In Mid October 2020, we received our Keiser M3i. After about a month with it, some friends asked us to house sit for them, and they have Peloton. So we also got to spend six weeks on the Peloton bike.
I'm going to summarize my observations here but then will update this post with answers to common questions I may have missed. I am so grateful to this community for its wiki and my goal here is to try and give back any way I can.

TL; DR:

Summary: it depends on who you are and what you need. There's no right answer. But here's where we netted out.
Frankly, I probably would buy the Peloton if it was up to me and me alone; as I find all the fussing a PITA and I'm nowhere near the avid cyclist Mr. F is. That said, I really do appreciate how much better the Keiser bike is made- it's so much sleeker and quieter and it's clear the adjustment settings are meant to take abuse. I know we will have it for a long time, and their customer service has been fantastic. I like not being locked into Peloton's ecosystem and I like that it doesn't require electricity to work.
That said, It turns out I'm pretty motivated by leaderboards and especially the social/hashtag shared experiences of the bike, as well as chasing my own PRs. Gamification works on me. 😆 Mr. F has no regrets as an avid cyclist and would not change his decision in any way. He is a serious power zone rider who uses the M3i app to push data to Strava and is content. He doesn't do a lot of the music or themed classes. Mr. F did like chasing his own record and the much larger screen of Peloton. He also liked that "set it and forget it" aspect, but for him, the quality of the bike and the subscription lock-in were bigger factors. I think at some point he'll probably be a Zwift rider.
I am glad we got a bike as it's finally given me the cross-training I needed as a runner. If I had the space, money, and a dedicated 15A circuit, I'd buy the Tread.
Buy the Peloton Bike if: you want a mostly seamless "jump on and go" experience and not to fuss with much, plus the social and potentially motivating (if not overtraining-I really did push myself way too hard early on because I'm so competitive) aspects of the leaderboard; your bike is near a power outlet, have rock-solid broadband wifi, don't care so much about longevity and quality of the hardware(beyond a year or three), and don't mind being locked into one vendor for all the parts including tablet and classes. You may still want a separate piece of software to analyze Peloton data; as the bike itself is woefully inadequate at showing long-term trends. The out of the box seat is wider and may be more comfortable for newbies; it may start to become an issue if you spend more time in the saddle. If you have an unusually tall or small frame, Peloton's lack of a forward/backward handlebar setting may be a problem.
Buy a Keiser M3I if: If you value quality hardware and a more polished look, your bike isn't near a power outlet, you don't want to be locked into the Peloton ecosystem, and you're willing to fuss with gadgets to get the data into a form your want to look at. This includes figuring out a heart rate monitor, tablet, and display as well as your data feed tools. If you don't care much about riding with others or being social in any way, Keiser is good (though you can of course turn that stuff off on the Peloton if you have more self-control than I do).
If you don't care too much about tracking data, then the "DIY tax" is far lower, as your Ipad can really do most of the heavy lifting. Also, know that most of the Keiser to Peloton conversion tables you see on the 'net are probably wrong given so many different bike setups; so consider doing power zone training--or at least an FTP once on the Keiser app, so you can gauge what the zones might be for you in some of the classes. The out of the box seat is narrower and harder; so the first few weeks will be more painful; but longer run should be right for most people. If you have an unusually tall or small frame, you will appreciate the handlebar depth setting and the more options in bike adjustments.

About Us

First, a bit about us, so you have context: we're both in our 50s, Mr. F is a pretty avid road cyclist. I'm a runner but not a fast one, and a big woman. I had really fallen off the fitness wagon during the pandemic, but prior I ran 4-5 times a week, and did Pilates private lessons weekly for more than 5 years. Mr. F is of slim build and of average height. (I figure you need this so you can gauge our perceptions and to see that we are different kinds of bodies so we have a bit more range of experiences)

Logistics:

Shoes/Cleats:
For reasons that really don't matter, we were gifted 2 pairs of Peloton cycling shoes; and knowing we'd be spending six weeks on our friends' bike; we o9pted to purchase Look Keo pedals and cleats for our Keiser M3i, so that all we would have to do is switch cleats if we're near a Peloton bike. Installing the Look Keo Pedals on the M3i was challenging without a special wrench because of the tight fight, but Mr. F is handy and he got it done.
Heart Rate Monitors:
I used my Polar H10 that I bought for the Keiser on both bikes (because my Garmin watch can't work with Keiser's adaptor. so annoying!). Mr. F couldn't use his Polar H1 that came with the Keiser on the Peloton because the H1 doesn't use Bluetooth. He borrowed my monitor and used his chest strap for our time on the Peloton.
SoftwareI use MPaceline for Keiser rides and it's "ok." I downloaded my data from Peloton into Mpaceline so I would have before and after comparisons.

FTP/Power Differences

Do not try to compare outputs from Keiser and Peloton: our perceived efforts on this Peloton were dramatically higher for the same w/kg output. We don't know how to explain this. When we came home we both set new PRs on the Keiser. ETA: Note also that a) the FTP I got from MPaceline and manually entered into the Peloton gave me ranges on the Peloton about 4 points smaller across the board than on MPaceline. b) those Keiser to Peloton tables on the net are not really accurate. Keiser's ability to give you nuance between gears 10-12 (roughly 30-50 resistance is really, really limited. and if you're a newbie can make you feel frustrated) But at the same time, It was really helpful to have experience on the actual Peloton bike to see what 30-50 feels like, and try to get it on the Keiser. Usually, it's a gentle nudge on the gear shift, though the gear name doesn't change. Not sure it matters too much, another reminder this is not an exact science. I'm reminded of the expression I use all the time in my work: precision is NOT accuracy. :D
Mr. F's FTP was 50+points higher. He took his FTP at the beginning of the six weeks on the Peloton even though I begged him to do it on the Keiser instead. So it's really hard to know if that improvement was based on his effort (he really does ride an hour plus each day) or whether it's related to the hardware.
I took an FTP on the Keiser right before we left at 120. I was working out a lot during the six weeks, including hitting my century. Yesterday, I did the FTP again on the Keiser and hit 142. This feels like it's right given the effort I was putting in.
​
I hope this is of use to the community. Let me know if I can answer any questions.

I switched to Garmin after trying both Fitbit and miband. I was expecting higher quality tracking overall.
A year ago I used to own miband3 which I was very pleased with especially considering how cheap it is, it had very accurate heart rate monitoring and sleep tracking, I was very happy that I was able to customize notifications and other things, I decided to upgrade to the Fitbit Charge 3, which literally stopped working after 4 months, I got sent a replacement and it also stopped working after a couple of months and the screen suddenly had dead pixels lines.
When miband 5 came out I decided to try it, after all I was very happy with miband 3, well miband 5 was a disaster for heart rate monitoring, I mean it was totally broken, not just inaccurate, I have used it for two weeks and it would never record any value over like 105 BPM, if my heart rate increases beyond that it would suddenly drop to 80, which was very strange, it would also record unrealistic values (it kept recording 45bpm which my heart rate has never reached that low even while sleeping, I think the lowest I've ever seen it was in the high 50s, but the band would claim I have 45 while I'm walking around etc I decided most likely the heart rate sensor is defective, and I got a replacement, same exact problem, heart rate monitoring is completely broken, by that time I decided to try the Garmin products.
I got the Forerunner 235, and while I was displeased with certain things like not being able to customize notifications I was very happy with the heart rate monitoring which for me is the most important feature in a watch.
Sadly the watch is a bit slow when I navigate between widgets, but no big deal.
My biggest issue is the sleep tracking, it's just not accurate for me, both sleeping times and wake up times don't match, and I'm not sure what algorithm they use but most of the time it records that I slept about 2 hours earlier, I'm guessing it just assumes I'm sleeping as soon as I go to bed, even though I spend a couple of hours on my phone, tossing and turning, I'm guessing if I don't leave the bed then it confirms that I had been sleeping as soon as I laid down in bed, I have never had that issue with miband or Fitbit.
Yesterday I slept after 1 AM, yet I woke up today to the sleep tracking claiming that I slept at 11 PM, not only that, during those extra two hours it's claiming I'm in deep sleep !
I'm also disappointed that it doesn't record naps, it also would stop sleep tracking if I wake up early and use the bathroom then go back to sleep.
I was expecting better from Garmin to be honest, but I ended up with an outdated watch that is slow and can't track sleep accurately.
I'm honestly not sure what to try at this point. The newer Garmin watches seem to be out of my budget, I'm thinking about going back to Fitbit but I'm concerned about the quality of their watches, both Fitbits that I have tried died within a few months.
Any suggestions?

So today my watch says I’ve burnt 3400 calories, I’m a 5 3’ woman relatively in shape woman and whilst I have had a run today and walked my dog that is a crazy number for me. On my most intense exercise days I may hit over 3000 but nothing like today’s amount of movement. Does anyone else’s watch randomly have days where it seems to have grossly overestimated calorie burn?
It annoys me as I use it as a guide to know many calories to consume, obviously it isn’t totally accurate even on a good day but that seems way too high. My old Fitbit used to break down my calorie consumption throughout the day into 15 minute chunks which was useful but the garmin just has what I burnt during my run, and my active minutes vs resting any idea how to find a more detailed breakdown?
Could it be that the times I’m getting such high readings I’m not letting my heart rate come down much after my runs, and through staying busy I’m just burning crazy amounts without realising?

TLDR: If you buy the Health Sync app, at least on Android, you can use a wearable from Garmin and maybe Samsung in order to record both GPS-based workouts (like walking or running) and non-GPS-based workouts (like indoor cardio) to Google Fit and thus Pokémon Go. The workouts themselves can be completed without carrying the phone on you. This gets around issues I've seen described elsewhere in this sub where "virtual workouts" may not get counted because they did not involve actually transporting the phone over a GPS-tracked or step-tracked distance.
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This is to an extent a repost, but the last thread about it was 2 years ago and at the time the results seemed inconclusive.
Adventure Sync with Samsung Watch : TheSilphRoad (reddit.com)
I have an Android phone and recently got a Garmin Forerunner 245 watch. Garmin forums refer to the Health Sync app as a means to smoothly bring Garmin's wealth of data - steps, distance, sleep, heart rate - into Google Fit. Health Sync comes with a 7-day trial and then requires a payment to continue working.
I am currently testing Garmin Connect, Health Sync, Google Fit, and Pokémon Go together. I have disabled Google Fit's ability to record data on its own (such as using the phone itself). It depends 100% on Health Sync. Here are some observations:

• An indoor cardio workout that lacked GPS data and was entirely step and heart-rate based impacted egg-walking distance, but at the time I hadn't accurately measured how much.
• Two walking workouts plus general steps today have all combined together, and contributed positively toward buddy walking distance and egg walking distance. Both workouts involved leaving the phone at home and only traveling with the wearable.
  • Early this morning I fed my buddy berries. I completed one workout activity in the morning, walked around the house, and a second workout activity in the evening.
  • Garmin Connect reports that I walked 0.54 miles (0.86km) and 0.83 miles (1.33km) as part of the two activities, and registered 6,448 steps.
  • Yesterday Google Fit matched Garmin Connect exactly. Today, Google Fit says 6,551 steps and 3.82 miles.
  • Pokémon Go recorded that I completed 1.03km with my buddy. It might make sense that this was the morning workout (0.86km) plus walking during the day.
  • Pokémon Go recorded that I completed 2.8km (1.74 miles) with my egg. It might make sense that this was both workouts plus walking during the day.
  • Immediately after the first workout being synced to Google Fit, I had checked and my buddy and egg had not advanced any distance. A little while after the second workout I checked again and found both the buddy and egg had distance applied. The synchronization from Google Fit to the game in this scenario does not appear to immediate.

So despite what is appearing in Google Fit, Pokémon Go seems to be mostly accurately reflecting distance traveled and steps taken with a Garmin wearable, as well as counting to an extent a non-distance, step-based indoor cardio workout.
I am intending to spend some time this weekend with an indoor cycling trainer to see if that data also moves into Google Fit and has an impact on walking distance as well.

Hey friends - Welcome back to another Wiki Wednesday.
I've been working on a BIG update for Apple Watch and Peloton users. It's not all the way there but it's a lot further along so I wanted to share the most recent update with you guys and get some feedback. I haven't been able to try the AW with an outdoor running or DIY tread yet. So if anyone wants to give the skinny on that, I'd appreciate it. Alright, let's get down to business...
We will go over: 1. The apple watch: what it can and cannot do 2. What are the apple health and apple fitness/activity apps 3. What the hell are these rings and why should I care 4. What peloton equipment is compatible with the AW 5. How to use the AW with the digital membership and it's limitations 6. Troubleshooting

Peloton and Apple Watch

The Apple Watch is a very popular smartwatch that has a lot of cool features including fitness tracking. In terms of a fitness watch, the Apple Watch does have a lot of fitness tracking options built-in natively but also has a lot of fitness apps like Nike+, MapMyRun, Strava, Peloton, etc. However, there are some limitations when you compare it to other fitness watches like Garmin. The Apple Watch can also connect to a lot of various gym equipment like bikes and treadmills.
If you’re here in pelotoncycle, you may have an Apple Watch or are looking at buying and Apple Watch and want to know how the hell it works with Peloton...what CAN and CANNOT do? Well it depends on what and how you use your Apple Watch.
First, let’s discuss what the Apple Watch works with in terms of Peloton Equipment:

1. The AW does NOT work with the Original Peloton Bike natively but you can use a third party app to use your AW as a HRM – we will discuss this at length later.
   
2. The AW DOES work with the Peloton Bike+ but only for cycling classes – we will discuss this later.
   
3. The AW does NOT work with the Peloton Tread+ despite the fact that filings show it does have GymKit. It’s unclear if or when this feature will be available.
   

Apple Health and Apple Fitness/Activity App:
Now, lets go over the native Apple Health. The Apple Health App is only available for the iPhone and iPod touch and is not available for the iPad. The Health app consolidates data from your iPhone, Watch, and third-party apps you already use, so you can view all your progress in one convenient place. See your long-term trends, or dive into the daily details for a wide range of health metrics. You can track things like sleep, exercise, nutrition, mindfulness, and many other aspects of your health. For example, you can track blood pressure, oxygen saturation, six-minute walk, inhaler usage, vital capacity, blood glucose and other lab values, temperature, menstruation, and the list goes on and on! Some these you can enter manually or have linked to other apps. But it basically consolidates any and all the information related to your health into one place.
What is the Apple Fitness or Activity App? It is the native fitness app used with the Apple Watch. It is called the Activity App on your watch but the app on the iPhone is named “Fitness”. Please note, this is not the Apple Fitness+ subscription is to be launched in late 2020.
With the Fitness/Activity app on your Apple Watch and iPhone, you can track how much you move, exercise, and stand from day to day. It is also known as the app that is used for “closing your rings.”
What the heck are rings? There are Three rings: Move, Exercise, Stand. The concept behind rings is that there is one goal - close all three rings every day. It’s such a simple and fun way to live a healthier day that you’ll want to do it all the time. You can adjust your goals based on your fitness level.
The Fitness/Activity app is used with the AW and is basically a centralized place to:

1. Track your activity (either with the watch or through connected apps)
   
2. Set and change activity goals
   
3. Check your activity history
   
4. Set reminders so you can reach your goals
   

There is a summary section where you can see your activity by the day, week, and month. There is a trends section you can see if you’re maintaining, improving, or losing fitness but it does take 180 days to observe your trends. You can connect apps like Garmin, Peloton, etc to the app to get credit for your workouts if you’re using another platform. You can also connect with friends and share your activities and compete with each other. Oh and if you’re motivated by badges - you can earn lots of cool badges.
Limitations: There are some limitations to the Apple Fitness/Activity app. It is fairly limited for detailed metrics for some activities. For example, when I connect with my garmin app for cycling – it does not get power or cadence data in the summary for my bike rides even though it is there. However, it does display distance, speed, and heart rate. So measuring or tracking PRs is better in Garmin for me. If I go through the Apple Watch, select outdoor cycle – I can start and activity or set a goal for distance or time but I cannot connect with a power meter. There are other cycling apps that are available for the AW that do allow for power meters but I’ve not tried them out yet.
Overall, the Fitness/Activity app is a great place to track your overall movement in one centralized place but has limitations in data analysis and advanced training metrics. However, “Trends” is basically lite version of fatigue and load and indicates if you’re maintaining, improving, or reducing your fitness. But remember – it takes 180 days to get this data for trends rolling whereas other fitness watches and apps have this ability earlier. But the more data you have the more accurate you can be.

Apple Watch and the Original Peloton Bike

Unfortunately, the Original Peloton bike does not communicate with the bike's tablet as it does not have NFC for Apple's GymKit. As it currently stands, you cannot purchase the new Bike+ tablet and use it with the Original Bike.
This means, you cannot use your AW as a HRM with the Original Peloton Bike. You simply cannot broadcast your heart rate from your AW to communicate with the Original Peloton Bike through the AW app or Peloton app. Shitty, but true.
However, if you want to use your AW as a HRM with your Original Bike you can utilize some third party apps. Some folks have had some success with these third party apps while others have found them to be a major source of frustration.
Read more about how to use your AW with the Peloton Bike and recommended 3rd party apps here.
A lot of people will use another HRM like the Scosche Rhythm+ with their Original Peloton Bike. It doesn't matter if you use your AW during a workout - you can still close your rings by gaining credit for your Peloton workout. You just need to have some patience, set up your iPhone and AW with the Official Peloton App, and set up the priority and permissions.
You can read more about how to close your rings with the Original Peloton Bike in our wiki found here. Also, at the end of this article you can learn how to use your Apple Watch with the Peloton App.

Apple Watch and the Peloton Bike+

GymKit is only available for the Bike+ and is compatible with: Apple Series 2, 3, 4, and 5. The device must run on the latest software to function seamlessly. However, most folks do not have any issues with the Series 6 or SE working with the Bike+.
As of December 2020, you can only use your Apple Watch as a heart rate monitor during cycling classes only. Meaning, even if you are using the Peloton Bike+ you cannot use your Apple Watch with classes outside of cycling such as strength, yoga, barre, stretching, etc.
Additionally, if you are stacking classes on the Bike+ you must connect your Apple Watch at the start of each ride. Meaning if you're taking a warm up ride, another ride, and a cool down ride you must reconnect the AW each class as the the watch doesn't stay paired.

How to enable GymKit on your Apple Watch

In order to use your Apple Watch with your Bike+ for a cycling class only, you will need to verify that you have GymKit enabled on your Apple Watch.
Follow these steps to ensure that you have GymKit enabled on your Apple Watch:

1. Open the Apple Watch App on your iPhone.
   
2. Open the Workout App.
   
3. Scroll down and enable “Detect Gym Equipment”.
   

How to pair your Apple watch to the BIKE+

Once you’ve verified that you have enabled GymKit on your Apple Watch, you will need to pair your watch with the Peloton Bike+. Again, this is only available for cycling classes at this time.
To pair your Apple Watch with your Peloton Bike+:

1. Select a Peloton cycling class (live or on-demand).
   
2. This varies depending on live class or on-demand. For a live class: Please wait to pair the Watch until the countdown clock is at 1 minute (otherwise the watch will time out and disconnect). For an on-demand class: Select the class and click “Start” on the pop-up menu to enter the class.
   
3. Touch/Tap/Place unlocked Apple Watch to face to the left of the camera at the top of the touchscreen. The Watch will vibrate and an on-screen prompt will say ‘connecting’. You must click “OK” on the Watch to accept the connection.
   
4. Click “Start” on the workout. A small green symbol will appear at the top right of the touchscreen indicating the connection is active. The Watch will automatically disconnect at the end of the ride.
   

Please note that this feature is only available for cycling classes.

Bike+, AW, and PiHole/ad blockers

Some folks have found that their new Bike+ cannot connect to their AW at all. The option isn't even there. It could be an issue with your network and not with your AW or new bike+. Many of us are data and privacy nerds and use ad-blockers on our home networks which can completely block connecting the bike+ to the AW and block auto follow. There are two threads that discuss this at length here and here.
If you're using pi-hole, adblocker, or another service for privacy or blocking - you will want to make sure you add a few sites to your whitelist. We have a wiki page dedicated to sites to whitelist on your adblocker which can be found here.

Apple Watch and Peloton App

Perhaps you’re not a Peloton equipment owner but are a subscriber to the Peloton Digital. Maybe you have a DIY bike or tread. Maybe you use the strength and yoga classes. Maybe you’re a Peloton equipment owner but use another device to stream other classes.
The Apple Watch can be used with the Peloton App on the iPhone to display your heart rate for any class within the Peloton App. The AW will connect to the Peloton App and you will see your heart rate on the screen. It will also record your heart rate for the duration of the class. After the class you can review the workout by clicking on the workout. You will see a graph of your heart rate throughout the class, your average heart rate, your max heart rate, and a graph of how long you spent in each zone. Your heart rate is used to determine how many calories you burned. If you’ve got a DIY cycle setup, you can also connect a cadence sensor and you will see a graph of your cadence over the duration of the class and you will see your max and average cadence.
However, you can only use your Apple Watch to display/record your heart rate when you’re using the Peloton app on the iPhone that the Apple Watch is set up with. The Peloton App on the Apple Watch does not work independently from the iPhone. Meaning if you’re wanting to start a class on your iPad, iPod touch, Fire TV, Android device, Roku, or Apple TV – you will not be able to connect your AW to that device for displaying/recording.
I have been able to AirPlay from my iPhone to my Fire TV using the AirPin app to stream a class only. I have not successfully been able to AirPlay to my Fire TV when I’ve been using my apple watch or connected to a cadence sensor. (Note: this is with iPhone 12 pro and AW series 6 and fire TV with AirPin app. This is the only setup I’ve tried.)
However, you can use another HRM with Fire TV or your iPad and still get credit towards closing your rings without using your AW. You just need to have the Peloton App connected to the Health App to share data (more on this later). You do NOT need to start an activity on your watch to get credit. Just simply let the two apps communicate. So if you prefer having a bigger screen, you can still get credit for workouts done on another device with the Peloton App.
Please note that you cannot do a lot of things from the watch itself in terms of settings, history, etc. You cannot even browse classes from the watch. Classes cannot be started from the watch and must be started from the iPhone. It is more of a companion app.
Side note: I’ve not used the Peloton App and Apple Watch for an outdoor run or treadmill run yet – so I have no clue what that looks like. If anyone can chime in, that would be great.

How to set up your Apple Watch as a HRM on the Peloton App for the iPhone:

Note: Again, to use your AW as a HRM within the Peloton app, you will have to use the iPhone.

1. First you will need to determine which versions of iOS and what devices are compatible with the Peloton app & Peloton app for Apple Watch: Apple mobile devices at iOS 13 and later which means you will need an iPhone 6s or higher. You will need WatchOS 6 and later for Apple Watch which is available for Watch series 3-5 and Watch OS 6.1 for Series 1 and 2. Note: the current Peloton Support page does not indicate that the Apple Watch Series 6 is compatible. But I have personally found it works fine with AW Series 6. Others have also noted the AW SE also works well with the app.
   
2. Get Peloton App on your iPhone through the app store.
   
3. Get the Peloton App on your Watch: Once the Peloton App is installed on your iPhone you will open the Peloton App and select the more tab. Select “Apple Watch” and follow the on-screen instructions.
   
4. Ensure that all location services and Motion and Fitness options are toggled on.
   

Apple Health Permissions: The Official Peloton app and Apple Health app will need to have all the relevant access and permission it wants and needs.

1. To grant Apple Health access to your Peloton data: On your iPhone open the Health app. This is not Settings -> Health
   
2. Once you're in the Health app, tap into Workouts.
   
3. Scroll to bottom you will see Data Sources & Access: Tap Data Sources & Access and tap Edit. You will want to slide the Official Peloton App above both Watch. This ensures that the Peloton app takes priority for all the metrics it reports into Health during the formal ride time.
   
4. You will verify that the Official Peloton app has background app refresh enabled. You will do this in the iPhone under Settings: Scroll to the Official Peloton App. Tap on "Peloton". You will see "Allow Peloton to Access" - at the bottom you will see "Background App Refresh" make sure this is toggled on.
   

If your AW stops reporting data to your Peloton App you probably do not have the background app refresh on. Please...make sure your settings are correct.

Closing Rings Troubleshooting:

Since you've set up the Health and the Official Peloton app to communicate with each other and the Official Peloton App has priority you should be all set. Peloton app will report your activity to the Watch.
However, this sometimes works perfectly and your rings will close instantly or within a few minutes. Sometimes it doesn't communicate as smoothly.
It is recommended by nearly everyone in our community to do the following steps after your workout:

1. After you've picked yourself off the floor grab your iPhone and open the Official Peloton App.
   
2. Tap on "Profile" then tap on "Workouts" - wait. This often times will force the Official Peloton App to push the data to the Health App.
   
3. If that doesn't push the data over, you can launch the Health app too. Sometimes this will trigger communication.
   
4. If there is still no communication between the apps you will want to force close the Official Peloton App and the Health app. You can do this by swiping up and hold or double press the button depending on which model of phone you have - then swipe away. Relaunch both the Official Peloton App and Health app....ta da!
   

EDITS: added a note above about AW SE working. I've also added that for the Bike+ you need to reconnect to the bike if you do multiple rides back to back.

It can be argued that the community at /pelotoncycle is many things. That said, one thing we have never been is “numbers focused.” We aren’t going to send out messages to all members trumpeting 200,000 users, or make videos touting growth rate, or mail free swag because we hit some random number. It’s just not our gig. Mostly because we don’t come here to brag (and especially not humblebrag); we’re here to focus on improving ourselves. As athletes, as people.
So let's be honest as we hit 100,000 subscribers - “subscribers” isn’t that meaningful a metric; it’s just how many people clicked “join” in the sidebar. Which only adds new posts to your reddit homepage. That's it. We know there's already a lot more people here than that. Traffic is a much more useful (and not typically public) metric. So here's the real deal folks: we see about 4.5 million hits per month. Meaning user-stickiness, aka retention or participation, is one of the highest of any fitness community online – anywhere. In a typical month, there's 1,000+ new posts and over 35,000 comments. At any time of the day or night, there’s 800-4,000 people here. As I write this at 11pm on a Sunday night, there’s 1,337 people here. Right now. That’s crazy!
We are not affiliated with Peloton Interactive. We are user-started, user-run. By members just like you. Despite never once getting promoted by corporate, we've long been the largest Peloton Community in the world. We're proud of what you have created here on reddit.
So having said all that, it is undeniable that /pelotoncycle is growing, and as we eclipse 100,000 subscribers, we thought it might be fun to look back at where we’ve been and where we’d like to go!
I came to reddit – much like I suspect most of you – to find a place to learn about Peloton. As a lifelong athlete, learning everything about the sport seemed…natural. When I joined the pelotoncycle mod team in 2017 we had about 1,000 subscribers. Sure, we didn’t have many posts; we averaged two to five a week! But, they were high quality, interesting, detailed, and best of all by people passionate about fitness and Peloton. People from California to Connecticut, and international friends who’d “snuck” a Peloton to their homes as far as the UK, Germany, Argentina, Sweden, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.
In many ways, we haven’t changed that much. Same quality, more friends! From the earliest days, our mission has been unwavering. To have a place for real answers to hard-hitting questions about Peloton. To get the most from your subscription. A place to pursue our athletic goals. To become better athletes, better people. Realizing that personal growth was more about looking in the mirror than shitposting selfies.
After those early days, it was clear Reddit offered a platform for communication that was very beneficial to the Peloton community. Not only could users submit high-impact posts, but the community is self-regulating via the vote arrows; bubbling good info to the top, bad info out of sight (or flagging for deletion). This mechanism has borne out to be very useful, and has resulted in not only some very impactful posts for the community... but also some very “memorable” ones.
Some of the highest rated community posts over the last year were “Guide to Peloton yoga classes/instructors (thoughts after 250 classes)”, announcements of Peloton donating $500k to the NAACP, and introducing Barre Classes.
You all are an outspoken, intelligent, introspective bunch; you’ve fearlessly created a spreadsheet of Peloton’s entire library w/ music, instructors and links – and then leaked it. Last night, you leaked an updated copy. Your timing with this post is at times hilarious and serendipitous. Others have called out “Assholes on the official Facebook page. Well... maybe you’ve done that more than once.
Some of the more memorable posts included:

• A healthy discussion of Oliver Lee’s termination. With proof. My retinas will never be the same.
• Some swagged-out Peloton setups
• A discussion of spirituality within fitness classes
• The rides you cried to / found emotional release
• “Peloton instructors as Super Mario characters”

One other thing we’ve grown in 2019-2020 is community engagement. It’s not easy building a community where people want to engage and give back - to friends. Online. Yet, here you are! We’ve setup giveaways, challenges, and an annual Secret Santa. December 2019 marked /Pelotoncycle’s third Secret Santa. 94 users participated, compared to 40ish in 2018 and 15ish in 2017. After watching the success and growth of these events — just check out all these user-to-user Thank You Threads — we realized there was a huge need for even more interactive events in the /pelotoncycle community.
All of this wouldn’t be possible without the time and efforts of (in absolutely no particular order) my fellow mods u/Fraukoko and u/Kraphtyone; and everyone’s favorite not-a-mod-but-codes-stuff-for-free u/NCBarkingDogs. They (and I) are all volunteers. We're not affiliated with Peloton Interactive. We're members just like you! None of us have monetized this place. We’ve literally never made $0.01 here. We mods pay out of our pockets for Amazon servecloud space, giftcards for challenges, and swag for giveaways; we donate our time to moderate, to code, to answer questions, to build (and re-build) the wiki. And you – you contribute your time, knowledge, dedication. To help total strangers. On the internet. So you can become a better athlete, and so they can do the same. When I look at pelotoncycle, I firmly believe you embody the very spirit of sport. We all have careers, families, commitments, and hobbies beyond Peloton. Just like you, we come here in our free time.
In March, NCBarkingDogs helped build the framework for these special events with creation of the PelotonBot (affectionately named Anton) and Automatic Flair. Using this Automatic Flair has not only allowed us to seamlessly pull Peloton achievements to Reddit, it has allowed us to create Milestone Monday to celebrate our friends who have hit milestones with Peloton. It has allowed creation of /pelotoncycle events, such as Pelothong 2020 (HAIL THONG SONG) and Peloween Fright Week.
Pelothong and Peloween wouldn’t have happened without the loving dreams and oversight of u/kraphtyone, u/NCBarkingDogs's tireless scorekeeping and bot-coding, and u/Fraukoko delightedly finding spooky themes.
Pelothong was such a success and huge milestone for our community. Thomas couldn’t let this spooky season go without a spooky themed challenge. So he put together Peloween Fright Week just a month after Pelothong finished. If you haven’t already, please join us and SIGN UP HERE. Kraphty’s idea exploded with plenty of spooky input from our Halloween and horror movie expert FrauKoko. If you liked Pelothong, you’re gonna have a blast w/ this one!
Here at the reddit Peloton page, we’ve: compiled the most extensive source of Peloton info anywhere via our wiki with huge thanks to u/fraukoko. We had a lot of great info in our first version of the wiki but we had lots of hidden treasures in prior threads. That's now in one place. And the wiki gets better almost daily with new info, tips, and tricks being added. It's easy to call it the most comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date Peloton resource available. Anywhere.
Beyond this, members here created the first app, BlueHeartApp, to broadcast Apple Watch’s HR to the bike/tread/iOS/Android and any BLE-enabled fitness equipment. You guys and girls wrote free software that downloads your detailed second-by-second workout data from Peloton’s API and saves them in fitness-industry-standard .TCX files. So you can upload them – anywhere. Keep them on your PC forever. Analyze in any app or fitness tool.
We’ve seen leaks of every major and minor Peloton product plan since 2017, from class libraries, new features, marketing strategy, to the new (still unannounced) rower, the new bike and new Tread. We saw the bike+ before employees knew about it, when it was a secret internal thing called “Project Titan”. And, you got to see Ben Alldis sitting on a rower in a Peloton studio testing out the new rower setup. Even before the new NYC “Super Studio” was built, you knew there would be four rooms – one of which for rowing machines.
When we look to our future, one thing is clear to the mod team here at /Pelotoncycle — having high quality members that are engaged will drive our growth and success. We would clearly not be at 100k subscribers without YOUR high quality posts and regular engagement. Not only do you submit high quality posts, but they indirectly help moderate. Reporting questionable content flags stuff that might “fly under the radar” but still need moderation. Downvoting troll posts and incorrect information helps to reduce – and delete - misinformation. As we continue to add members, user engagement in this fashion will continue to allow us to discuss the “tough” issues, like #BlackLivesMatter, asking for the best of our friends on Facebook, praising Peloton’s removal of QAnon tags, and ongoing discussions about political issues being discussed by instructors in workouts. We try to tackle these issues, the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, all in a fair and charitable fashion—something that uniquely sets us apart from every other online Peloton forum.
We have some really exciting things coming down the pipeline at /pelotoncycle. We aren’t ready to share them all, but a few sneak peaks:

• AMAs
• Wiki Overhaul
• More Competitions!
• More giveaways!
• Last but def not least – Secret Santa is happening again this year!!

So as we hit 100k - but more importantly as we all grow in our athletic and personal endeavours - don’t forget to look back and take stock of how far you’ve come. As we say in the “Milestone Monday” celebration threads: This subreddit doesn't try to make you strong, beautiful, or capable. We're here to remind you that you already are. So take a moment to be proud of what you’ve built. Take two.
Thank you: from all the mods, to all of you.
-Matt, Koko, and Thomas + David and Anton-the-bot

Hi gang!
I've been following this Reddit for a while and now I have a question for you all, the specialists 😁
A few years ago I had a Forerunner 235 which I really liked. Unfortunately, I got hit by a car while crossing the street a year and a half ago (I was the pedestrian), and the watch got destroyed in the accident. After some recovery I'm finally getting to run again but I'm noticing that my current watch, a Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2, is not very accurate on my runs.
While training with Nike Running Club on my phone, I also track my runs through the Active 2 (I'm a Samsung smartphone user). While NRC tells me I did 7K in 35 minutes, the Active 2 says I did just less than 5.
After seeing this issue for a while now, I've been considering returning to Garmin. The question is I don't know what model to pick and if it will fix this tracking issue. I'm looking for a watch for most types of training (not into triathlons though, but also not just for running), which also have good smartwatch capabilities and good battery life.
Since you are the experts, I'd like to read your opinion. What do you recommend?
Thanks in advance!
EDIT: my only Garmin device so far was a Forerunner 235, not a 245 like on the title.

Hi everyone.
I have a Fenix 6 sapphire and I really like the Garmin and GCM ecosystem, but I wanted the flexibility to wear other watches without losing my step tracking and so on, so I picked up a Vivosmart 4.
I’m now tearing my hair out trying to work out how to make the data line up between these 2 devices. I believe the vivosmart should support trueup? Does anyone understand what setting a preferred activity tracker actually does?
What I want is to wear the Vivosmart most of the time, for sleeping etc, and the Fenix for runs and hikes etc. I don’t really care if the step count etc showing up on the devices in a given day is wrong, I just want Garmin Connect to have accurate data.
I’ve tried wearing one at a time, both at the same time and tracking workouts on one or the other but the results seem to be really inconsistent. I just went out for a 90min, 9km walk wearing both, tracking the workout on the Fenix but with Vivosmart as preferred activity tracker. Garmin connect registered 10 intensity minutes. Same thing happened on Monday. On Tuesday I put the Vivosmart on charge and went out for an hour’s walk with just the Fenix. The workout shows 467 calories, Garmin Connect said I had 14 active calories for the day.
Can anyone please clear up what I should be expecting here and if I’m fighting a losing battle?
Thank you!

Race information

• What? Mile TT
• When? November 22, 2020
• Where? Sacratomato, CA
• Finish time: 4:56.6

Goals

Goal	Description	Completed?
A	Sub 5	Yes

Splits

Lap	Time
1	1:10.4
2	1:14.4
3	1:16.77
4	1:15.06

Training

Covid has been great for training as I’m lucky to have a fairly flexible job and am quite motivated to run. I’m just working my way through the last weeks of my third cycle of what should be a 4K mile year (3.65k now). I started the year with the Pfitz 18/85 marathon plan aiming for a 255 but injured my hamstring three weeks before the marathon and ended up DNF’ing at mile 22.
Regrouped for a summer 5k build and ended up 10 seconds under my goal with a 17:20 in early September.
Been roughly working the 12/105 Pfitz plan since for an early December marathon, which looks like, at least for now, will actually happen with SRA’s Project 26.2. I’ve hit 100 mile weeks in 5 of the last 7, this past week being my first week of a 3 week taper, logged 83 miles. Instead of the prescribed Pfitz VO2 max workouts the last couple of weeks I did mile workouts, one being a mile indicator 8x400 (averaged 1:12s) and one being a tune-up 8x200 (averaged 33s, last rep was a 31). I hit my buddy’s gym 2-3 times a week over the past 3 months with one big leg day a week.
I’ve also done quite a bit of alpine running over the course of the year, doing a dozen or so days of 3-5k of vert on 18 miles+ between 6-14k elevation (mostly 7-9k).
Despite all the mileage this year (and perhaps the gym... certainly not all the ice cream and beer) I’ve managed to gain weight. Started the year at 192, now weigh 195. Unfortunately, I’m still only 6 feet tall. All that to say it takes some effort to move my body quickly.

Pre-race

This was the first time I’d been on an actual track to run fast since middle school gym class. Abbreviated 2 mile warm-up as I was late and had friends there to cheer me on and time me. Got in a few strides and had a quick pee.

Race

Got off the line quickly and tried to settle in to pace. Unfortunately Garmin’s new track run mode wasn’t the most accurate and for most of the first lap it was telling me I was running 5:15 pace. So naturally I sped up and came through the lap according to my friends stop watch at 1:10, waaaay above the 1:15 I was trying to hit. Needless to say, I paid for that first lap.
Lap 2 hurt but Garmin seemed to get dialed in so I was able to keep it steady at 4:57 pace and came through at 1:14 and change. At this point I very nearly gave up because I couldn’t fathom doing another 800 with how I was feeling. Luckily I made it down the length of the track and somehow convinced myself that the humiliation of giving up would be worse than the next 700 meters. Thanks friends.
Lap 3 was the hardest and I just had to gut it out. Without my cheering section I’m sure I wouldn’t have willed myself through it, but once they started hooting and hollering and my last lap was in sight I started to push.
Lap 4 was mostly a blur and I had exactly nothing left to kick it in but I do remember going as hard as I could for the line and managed not to slow through it.

Post-race

Collapsed on the infield. Ran an errand. Did a 10k with some MP miles to round out the day.

Moving forward

I hit my last long run of the cycle the next day (20 w/ around 10 at MP effort on roads/trails) and just have the virtual 5k Turkey Trot (chances I hit sub 17??) for harder efforts before the marathon on December 6. Next year is all about the trail ultras so will start training for those after the post-marathon down weeks.
This post was generated using the new race-reportr, powered by coachview, for making organized, easy-to-read, and beautiful race reports.

I don't know a whole lot about VO2 Max and what it means, I will watch some YouTube videos to brush up on my knowledge. However in the meantime I'd like to ask how is this measured by my Vivoactive 4?
I've had my watch about 5 months and I have worn it daily. I've done the odd cardio workout in that time but most of my workouts are lifting weights. I've just started running and only recoded a handful of runs at the moment. My cardio is shockingly poor (so I've started a 5k course) however Garmin Connect is telling me that my VO2 Max is at 50 and I'm in the top 15% for my age which is very unlikely.
Is this just a placeholder number until I log more workouts? Has the watch been measuring me the whole time I've worn it over the months and is actually accurate?

Hello all
First, apologies as I have seen there are a number of historic posts on questions between the Fenix 6 and forerunner and other useful points, but these are a good 6 months + old so looking for current help
I have spent the last 3 days investigating a tracker watch and was initially fairly set on polar V2 (sorry I'm sure that's blasphemy in here), but I have moved away from that to the Fenix 6 sapphire or maybe the forerunner - FYI ruled out the V2 as while it is touch screen, from what I have watched and read, the data/stats are layed out very well but Garmin sounds to be more accurate with things like recover tracking and more data. Plus it looks a little too much like a proper smart watch, and I spend most of my time in the gym when open and worries it would be more susceptible to scratching.
Given the price tag I'm looking at I have some additional questions I'm hoping you lot can help with

1. I'm aware of the dimensions, but I don't have the biggest wrists (my parents fault, honest). My wrist is 6inch (c.15.5cm). Is the Fenix 6 47mm face going to be too big? I'm thinking the 6s would be ideal size wise but I'm out off by the smaller battery. And the 6x will probably be too big. I have ruled out the solar version from what I have read on actual impact, but more battery the better.
   
2. Is this watch overkill for me? I don't spend a tonne of time running (eep), when I do it's not more than 5km, but I'm after a GPS enabled tracker for when I do run/hillwalking, full tracking day and night for recovery, sleep quality, calories etc etc. I am an amateur powerlifter in the under 66kg side, so I'm all over my macros/calorie tracking, HR lvls during my lifting sessions for recivery between reps and full recovery between myany training days. Basically I'm after data upon data (plus I'm a geek). During these sessions I will be wearing the polar H10 strap for the more accurate HR l, but all other times will be using the watch.
   

I'm less interested in payments etc but the onboard music may be useful.

1. Has anyone had experience with both Polar Flow and Garmin Connect? Any preferences between the two for data (particulars around the recovery tracking side)?
   
2. If I'm worried about the watch in the gym (only when it's new and shiny), can I get similasame stats by connecting my heart rate monitor to the Garmin app on my phone?
   
3. Anything people don't like about the Fenix 6 that is bettecorrected in other watches?
   
4. Reason I mentioned the forerunner is I saw it received a number of updates to bring a few features and quality of life a little more inline with the Fenix 6, is there still a notable difference between the two?
   
5. Finally, looking at the age of the Fenix 6, is there any expectations of a replacement being released soon? I know farming are a bit secretiv on this soay not get any info here.
   

Ok I'm exhausted writing all this, so I'll understand if people are too fed up to read it all ;)
Thanking you in advance

After being annoyed about Fitbit’s connected GPS on my Charge 2 for months and looking for a device with GPS and more workout features within that family, given the amount of data I had on their platform, I finally gave up when Garmin launched the Vivoactive 4 / Venu line and Fitbit still had nothing apart from their glitchy and unreliable Ionic. Moreover, they had just started the Premium service which has since evolved into something where they lock certain datapoints and workouts behind a paywall to customers who have already paid for their devices.
So, I bought a Vivoactive 4S, because I really liked the light grey, and it was cheaper than the 4. I wasn’t going to spend extra for the Venu and get an LED display when the transflective display clad devices were cheaper anyway. However, it was a bit too small on my 175 mm wrist I felt, and the screen was not able to show some stuff on third party watch faces that the bigger one is… so I used the statutory 14-day return period and got a VA4 instead.
Since then I’ve worn the Vivoactive 4 for a whole year, and used it as a daily watch, and for running, walking, aerobics, strength training & machines, and other cardio activities in the gym… but not from the starting point of a fit athlete, but as an unfit plebian struggling for years now with weight and fitness issues and a lack of consistency, and mainly about the features that are important to me. Perhaps that is useful for some.
However, I could answer questions about other features if there are any.

Screen

The screen is magnificent outdoors. The colours really pop, and everything looks unimaginably nice (seriously; I hadn’t imagined a display so good outdoors before I saw this one). However, for those who don’t live their lives 24×7 under bright light, the Venu may be the better device. The screen resolution on one hand is slightly lower than I’d like, and there is for some reason a non-anti-aliased black ring on the edge of the display, which looks really bad when anything that’s not black is displayed on the edge of the screen, or a white activity or watch face is used. Apart from that, I am happy with the display.
The glass on the other hand… needs protection. There is a fairly visible gash on mine that appeared a few months ago, and most people are going to be doing daily activities with their watch on. The glass is not inset and is slightly higher than the bezel too, which makes it worse.
The worst part about the screen in my experience is easily its touch. It’s not that the touch is bad (in fact it’s really good and quite smooth), but simply the fact that this watch has touch. If you ever have the practice of wearing full-sleeved coats or jackets (which most people would during winter), the sleeve will continuously swipe on your display and do all kinds of things. If you have Garmin Pay activated through a quick swipe menu, it will activate Garmin Pay, enter the wrong password, and lock you out.
Yes, there is a facility to auto-lock the watch. However, there are two problems associated with it:

• Auto-lock takes time to kick in, and your sleeve may prevent the device from locking.
• If your device just manages to auto-lock, the sleeve will keep the display active by constantly making contact with it, thereby keeping the backlight on, and draining the battery very quickly.

This problem occurs across multiple jackets made of different inner materials and different brands, so it’s surely not just my choice of clothing that is affecting this. If you’re not OK with something like this or wear a jacket with a soft inner side, you might do well to buy a watch without a touchscreen. I certainly might replace my watch well ahead of time simply to get away from this nuisance.

Steps, Energy, Heart Rate

Garmin has a different way of determining the resting heart rate compared to Fitbit. While the HR while sleeping itself is not too different between my Charge 2 and the VA4, the RHR is certainly lower. I think Garmin should be more accurate because it is more in line with my heart rate during sleep and Fitbit usually shows a value that is higher.
Steps and Energy is where Garmin is much better than Fitbit. Garmin is much closer to a reasonable step count compared to Fitbit, and much more conservative in terms of Energy estimation. According to my mass and fat calculations using the US Navy method, Fitbit overestimates my energy burnt by around 3%, while Garmin is within 1% of my estimations. This might not seem like much, but when you want to lose fat and create a deficit, this 3% per day can significantly impact your daily targets.
There are two areas in which Garmin fails: one minor but very stupid and another more major.

The minor

Garmin cannot show energy in kilojoules. You are stuck with using Calories (i.e., kilocalories) if you use Garmin, no matter what. Given that the conversion is a simple multiplication, I can’t imagine why this feature is not present.

The major

Garmin, unlike Fitbit, completely depends on MyFitnessPal for food tracking. However, they make unnecessary assumptions about food goals on MFP and end up with simply incorrect mathematics which could, depending on the user, lead to people gaining weight instead of losing. Why, you ask? MFP’s goals are decided not based on your resting energy, but what they think you would burn on a day. However, Garmin assumes that this goal does not include any activity at all and adds up all your active energy to the goal. This is mitigated to a certain extent by setting your activity level on MFP to ‘sedentary’, but it is still incorrect mathematics. Here is an example from yesterday:
MFP assumes that with a sedentary lifestyle, my entire energy burn would be 2331 kcal (including any light activities I may do like dusting my table, obviously), and assigns a food target of 1500 kcal. However, I burnt 2795 kcal according to Garmin, and so my goal is adjusted as follows:
E(mfp) = 1500 + (2795 – 2331) = 1500 + 464 = 1964 kcal.
Garmin understands that MFP’s food goal is 1500 kcal, but it doesn’t understand why it is so. It assumes that the goal is entirely based on what Garmin calls ‘resting calories’, and so it adds the entire ‘active calories’ column to the adjustment, and arrives to the following calculation:
E(gar) = 1500 + 518 (active) = 2018 kcal.
This number is so close, because in spite of me walking 5 km a day, I have set my MFP to ‘sedentary’, because that setting no longer matters once an external tracker is paired with it. But to someone who doesn’t know about this and sets their activity level earnestly, this number is surely going to confuse them. For people who follow Garmin’s numbers instead of MFP’s, they could end up eating far more than they actually should. This is something that Garmin should fix at once because incorrect mathematics in health apps can give people who may not have the time or mental wherewithal to understand how exactly these numbers are calculated very wrong ideas and lead to unfavourable results.
It is to be noted that Fitbit does not make these errors, whether you use their own food database or use MFP’s database and link it to Fitbit, and also present the data nicely with a little dial.

GPS

The most essential feature I wanted was good GPS tracking, and once the watch is hooked to the constellation, the tracking is largely accurate. I had problems for a long time with Fitbit miscalculating distances through connected GPS (the same activity tracked using Google Fit and Fitbit would yield around 5% lower distance in the end if fully accurate [even though the GPS data is from the same source!], and based on background processes on the phone, the watch would often simply drop GPS connection midway), and with Garmin and other sources (GPS from multiple phones tracked on Google Fit) are within 1% of each other, all measured on the same 3, 4, and 5km routes.
One thing to note, however, is that the watch sometimes takes an annoying amount of time to connect to the satellites. I have tried both GPS+GLONASS and GPS+GALILEO modes, and while I do not have the tools to measure the relative tracking accuracy between the two, I am certainly unimpressed by both of them taking sometimes more than 90 seconds to triangulate. I wonder if I’m being too demanding of such a small chip.

Sleep Tracking

Garmin isn’t great at sleep tracking, full stop. Fitbit is so much better at sleep tracking that Garmin doesn’t even compete. Garmin is definitely worse at the following things:

• Start of Sleep
• End of Sleep
• Waking Hours during Sleep
• Minor Variations in Sleep Stages
• Tracking Sleep not at Night (i.e., Naps, etc.)

The Vivoactive 4 does not have the new advanced insights, but I don’t really miss it. This is the first thing that Garmin has to work on because they’re so far behind an otherwise struggling and inferior competitor.

Body Battery

This is the complete antithesis of Sleep Tracking. Body Battery is fantastic. It takes a while to calibrate (a couple of weeks) and only works on the primary watch if you have multiple, but this more than makes up for bad sleep tracking and everything else. The recharge shown after sleep is very close to how I feel after waking up, and apart from the one glitch a few months ago where I spent an entire day at 5% battery because I slept on a very rattly night train ride and the watch didn’t recognise that I got sleep. Eventually, I have got to a stage where I can judge what I can and cannot do for the rest of the day by gauging my body battery stats, and it is on the vast majority of occasions, correct.

Garmin Connect

The App

The Garmin Connect app is clearly not as nice looking as the Fitbit app, but for people who like to look at lots of intricate data about their day and their activities, it’s generally a much better app. Unlike Fitbit, lots of extra workouts and coaching materials are integrated and can be downloaded to the watch free of charge (Fitbit Premium has left the chat). The guided 5K and 10K running plans are really well done… but it would be nice to know which coach does what and what difference it really makes before selecting them. I’ve used the video training lessons in the gym, and they are quite useful.
The app however has no light mode, and does not change the navigation bar to black, which means the app has an ugly and bright white bar at the bottom no matter what your system mode is. I guess this is mostly a minor inconvenience in a world where more and more people are using gesture navigation.
There was a period of time where my watch simply wouldn’t show up as a paired device in my phone but somehow Garmin connect alone could see it. I had to reset my watch to fix it. These problems occur in many different places, where things either simply don’t work or need a watch reset. Another such example was Spotify, where my watch suddenly decided that it didn’t have any Spotify songs and refused to play anything, but Garmin Connect wouldn’t even uninstall Spotify to remove the songs and empty the storage. Another reset ensued.
Garmin Pay is very finicky to set up. You try to set a card up, and there appears a running man on the screen and he runs forever till the phone goes to sleep. You wake up the phone again and the process starts again. The only way to make it work is to keep your phone screen alive and hope that one time or the other the registration of your card sticks and you’re able to configure it. Once set up, however, payment is no longer an issue.
Notifications are kind of not very great. You can’t reply to WhatsApp or Email and not really do anything other than read them, and even any possible replies are limited to pre-set ones. Moreover, if you receive 3 messages from 3 people, the watch buzzes thrice but shows you only the oldest unread message both in the preview as well as when you tap on it. Using this watch as a companion for your phone is not recommended (but personally I don’t understand the point of a watch to interact with your phone with, so I don’t really care), and removing the notifications feature would personally make no difference to me.
Finally, your daily page can’t just show the energy you burnt; only the ‘Calories In/Out’ thing from MFP which as I explained is completely wrong. I wish that could be added in (or better: fix the maths!).

The Website

The website has a frightening amount of data and places to look at, but what puzzles me is that there is no proper way to view it. You cannot view data with a custom date range, and some data is restricted to be viewed as a ‘report’ which is less customisable than the other places. If someone wants to track their daily or weekly progress over the past, say, 18 months, there is no way to do this, apart from exporting data with the granularity they want for the entire period, and manually making an excel file. That is a big let-down and surely cannot be the way.

Miscellaneous

• Stress Levels are nice to have and are reasonably accurate.
• I don’t know what to do with my breathing rate, but it’s good to know I’m alive and have breathed consistently at almost the same rate for the past year (so no novel viral illnesses that I didn’t notice).
• Nightly Pulse-Ox may not be fully accurate but seeing a reading in the 90s still makes me feel better.
• Ability to track shoe usage and to assign each activity to a shoe (or a bicycle for those who want to know it) is a nice feature and is useful to be able to dispose off shoes before they get too worn.
• I wish there were a way to show maps on this device that didn’t involve a strange third-party app and logging activities not on the list.
• The watch feels slightly top-heavy and you feel it slightly more on the outside of your arm than the inside, but it’s not too much. The bump on the heart rate sensor is not an issue.
• The battery life with nightly Pulse-Ox is around 2.5-3 days, and without that can last up to 5-6 days depending on GPS activity. Music significantly kills battery life, though.

Final Thoughts

Please, no touchscreen. It is so irksome and annoying.
A VA4/Venu class device with buttons instead of a touchscreen would be an instant buy from me (basically an FR 245 Music with all the extra features that the VA series has, like Yoga workouts and animated workout videos). Yes, the Fenix 6 series is there, but that’s quite a bit more expensive.

https://www.amazon.com/Smartwatch-Vivoactive-Waterproof-Glonass-Stainless-dp-B0751GBCKN/dp/B0751GBCKN/ref=dp_ob_title_wld
Hi guys!
Since my pebble died, i haven't been able to find anything comparable. This Garmin I linked above is the closest thing I can find. I was wondering if any of you all had personal experience with it, and what your thoughts on it are?
I have an iPhone 11.
How do you like it as a replacement to your pebble?
How is the battery life?
Most importantly, does it allow canned replies from the watch?
Any music control at all?
Does it have do not disturb functionality?
How accurate is the steps/heart/sleep tracking quality? I like to keep an eye on this, sometimes I have strange and drastic fluctuations at night.
Do all notifications go to the phone? A friend has the bip, and only half the apps notifications go to the watch, and the sleep function occasionally won't record any data, which isn't acceptable to me.
Many many THANK YOU's for any and all feedback. I want to buy the watch and have it for at least two years, so i'm trying to pick responsibly.

Wiki Wednesday

Purchase Advice: Essential Gear for Cycling
Hi friends! Hope y’all are doing well. Last week in our Wiki Wednesday Journal Club, we talked about purchase advice for the Original Peloton Bike vs Bike+. This week, I want to dive into essential gear for your bike.
I want to discuss essential gear, upgrades, unnecessary or junk items, awesome things to add to your setup, etc. Some of us are just looking for the bare minimum and most cost effective ways to get up and riding. Some of us have had our bikes for a while and are looking to either upgrade gear or pimp out their setup. LETS FUCKIN’ GO!!
This week I have included SURVEYS!! These are for both Peloton Equipment owners and DIY riders!!

• Heart Rate Monitor Survey
  
• Shoes and pedals
  
• Fans
  
• Floors and Mats
  
• Sound: how do you listen to cycling classes
  

Note: For those of you looking for advice on buying a used Peloton or DIY options - we will have that at another time. These sections in the wiki were updated recently and we have more pressing updates.

Bare minimum gear to get riding

So you’re going to buy a bike. If you’ve read any previous threads or Daily Discussion threads - folks are always talking about gear. We have a ton of gear recommendations in the wiki. There are a ton of gadgets, tools, equipment, accessories, and gear you can get to pimp your ride. But what are the bare essentials to get rolling?
Last week we discussed the accessory packages that Peloton offers. Since we already discussed the junky HRM and wired headphones, we won’t discuss those here.
So lets chat - what do you need to get riding?
Well, part of that depends on where you set up your bike. Are you on carpet or a hard surface like tile, hardwood, vinyl, etc?
Here is a very basic list to get you riding

1. If you’re on carpet, you’ll want a piece of plywood to stabilize the bike
   
2. You’ll probably want a thin mat under the bike
   
3. Shoes
   
4. Towels
   
5. A fan or maybe several fans
   
6. Water bottle
   
7. Workout clothes
   

A heart rate monitor (HRM) is NOT required to get started. Many people consider it essential. I recommend getting one but any bike will operate without a HRM. I will discuss HRM later in this post.

Plywood

If you’re on carpet, you will definitely want to consider picking up a piece of plywood for under your bike. Depending on how plush your carpet is, your bike will feel very wobbly on carpet no matter how much you level the feet. This is due to the softness and give in the substrate. By adding a piece of plywood, you’re creating a more stable surface.
This isn’t required as there are folks who use their bike without plywood on their carpet. But a lot of people complain that they do not feel stable. Again, it’s going to vary a lot from person to person and how plush their carpet is.
Whether or not you use plywood - please note it takes about 4-6 weeks for the bike to weigh down and settle in its spot. Think about any piece of furniture you’ve placed on carpet, it eventually leaves a dent in the carpet once it has been there long enough. This is true even if you use plywood. Just give it some time to settle and it will become more stable.
Stability on carpet also is affected by how wild you are on the bike. If you’re an experienced cyclist, you’re probably going to have more control over your form and be smooth on the bike. New riders tend to use their body weight and sway a lot on the bike, so they will experience a lot more wobble. Once you’ve taken a few classes you’ll hear instructors talk about staying steady on the bike.

Mat under the bike

The wiki for mats under the bike. Many of you may think, why is this even necessary??
If you’ve never taken a cycling class, let me warn you. You’re gonna sweat a lot. Like dripping wet and leave puddles on the floor kind of sweat. The thing about a mat/pad/floor-protector is you really only need two things: sweat/waterproof and some padding to dampen the sound profile. They're all thin, you don't need 1"+ of padding here, almost anything will do. Peloton's mat at 72" x 36" is pretty much perfect - it’s thin, good quality, and looks great. It also matches the bike if that’s your thing. But there are tons of other options available. Some folks use those locking horse stall mats with great success.
What is the problem with sweat? First you’ll produce a lot of it so depending on the flooring you’re on, you’ll want to protect the floor. Second, sweat contains a lot of bacteria - if you don’t clean it up it will start to get funky. You can use cleaners to wipe up the sweat without worrying about damaging your floors. You can even take the mat outside every so often and spray it off with the hose and dry in the sun (which also kills bacteria).
For example, if you’re on hardwood floors - you may want to protect from scratches but also sweat stains. If you’re on tile or linoleum, you could always move the bike and mop.
If you’re on carpet, you’ll put a piece of plywood down that is the same size or just under the size of your mat. Trust me when I say, if you’re not using plywood you will still want a mat if you’re riding on carpet You will saturate your carpet with sweat and tears - 100% guaranteed. That sweat will saturate the carpet and pad. It will fester, mold, and get funky as hell really quickly. It’s a lot easier to wipe down a mat than it is to replace your stanky ass carpet.
Peloton's mat at 72" x 36" is pretty much perfect - it’s thin, good quality, and looks great. A lot of folks opt for this mat since it’s one less thing to do research on. But there are other recommendations in the wiki for mats under the bike.
Seasoned Peloton Athletes, what mat are you using under the bike??

Water bottles

Yep, we have a wiki about water bottles!
Hydration is important y’all. Remember how I mentioned you’re sweating a lot? Yeah, you’re gonna want a water bottle or two. I personally have two camelback water bottles. My best frienemy, u/kraphytone, knows I hate condensation and sent me an insulated camelback water bottle last year for Christmas that is my go to for workouts.
Seasoned athletes, what are your favorite water bottles??

Fans

Yep, we have a wiki for fans!
Remember how I said you’re gonna sweat a lot? Yeah, you’re gonna be hot as fuck and having a fan can help cool you down and perform better. But it also helps prevent the room from getting that funky stank aroma. Depending on climate, your HVAC system, humidity, and air circulation, you may want to invest in one or several. A great, high-powered fan can drop the room temp 5+ degrees simply by assisting in air circulation, and most are in the $12-25 range
My bike is in my basement which never gets above 68F and I still have a fan. I love them and hate riding without one. The community favorite is the vornado. Lots of folks even have their fans on a smart switch so they can operate it with a remote.
Some folks have fans that clip on the handlebars, but I personally like ALL THE WIND and opted for a beast fan. I have mine sitting on a dresser next to me pointed at my chest.
What fans are y’all using? Where do you have your fan(s)?

Shoes n’ Pedals

If you’re riding either peloton bike, you’ll want shoes of some sort. Shoes are required as pedalling barefoot is dangerous and uncomfortable. Period. End of story.
Shoes n’ Pedals Wiki**
What are your options for shoes??
Both the Original Peloton Bike and Peloton Bike+ will come standard with Look Delta Pedals. If you want to use the pedals that come standard with the bike you will need to have cycling shoes that are compatible with a 3-bolt system.
The peloton shoes are pretty decent and are recommended if you’re using a referral code to purchase your bike. If you buy the Peloton branded shoes, they will come with cleats.
However, if you buy cycling shoes elsewhere it is uncommon to have the cleats included and will need to be purchased separately.
Can I use my sneakers?
Please note that it is dangerous to ride on the stock pedals with sneakers. You will injure yourself. However, you can ride with sneakers if you change out the pedals for toe cages. Yes, but you’ll have to change out the pedals. Neither Peloton Bikes sold today come standard with toe cages - however you can buy a pair of dual sided pedals that have cages on one side and Look Delta on the other from Peloton. You’ll have to phone them to add this to your order as they are not sold on their website.
Overall, you won’t get a lot of support for riding with sneakers and toe cages here. Nearly all of us ride with cycling shoes. Some of us started in toe cages and have since converted to cycling shoes. Toe cages are just not efficient or comfortable to ride. You waste more energy trying to stabilize yourself and you lose the power of the pull portion of the pedal cycle. I personally think that riding in toe cages is dangerous because it encourages poor form and will result in injury.
Other types of cycling shoes and pedals
Cycling is a sport and there are tons of pedal and cleat systems available. If you want to use another type of clipless system such as SPD, SPD-SL, Look Keo, Speed Play, etc - you will have to purchase those on your own. Again, shoes and cleats are almost always sold separately.
What if I use SPD and my spouse uses LOOK??
There are options that are dual sided with SPD and Look. But they are difficult to find during the pandemic. Folks in our sub have recommended the Schwinn Triple Link Pedals most frequently.
VENZO Sealed Fitness Exercise Spin Bike CNC Pedals Compatible with Look ARC Delta & Shimano SPD 9/16" for Peloton ($80): a popular choice for those looking for pedals that will accept both SPD and LOOK cleats
Schwinn Triple Link Pedals ($140): These pedals accept SPD, LOOK, or toe cages. You can often find them on ebay for as low as $10 but you have to act quickly.
If you have other dual sided options, please let me know!
Where to buy cycling shoes:
Your best bet is to go to your local bike shop, get expert advice, and try on a variety of sizes. Generally, you are looking for a snug fit that's still comfortable. At a cycling shop, you will find higher-quality shoes at the same price point Peloton sells their shoes. The tricky part is getting shoes that will be compatible with the clips on whatever bike you're using. Be sure you look at the pedals before you buy so you know what you're needing. If you are riding regularly, you will want to invest in a pair of cycling shoes. Just make sure the pair you buy support clips compatible with the bike you're using.
Alternatively, you can go to a sporting goods store and see what they offer. REI in the US has a decent selection of shoes. They also have a very generous return policy. Zappos also sells cycling shoes.
But we live in a different world now with the covid-19 pandemic. Not all of us have the option to visit our local bike shop or sporting goods store. There are always options online - but please use caution when buying online and make sure the retailer has a generous return policy.
I’ve personally bought shoes from REI, Amazon, and most recently [Bikeshoes](www.bikeshoes.com). I highly recommend BikeShoes - they have a huge selection, fast shipping, and generous return policy.
What about us weirdos with big ass feet??
Y’all I feel ya. We all have weird feet. Some are narrow, long, wide, high arch...we are all different. That’s why we always recommend visiting a local bike shop to try on some options. But as above, we are all living in Coronaville now.
The wiki has some great options for the big foot in your life! However, it might take some searching to find retailers that have the size. I would check with your local bike shop if possible - they often can place special orders. Alternatively, if Amazon is a bust you can always look at BikeShoes - they have search filters so you can search by your specific needs.

Towels

Remember I said you’d sweat a ton? Yeah, it’s clutch to have a towel to wipe your face off during a brutal ride. Depending on your level of perspiration and length of workout, you’ll want one or two handy.
Recommendations? Well, they don’t have to be special or peloton branded. Use whatever you want! Some folks use super absobancy microfiber towels, others get a jumbo pack from Costco.
Pro Tips:

• Just wash frequently, they will stink.
  
• Do not use fabric softener with your workout gear. It will trap the bacteria and stay stanky.
  
• Let the towels dry before throwing them in the laundry bin. Throwing them in wet lets them fester….making everything in your bin smell like stale and pungent as fuck similar to a stale subway restaurant.
  
• Buy a multipack. You'll thank me later.
  

Workout Clothes

This is pretty obvious. But you don’t want to cycle in your Sunday best or an old pair of jeans. You’ll want something that is comfortable and light. But really anything will do as long as it is comfortable and breathable for you. We will have a WW on gender specific clothing in the future - this is just the basics to get started.
A lot of folks will recommend form fitting shorts/leggings such as cycling shorts. Loose fitting shorts can bunch up and be uncomfortable. Peloton classes have a lot of in the saddle and out of saddle moves which makes form fitting shorts/leggings a nice option because they move with you and do not get in the way. Cycling shorts can be either padded or unpadded. (We will discuss this later).
A lot of women will recommend lulu and athleta for premium options. But old navy, 90 degrees by reflex, and target have a lot of affordable options too.

Useful but not required gear

So you’ve got the bare minimum to ride. But you’re looking to optimize your setup and improve your ride experience.
What accessories or gear will improve my comfort, experience, or value:

• Heart rate monitors
  
• Butt protection
  
• Headphones and Speakers
  
• Weights
  
• Shelving
  

Heart rate monitors

So you do not need a HRM in order to ride your bike but it is a very useful metric to have. Most people, including myself, would argue it’s essential. We have a whole wiki page dedicated to HRM! You have lots of options - so lets discuss what they are.
All Peloton Hardware (aside from gen 1 tablets which are no longer functional) accept HRM that transmit over ANT+ or BLE. You have several options - smartwatches, chest straps, and arm bands.
First, lets state the obvious: Do not buy the Peloton HRM - it’s junk!! Seriously, it is terrible. Just do a search of the sub. I’m not going to waste any time discussing why but there are very few people here who have been able to use their Peloton HRM beyond a few months.
Popular HRM

• Scosche's Rhythm+ (and newer Rhythm24) the most popular for 10+ years, Polar's OH1 (and newer OH1+) and Wahoo's TICKR FIT easily round out the top-3 favs.
  
• Scosche Rhythm+ ($80): Armband. Multiple colors. Discounts frequently available from Scosche and various online retailers, especially around holidays. Highly popular in cycling circles for 10+ years due to extreme accuracy, near-flawless works-everytime reputation, and accurate optical HR sensor made by Valencell, a leader in optical HRM sensors also used by Polar and Suunto.
  
• Scosche Rhythm24 ($100): The latest version (first update in 10yrs) to Scosche's incredibly popular armband HRM. Adds some new features (NFC, memory) unlikely to benefit a Peloton user, but for activities off the bike is worth considering. Still an armband, still the same dead-accurate Valencell optical sensor, and comes in additional colors vs the Rhythm+. Some users complain battery life is lower (never quantified exactly how much) on this newer model.
  

Other Brands

• Polar OH1+ ($80): Armband, ANT+/BLE. Optical HRM.
  
• Wahoo TICKR FIT ($80): Armand, ANT+/BLE. Optical HRM.
  

Smartwatches
However, as we discussed last week - the Original Peloton Bike does not have NFC so it will not work with your Apple Watch. Right now, it only works with cycling classes on the Bike+. The Tread+ has NFC capability but the update hasn’t been pushed out to it yet.
If you want to use your AW with the Original Peloton Bike, you have a few options. BlueHeart was developed by a community member here - there is a free and paid version. However, some folks have had issues with it working consistently and found it frustrating.
You can read about using your AW to close your rings in the wiki here when using the Original Peloton Bike. There are also instructions on using your AW with your Bike+ in that section as well.
You can read more about AW and AW app here.
Garmin makes several smart watches such as the vivofit and fenix that are very popular. However, if you’re using one of these devices you need to put it in broadcast mode for your peloton bike to pick up the HRM. Please note, you cannot currently connect your bike to your garmin watch to collect your power profile and other metrics. There are others that are working on this, but it’s still in the works here
If anyone is using a fitbit device to broadcast - let me know how or if it works!
Let me know your favorite HRMs!

Butt protection

Lets be real, if you’re new to cycling your ass is going to hurt a lot at first. You’re gonna feel like your ass was violated in horrendous ways. But I promise you that it gets better over a few weeks. Be patient, sit on the bike properly, and it will get better. Wiki on butt protections
First, you need to make sure you’re sitting on the bike properly. Yes, you can and many new folks often do - sit on the bike wrong. You need to scoot your ass really far back so your sit bones are anchored on the widest part of the saddle. Unless you’re a scrawny, assless person, you should be able to grab a handful of ass off the back of the bike. Do not sit on your taint, balls, or vagina. Just don’t.
99% of the time - sitting on the bike properly and getting used to it will resolve the butt pains. It is rare that you would need to change out the saddle. The stock saddle will suffice for most people. Those who need to change out the saddle are folks with specific needs - for example those with overly wide or overly narrow sit bones (yes BONES not talking about tissue), those with recurrent prostate issues, or those with anatomy concerns that require noseless or cutout seats. We recommend seeing your local bike shop to get fitted for those seats.
Do not be conned into thinking you need one of those wide cushy cruiser seats. You will be doing yourself a grave disservice by swapping for one of those. You’re not toodling around some cute European city, you’re working out. These wide saddles are not meant for working out. They may initially be more comfortable, but they spread out the pressure and will cause hotspots elsewhere.
We also do not recommend buying a gel seat cover. They are a waste of money and can make your problems worse. You just need to suck it up for a few weeks and plant your ass appropriately. I promise. Why are gel seat covers shit? They are squishy and they encourage you to not sit on the bike properly which will spread out the distribution of weight to very sensitive areas. You will get hot spots. These covers also degrade rapidly and clump up - again distributing the weight to your much more sensitive bits. Many of these are gel...which isn’t very sanitary because it will absorb your ass sweat which will stink and harbor bacteria. A lot of folks, albeit not all, who have purchased these padded seat covers have stopped using them.
You’re truly better off toughing it out or investing in padded cycling pants or undies. The benefit of padded shorts is that they are form fitted, they move with you, and they don’t encourage bad form. There are several styles and options available. I would recommend going with gender specific styles as we have different anatomy.
There are many popular cycling brands that make padded things. REI has their house brand of padded cycling shorts and undies that get good reviews.
I am a lady and have a pair of Patagonia cycling shorts that I use for longer rides. I like them.
What are you guys wearing??

Headphones and Speakers

Yep, there is a wiki for headphones and speakers and boomboxes.
A lot of folks here use their AirPods, Jabras, or other bluetooth headphones. However, it’s not uncommon for folks to complain that they don’t get enough volume when using bluetooth headphones or speakers. Don’t you fret! We have a wiki page to tell you how to disable max volume limits under developer options!
Let me know what headphones and speakers y’all are using!

Weights

No, you don’t need the Peloton branded weights. Hell, even for cycling classes with arms you can forego it all together! But I’ll admit - the peloton weights are sexy.
Here is our wiki on weights.
Once upon a time, we lived in a world without a global pandemic that hasn’t forced many of us to quarantine, work from home, and didn’t completely destroy the global supply chain. Unfortunately, the demand for dumbbells has skyrocketed and they are tough to come by. Even when you can find them, the prices are jacked. Pre-pandemic, I was able to buy my dumbbells for $2.50 USD a piece. It was actually cheaper to buy them as individual dumbbells instead of a set. Alas, it is not those times anymore.
Don’t forget to check out your local resellers and market places! Places like play it again sports, good will, facebook marketplace, craiglist, etc will have some good deals but you’ll have to act fast.

Shelving

You know what is nice? Having a cute way to store your shit. I personally have a shelf next to the bike with those cute little storage bins.
What do you guys use?

Race information

• What? Patapsco Half Marathon TT
• When? November 21, 2020
• How far? 13.13
• Where? Patapsco Valley State Park
• Finish time: 1:26:40
• About me: 30 y.o. Male - started running in late March

Goals

Goal	Description	Completed?
A	Sub 1:30	Yes
B	Sub 1:27	Yes
C	Hold Steady GAP Splits	No

Splits

| Mile | Time | GAP |
|-----|------|-----|
| 1 | 6:35 | 6:39
| 2 | 6:27 | 6:42
| 3 | 6:20 | 6:36
| 4 | 6:14 | 6:32
| 5 | 6:22 | 6:32
| 6 | 6:38 | 6:39
| 7 | 6:43 | 6:39
| 8 | 6:34 | 6:33
| 9 | 6:50 | 6:37
| 10 | 6:49 | 6:43
| 11 | 6:53 | 6:48
| 12 | 6:54 | 6:52
| 13 | 6:43 | 6:45
|.13 | 6:17 | 6:14
Strava Activity
Strava Splits
Strava Best Efforts
Best Efforts Broken Down:
20k effort was @ 6:36
10-mile effort was @ 6:33
15km effort was @ 6:31
10km effort was @ 6:26
5km effort was @ 6:18
2-mile effort was @ 6:16
Definitely faded after 15km
Strava Race Analysis
I'm not linking my personal info via strava on reddit. Not sorry.

Background/Update

I am the OP in this post that seemed to get a bit of attention back in May. I apologize for my attitude back then. I have returned to update this sub as requested, although I was unable to run a marathon due to COVID and I didn't want my first marathon experience to be on my own. I want the first experience of running a marathon to be with a thousand other runners and having a bib, medal, t-shirt, the whole 9 yards. So I decided to do a half marathon TT before the end of 2020. Although I'm confident I could go at least 3:20 in a FM in my current level of fitness. And if it were the St George, UT marathon with an average grade of -2% over the entire 26.2 then I think I could go sub 3:10.
I linked my Garmin to runalyze and here are some summaries of what I've been doing since the original post on May 18, 2020. This is a monthly summary and here is a weekly summary. Including down weeks, I have averaged just under 42mpw since May 18 (27 weeks ago). Over the last 18 weeks, I have averaged just under 45mpw. Over the last 7 weeks, except for one week where I did 23 miles, I have averaged just under 53mpw.

Training

I didn't complete a training plan for this HM TT. I had started the Pfitz 12/63 in August, but I had to cut my mileage back about 50% for two weeks after week 3 when I felt a shin splint coming on. I felt a bit discouraged and worried that jumping back into hard workouts would potentially aggravate my left shin again or cause a new injury, so I just decided to run ~50mpw with mostly Z2 running and the weekly tempo run. A couple of months later (End of OctobeFirst of Nov) I seemingly had a very light grade 1 quad strain and I took another week off.
Over the summer (June-July) I used the MAF method to help me keep my effort down so that I could build my base as safe as possible. I was a non-runner as of late March 2020 and pretty much nobody thought I should go above 30mpw for the first year, but I believed in myself and my body. So if you looked at Runalyze and saw my HR being much lower those months this is why.

Race Strategy

The Baltimore area, while not full of massive hills, is pretty hilly with plenty of rolling hills everywhere you look. Just look at the Baltimore Marathon and its hills and you'll understand why it's not in the top 300 fastest marathons in the US. I looked for the best possible route I could find that didn't require me to drive somewhere. I tried my best to find downhill and flat. You'll notice that the first ~5 miles of the route averaged a -1.7% grade. The last ~7 miles were mostly flat-ish with some hills (I know these segments don't add up to 13.13 - the missing mile or so inbetween was 0% grade completely flat).
Due to this elevation, I decided to bank time in the first ~9-10km and hoped that I didn't bonk at the end by banking too much. I had run a long run in 70+ dew points back in the summer and had averaged a HR of 175 for about 70-75 minutes so I figured my Lactate Threshold was somewhere close to 175bpm. My goal was to average about that same 175 again and hope that my assumtions about my LT were correct.

Pre-race

I didn't really taper for this TT. I ran 15km on Wednesday with ~6km at my goal race pace, ran a few miles thursday, and didn't run Friday, and that was the extent of my taper. I made sure to drink 3-4 liters of water every day this week to have my hydration as high as possible. I drank about 30oz of water with some cluster dextrin and electrolytes about 1 hour before the TT - this was all the fuel I had before the TT. I didn't want to carry gels or water or stash them along the way and my wife sure as shit wasn't gonna go stand in the woods all morning waiting to hand me some. I ran 5k with some strides to warm up, which in hindsight was probably a bit much, but this is my first real TT ever so I'm learning how my body reacts to these things. My left achilles was feeling a little tight, but I did some more dynamic stretches and leg swings and it felt better.
Since the roads/trails weren't closed I tried to get a little bit of an early start, but I would have liked to start sooner. I started warming up about 6:45am and started the race at about 7:20am. I didn't want to get hit by a car because I was too focused on racing and not watching traffic. Fortunately, it was early enough still that there weren't too many cars to worry about.

Race

45 degrees and 87% humidity. I went in just some 3" running shorts, Reebok Run Fast, and my HRM-Run strap. I had set my PacePro for 1:27 and I was -1:03 after 5 miles and held that time in my bank until about 9 miles where I started to lose steam. Fortunately, I banked enough to still hit my goal, but in hindsight I think I pushed it a bit too hard at first. I hoped to GAP about 6' 40" per mile the whole way to show that I kept a steady effort despite the actual splits.
After 4 miles I knew I had gone out just a tad too quickly and wasn't fully prepared for this TT because my legs were already starting to feel a bit too tired. I think aerobically I was prepared to run about 60-90 seconds faster if I had gels and carbon plate shoes, but my leg muscles weren't prepared for the strain. I hadn't run more than 25 minutes without stopping at a sub 7:00 pace ever. And about 2 months ago I had run 20 min at LT and then jogged for 5 min, and then 18 min at LT, but that was the most I had ever run at LT pace.
Despite this, I still felt pretty good up through 9 miles, but at that point I started to fade a bit and had to rely on my banked time. I set my PacePro for 1:27 and through 5 miles I had banked 1:03 and I held about 1 minute banked up through 9 miles. But at 10 miles it was down to 40 seconds banked and then by the time I was finishing the 12th mile I had a handful of seconds in the bank.
At about 11 miles my left hip flexor started to protest and my right ankle, as well. I had slightly rolled my right ankle about 3 weeks ago on a dark leaf covered trail, but it wasn't bad enough to take time off. It only caused me to lose about 10% of my lateral range of motion. I pushed through as hard as I could, though, and still managed to hit my goal, but it is a bit disappointing as my 15km effort was at 6:31 pace and I was on track for a 1:25:XX finish.
I had hoped to steadily GAP 6:40, which I essentially did since my overall GAP was 6:40, but not as steady as I would haved liked. The last 4 miles I GAP'd at 6:42-6:52 pace.

Post-race

I walked about half a mile and my wife picked me up and we went to a park where the kids played a bit and I did a couple laps to cool down. Went to McDonalds and ate some breakfast and then had a protein shake at home while I foam rolled and agonized after a maximum effort run. It was a good agony, though, I was happy with myself. In April when I had just started running I set the goal to run a 1:30 HM by the end of 2020 and I blew that goal away with 5 weeks to spare.
I think that if I had done a proper taper, had carbon plate shoes, and some gels during the race I could have gone 1:25:XX today. I'm very happy with my results after only 8 months of running and especially when in March I was 30lbs over weight and the most cardio I got was hauling my fatass up the stairs.

What's next?

I'm still working towards the goal of BQing at my first marathon. I anticipate that this will be on Oct 9, 2021 at the Baltimore Marathon. I don't want to commit and train for something sooner than that with the COVID vaccine being a bit up in the air as to how soon it will allow races again. Will there be marathons in April? Maybe, but I just don't want to bank on it and I'm not willing to travel more than a couple hundred miles for a race. I'm in a pretty deep blue part of the country so we take COVID more serious here and with a 6 month old I just am not willing to risk it.
I plan to do a 12 week Pfitz 10K plan starting in Dec, then in March do the Pfitz HM plan, and then in June, 18 weeks before the Baltimore Marathon, I hope to do the 18/70 marathon plan. Since I have been holding about 53mpw for the last 2 months, I hope to slowly move that up to just under 60mpw for when I start the HM plan in March.
I hope to go sub 3 next year and BQ. I also would like to hit 36:00 in the 10K and 17:30 in the 5K. As for a HM, I'd like to hit 1:22:XX next year. My watch currently says my predicted Half Marathon Time is 1:28:50 but I beat that by over 2 min today so when it says I can go 3:11:30 in a full marathon I'm not sure how accurate that is. But I'm confident I can hit sub 3 by the end of 2021.
This post was generated using the new race-reportr, powered by coachview, for making organized, easy-to-read, and beautiful race reports.

Hello Garmin Community,
I’ve had my forerunner 245 for about ~6 months now and the heart accuracy fluctuates a ton. About two months ago, it seemed dead on accurate, but now it constantly says my heart rate is high even on easy runs. It’ll say 190 when I’m extremely relaxed. Anyways, how can I bring the accuracy back to what it was? I’ve tried cleaning the sensor, putting the watch in the most optimal position and restarting the sensor itself, nothing helps.
Any tips are appreciated,
Thanks

Xiaomi devices are popular because they’re good and affordable. That is true for the company’s smartphones and fitness trackers, and it’s starting to be the case for its smartwatches, too.
The Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite is a basic smartwatch with a surprising amount of fitness features. If you’re wondering if you should spend your money on this ultra-cheap smartwatch, read our full Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite review.
What you need to know about the Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite
The Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite is yet another ultra-cheap smartwatch from the Chinese brand. It only costs €50 (~$60), slotting it in nicely between Xiaomi’s popular Mi Band line and the recently released Xiaomi Mi Watch. Eagle-eyed fans might also recognize it as a rebranded Redmi Watch.
Although it has a traditional smartwatch form factor, it’s best to think of the Mi Watch Lite simply as a Mi Band with a larger screen. There are important differences between the two, but its focus is on fitness, not smartwatch features.
What I like about the Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite
Plenty of sport modes and fitness features
One would expect a €50 smartwatch to make some sacrifices in hardware. While that’s certainly true for the Mi Watch Lite, it comes with a surprisingly good spec sheet for the price.
The Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite has a built-in GPS, an optical heart rate sensor, and a 5ATM water resistance rating. We’ll talk accuracy in a second, but the fact that it has onboard GPS+GLONASS (not connected GPS) is great news for runners.
It can also track a variety of sport modes. Those include outdoor running, treadmill, trail running, indoor and outdoor cycling, walking, open water swimming, pool swimming, cricket, hiking, and freestyle workouts.
The Mi Watch Lite’s GPS is about as accurate as that of the Mi Watch. That is to say, it’s okay, not great. On numerous outdoor runs, the Mi Watch showed me running through rivers and on the other side of the street, even with little cloud and tree coverage. It was surprisingly more accurate than my Garmin Fenix 6 Pro in some areas, but not by much.
The Mi Watch Lite’s heart rate sensor can monitor your heart rate all day in 30, 10, 5, or 1-minute increments or with manual spot-checks throughout the day. It can also alert you if your heart rate goes above a normal level during inactivity.
The Mi Watch Lite’s heart rate sensor has been quite accurate in my testing. See below for a four-mile treadmill run:
Throughout multiple points in the run, the Mi Watch Lite was able to keep up exactly with the Wahoo Tickr X chest strap and the Garmin Fenix 6 Pro. All three devices matched up in the peaks of high heart rate periods, and again in the big valley midway through the run.
It’s not perfect, however. The Xiaomi Wear app smooths the data too much for my liking and doesn’t allow for data exports. Nevertheless, it’s an all-around good heart rate sensor.
Xiaomi says the Mi Watch Lite can last up to nine days on a single charge. My testing shows that claim is accurate.
I’ve been using the watch every day for sleep tracking, notifications, and a handful of workouts each week. Currently, I’m on track to get the full nine days of charge. If you work out nearly every day, though, you may see reduced battery life.
The charger included in the box is fine. It’s proprietary (hello e-waste) and not very attractive. However, it allows for a nice bedtime clock view when the watch is plugged in.
Sleep tracking
The Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite is a good sleep tracker. Like other Xiaomi wearables, it keeps track of your total time asleep, deep, light, and REM sleep. It then gives you a sleep score from 0-100 based on how well you slept. Overall, the charts in the Xiaomi Wear app are easy to read.
Nevertheless, there are a few limitations. It does not track naps or daytime sleeping. If you have an unconventional sleep schedule, the Mi Watch Lite won’t be the sleep tracker for you. I’d also like Xiaomi to improve its sleep score implementation a bit. Right now, it’s light on the details on where the score comes from. It doesn’t give many details on how to improve your sleep score either.
A few other tidbits I liked about the Xiaomi Mi Watch Lite:
Firstbeat workout analysis: Like the Xiaomi Mi Watch, the Mi Watch Lite offers detailed post-workout analysis. It is provided by Firstbeat, the now Garmin-owned analytics company. After your workout, you’ll see your total time, distance, calorie burn, steps taken, average and max cadence, average/max/min pace, average speed, heart rate, heart rate zones, and VO2 max.

• The watch faces: Xiaomi doesn’t allow for third-party watch faces, but it offers plenty of nice first-party options. There are over 120 available for download through the Xiaomi Wear app.
• The basic apps are all here: While the Mi Watch Lite doesn’t have support for third-party apps, it comes with all the basic pre-loaded apps you’d expect. There is a guided breathing app, a compass, an air pressure app, an alarm, a stopwatch, a timer, a weather app, a flashlight, as well as the ability to control your phone’s music.

I know I just praised the watch face options for the Mi Watch Lite, but surprisingly the on-device software is a notable step down from the Mi Watch proper.
Everything is set up in mostly the same way. You swipe down for notifications, up for quick settings, left or right for widgets, and press the button for the all-apps screen. Yet, there are a few omissions that bring the overall experience a step down. For one, there are zero software animations. That sounds nit-picky, but in reality, it makes using the smartwatch a pain. As a result, the Mi Watch Lite feels laggier than I think it actually is. I don’t know if my touches are registering until the next page of the settings menu shows up.
There’s also no haptic feedback which adds to the annoyance. Little things like haptics and animations help you connect with the device you’re using. Without them, you feel like you’re swiping around and hoping the swipes register.
Related: The best smartwatch deals
Here are a few more quality-of-life features missing from the Mi Watch Lite:

• There’s no always-on display, likely because the Mi Watch Lite uses an LCD panel instead of OLED.
• There’s no option to automatically turn on do not disturb mode while you’re sleeping. If you forget to mute notifications before bedtime, be ready to see that bright LCD light up when you receive a late-night email.

You’d think the Mi Watch Lite’s software would be on the same level as Xiaomi’s other devices.

Currently debating between so many models of Garmin watches (F245, F745, F945, Fenix 6 and Fenix 6 Pro).
Courses I was wondering how well the navigation (courses) work with the Forerunner watches without the maps? (F245 and F745) Is it easy to follow the course? What happens if you go off the course? Can't really find any YouTube video on it. Does it have turn-by-turn navi?
Usage Main activity is daily tracking of health stats and hiking/climbing. Getting back into running soon as injuries are out of the way now. I never used a handheld GPS ever for hikes and I never seem to get lost. I do often load GPX routes into my phone and just use that with Komoot to find my way if necessary. Never had battery issues or anything. The places I go for hiking when travelling always have good signs and have offline maps too. (The Alps)
But I only travel 7-10 times a year, so I won't be using all the functions every day. Most of the time I will just use the watch as a regular daily watch which does tracking and hikes near my home or a bit further away. Nothing special.
A barometer would be nice for storm alert + accurate elevation info. Like the ABC widget.
Which Forerunner to get? So it's difficult to choose.

• 245 doesn't have a barometer, hiking profile (and I believe it doesn't have turn by turn navi either)
• The 745 and 945 are almost the same price due to discounts of the 945 and include maps.
• But the 745 and 945 also have the same price as the Fenix 6 and Fenix 6 Pro (also due to discounts).
• The price jump from 245 to 745 is quite big just for a barometer and hiking profile.
• I've considered the Instinct Solar as well but I really want a color screen.

TL;DR -> The 'value add features' of the Vantage V/V2 are not really important to me. I wish the M had an altimeter, but we can't get all the things we want. Aside from the cool features for people fittemore serious than me, is there any other reason you'd push someone to 'buy up' from the M?
​
I'm a overweight/obese guy who lost a portion of the weight I need to starting a couple years ago. At that time, a key component was adding a fitness watch (Garmin Vivoactive HR). Making the level of daily exercise/activity objective and 'visual' really helped. And, weird as it might be, putting a goal in front of a naturally competitive person helped to get me to do just a _little_ bit more.
Due to an injury, I fell off the wagon, gained a bit back (still not near my max), and I'm trying to get back in the swing of things. I would up buying a Concept2 rower and it's been excellent. And I bought a Polar OH1 to get a bit better HR monitoring for my rowing workouts. That is what turned me onto the Polar ecosystem (Flow, etc). I much prefer the way Polar presents data and organizes information. So, I'd like to move my 'general' fitness tracking that lives on the Garmin watch into Polar too. That way, when I row and then walk, I can more easily track/split my HR tracking rather than having to manually input information from another ecosystem.
I'm not super fit... And most of the features of the higher-end Vantage series (HillSplitter, fueling plans, etc) just don't apply to me. The only thing the lower-end Vantage watch (the M) lacks that I'd like is the barometric altimeter - which my current watch has. I don't need pinpoint accurate GPS or even pinpoint accurate HR readings (since I'll use the OH1 when I really care). And the new features that are likely to be ADDED won't likely mean much to me, either. All I'd care about is some firmware updates to improve optical HGPS accuracy and bugfixes.
So, can anyone who's more in-tune with the Polar line-up able to give me a reason to 'buy once, cry once' at the Vantage V/V2 level rather than just saving some money and getting an M?
And thank you soooooooo much for taking the time to help me.

Location: Southern portion of the Wind River Range
Dates: August 20st - 27th, 2020
Distance: ~70 miles
Solo or with someone: With my boyfriend, who shall be known as "Stud".
Weather Conditions: The first five days had sunny clear skies with highs in the 70s and lows in the 40s. The last three days had howling afternoon winds and thunderstorms.
Gear List
Pics
Route: This is Andrew Skurka's section loop 1 of the Wind River High Route. https://caltopo.com/m/9NPC
Day 1 (The high plains) - Bruce Bridge Trailhead > Pinto Park
We arrived at Bruce Bridge Trailhead around 8:45 and said goodbye to civilization at 9. We decided to take a quick detour to the Popo Agie Falls at mile 1, allowing us to see the breathtaking falls up close. A fellow hiker told us about the natural rock slide at the falls and we noted that for our return trip back to the trailhead. For most of the day the trail closely meandered parallel to the Popo Agie River, giving us excellent views of the fast flowing yet clear waters. Due to the smoke we didn't see much of the mountains but we knew they were there. The first few miles climbed over 1600ft but the climbs were gradual and allowed our legs to get used to any sort of elevation change, coming from flat land in South Alabama. We saw lots of cow patties and passed two cattle fences along the way. The landscape consisted mostly of prairie grasses and Sage and Aspen trees but quickly transitioned to more conifer trees like pine and spruce. We stopped at Three Forks Park trail junction to take in the beauty of the river and to refill our water bottles and eat dinner. After switching onto the Pinto Park trail we found an unnamed meadow along the trail to set up camp.
Day 2 (Above the alpine we go) - Pinto Park > Bear Lake
We left camp around 7:45, continuing along the Pinto Park Trail until we veered off onto Lizard Head Trail. Most of today's route was flat and forested, making for easy and quick hiking. About mid-morning we passed through the Pinto Park meadow which gave way to our first views of the infamous Cirque of Towers. The sky was still a bit smokey from the wildfires but we could still see the powerful and majestic Cirque well. A little while later we turned onto the North Fork Trail where we encountered the North Popo Agie River crossing. Andrew's WRHR guide says to look for a log crossing but we could not find it. We just decided to to forge the crossing. The water was cold but actually felt refreshing. We eventually arrived at Lizard Head Meadows where we began our climb up Lizard Head trail to Bear Lakes, our campsite for the night. This was our first real incline and it was a doozy, climbing over 600ft in about 0.5mi. We were pretty exhausted once we reached Bear Lake but the views of Lizard Head Peak looming above the two Bear Lakes made us supremely happy. We noted that Lizard Head Peak actually looked like a velociraptor in hiding if you viewed it from right to left and decided that was a much more accurate name for the peak. We ate dinner next to the lake and chatted briefly with some of the other backpackers setting up camp there for the night.
Day 3 (On the up and up) - Bear Lake > Macon Lake
The morning started off with a 1100ft climb over 1.7mi and it definitely got our hearts pumping fast and early. However, as we climbed higher we were met with increasingly jaw-dropping views of Bear Lakes, Lizard Head Peak and the southern end of the WRR. We eventually reached the highest point on the Lizard Head Trail where we had amazing views of the Cirque's backside. Anytime we had views of the Cirque my mind struggled to really comprehend how powerful it was. The rock formations have so much character and emotion in them. The massive overhanging towers look brutal and challenging, like they got in a fight with Rocky Balboa and won. We continued along the Lizard Head Trail, now flat and rocky with expansive open views of the WRR. I love hiking trails that allow views of large parts of a mountain range. It gives you such a feel for how tiny you actually are. Just past Cathedral Peak the trail descends into a valley with a nicely flowing creek running through it. From there we continued west onto Bear Ears Trail. We quickly reached Valentine Lake where we briefly stopped for some pictures before continuing on to Washakie Lake. There is a sneakily difficult but short climb to Washakie Lake but we eventually made it to the massive behemoth of a lake. Andrew's guide said to look for campsites on the west side of the lake so we hurriedly walked along the lake to where we thought the campsites were. We found nothing. The terrain was very uneven and rocky with little room for a tent. We surmised we had walked a little too far and discussed backtracking to find the campsites, but at this point it started to rain which hastened our need for a campsite. We pulled out our maps and decided to hike another 0.5mi to Macon Lake where there looked to be some flat terrain for a campsite. We eventually settled on a very small piece of flat land surrounded by large boulders and trees. While it wasn't the campsite we had hoped for that day, it did have some decent views of Pass Lake, Washakie Pass and Mount Washakie.
Day 4 (Can you "pass" along some of that Continental Divide, please?) - Macon Lake > Cirque of the Towers
Today was the day Stud and I had been looking forward to since we began the trip. The day included crossing the Continental Divide twice (Washakie Pass and Texas Pass) and the Cirque of Towers. We got an early start just as the sun was rising and made quick work towards the base of Washakie Pass. It was ~800ft climb to the top of the pass but we made it in pretty good time. We were officially on top of the Continental Divide! How cool. We noted how the rocks on either side of the pass were different colors, white on the south side and brown on the north, and wondered why. The descent gave way to some beautiful views of the west side of the WRR. We turn south at the Pyramid Lake Trail for 0.8mi before turning back east on the Shadow Lake Trail, stopping briefly at Washakie Creek to eat lunch at refill water. The hike along Shadow Lake Trail provided no shade and it was hot as heck in the midday sun. We finally arrived at the forested area around Shadow Lake. We pull out our maps to double check where the unofficial trail towards Texas Pass diverges from the main trail. We hiked along the West side of Billys Lake and past the south side of Barren Lake and Texas Lake. We start scrambling up the steep Texas Pass, noting the extremely loose scree talus falling down below us. We passed a couple other hikers coming down and laughed with them at the fact that we didn't know which would be harder, descending or ascending Texas Pass. It was sketchy but nothing that we couldn't handle. At the top of Texas Pass we got our first up and close of Pingora Peak and the Cirque. The spires thrusting into the sky, forming what looked like legendary G-ds overlooking their land. The descent into the Cirque provided consistent jaw-dropping views with Lonesome Lake slowly coming out of hiking from behind the trees. We made it down to the lake in good time and camped in one of the campsites just south of the Lake. After dinner we headed down to the Lake where we had a nice soak in the chilly water, reviving our bones from the day of two passes.
Day 5 (Why the fuck didn't we listen to Andrew Skurka?) Cirque of Towers > Black Joe Lake
Waking up on day 5, we had plans to hike from the Cirque to Wind River Peak, hike up and over the peak and find a camp along the descent. We wanted to be the first hikers up and over Jackass Pass and we accomplished that easily. Despite it's name, it's an easy pass to climb. We make it quickly to Arrowhead Lake and stupidly took the climbers route around the lake. Our first of many boulder fields that we would curse ourselves for climbing that day *insert foreboding music here*. Past Arrowhead Lake there are several more albeit smaller boulder fields to cross while descending to Big Sandy Lake. Big Sandy is a beautifully long lake with Schiestler Peak standing tall in the background. We turn east onto Black Joe Trail, the last time we would be on a trail for nearly 48 hours. Once we arrived at Black Joe Lake I pulled out my map with Skurka's notes where I specifically state to Stud "Hey, Andrew says to take the north side around the Lake." We head over to the north side where we are immediately stopped by a large cliffs. We make several attempts to go over and down the cliffs to no avail. We then look back over the lake where it looks significantly easier to get around. We think "Hey what does Andrew know?". Turns out, he knows everything. We head back to the south side of the lake where we make quick work of the first 0.1mi until we hit one of the largest boulder fields I have ever had the displeasure of crossing. The boulder field sits between the base of Haystack mountain and Black Joe Lake. These boulders are huge, some the size of tiny homes. I stand a mere 5'1 so my short legs make it extremely difficult to cross these large boulders, especially with a backpack on. We eventually settle on a system where Stud finds a route around 1 or 2 boulders, sets his pack down, comes back to get my backpack and then helps me cross the boulders. Every time we get around a large boulder I keep hoping to see the end of the Lake but all I see are more large boulders to cross. At one point we look across the lake and see a fellow backpacker easily strolling alongside the lake. We curse ourselves for not following Skurka's advice. It took us 4 hours to get to the other side of the lake, arriving around 4:30. We knew at this point there was no way we were hiking up and over Wind River Peak so we found a nice campsite just past Black Joe Lake to rest our weary bodies and minds. It can't get worse than this, right? Right?!
Day 6 (Please don't let me end up in tomorrow's paper) - Black Joe Lake > Wind River Peak
Our plan for the day was to hike up and over Wind River Peak and then descend to Deep Creek Lakes where we would camp for the night. But even the best laid plans of mice and men go awry. We got another early start and this time promised ourselves we would stick to Skurka's guide. We hike along the east side of the roaring Black Joe Creek arriving at a tiny unnamed lake around 9:30. We hike up our first treacherous and steep boulder field of the day. Skurka's notes say "Stable medium talus" but there were many unstable rocks. At one point I stood on an unstable rock and fell straight backwards. Thankfully Stud caught my backpack shoulder strap otherwise it would have been a nasty fall. We eventually arrive at the unnamed lake at 11,185ft where we thankfully stopped to refill water and eat some snacks. I believe this break saved our butts that day. Just like Skurka advised, we followed the north side of the lake along yet more boulders. At this point I'm really starting to hate rocks of all sizes. It does not make for fast hiking. We arrive at another short cliff where Skurka's notes say "loose moraine + rockfall". Oh yay. Another sketchy ascent. At 1 we finally arrive at the base of the Peak, much later than anticipated. This is where things start to go horribly wrong. I check the map to make sure we follow the correct path up the West Gully and we start hiking, thinking we are taking the correct route. We were not. We did not go up the West Gully. We unknowingly took the wrong path and climbed an incredibly steep wall of extremely unstable scree and talus. This was the first time in my life where I felt in serious danger. I kept thinking to myself that one of us would end up in tomorrow's paper as the "ill-prepared hikers" and I cursed myself for putting Stud's life and my own in danger. Unfortunately, there was no way for me to pull out my phone or maps to double check the route because it was too treacherous. Thus, we had no idea how off our intended route we were. We followed a system where I took the lead, pointed to a large boulder 10-15ft ahead I thought looked stable enough and climbed to it before stopping to let Stud catch up to me. With every step we took large talus rocks fell making the footing extremely sketchy. Once one of us started climbing we could not stop until we reached the stable boulder otherwise we would slide back down. Our motto became "quick light feet". I kept apologizing to Stud for putting him in this position because I could tell he was as scared as I was. Thankfully, he took it in stride and just kept encouraging me. About 3/4 of the way up, Stud noted the dark clouds getting closer to us. We knew we had to make it to the top before they got to us so we picked up our pace. There's nothing like clinging to a side of a mountain seeing a heavy storm creeping closer to you to really get your heart pumping. Thankfully, and by some miracle, we reached the point where the terrain flattened out just a mere 300ft below the Peak. Quickly glancing around we find a car-sized boulder with which we can shelter while the storm passed. We made it to the boulder just as it started to hail. Once the storm passed, we came out of hiding and finally pulled out our maps. This is when we realized we had gotten way off track and did not in fact climb the West Gully. Instead of being on the north side of the mountain, we had climbed towards the south side. We decided the best plan would be to hike around the side of the mountain back to our intended route, completely foregoing hiking to the top of Wind River Peak. We were too exhausted, too hungry and severely dehydrated to even fathom hiking up any more. We were just forever thankful we made it that far without any serious injuries. However, it would not be an easy hike back to the intended route. The side of the mountain is made up of yet even more boulders, and with our exhausted legs, we were very slow passing over them. Around 4:30 Stud began experience extreme altitude sickness and started throwing up over the side of the mountain. At this point I knew we had to find a flat area to shelter in immediately. Stud kept getting worse while I kept desperately looking for some level terrain to set up camp. We finally found a flat rocky area just passed a snow field to set up our tent. Stud quickly laid down in his sleeping bag while I quickly set up the tent while watching him to make sure his condition didn't worsen. I had one finger on our Garmin's SOS button ready to make the call if needed. I knew he was getting better when he asked for some dinner, and thankfully we had Skurka's Pesto noodles which I thought would be easy on his stomach. I didn't eat dinner that night for fear of not making it back out the next day so I saved our last meal in case we needed dinner the next night. Fortunately, I didn't mind as the views at that campsite were some of the best we've ever had. While our circumstances weren't great, it was the by far our favorite campsite. By the time the sun went down Stud was feeling much better and we both slept soundly. If you want to see our intended route vs. our actual route go here.
Day 7 (We really hate rocks) - Wind River Peak > Bruce Bridge Trailhead
We awoke around 5:30 hoping to get an early start but it was pouring rain with howling winds so we stayed tucked in our tent hoping it would soon pass. At sunrise the rain stopped and the winds died down enough that we could pack our gear. We had a gorgeous view of the sunrise from the mountain while eating breakfast. I calculated that we had less than a mile to get back on our intended route before we could start heading down the mountain. Unfortunately, this hiking consisted of even more large boulders (starting to see the pattern?) and I overshot our route by hiking ~0.5mi past it. With phone and Gaia GPS in one hand I backtracked with a strong desire to find the intended route quickly. Eventually we had a clear view of the visible route down the mountain and charged straight toward it. We finally got off of the boulders and onto an open tundra that acted as a ramp down to Deep Creek Lakes. We were so close to being back on trail that we quickly rushed down, stopping only to refill on water. When we finally did reach the trail we nearly kissed the ground knowing that we no longer had to use a map and compass for the rest of the day. We had ~15mi back to the car and it was already 10:30 so we really got to hiking quickly. The boulders and rocks from the past few days had messed up my feet and I was really beginning to feel it. Blisters were forming and skin was rubbing off but I hiked through the pain, knowing that we had to get back to the car that afternoon. We finally got back on Pinto Park Trail, a familiar trail we had hiked on Day 1. By midday the sun was really starting to warm the air and we were soaking wet from sweat. We were stopping every 30min to drink water and soak in whatever shade we could find. But we could almost taste the burgers we were about to devour so we didn't stop for more than a minute each time. We finally made it back to the trailhead at 6, eternally grateful that we had made it back to our car alive and without any serious injuries. I think it will be a while before we gather enough courage to try off trail hiking again.
Gear that worked

• Andrew's guyline system: The week before our trip we reconfigured our Stratospire's guyline system the way Andrew suggested and this saved our asses on more than one occasion. It was super easy to set up and allowed us to get a perfect pitch even on rocky terrain.
• Skurka's Peanut Pasta and Pesto Pasta: This was our first trip that we had homemade meals instead of prepackaged meals. Highly suggested checking out some of Skurka's meals.
• Katabatic Flex 22: Much softer than my HG Econ Burrow. I thoroughly enjoyed the strap system and zippered footbox. It was probably a bit too warm for this trip but I kept the footbox open most nights and was quite comfortable.
• Glacier Bay Sun Gloves: Skurka's recommendation and definitely saved my hands from being sunburnt or scraped up by rocks. Highly recommend.
• Chamois Butt'r: Best anti-chafing cream hands down. We use this on all of our backpacking trips and have never had any problems. One small packet lasts both of us two days.
• Culo Clean Bidet: Need to work on my bidet technique but we definitely saved on toilet paper.
• Kula Cloth: Another bathroom must have.
• Ursack Allmitey + Opsak: We followed Ursack's instructions and never had any problems with bears or rodents.

Gear that was meh

• Salomon X Ultra 3 Aero: While they worked better than my previous trail runners, I'm still looking for the perfect shoes for technical/rocky conditions. The off-trail sections among boulder fields led to lots of blisters and bruised toenails. One of my mistakes was forgetting to bring our anti-friction toe cream. That probably could have saved me some blisters.

Hi. Just received my Versa 3 today, been using it most of the day so some early impressions. This is from the perspective of a first smartwatch...I havent felt the need to have one before but I wanted something to GPS track without nuking my phone battery.
Also it's from the perspective of a Hiker rather than a runner or cyclist... :)
Pros: Screen looks great. Does basically everything I need (want) it to. Battery life UI/usability GPS tracking
Cons: Strap Isn't multitasking (more on this below) Some annoyances in general The strap (it's really that bad)
​
So I received my Versa 3 this morning. Setup was simple...put it on the charger, downloaded the fitbit app and registered, connected the device, connected to WiFi (is DHCP only though, no way to set static IP if you wanted to do that) and downloaded the first update.
No issues updating...took around 15 minutes and most of that time was actually downloading the update.
I'll get this out the way first...the strap is appalling. It's uncomfortable, it seemingly makes me really itch. Why can't it be a normal watch strap like Garmin uses or even a strap like my trust Casio F-91W? It's awkward and uncomfortable...and a ridiculous design choice.
Also a ridiculous choice is changing the strap mechanism to attach it to the watch. OK It's quick and easy but I'm unsure how strong it's going to be over time as it snaps into place effortlessly...only time will tell there. But also, there was already a large selection of straps available for the Versa line. Now there's either expensive fitbit straps (that you can't get yet...) or really cheap chinese straps that, for the most part, seem to mimic the awful design of the standard fitbit strap. I quite like the look of the fitbit woven strap or sports strap but...I don't know how comfortable they would be and if they'd do your skin any good...and they aren't cheap.
After that...using the device is pretty simple. I immediately set up a PIN lock...which was slightly annoying but understandable...as in it was still charging and has wrist detection, so if you're wearing it, it only asks for your PIN to unlock it every 24 hours but when you aren't wearing it it seems to ask you after a minute or so usage. I'm actually quite happy with that as taking it off makes it require a PIN basically straight away. I haven't needed to enter the PIN once when wearing it so detection there is good (probably won't ask while it detects a heartrate?)
Navigation, the swipe gestures make sure you start from the very edge of the screen glass (not the screen as it has a fairly sizeable bezel) and you shouldnt run into too many issues. Swipe from the left on any app to get back to the app list or home screen. Swipe from the left for quick settings and battey level (can't move, add or replace anything there), swipe from the right to get to the app list, 4 per screen but they can be rearranged as you see fit so your most commonly used apps can be on the first screen etc (nice!). Swipe down from the top for notifications as you would on android. Can't swipe left from here so either push the "button" or swipe upwards to close the notifications. Finally, swipe up from the bottom for widgets. If you scroll all the way to the bottom from there you can manage, add, remove widgets.
From any screen you can press the "button" to go straight back to the homescreen (clock face).
The much maligned "button" I've had no issues with. forefinger on the right side, thumb on the "button", give it a squeeze and it detects the press basically every time for me...double presses for the shortcut menu is a little awkward but not too much of an issue. Long press I'm not using yet but it seems to work well enough when I tried it.
Notification support is good. e-mail notifications, SMS all come through fine. Can reply via voice dictation which is...hit and miss, depending on how I speak it can get things really wrong but if I'm slow and deliberate I can dictate a message OK...I probably wouldn't try to do anything too long else frustration at re-trying may set in! Quick responses work well. The APP notifications...well you have a long list of apps and you can enable as many as you want (from the fitbit app on your phone, can't set this up from the watch). I've enabled it for Discord and Skype. It works well...for Skype it even has the Skype icon on the notification.
Vibration for notification is good, I've got it on low. No issues there, high isn't a huge increase in vibration but it's noticeable. Personal preference.
Thankfully you can uninstall a good few of the preloaded apps, Deezer went straight away.
You can changed the 4 shortcuts when double pressing the "button" in settings and also change the long press shortcut.
Spotify app works well. Can select playlists or recently played albums but can't search for things to play. You can also select playback device, so I was playing Spotify on a Nest Mini, went into another room and could switch playback to another device from the watch (nice!).
Weather uses accuweather...I have no opinions on this so weather accuracy will depend on accuweather. :)
One annoyance was trying to change the clock to 24 hour. Couldn't find anywhere to do it on the device or the fitbit app. Googling around it turns out you have to login on the fitbit website and set it there...and it's been like this for years? Why?! Something so basic and you need to really go out of your way to find it?
Another annoyance is the battery % only seems to be visible on the quick settings page (more on this irritation shortly).
While I'm on a roll, another thing is "Music Controls" (not spotify app), which are only accessible (once set up in settings) via a double press of the "button" if you haven't taken it out of one of your 4 shortcuts...need a second bluetooth connection to the phone. This means your phone will constantly show a connected bluetooth device (while the standard connection from the watch to your phone doesn't show this and seems to work more passively)...why music control can't be done through the same connection I don't know?
I've got no thoughts on heart rate or steps accuracy as I have nothing to compare it to :) Doesn't seem too bad though?
UI lag itself...OK I see the odd stutter from time to time but it's nothing terrible, yeah it isn't buttery smooth but I doubt it's running a Core i9 in there...I mean with the battery life it won't be anything super fast.
Double tapping on the screen, especially when it's on the charger, to wake it up is more miss than hit. Responsiveness when the screen is off is lacklustre.
The exercise app, you can't remove or re-arrange the activities in it but recently used appear at the top so I'll give that a pass.
So after wearing it around the house for a bit I went for a hike in the forest. Using the Hike activity so all my thoughts are based purely on this. :) Took a minute or so for it to acquire GPS. I only had one dropout of GPS in a tunnel but it re-acquired a lock pretty fast. The info you get when you've started an activity is pretty good. You can change the top and bottom fields to whatever you want - I left them as standard (top distance, bottom time elapsed). The middle field you have a checklist of things you can display. You can choose what to show in the middle by swiping left and right from the main activity window and it's infinity scroll so you only really need to swipe one way if you can't remember where it is you're trying to get to ;) Swiping up from the bottom, first there's buttons to pause or end then carry on scrolling and there's a whole load of stats relevent to your hike...which are basically the centre field on the main activity screen you can swipe between...
Now the annoyances (and the multitasking I mentioned in Cons!) Yeah it isn't a multitasking device at all. If you happen to be listening to Spotify while you're in an exercise, you firstly can't get back to the homescreen. Nor the app drawer. And if like me you have Spotify as one of the 4 double tap shortcuts...if you try to launch Spotify from there, you have to close the exercise app thus ending your recording! Same with settings, if you happen to have settings as one of the 4 shortcuts, if you try to load that you have to end the activity. Want to check on the weather because clouds are moving in? Have to end the activity.
Which means you can't even see the battery % while you're in an activity...OK you can by either looking at the fitbit app on your phone or having quick settings as one of your 4 shortcuts but then you're just starting to really limit yourself. And I suppose because able to access music controls is sort of ok as you can change volume, skip tracks or pause without taking your phone out but still isn't a great solution and also needs that pesky second connection to your phone.
Tracking accuracy itself...elevation doesn't look overestimated like my standard GPS app on my phone...uses Google maps but can't zoom in to see how accurate it is, not that it matters because Google maps isn't exactly detailed. Also can't export a GPX file while is...not great as I'd want to upload the route to a high detail mapping site/app.
Battery life is good. After a 4 hour trek (and a couple of hours on my wrist before hand), the battery dropped down to 65%. That's receiving a lot of notifications too and a fair amount of screen on time as it was the first trip and i was constantly looking at stats. So I can definitely see 10+ hours of GPS usage easily out of this.
All in all I'm pretty pleased, bar the lack of multitasking...and the strap.
Physically though...I don't know if I'd be comfortable taking it to the mountains...It isn't exactly a rugged device. It's more of an every day/lifestyle fitness smartwatch?
I was torn between the Versa 3 and the Garmin Instinct...which can be bought for not a lot more than the fitbit...but the Garmin Instinct is a big chunky watch and...doesn't seem AS useful as an every day watch. It's great for hiking in the mountains and is properly rugged...but for every day usage? That's why I went for the Versa 3. Also the Instinct I'd want is really the Instinct Solar which is another 50% of the cost on top of the original Instinct.
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So in short... If you want a good, affordable every day Fitness/Lifestyle smartwatch, the Versa 3 is pretty damn good. If you want a rugged affordable hiking watch rather than something to wear all day every day I'd be tempted to go for the Garmin Instinct instead... If you're feeling lush and have the extra to spend (or it's reduced a lot) then the Garmin Instinct Solar (which its more efficient and upgraded sensors/internals and vastly superior battery life) would be a great buy. If you've recently won the lottery then the Garmin Fenix 6/6X Pro (sapphire ;) ) although they aren't as rugged as the instinct but have maps...I need to win the lottery.
Still, I'm pleased with the Versa 3. I'll see how it goes :) (and I'll hope to replace this damn strap).