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After our shoes, running watches are our key coaching equipment. Some runners shun gadgets but many of us cannot fathom hitting the road or track without one.
It’s a fun tool that can help you learn about your body. It can be your best friend and greatest training partner.
Reasons to Wear One
Shopping Tips
Where to Shop
Reviews- What Others are Saying...
Reasons to Wear One
- Monitor your fitness over days/weeks/months/years.
- Stay motivated with regular feedback on your training.
- Helps you stick to your training plan.
- Train smarter and work hard enough in your speed sessions.
- Make subtle adjustments (slow down or speed up) rather than wild swings if you are judging how you feel.
- Improve your race times with accurate pacing in your interval training.
- Lessen your chance of injury and illness by measuring an easy pace on your recovery runs.
- Calculate your distance on unmarked trails with the GPS features.
- Lose weight by keeping tabs on how many calories you burn.
- A good distraction to help the miles go by, as you look at the distance, speed, heart rate and calories burned.
Remember to record all your data in your running log.
Tips When Shopping
With so many running watches on the market how do you choose? Here are some things to consider before you start shopping and test-drive your next watch.
- What are your training needs? Do you want to measure time, speed, distance, heart rate, calories burned?
- Do you like simple instructions or enjoy reading a detailed manual?
- How much do you want to spend? Prices can range from $40 to $400+.
- Warranty and after-care service.
- How easy are the buttons to push?
- Can you use the buttons while wearing gloves?
- Is the face large and clear to read at a glance?
- How bright is the light, can you read it easily when training in the dark?
- Is it waterproof? (Sweat, rain, snow and pool running.)
- Is it comfortable to wear? Some women have small wrists. Foot pods (used for a GPS running watch) vary in size and weight.
- Is the software user friendly? Important if you like to download your workouts and calculate your progress on spreadsheets.
Where to Shop
ParagonSports has a great selection of brands and discounted pricing, click here for more info and reviews. 
Top of Page What Others are Saying…
I like to survey friends and family and read reviews before any major purchase. Personally I’ve enjoyed my Timex, Nike and Polar running watches. My next purchase maybe a Garmin. My friends revere their Garmins in much the same way as some are in love with their iPhone.
Here is a collection of quotes from runners about their running watches to help you decide. Happy Shopping!
I love the Suunto running watches with the foot pods instead of the GPS. The physiological data from the Suunto watches are pretty much the most accurate you can receive without more specialized equipment.
Timex Ironman - Keep it simple. Make it about the running not the gadgets.
Get a Timex Ironman if you just want a non-GPS watch that records time and splits. I've been wearing them most of my running life and they are reliable, simple, and durable.
Use a basic Timex watch. It's simple, it works every time, I don't spend an extra second of my time trying to figure what button to push...I'm out the door and enjoying my run.
I love, love, love Polars. I have had a Polar now for 15 years and it is still working.
I have used both Polar and Garmin. Both are easy to use. The Polar had a foot pod that needed periodic recalibration, whereas my Garmin (Forerunner 405) uses GPS. Personally, I prefer the Garmin. Both have HR monitors. I really enjoy the easy download and can easily monitor my progress with a plethora of stats available.
I like the Garmin Forerunner 405CX. A bit pricey but has a HR monitor, GPS, decent tracking software and synch to PC functionality. It's helped me train better. Only drawback is the bezel takes some getting used to and isn't as sensitive to sweaty fingers as it should be.
Garmin Forerunner 305 - I really like it. It does exactly what I want. It tells me how far I ran, how many calories I burned, and what pace I did it in.
Garmin has fantastic warranty and after-care service.
Garmin - They are NOT cheap!
Garmin Forerunner 301 - has a great backlight for running at night. It’s a bit of brick to wear, but it has a much bigger screen so it is easy to see.
I really like the lap and split capabilities of my Garmin Forerunner 205. Good if you are looking for a GPS running watch.
Click here to send us your reviews!
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