The purpose of this buying guide is to help you find the best
GPS running watches for your workout lifestyle.
Here are links to the complete guide:
GPS Running watches are a tremendous tool for both today's more sophisticated athletes as well as newbies to working out. Whether you want sophisticated data for your training regiment or just to see data and monitor your progress to make your workouts more fun, GPS watches are a great addition to your workout equipment (whether for running or swimming or even bicycling).
With that in mind, there are many GPS running watches on the market with a wide variety of features. Which one is best for you?
Let's go through our buying guide and we'll help you out!
GPS Running Watches Today
With the advent of GPS navigation systems, we are finding more and more uses for them. While GPS is usually related to location, GPS running watches are not so much for helping you in case you get lost or for you to map out your run: by locking your location into GPS satellites you can get accurate data on your cycling and running.
You will know exactly your running speed, and depending on what kind of data your software or your watch can retrieve, it can give you your mile-per-minute data by the mile or even by the minute.
You can even get elevation data as well. As an example, below is a recent 13-mile run one of our staff went on and the data from their GPS software.
Why You Want A GPS Running Watch
First, just some understanding on why you would want a GPS running watch.
While GPS usually is used for direction and so you won't get lost, GPS at its core is to determine your location. And the primary reason to get a GPS running watch: it's for you to get accurate readings of your distance you run, duration of your run, and get better ideas of your pacing and exact details and measurements of your workouts.
GPS watches can measure your motion very accurately. It can even record lap times for you and split times without you having to intervene and press any buttons.
A GPS running watch can get you all this data so you can really refine your training instead of just making it all guesswork. And for those that don't really "need" to be that serious about workouts, having this information still does make running more fun and interesting: a little extra motivation never hurt.
For that reason, amongst the criteria for picking out GPS watches is a GPS that works well. This means:
This means fast satellite linking and accurate tracking. (A quick note on this:
Garmin GPS watches are pretty much the leaders in this area which is why their GPS running watches are so wildly successful. More on that in
"Our Recommendations" section coming soon.
All other features of GPS watches will vary in priority depending on your situation. Nowadays, GPS running watches come with a variety of special features, though many of them you may never end up using: and sometimes the more features on the watch that you won't use.
Two Key Features
The two most important features you will want to focus on for your GPS running watches are:
Linking up to GPS satellites: while you would think waiting a few minutes versus just a few seconds is not a big deal, when you're out there ready to run it is surprisingly aggravating to have to wait for your watch to link up. And not just link up, but stay up despite trees and other environmental obstructions. A good example of a GPS watch with fast linking and great signal maintenance is the
Garmin Forerunner 410 (pictured right)
GPS Accuracy: You of course need accurate tracking if you.re going to get accurate data on your pace, distance, etc. Garmin in general has the best on the market in GPS accuracy in wristwatch form.he harder it might be to navigate to the features that you do want.
Without these two important features, your GPS watch will not be very useful no matter what other features they have.
We will talk about this and other features in our next two buying guides.
That Concludes This Portion Of Our Buying Guide
Now that you know a brief overview of
GPS running watches, we will spend the next two sections of our buying guide to help you get to know the various features of
GPS running watches you can consider while doing your research.
Stay tuned for:
How To Buy A GPS Running Watch Part 2: GPS Running watch features.
Here are links to the complete guide:
Cheers!
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