or use the much older 735XT).

Ultimately, I think the new Forerunner 245 is an excellent update to Garmin's all-important "mid-level" running watch lineup. The 235 was loved by many, but I think it's worth it to pay a little extra to get Garmin's latest tech. The new 245 offers many more useful features, additional sensors, and new fitness metrics, and the option to listen to music on the watch. It's a "mid-level" running watch that skates right up to the line of being a high-end timepiece.

It's been well established that Apple Watch is a great smartwatch and a powerful workout tracker — but it also collects lots of actionable health data that you can now view and analyze in SportTracks! Over the past few months we've rolled out the ability to automatically pull steps, calories, activity data and sleep tracking from Garmin devices, and now we're excited to add Apple as another wellness platform.

The key to getting this integration running is using an inexpensive iPhone app called HealthFit, which has a one-time fee of $2.99 USD. HealthFit makes it incredibly easy to automatically load Apple Watch workouts into SportTracks, and last year this integration was expanded to include HRV, VO2 Max, Weight and Body Fat data. Today we're excited to announce that six more Apple Watch health metrics are being synced to SportTracks!

The new Apple Watch metrics supported in SportTracks are:

1. Steps
2. Sleep Time
3. Calories Burned
4. BMR
5. Activity Level
6. Highly Active Time

Steps and Sleep Time have their own dedicated charts, while BMR is found in the Calories Burned chart, and Highly Active Time is found in the Activity Level chart.

Meet your new step and sleep metrics...

Steps are exactly what you think they are: the total number of steps you took that day. However, there's a setting in HeathFit called "Wheelchair Mode", and when enabled it counts wheelchair pushes as steps. Sleep Time seems equally as obvious, being the total number of hours you slept that day, but instead of reseting at midnight it's measured from 7PM of the day before to 7PM of the current day. IMPORTANT NOTE: In order to get the Sleep Time metric, you need to have a third-party sleep tracking app on your iPhone. I used the free tier of an app called Sleep Watch. Another good option is an app called AutoSleep.

What is BMR?

The B in BMR stands for "Basal", which sounds like something you grind up with pine nuts and olive oil and toss with pasta, but it's actually quite different. BMR stands for Basal Metabolic Rate, and it's the amount of calories you need to stay alive while at rest. Your body is busy breathing, digesting food, circulating blood, and more when you're resting. Your BMR is the number of calories you used when you were chillin'. BMR can be used to lose, maintain, or gain weight. To lose weight, consume fewer calories than your BMR. To maintain, try to hit the same BMR everyday. To gain, consume more calories than your BMR.

It can be useful to see how you much energy you used when you're active throughout the day in the "Calories Burned" chart in SportTracks, compared to being at rest. Has your week been as productive as it felt? This chart can help answer that question and more.

Active vs. Highly Active

The "Activity Level" chart in SportTracks consists of Active and Highly Active times. In this metric, "Active" means normal activity, or any non-sedentary time. The y-axis of the chart is the number of hours (as opposed to the Calories Burned chart, in which the y-axis represents the number of calories). The Activity Level chart helps you quickly determine how much time you spend being active, and how much you're "Highly Active", or exercising.

How to access the new charts...

In order to see these new metrics from Apple Watch, you simply need to add them to your Health page in SportTracks. Assuming you've purchased the HealthFit app and enabled this integration, go to your Health page and click the "Customize" gear icon in the top right corner. Then choose the type of panel you want to add. After that, select the gear icon in your new panel and select the "Value" menu. Here you will see a list of all of the metrics you can add, including the new ones from Apple Watch.

Thanks for checking out this post. We hope you enjoy these new charts, and that they make the data in SportTracks even more insightful! 

Guys, this cookbook truly changed my life. Like seriously. I’m not just saying that because I'm a Shalane Flanagan super-fan who longs to receive her internet validation for writing a glowing book review and posting it on the internet. (Although I certainly am that.) Run Fast, Cook Fast, Eat Slow taught me that with a little time and the right ingredients, I can create delicious, healthy meals for myself. It also taught me that vegetables can actually be delicious, and that it's possible to look forward to eating leftovers. So yes, epic game-changer for me, no doubt about it.

Like returning to a specific race to improve upon a previous time, this book is a second version. It's a sequel to the original which was titled Run Fast, Eat Slow. The new book offers simplified versions of many of the recipes from the original cookbook, plus some tasty new dishes and flavor variations as well. While the first book undoubtedly contains many delicious and nutritious meal options, the time-saving solutions of book #2 are imperative for a frantically busy, non-domestically inclined, attention-challenged, healthy-eater-wannabe gal like myself.

I have tried several of the recipes from across this book’s various categories (it's conveniently organized into breakfast, lunch, dinner, sides, sweet and savory snacks, and sauces and dressings). But I think the most valuable thing I’ve taken from it are simple solutions for vegetable sides that can be added to any entrée, be it a delicious dish from the cookbook or a frozen pizza. Some favorites that I find myself using on multiple days of the week are Simply Roasted Vegetables (page 159), Sunday Sweet Potatoes (page 161), and Roasted Cauliflower and Potatoes (page 162).

The Sweet Potato Hummus doesn't taste like yam; it's smoky, tangy and delicious

I certainly wouldn’t describe this as an “eating healthy on a budget” cookbook. In fact, the primary criticism I hear in other reviews is that many recipes call for exotic or expensive ingredients. However, I've found that it has introduced me to many tasty cooking elements that I wouldn’t have thought of, or even known about otherwise. Things like miso, tahini, and almond meal to name a few. I've noticed that these ingredients often repeat from one recipe to the next, so I can buy them and use them to make several different dishes vs. making one meal and having leftover exotic ingredients die a sad death of neglect in the nether reaches of my pantry.

—Jessica Russell, Director of People Ops at First

Furthermore, I find it very cool that this book offers numerous recipes for making things that I would otherwise buy pre-made, such as salad dressings, sauces, and even granola. And if all of that wasn’t reason enough for you to drop what you’re doing and rush out to buy Run Fast, Cook Fast, Eat Slow already, it's also positively chock-full of helpful tips for storing and reusing your leftovers, pairing specifics sides, sauces, and entrees, and it even has training and fueling tips from Shalane and Elyse themselves! Remember the date that you start eating this food and see if your charts improve in SportTracks! 

Believe us: you need Apple Carrot Superhero Muffins in your life

Clearly, I'm sold on the sundry merits of this cookbook, but my glowing endorsements were insufficient for earning the buy-in of my fellow SportsTracks team members. When I told them that I wanted to feature this book for our book review initiative, they insisted that we make it a group project. So, we pored over the various recipes at our weekly meeting, selected a few that seemed both delicious and more-or-less foolproof, and invited everyone who works in our co-working building to come out and put them to the ultimate taste test.

—A co-worker who chose to remain anonymous

Sam made Sweet Potato Hummus (page 195) served with carrots and pretzel chips. Aaron made the Thai Quinoa Salad (page 90), and I made Apple Carrot Superhero Muffins with walnuts AND chocolate chips, even though the recipe suggests using only one or the other (page 60). The response from the community was TREMENDOUS! People came out of the woodwork to try our cookbook creations and their reviews were GLOWING! Plus, a local healthy energy drink startup called MATI was generous enough to contribute a few cases of their tasty beverages for the event.

The flavor of the Thai Quinoa Salad gets even better when you chill it overnight 

Naturally, I was quick to point out that most of the enthusiastic quotes we were hearing were about the muffins, the thing that I made. Also, the muffins were the first thing we ran out of, which clearly demonstrates that I won our recipe sharing event, but I digress… Maybe it was just the mere fact that we were giving out free food, but we truly did receive nothing but gratitude and positive feedback from the folks who came out, and we were all in agreement that all three recipes were delicious. 

In conclusion, I think it's safe to say that the people have spoken. At most, Shalane Flanagan and Elyse Kopecky’s Run Fast, Cook Fast, Eat Slow is a cool cookbook with lots of delicious recipes to help busy, active people prepare interesting, flavorful, and nourishing meals. And if nothing else, it’s a cookbook that contains at least three recipes that have been proven to make you more popular and validated among your co-workers. In any event, I'm enjoying cooking my way through this book, and although a positive impact on my running remains to be seen, I'm certainly eating more vegetables than I EVER dreamed possible, and I know I have Shalane and Elyse to thank for that.

In addition to being an excellent resource for preparing quick (ish), healthy and delicious food, this book is also incredibly well-made and features many beautiful and delectable-looking photographs the make you extra-excited to try all the dishes. AND it has one of those lovely, flat spines that allows it to lay open on the counter without falling closed or inadvertently flipping to the wrong page. Another key selling point, if you ask me!

I hope that your experience with Run Fast, Cook Fast, Eat Slow helps you find the same joy in cooking (and in eating vegetables!) that I have! Do you have favorite recipe from this book? Please share it!  We would love to hear about it and maybe even serve it at our next team cooking event!

The new Garmin Fenix 6 sports watches are here and they're packed with compelling features for athletes who need to track lengthy workouts. These watches get refreshed every year, and each update brings major advancements — such as special sensors that measure oxygen levels in blood and on-device mapping. The new advancement that stands out this year is especially intriguing: the flagship Fenix 6X Pro Solar Edition has built-in solar panels that charge its battery with sunlight.

The solar capability isn't there so you can live in the woods and charge your gadget off-the-grid, it simply gives the battery a little extra life when you do especially long workouts in the sun. If you've always wanted a watch with solar charging, only a couple of Fenix 6 models have it and they cost $999 and $1499 USD (the more expensive version comes with a matching titanium band).

The "entry-level" Fenix 6S and the Fenix 6X Pro Solar Edition Titanium 

If you don't need top-of-the-line features, you can get a Fenix 6S starting at $599 USD. Clearly, that's not a budget-friendly price, but these are premium fitness watches. No matter which Fenix 6 you choose, they all offer impressive health and training features in metallic bodies with styling that pairs well with business attire. The screens are all larger this year, the bezels are smaller, and they're not as thick.

19 Different Fenix 6 Watches  

The Fenix 6 lineup consists of 19 different watches of varying sizes and finishes. If you're trying to figure out which one is best for you, it's easy to get confused. As far as size goes, just think of them as Small, Medium, and Large:

• Small = the Fenix 6S, which have 42mm cases and compact mounting lugs, which makes them better suited for smaller wrists than last year's Fenix 5S Plus.
• Medium = the Fenix 6 (a little confusing, right?). These have 47mm cases.
• Large = the Fenix 6X models, which have 51mm cases.  

Built-in maps, music storage, and wi-fi do not come with every Fenix 6 model. The options at $599 lack these features. When you jump up $100 in price, you arrive at the "Pro" level of new Fenix 6 models, which include maps, music, and wi-fi. As someone who owns a Forerunner 245 Music GPS watch, I think it's worth it to pay extra for wi-fi. The moment I arrive home from a workout, my Garmin automatically jumps on my network, uploads my new workout, and it's already synced to SportTracks before I shut the door behind me. It's wonderful. Music and maps are just bonuses.

Go up another $100 and you arrive at the Sapphire Edition of Fenix 6 watches, which have scratch-resistant sapphire lenses. What's interesting is that the top-of-the-line Fenix 6 Pro Solar Edition watches don't have sapphire lenses. They have "Power Glass" lenses that act as solar panels. All of the non-sapphire Fenix 6 watches, including the Solar versions, have durable Gorilla Glass 3.

New features for endurance sports

The Fenix series of watches have always had heavier, chunkier bodies when compared to the lightweight plastic bodies of the Forerunner series. Despite the extra girth, the Fenix 6 series provides more battery life for ultra-distance athletes, who ironically need to be mindful of every gram of weight they carry. The various modes on the Fenix 6 make it attractive for ultra-endurance events:

GPS is not recorded in Smartwatch Mode, nor in Battery-Saver Mode (which essentially turns your Fenix 6 into an ultra-basic clock).

• GPS Mode = Normal, highly detailed workout tracking where you have access to music, heart rate, and notifications.
• Max Battery GPS Mode = This mode is also known as UltraTrac, and records GPS less frequently.
• Expedition Mode = A GPS point is only recorded once an hour, and the watch will do little else besides tell you the time and date

There's also an option called "Jacket Mode" which turns off heart rate, in case you want to wear the watch on the outside of a sleeve.

Customize your battery usage with Power Manager

If you want to customize the power-usage settings, you can use the new Power Manger options in the Fenix 6. You can choose various features to enable or disable, and the watch will tell you how much battery life you gain or lose by using various items. For example, turning off wrist-based heart rate gains you 14 hours of battery life.

The Garmin Fenix 6 Pro gets 72 hours of battery life in UltraTrac mode 

You get more Data Fields

You can now see more Data Fields on the new Fenix 6 watches, compared to past models. The Fenix 6X models can have up to 8 Data Fields (you can see this in action in the photo of the Fenix 6X Pro Solar Edition Titanium earlier in this article). The medium-sized Fenix 6 and smaller 6S can display up to 6 Data Fields.

Swimming heart rate is here

Getting real-time heart rate data on a Garmin watch is a feature that's been desired for a long time, but is only becoming available now. The new Fenix 6 series watches are all capable of reading, recording, and displaying heart-rate data while swimming. And, according to Ray Maker, this feature is also coming to the Forerunner 245 and the 945. It's exciting that swimmers and multi-sport athletes will be able to leverage heart-rate training principals in the water, and use them in conjunction with other swimming zones.

Pace more effectively with PacePro

A new feature called PacePro acts as your pacing assistant during training sessions or races when you want to hit specific pace targets at specific points in a course. You can add a course and your time goal, adjust for a negative or positive split, and adjust how aggressively you want to attack the hills. PacePro will calculate it and keep you informed as you make your way through the course. This feature is also coming to the Forerunner 945 and Forerunner 245 at a later date.

Find your favorite Map Themes

Color mapping came to all Fenix models last year with the 5 Plus series. This capability is enhanced in the new lineup with the Map Themes feature. You can change the maps to the High Contrast or Dark Mode options, which may look more pleasing to your eye, and the Popularity theme adds Garmin's Trendline Popularity heatmaps. There are also themes styled for Marine and Skiing, the latter of which will perhaps be useful when utilizing the 2000 ski resort maps that come preloaded.

How is it similar to the Forerunner 945?

A few years ago when the Forerunner 935 was announced, it shared many similarities with the Fenix 5 watches, as far as functionality goes. This year those roles have shifted. The Fenix 6 line has a long list of new and exclusive features, but these watches also inherit many features from the Forerunner 945, and the ultra-high-end Garmin MARQ watches.

The underside of the Fenix 6 watches all feature the 3rd generation Garmin Elevate heart-rate sensor. This is the same array found on the 945, and the PulseOx sensor is present as well. Like the 945, the Fenix 6 watches all have incident detection (they notice if you crash and send for help), and the Safety Tracking Assistance feature, which is similar except you initiate the call for help with button presses. Fenix 6 watches have many features that try to measure your physical state like Respiration Rate, detailed Training Effect feedback, Body Battery functionality, heat and altitude acclimation, and a race predictor and VO2Max estimate with higher accuracy.

Last year's Fenix 5 Plus watches had the ClimbPro feature, which shows how much climbing remains on your route. What's new this year is that, like the Garmin Edge 530 bike computer, the climb data is color-coded to display intensity.

Final thoughts...

In years past, only the top-of-the-line Fenix 5X featured a PulseOx sensor, and now that technology has trickled all the way down to Garmin's inexpensive vivosmart 4 activity trackers. It would be exciting if built-in solar charing features followed the same course.

If you need a watch that looks more at home with a suit or other business clothes, or if you're the type of person who prefers metallic watch materials instead of plastic, I think the new Fenix 6 line offers a compelling option. You get all-day activity tracking, excellent sleep tracking capabilities, incredible workout tracking options (especially for long-distance), the power of ConnectIQ and everything Garmin has to offer. And of course, deep integration with SportTracks as your training and racing platform.

Sleep tracking can provide much needed motivation to help you make healthier decisions, and the additional rest you get can help improve your recovery and performance in endurance sports. If you want to track your sleep with an Apple Watch, you first need to download a third-party sleep app to your iPhone. There are many to choose from, so we tested out three of the most popular options.

We spent a week tracking our sleep with each of these apps to truly test them out. They're all compatible with our Apple Health integration (thanks to an app called HealthFit), so you can analyze this sleep data beside other training metrics in SportTracks. Read on to learn all about SleepWatch, AutoSleep, and Pillow.

SleepWatch

SleepWatch does a commendable job of accurately tracking your sleep and presenting you with data that makes sense. The charts are easy to comprehend, and it's obvious when you're not getting enough sleep, and when you're doing well. Tapping to look at sleep-phase data forces you to swing your phone into the landscape orientation, which seems unusual these days, but looking at heart-rate data and averages seemed appropriate on the wider screen. 

An interesting metric called "3-Day Sleep Target" is prominently placed at the top of the SleepWatch dashboard. It lets you know if you're ahead or behind on getting a healthy amount of sleep over a 3-day period. The app provides easy-to-find explanations as to why you would want to get a certain amount of sleep over 3 days, and it even provides links to scientific papers that support their theories. This was the metric I looked at most, and when I finally got a decent score I felt like I had accomplished something.

The app isn't perfect. On many occasions SleepWatch sent me notifications asking how I felt after sleeping that day, after I had already answered. It also persistently reminds you to upgrade to the premium version, which costs $2.99 USD a month. Paying for premium unlocks the SleepWatch Score, bedtime reminders, and a sleep report card. Even though the free version feels complete, as you scroll around the app you often see reminders to upgrade to premium for the full experience. It's tastefully done, but it's still a distraction.    

AutoSleep

Like the name implies, AutoSleep automatically tracks your sleep without you needing to start or stop it. This is a feature that's found on most sleep-tracking apps these days, but in the recent past it wasn't widely available. If you prefer to be more exact with your tracking, you can use a feature called Lights Off that lets you tell the app you're going to sleep. 

This app follows the "close your rings" model of the native Apple Watch activity tracker. After a night's sleep, you can open AutoSleep on your watch or phone to see how close you came to closing your sleep rings. You get four rings: Sleep Duration, Deep Sleep, Heart Rate, and Sleep Quality. Last night I got around 75% of my sleep duration completed, and believe me, I felt the missing 25% when my alarm went off.

AutoSleep feels like a fully-realized app. You can adjust your sleep duration goals, it compares your sleeping heart rate with your non-active waking heart rate and looks for beneficial trends, and plenty of information is provided to help you make sense of the data and charts. In order to use AutoSleep, you need to buy it for $3 USD. What's nice is that you get an ad-free app that doesn't waste space trying to get you to upgrade. However, in the 2 weeks that I tracked with AutoSleep, it encountered an error and failed to record sleep data for 5 nights. It gave me warnings that something was wrong, but it was unclear how to resolve it. The app ended up correcting the problem on its own, but the entire ordeal felt like a bug.

Pillow

One of the great things about wearing an Apple Watch while you sleep is using it as an alarm clock. Gentle vibrations on your wrist are much more peaceful than noisy alarms, and they won't wake up your partner. An app called Pillow has a smart alarm that knows what sleep phase you're in, and it won't wake you up when you're in deep sleep. There are other sleep apps out there that do the same thing, but it's an interesting idea nonetheless.

The first time you open Pillow, it pulls in your most recent sleep data from Apple Health, so if you tracked your sleep with another Apple Watch app the previous night, you can review the interface and charts right away. However, you cannot review your sleep history unless you upgrade to the premium version. You can see sleep phases in the app for Light Sleep, Deep Sleep, REM, and Awake Time. You are given a sleep quality percentage score, and you can make notes and assign a mood to how you felt when you woke up.

Pillow has the same business model as SleepWatch, which means you can use the free version but if you pay an annual fee of $27.99 USD you get all of the features. Thankfully, the smart alarm clock is included in the free version, but the downside is that it isn't available if you choose automatic sleep tracking. Another downside is that heart-rate data is hidden in the free version. Overall, it seems much more limiting compared to SleepWatch. Pillow does have a curious feature that allows you to make audio recordings of your snores, but again it's disabled if you use automatic sleep tracking.

Which is the best sleep tracking app?

My overall favorite was the free version of SleepWatch, despite the constant visual reminders to upgrade to premium. The interface was nice and clean, and the data was easy to understand. As odd as it sounds, I do wish SleepWatch had an automatic snore-recording feature. Admittedly, I would mostly use it for laughs, but it does seem possible to use this sort of feature to effectively test methods to reduce snoring.

No matter what you choose, be it Apple Watch, Garmin sleep tracking, or something else, I think it's worth it to give sleep tracking a try. The same way that step counting inspires people to walk more, tracking your sleep will motivate you to get more hours of quality rest. It can be eye-opening to see how much sleep you've gotten in the past few weeks, and extra rewarding to achieve eight-hour nights. You will feel more alert and invigorated, and it can also provide massive benefits to your cardiovascular health. Plus, keeping a record of your sleep data will help you more effectively analyze your training and racing history in SportTracks. 

Planning your training and sticking to your plan has never been easier with our new Garmin Training Integration. Your entire SportTracks training calendar will be synched to Garmin Connect so that you can access the planned workouts on your Garmin watch or bike computer. Even better, if you make adjustments to your plan in SportTracks all changes are instantly synched to Garmin Connect. The power of SportTracks training is now seamlessly connected to Garmin.

To enable the integration feature, go to your My Account > Sharing page and click the "Connect" button.

Select the "Garmin Training" connection. Note that Garmin requires two separate user connections for workout sync and training plan sync. You probably already have a "Garmin Connect" sync option to pull your workouts and health info into SportTracks, you'll need to add this second connection for training plans.

Once you've authenticated with Garmin and return back to SportTracks, make sure the "Sync training plan to Garmin Connect" option is checked and click the "Finish" button.

After you've connected there's nothing else to do. Plan your workouts normally and they will appear in Garmin Connect. So what exactly does that mean? Lets dig into it.

Data synched to Garmin Connect

Within SportTracks you can create your training plan on your calendar page. Your planned workouts have details about the sport type, date and time, name, and target goals for time, distance and intensity such as heart rate or power zones:

SportTracks sends as much of this information to Garmin Connect as possible, but some data is just not supported by their platform, so you won't see it:

• Time of day: Garmin only supports a date, not a specific time for a workout.
• Sport type: Garmin supports 3 activity types: Running, Cycling and Other.
• Flag color: Garmin doesn't support any kind of priority flagging.

If you've done interval workouts you already know that Garmin supports those. You'll be happy to know that any of the steps you add, including repeats, will be sent to Garmin exactly as specified in SportTracks:

Moving over to the Garmin Connect website, you'll find these appear in two places:

1) On the Training > Workouts page you will see an entry for each planned workout:

Connect allows you to send the workout directly to your device, to add it to your training calendar, or to delete it. There's no other details provided about the workout beyond the name and activity type, and the website tells you to edit it on SportTracks.

2) On the Calendar page you can see which date the workout is scheduled for. There isn't much else here... Clicking the planned workout only gives you the name and options to remove or reschedule — no ability to edit.

There is a kind of workaround to edit the planned workout on Garmin Connect. Click a calendar day and select Add: Workouts

This opens up the right sidebar to drag-n-drop workouts into your calendar. You'll see workouts created in SportTracks here, and the ellipsis (...) menu allows you to edit the name and workout steps (but not the activity type). It's a bit odd because you're not adding a workout, but it gets the job done. NOTE: You can also edit in SportTracks and your changes are immediately updated in Garmin Connect. The point isn't to use Garmin Connect, it's to get your SportTracks training to seamlessly flow to your watch and bike computer.

Sending planned workouts to your Garmin device

Once your workouts are in Connect you'll need to get them into your Garmin device to be any use. The good news is that this happens automatically with new watches since Garmin made a recent change to auto-sync. But there's a small glitch — the sync may be triggered by changes to your workout plan. So if you say, create a 12-week program and only 4 weeks are sent to your watch, after a month you will need to tweak the plan to trigger a sync for the next 4 weeks, and so on...

And that's it — your custom SportTracks training plan is ready to guide you through your workout!

Heart rate is one of the most well-known training and racing metrics in endurance sports, but the sensors that capture this data are not as widely understood. We thought it would be helpful to provide you with clear explanations of the various heart-rate monitor technologies found in today's consumer sports equipment. This way, when you're trying to stay in zone 2 during an easy workout or hit 85% of your Max HR in an interval, you will fully understand the process taking place on the underside of your gadget.

The first thing to know is that are two primary types of heart-rate sensors used in consumer sports equipment: electrical and optical — but these are simplified versions of their names. You can also refer to optical as photoplethysmography or PPG, and electrical as electrocardiography or ECG. Electrical sensors are typically used in chest-strap monitors, and optical sensors are the light-emitting LEDs found in watches and arm straps. Both types of monitors require a snug fit to work properly, but not so tight as to restrict blood flow. 

A bit of history...

While the casual use of heart-rate monitors has increased exponentially in the past 10 years, they've been around for much longer. Doctors and scientists have been using light to study blood flow for over 100 years, and consumer heart-rate monitors for sports have been available since 1983. In 1969, Neil Armstrong's heart rate famously peaked at 150 bpm as he manually landed the Eagle spacecraft on the surface of the moon. It's amazing to think we have similar technology built into our wristwatches today!

Electrical heart-rate monitors

The thumping sound of a heart beat is caused by valves that open and close as your heart pumps blood, but an electrical heart-rate monitor isn't capturing audio. Like the nickname implies, this monitor senses electrical activity that's created by your heart. The underside that rests on your chest has electrodes that carry this electrical activity from the surface of your skin into the device.

When an electrocardiogram is carried out at a medical facility, multiple electrodes are placed on the patient with a layer of gooey gel to better conduct electricity. Similarly, when you use a consumer heart-rate monitor chest strap, you are supposed to apply some water to the underside of the strap on the electrodes to help them operate more effectively. You also need to be careful that the monitor isn't upside down and positioned just below your sternum.

The act of putting on a wet chest-strap before a workout is a deterrent for some people. Others find that this type of heart-rate monitor is uncomfortable to wear. They can even cause skin to chafe. With the downsides out of the way, the data from electrical monitors tends to be reliably accurate, namely because they directly measure activity in your heart, not proxy information elsewhere in the body.

It's not uncommon for electrical heart-rate monitors to feature other sensors and capabilities. Some also have accelerometers, which collect additional fitness data such as cadence and other running efficiency metrics. There are also chest strap heart-rate monitors that can capture and record heart-rate data while swimming. Some models broadcast your HR data in both ANT+ and Bluetooth LE for other nearby devices to use, such as bike computers or gym equipment.

Optical heart-rate monitors

Optical sensors get a lot more attention these days because they're found in so many wearables and smartwatches, and they tend to make their presence known by shining bright and colorful lights. They use LEDs to detect the volume of blood flow under your skin. There are usually more than one LED, with some assigned to emit light into your skin, and others tasked with detecting changes in your blood flow.

This type of sensor can be positioned on wrists, arms, and other extremities, making them more versatile than electrical monitors which need to be placed close to the heart. Optical sensors are commonly used in sports watches, activity trackers, and arm straps like the Scosche Rhythm 24, Polar OH1+, and Wahoo TICKR FIT. Arm straps are usually worn above the elbow, making them a great alternative for athletes who want improved accuracy over wrist-based options, without the drawbacks of chest straps.

This is not to say that all wrist-based optical heart-rate monitors are inaccurate. Some preform brilliantly while others provide less accurate data. There are many challenges to properly designing and executing optical heart-rate monitors for sports. Optical noise is problematic, whether it's daylight sneaking in or introduced by motion. The wrists of runners and swimmers are constantly in motion, and cyclists experience vibrations from their handle bars. Compared to the wrist, there is less intense motion in the upper arm, which is one reason why arm straps sometimes preform more favorably.

Anyone training and racing with fitness data should be concerned with accuracy. It's an important factor to take into consideration when choosing equipment to purchase. In this regard, the DC Rainmaker blog is an incredibly valuable resource and definitely worth visiting. The author, Ray Maker, routinely tests the accuracy of fitness tech equipment in his highly detailed reviews.

Additional technologies

The features and capabilities of heart-rate monitors are typically used in the marketing and branding of sports-related products. For example, Polar has a series of watches that feature their Precision Prime heart-rate monitor, which features a whopping 10 LEDs and a set of contacts that detect if you're wearing the watch or not. This is a nice touch, because when you take the watch off, it will not light up the LEDs and waste battery (or flood your dark bedroom with neon green light).

The Polar Precision Prime optical heart-rate monitor

Garmin brands their optical heart rate monitors with the "Elevate" name. These sensor systems automatically detect when you become more active, and increase the frequency at which they monitor your heart rate. More recent versions of the Garmin Elevate monitor include a dedicated blood oxygen saturation sensor called "PulseOx."

PulseOx measures your percentage of oxygenated blood, or SpO2%. After you take a reading, you are presented with a percentage, which you typically want to be 95% or higher. Low readings can be a sign of trouble, especially when you're active in higher altitudes. Garmin also uses this data for their advanced sleep tracking metrics.

What can you do with this data?

Heart-rate isn't just valuable in real-time, it can also tell you a lot in post workout analysis. How long did it take for your heart rate to ramp up and settle down in an intense workout? How did it perform this year compared to past seasons? Did your heart rate decouple from power or pace at any point during a workout? These are all important pieces of information that can only be gleaned from analysis.

There are many ways to analyze heart-rate data, but most options will quickly overwhelm you with unnecessary complexity. SportTracks is an endurance sports training and racing platform that makes in-depth analysis fast and easy. Give it a try with this free 45-day trial. You can easily load your entire workout history, test out every feature, and you will not be charged at the end.

We hope you've learned a thing or two about heart-rate monitors in this article! (I certainly did while writing it)! 

I'm always on the hunt for reading material that might unlock some sort of performance-boosting breakthrough for my personal running goals. After logging a disappointing A-race, preceded by an extra mentally draining training cycle this spring, I asked my coach if he had any recommendations that might help boost my mental game. He suggested Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance by Alex Hutchinson, columnist for Outside Magazine, holder of a Ph.D. in Physics from Cambridge, and two-time finalist in the 1500 meters at the Canadian Olympic Trials.

A Gladwellian Read

Hutchinson’s diverse and well-rounded resume which boasts impressive accomplishments as a journalist, scientist, and runner immediately piqued my interest, along with his exclusive press access to Nike’s Breaking 2 project and the research, product development, and training leading up to it in 2017. Additionally, I’m a fan of Malcolm Gladwell’s style of writing that seamlessly blends statistical data with anecdotal accounts to add meaning and practical application to what might otherwise, to the untrained eye, look like a random jumble of math and science. The reviews indicated that this was something Hutchinson did well also. (In fact, Malcolm Gladwell wrote the forward to Endure!). So, that settled it. I Amazon Primed myself a copy and dove right into my personal quest toward better understanding and overcoming my own running psyche.

As it turns out, Endure was not exactly the “Chin up! You can do anything you set your mind to!” go-girl guide to positive self-talk and validation I was seeking when I asked my coach for reading recommendations. What it was, however, was a well-crafted, smart, research and experience backed examination of the physiological factors that set the limits of human performance, and what keeps those limits elastic.

Smart Research, Gripping Anecdotes

Hutchinson showcases his abilities as a journalist and a physiologist in breaking the components of human performance limitations into the concise and easily digestible components of pain, oxygen, heat, thirst, and fuel. Each of these components was highlighted in its own chapter and supplemented with interesting anecdotal case studies which touch on feats of grit, endurance, and survival against all odds. Gripping examples range from a man who survived an entire week without water in the Mexican desert, to free diving dare devils, to Ernest Shackleton and his Antarctic expeditions of the early 1900s. I did, indeed, find Hutchinson’s ability to weave together data-driven facts with fascinating accounts of triumphs of the human body and spirit, to be quite on par with Malcom Gladwell’s style and story-telling ability as promised.

The Central Governor

An interesting theory that Hutchinson alludes to over the course of the book is South African physiologist Tim Noakes’ idea of “The Central Governor.” This theory suggests that performance limitations are not a result of failure or exhaustion of the skeletal muscles and heart, but the brain, which puts out a protective emergency override signal to the body’s systems before they reach their maximal output limits.

This theory explains the curious case of an ultra-runner who is able to conquer multiple endurance running and thru-hiking records after having part of her temporal cortex removed, thus impairing her sense of time and interpretation of fatigue and pain. The Central Governor also holds up in the instance of a free diver who sets a new world record for the deepest unassisted dive at distance that had previously caused him to black out from oxygen deprivation as result of dramatic pressure changes in his lungs on his ascent to the surface.

The Breaking 2 Project and Personal Experience

Hutchinson further demonstrates his range as a storyteller and a scientist as he applies exercise science theory to his behind-the-scenes observations of Nike’s original Breaking 2 project and his own running career and breakthrough performances. For me, this connection of abstract straight-out-of-the-lab scientific theory to both a real-life quest to push the known boundaries of human performance limits and the everyday training of an (exceptional talented and accomplished) runner added a compelling storyline and humanization to the academic text I might have otherwise dismissed as a dry and over-my-head read. Instead, I found myself quite captivated by this book from start to finish.

*Fun fact: When Endure was published in 2018, Kenyan marathoner Eliud Kipchoge had attempted, but not yet achieved his goal breaking 2 hours in the marathon. (See the final chapter of the book for Alex Hutchinson’s personal account of his first attempt.) On October 12th, 2019 Kipchoge successfully broke the 2 hour mark, running 26.2 miles in a time of 1:59:40. After you’ve read Endure for yourself, take a look at Hutchinson’s reflections and analysis of Kipchoge’s performance (and the shoes he was wearing) in his column for Outside Magazine.

In Conclusion

Endure is a great place to let your inner running science nerd run wild with its well-tested physiology, human performance theory, and research. At the same time, this book will also appeal to the more emotions-driven reader with fascinating stories of human triumph beyond the limits they were thought to be capable and the tales and trials of Hutchinson’s own competitive running career.

If I had to boil this book review down to a single sentence, I would say that it is where cool science of the body and brain and inspiring tales of pushing past limits and breaking through barriers intersect to form one interesting, informative, and well-rounded read.

Order Endure at Amazon.com

When you're shopping for a smart trainer for indoor cycling, you quickly realize there's a large number of models to choose from — and it isn't obvious what makes each option different. You can spend hours doing in-depth online research, but if you don't have the time, this post will do that work for you. Below you'll find our 2019 picks for the best affordable smart trainers in the entry-level, mid-range, and high-end categories. They provide the best value for the money, and we explain why we picked each one.

The Best Entry-Level Smart Trainer:
Tacx Flow Smart

Every year new smart trainers come out that improve upon the older models, but unfortunately, this has only been happening in the mid-range and high-end categories. That's why our pick for the best entry-level smart trainer in 2019 is still the Tacx Flow Smart, which is the same one we chose in last year's post. It's a "wheel-on" trainer, which means the rear wheel of your bike makes contact with the trainer. This causes wear, so it's best to use a dedicated trainer tire instead of a regular road tire.

The usual price for the Tacx Flow Smart is $370 USD, but it tends to be significantly less expensive in Europe and some other territories. The Flow Smart provides cadence, power and speed metrics, and works nicely with Zwift and TrainerRoad. It handles both "Sim" mode (which simulates normal riding and racing) and "ERG" mode (which forces you to hold specific wattages for training purposes).

Why isn't there a new recommendation this year? Indoor smart trainers are complicated mechanical devices, which makes it difficult to produce a quality product at an entry-level price. The big drawbacks for entry-level smart trainers are that they're not as accurate, they tend to have shorter lifespans, and they're noisy. This is why many people choose to save up to buy a mid-range trainer. But, having decent entry-level options is still important. If the Tacx Flow Smart is out of your price range, another decent option is an Elite Novo Smart. It's similar and should be a bit more affordable.

If you save up a little more money for a better quality wheel-on trainer, what does that get you? In the case of the Wahoo KICKR Snap, the main difference is a heavier flywheel, which weighs 10.5 lbs (4.76 kg). Comparatively, the flywheel on the Flow Smart is 3.5 lbs (1.6 kg). This provides a more realistic riding feel, better inertia when you stop pedaling, and better metrics with an accuracy of +/- 3%. Tacx claims the accuracy of the Flow Smart to be +/- 5%. 

The Best Mid-Range Smart Trainer:
Wahoo KICKR Core

Stepping up to a mid-range smart trainer is a more involved commitment. The trainer is going to cost more money and will be somewhat larger and heavier, but you'll have a better experience every time you ride, and it should last significantly longer and provide more longterm value. Those words were a good description of the Wahoo KICKR Core, which is why it's our pick for the best mid-range smart trainer for 2019. 

If you checked out our recommendations in last year's edition of this article, you likely noticed that the KICKR Core was our pick for the best high-end smart trainer. It's been relegated to the mid-range this year because the options in the high-end have changed dramatically in 2019. What makes the Core great is that it delivers a high-end experience at a mid-range price. It's a "direct-drive" trainer, which means you need to remove the rear wheel of your bike in order to mount it. A rear cassette isn't included, so you need to buy one and install it in order to ride. The Core delivers quiet operation with a realistic feel, and you won't put any wear-and-tear on your rear wheel.

The KICKR Core is essentially just as good as the top-of-the-line Wahoo KICKR, which costs $300 more. The only thing that makes the Core less desirable is its stand. The stand of the top-end KICKR has three legs with adjustable height, and a built-in handle that makes it easier to pick-up and move. Besides that, they're nearly identical. Both Wahoo smart trainers are compatible with the KICKR Climb, which is an additional accessory that raises and lowers the fork of your bike, simulating hills and descents. The Core isn't the cheapest mid-range option available, but its advanced mechanics and capabilities make it stand out above the rest.  

The Best High-End Smart Trainer:
Tacx NEO 2T Smart

Our 2019 pick for the best high-end smart trainer on a budget is the Tacx NEO 2T. Admittedly, calling the NEO 2T a "budget" trainer is incorrect. In fact, it's the most expensive model on the market. But 2019 is a different kind of year because there are now several "smart bikes" available, which are essentially the same types of products, except they're complete (you don't need to attach a bike to use them). Smart bikes currently start at $2500 USD and go up to $3500. With this in mind, the NEO 2T starts to look like a bargain.

This is the third generation of this product, which began with the original NEO back in 2015. Interestingly, the NEO 2 came out less than a year ago, and Tacx has already updated it with the 2T. Every version of this trainer has been Tacx's premium, top-of-the-line model. They all deliver excellent ride feel with the largest flywheel available, excellent accuracy, nearly silent operation, up to 2200 watts of resistance, 25% of simulated grade incline, and more. They also have a few party tricks that you won't find on other trainers, such as a motor that drives the flywheel to simulate gained speed from downhills, built-in vibration to simulate surfaces in Zwift like planks and cobblestones, and ground effect lighting below the unit that changes color depending on how hard you're pedaling.

The NEO 2 added new pedal stroke analysis and left/right balance metrics, and updated some internal components to improve ERG mode, cadence accuracy, and more. There were also some new internal parts added that were said to add future capabilities, which have still not been announced. Essentially, it wasn't a big change from the original NEO. The same can be said of the new 2T. What makes the new model different are merely refinements to the types of magnets and their related parts, and the thickness and configuration of the wiring. Non-titillating updates, but these changes have improved how the 2T handles low-speed sprints and wattage changes in ERG mode over the NEO 2.

Choosing between a Tacx NEO and a Wahoo KICKR essentially boils down to one decision: if you want the ability to use the Wahoo Climb, you need to get a KICKR. If you want to feel the bumps of virtual cobblestones as you ride, you need to get a NEO. Please note that a cassette isn't included with the NEO 2T, so you will need to purchase one and install it if you get one. In fact, there are many accessories that make indoor bike training far more enjoyable, and we explain them all in our Build the Perfect Pain Cave post.

One last tip: when you get your indoor trainer, be sure to track its usage. It's helpful to know how much milage you put on your gear. This gets a little tricky with indoor cycling, because you're typically using some parts of your bike, but not all of them. We fully explain this process in our Pain Cave Gear Tracking post.

Hopefully this information has been useful! Train hard and train healthy! 

Now that the finish line for 2019 is in sight, we thought it would be interesting to take a bird's eye view of our community to see if there were any noteworthy trends unfolding. Our little experiment ended up producing some pretty interesting results! We take privacy seriously at SportTracks, so all of the data was anonymized. Read on to find out what gear was trending and what made people faster in 2019.

NOTE: We initiated this project in November of 2019, so most of the dates are from November 2018 through October 2019.

Most Popular Running Shoes of 2019

Without question, the shoes that got the most attention in 2019 were the record-smashing Nike Vaporfly Next%. Eulid Kipchoge wore them when he ran his 1:59:40 marathon, Brigid Kosgei wore them when she crushed the women's fastest marathon record in Chicago, and they even helped a guy in a banana suit hang with the lead pack in the Toronto Half-Marathon.

While it's clear that elite runners and high-speed bananas prefer these $250 USD Nikes, we were curious what most people wore in 2019. In our analysis of the advanced gear-tracking features in SportTracks, the top brand was Asics followed by Brooks and Saucony. Nike sat in a distant 4th:

One brand that didn't manage to crack the top 5 in the first chart made a stronger showing when it came to people tracking specific models of shoes. The following data isn't perfect, because some people don't enter shoe model names, and others give their shoes alternate names. But we figured you might be interested in the usable data we did have. The Saucony Kinvara 9 and the Altra Escalante tied for the most popular shoe model, and the Brooks Ghost 11 and Salomon Speedcross 4 tied for second. The Brooks Ghost 10 came in 5th: 

Top 5 Running Shoe models

Saucony Kinvara 9

Altra Escalante

Brooks Ghost 11

Salomon Speedcross 4

Brooks Ghost 10

Use of Running Power Meters

Running power meters have only been commercially available for a few years, and we were curious if they were growing in popularity. Since they're so new, we decided to take a look at how much they've been adopted starting from the beginning of 2017. The data below is the percent of SportTracks users that ran with a power meter at least once a month: 

Run power usage clearly got a boost when Garmin introduced their running power app in December of 2017. This new running efficiency metric now comes included on the Polar Vantage V, and can be tracked on a large number of watches with the new Stryd footpod, which includes built-in wind detection. If you run with the new Stryd and a Garmin watch, your wind detection data (which Stryd calls Air Power) is pulled into SportTracks for analysis. 

Out of curiosity, we decided to compare the performance of runners who used a power meter with those who didn't:

One way to read these results is that the people who ran with power went further and faster. Does this mean that training and racing with power makes them more competitive? Or are the type of people who use running power meters more advanced athletes in general? There's no way to determine an answer, but the data is still compelling.

Total Workout Time in 2019

Instead of just blurting out the total amount of time that SportTracks users spent working out in 2019, we're going to make it more interesting: Eluid Kipchoge would need to run 621,631 marathons with 1:59:40 times, and a 30 minute 10K in order to match the amount of time SportTracks users worked out. Not too shabby!

Total Elevation Climbed in 2019

We're not going to tell you the number of times SportTracks users could have climbed Everest or made trips to the moon. Those analogies are a bit tired. In the spirit of keeping things interesting, we're going to learn about the Rüppell's griffon vulture! This is the highest flying bird on Earth. It can soar to an altitude of 37,000 feet (11,277.6 m). In 2019, SportTracks users ran, cycled, and hiked up to the altitude of the Rüppell's griffon vulture 15,036 times!

Total Distance Covered in 2019

If you're interested in sports tech, you likely often find yourself at DCRainmaker.com reading about gadgets. That blog started when its author, Ray Maker, lived in Washington DC. He later relocated to Paris, and currently lives in Amsterdam. If Ray were to swim, bike, and run his way back to DC (and oh what a swim it would be), he would travel 3,843 miles (6,185 k). In order to match the distance covered by SportTracks users in 2019, Ray would need to make this journey 2,385 times.

Total Swimming Distance in 2019

Swimmers love SportTracks for its industry-leading swim analysis tools, but what does the Loch Ness Monster think of it? For now, this remains a mystery. If you added up all of the swims tracked in SportTracks over the past 12 months, how many times could you swim the 23 mile (37 k) length of the Loch Ness? If you had a wetsuit that insulated you from the freezing waters, you would need to swim it 3,023 times.

Thanks for checking out this article! Hopefully you learned something about endurance sports trends  in 2019, and a bit of trivia about a specific species of vulture.

In cycling, cadence is the number of times your pedals make a complete revolution in a minute. It's important to track because maintaining a high cadence can reduce fatigue and help your muscles be more effective for sprints, attacks, and the final kick. Cadence is popular in road cycling, triathlon, indoor riding, and even in spin-bike fitness classes and platforms. Despite being everywhere, it's not obvious how to interpret it — because your ideal cadence will be different depending on a number of factors. In this article, we'll take a close look at cadence and help you determine the best number for your goals.

The basic approach

The great thing about cadence is that it's conceptually easy to understand. The metric you see on your bike computer, sports watch, or indoor riding display is the number of times you will spin the cranks in 60-seconds based on your current rate. No complicated math or esoteric physiological data is involved.

Where cadence gets a little tricky is determining your ideal target. The general consensus among cyclists and coaches is that higher cadences, which would typically be above 85 RPM (Revolutions Per Minute), are preferable. In order to get your legs spinning that quickly, you need to ride in easier gears, often using the smaller chainring up front and a larger sprocket on your rear cassette. Because less tension is in the cranks, riding becomes more of a cardiovascular workout as opposed to a grinding muscular one.

Higher cadences are beneficial for longer endurance rides and races, as opposed to short sprint distances. So one option is to keep things simple by riding in the 85 - 105 RPM range while maintaining the same speed and power output you would hold at lower cadences. But what if you want to get even more specific and exact?

Finding your ideal cycling cadence

Cycling is a sport that's loaded with variables. Courses have varying terrain, and your cadence will tend to be higher in the flats and lower when you climb. Athletes vary quite a bit. More muscular riders may find that they perform better using lower cadences, even at endurance-length distances. Lean riders often find that they perform better using higher cadences, opting for a more aerobic efforts. However, these are not hard rules. Despite your body type, you may find that you prefer mashing over spinning, or vice versa.

Unlike determining your current cycling FTP, there isn't a cut-and-dry test you can execute to find your ideal cycling cadence. The best advice is to intentionally train using both higher and lower cadences. You want to develop the ability to hold high cadences for long periods of time, and you also want to keep your fast-twitch muscle fibers engaged by training in harder gears at lower cadences. Like doing cycling-specific strength training at the gym, it's important to mix it up and to remain well-rounded in your fitness.

Finding your ideal cadence largely comes down to feel, once you've adapted to training at different intensities. Why track cadence at all when it's perception based? First off, without tracking you lose the ability to precisely train at low and high cadences. Secondly, you can choose to ride by feel, but when a workout or race starts to make you tired, you can intentionally switch to maintaining a high cadence, which will be more of a workout for your heart but will keep you from deeply fatiguing your muscles.

Post-workout cadence analysis

SportTracks gives you powerful tools to create custom workouts for cadence training, and to deeply analyze your cadence data afterward. In the Training Options of your account, you can easily create custom cadence zones for cycling. You can make as many or as few zones as you like, and you can also create custom cadence zones for running, swimming, skiing, rowing and more.

You can also make custom multi-step workouts with warmup steps, targeted cadence steps, recoveries, etc. These workouts can be exported as FIT or TCX files, or if you use Garmin, they will automatically be sent to your watch or bike computer by enabling our integration. Any workout you create in your SportTracks calendar can be dragged to your Workout Library so you can easily use it again.

Speeding up while descending in Zwift to lose a competitor 9 miles into an e-race 

In your workout detail pages, you can quickly compare your cadence against other performance data from the ride, such as power, elevation, speed, VAM, and more. Clicking and dragging on this chart enables you to view custom segment details, such as a breakout chart of your cadence zones. You can also analyze heart-rate zones, power zones, and more. This screen also lets you overlay cadence data against critical power.

At its core, cycling cadence is pleasantly simple, but it's also a metric that you should always stay aware of. Intentionally train it, rely on it in races, and analyze it afterward to see how well you maintained your targeted zones, and if there were any surprises that could inform future efforts.