How to Buy a Running Watch
October 28th, 2008With hundreds of great looking sports watches on the market, it’s no surprise runners feel overwhelmed when buying a watch. The high level of complexity and features offered in the latest watches does nothing but add to the confusion. Having options is nice, but also makes choosing one tricky.
As runners, we have our own particular set of needs and requirements, while a standard digital watch with stopwatch timer is fine for the recreational fun runner or occasional jogger, it won’t cut it for those striving for peak performance. In this article we reveal the features needed by serious runners. What is a serious runner? We define a serious runner is one who:
- Races regularly, be it on an Olympic standard 400m running track, fun runs and road races on tarmac or cross country through mud and trails
- Most likely does frequent *Interval Training
- Longer, slower runs are also part of their fitness diet, but not the only activity
- Keeps a *Training Diary and regularly update it - or at least try to
If the extent of your physical activity is to lope along on long runs a couple of times a week, a cheap sports watch under $20 with basic stopwatch timer like the Casio Men’s Digital Sport Watch W756B-1AV should be just fine. For anyone else, read on…
Like the recreational jogger, the serious runner’s most basic requirement is to track time over a run, but a serious runner also requires the recording of segments of the run to recall these at the end. Unlike the recreational jogger, the serious runner also seeks a way of recording their repetitive Interval Training cycles when training over a fixed distance, or a Start/Stop Alert when over a fixed time.
*For those unfamiliar with the term Interval Training, it is a form of training where you run fast for a set distance or time, followed by a period of rest or low activity and then repeat. A Training Diary is simply a journal of a runner’s activities. It is useful for tracking improvement over time, or examining the factors contributing to a sports in injury.
Next: The three main features that address the needs of the serious runner.
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