Recommend me a "watch" for running

[scz4]

Starting to take my running a little more seriously now. At present I use my HTC phone to track my runs, which is great once finished to see distance, speed etc, but no use for pacing myself.

I want to look at my watch and know I'm running at 1km every 5 minutes for example. Would also be nice to see the current distance run and time I've been running for on the display.

Not looking for anything fancy i.e. heartbeats, uploading routes to the internet etc.

Would rather not spent much more than £120.

Any suggestions?

[ewenm]

One of the basic Garmin watches would seem to fit the bill.

[scz4]

ewenm said:

One of the basic Garmin watches would seem to fit the bill.

Yikes, went on to Amazon for a look, there are 47 Garmin running watches to choose from.... Difficult to see what will actually be displayed when running.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=ga...

[ewenm]

The Forerunner 110 looks like it'll do everything you ask for £100 or £120 with Heart Rate monitoring too. Might get it cheaper elsewhere too.

Edit: The display will probably show a stopwatch and distance/pace. I'd go to your local Garmin stockist and have a play around with one.

[scz4]

ewenm said:

The Forerunner 110 looks like it'll do everything you ask for £100 or £120 with Heart Rate monitoring too. Might get it cheaper elsewhere too.

Edit: The display will probably show a stopwatch and distance/pace. I'd go to your local Garmin stockist and have a play around with one.

Had a quick look at some YouTube clips for that watch. Looks like it has everything need. Display shows your pace over the last KM at the bottom, time running in the centre and distance at the top.

[nick s]

I have the Garmin Forerunner 310xt, which is a bit more pricey, but if you think you are going to get into cycling or swimming, it may be worth the extra for the multisport features?
Awesome watch and i can't fault it at all!!

[m444ttb]

I have a Garmin Forerunner 410. It's my second... in 10 months! I love what it does. The only thing I'd add would be the ability to run against a previous time rather than just to the average pace (unless someone can tell me it does do that?!). I like Garmin Connect for analysing my runs too. Shame my st PC makes it near impossible to use!

The downside, as eluded to in my second sentence, is that the first watch was a piece of crap! It had battery issues after the first couple of months, which I think we're software related. Eventually I started to have crashing problems which eventually led to a dead watch. Garmin replaced it with a brand new watch no questions asked. The new watch came with updated firmware and everything seems to work better.

[UpTheIron]

I've got two Forerunner 405's. They are my 4th and 5th respectively - the other 3 have been replaced by Garmin under warranty (FoC). Annoying when they break and some time ago I decided a needed a backup to avoid a race-day disaster!

Handtec often have factory refurbs at a good price.

[scz4]

Thanks guys.

Bought a Garmin Forerunner 110 last night, it's all I'll ever need. £100 from Amazon.

[scz4]

Having second thoughts about the FR110. It should arrive today, but I think I'll return it.

I really want to know my current pace, not that of the last 1Km.

Hmmm... What's everyones view on this? Do people prefer knowing their current speed and adjust accordingly, or is average ok? I think I would find it hard to pace myself as if my pace was down, I'd have to guess at how fast to run to get back to my desired average pace.

Friend has a Nike watch that displays current pace, think I'll go for this.

[ewenm]

Are you sure the FR110 can't do that too?

Does the Nike watch run off GPS or need the Nike+ devices?

[scz4]

ewenm said:

Are you sure the FR110 can't do that too?

Reading into it, it seems to only show your current pace over the last lap if auto lap is enabled (this resets either every 1km or 1 miles depending on the units chosen at setup). If not then it just shows your average pace for the total run.

[Brite spark]

ewenm said:

Are you sure the FR110 can't do that too?

Does the Nike watch run off GPS or need the Nike+ devices?

Looked at the Nike gps sports watch a few weeks ago, works off gps outdoors but needs the sensor for indoors as I understand it.
I only held off ordering one from eBay as the Nike site showed non in stock, so wondered if a newer gps model is imminent, if it was just out of stock or if they are just going to be pushing the fuelband Watch which is out soon, but no gps on that unfortunately

[Cybertronian]

I have the Nike one and love it. It's not as detailed as some of the Garmins, but it works well if all you want are pace, average pace, distance, time, laps etc.

It comes with a Nike+ foot sensor and if you run with GPS and foot sensor enabled, the GPS will calibrate the foot sensor for you and will autoswitch between the two if you run into tunnels etc.

Keep an eye out for any vouchers for Startfitness.co.uk, it's £149.99 there and with a 15% off discount, it can be had for less than £130.

I tend to run with immediate pace and have average pace along the top as a secondary field.

[scz4]

Cybertronian said:

I have the Nike one and love it. It's not as detailed as some of the Garmins, but it works well if all you want are pace, average pace, distance, time, laps etc.

It comes with a Nike+ foot sensor and if you run with GPS and foot sensor enabled, the GPS will calibrate the foot sensor for you and will autoswitch between the two if you run into tunnels etc.

Keep an eye out for any vouchers for Startfitness.co.uk, it's £149.99 there and with a 15% off discount, it can be had for less than £130.

I tend to run with immediate pace and have average pace along the top as a secondary field.

Picked mine up on Saturday for £150. Have set the watch up and will use tomorrow. Looks better than the Garmin I ordered.

The only feature request I would of like to to be able to use it for cycling. Technically I can, but the stats will be recored as a run.

[Halb]

scz4 said:

Yikes, went on to Amazon for a look, there are 47 Garmin running watches to choose from.... Difficult to see what will actually be displayed when running.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=ga...

I become immobile with choice when there are only a handful of choices. 47? Why so many?

[Craigyp79]

scz4 said:

Picked mine up on Saturday for £150. Have set the watch up and will use tomorrow. Looks better than the Garmin I ordered.

The only feature request I would of like to to be able to use it for cycling. Technically I can, but the stats will be recored as a run.

Be careful and dry it out if it gets wet at all (rain or sweat) as the have a reputation for shorting out due to the poor sealing. (Mine went after a few months)