Avoiding Chores

Tag: buying guide

  • Which GPS is Best for Running, Hiking, Hunting and Geocaching in 2017?

     

    2017 Black Friday and Holiday season had some nice buys for those wanting to upgrade a dedicated GPS unit. I’ll mention low, medium and high price options to consider buying. I talk mostly about Garmin as this is what is dominating the sales charts, store availability at my local big box stores and general word of mouth.

    If you are sure what you want, buy now. Otherwise wait until January when new models for spring are announced.

     

    My predictions for 2018

    I expect to see not much change in the wearable space for runners. Incremental updates, focusing on the round watch face will dominate. For handhelds, I think we are due for a number of updates as we have not seen any major updates in a few years. Hikers wanting the latest and greatest may want to wait, but there are several good models available and at attractive price drops.

     

    BEST GPS FOR HIKERS / HUNTERS

    Low cost choice – eTrex 30x or map 64s
    The 20 used to be my recommendation but price drop on the 30x is worth a look due to additional sensors. Firmware appears to not have been updated in a while as compare to map 64s.

    GPS map 64s has a handful more features and winning design for 10+ years. Think about your fingers if you are going to be outdoors in the winter.

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    Medium Cost- fenix 3 HR
    Fenix 3 is on the way out to being discontinued but still able to find a good buy. For those wanting a watch for hiking but other activities like trail running this is a good option. Firmware updated as of November 2017. May not use latest connect IQ watch faces or widgets.

     


    High Cost – inReach Explorer+
    inReach is in a category of it’s own. You have to decide about

    • Which GPS functions do you really use? waypoint / navigation / tracks
    • Garmin maps
    • Buying a Subscription


    BEST GPS FOR RUNNING

    Low Cost – Forerunner 35
    Small form factor, great for all day use. Contains basic running functions for 10k range casual running and offers daily tracking and smartphone notifications.


    Medium Cost – Forerunner 235 or Vivoactive 3
    FR235 – runner focused watch, very good at what it’s supposed to do.
    Vivoactive 3 – multi activity types that want a stylish option with daily tracking and notifications.

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    High Cost – Forerunner 935
    Most features for running and biking & triathalons. Serious types that uses strava and considering doing iron man type training, this is what you want.


    BEST GPS FOR GEOCACHING

    Low Cost – eTrex 20
    Medium Cost – Oregon 650t
    High Cost – Montana 680

    Geocachers I’ve seen over the years like a different set of features for their GPS units. But these features are common with all devices in this section which ends being important.

    • SD card
    • Load Garmin or custom maps
    • Paperless Geocaching

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  • What To Look For When Buying a Running GPS

    What the look for when buying or upgrading a running GPS is getting more complicated than it used to be 5-7 years ago. There are so many options to choose from. I get asked for my thoughts on which specific models to look for, so I decided that this post should be about factors to consider.

    Consideration 1 – Outdoors or Indoors?

    This one is pretty straight forward; where will you be spending most of your time running? On a treadmill or pavement?

    • Outdoors: Display in sunlight; tone/alerts volume; weather/water resistance; GPS accuracy
    • Indoors: bluetooth capability; smartphone compatibility; calibration accuracy

    Consideration 2 – Weather

    Do you live in a location where you can wear a t-shirt all year? Snow? rain? If you will be wearing up to 3-4 clothing layers, then using a heart-rate wrist GPS running watch may not be the best choice.

    Consideration 3 – Your Level

    Are you currently in a Learn to run or Couch to 5k program? An entry level watch will probably be sufficient as you will most likely need an interval timer for 10&1’s.

    Do you use tempo, fartlek, Vo2 max and other similar jargon on a daily basis? Then you are probably doing half, full marathons or even triathalons. In which case you probably will look for a higher-end watch to get those advanced features of display fields.

    Consideration 4 – Journal & Sharing Habits

    Big advantage of GPS watches is the ability to extract the workout into a portal and see your improvements over time. Certain portals like Under Armour, Nike are big on communities and sharing on your social media account.

    Consideration 5 – Your Training Program

    Are you doing heart-rate training? 10 & 1’s? Do you need to create complex programs based on your fitness program? Depending on the answer will help your steer between entry & high end models.

    Putting it All Together

    Now that we looked at the considerations, let me generalise and try to make some buckets to help you with some examples. What follows is mainly based on my experience using a handful of these products (that you can find the how-to’s)

    Fitbit

    These are getting really good at detecting when you are walking, running and sleeping. If you are looking for general activitiy tracking, there is a reason why this is on a lot of people’s wrist. The web & smartphone portal are super easy and helps you track your progress.

    Consider the fitbit Charge, fitbit Alta or fitbit Blaze as top choices.

     

    Garmin

    There are a lot to choose from, it boils down to how many checkboxes did you get from the above considerations? The more you got checked off, the high-end you are looking at. At that is because you are probably serious with your training.

    Consider the Vivoactive, Forerunner 230, Forerunner 920 and fenix 3

     

    Polar

    You are serious with your training, probably spent money on a training program, was told to use Strava or doing a custom heart rate training program.

    Consider the A360, M400

    TomTom

    The GPS runner series is fairly adequate and contains some of the next level features you might move into as you progress.

    Consider the TomTom Runner & TomTom Cardio.

    Apple Watch

    WatchOS 3 really improved the Workout app so that those of you looking at the series 1 Apple Watch will be able to get an experience similar to the above competitors. The Apple Watch series 2 improvements like built-in GPS really puts it on par with the rest of the GPS running watches. The choice is simple, choose Series 2 if you don’t want to carry your phone with you on a run. If you don’t mind and on a budget, get the series 1.

    Consider the Apple Watch Series 1 & Apple Watch Series 2