The Cheetah Pro ($300) is Amazfit’s best smartwatch yet—boasting a decent battery life, an AMOLED touch display, multi-band GPS, and a full slate of tri features—but it does have issues with usability and accuracy.

Pros

• Better-than-advertised battery life
• Surprisingly excellent and bright AMOLED touchscreen and watch faces
• Crazy amount of features/functions/sport modes
• Decent built-in run coaching
• Light weight
• Competitive price

Cons

• Hit-or-miss GPS/elevation accuracy
• Maybe too many functions
• Inconsistent touchscreen/bevel/buttons performance
• No running with power
• Very limited on-watch post-workout data

Amazfit Cheetah Pro Review

I’ll start this off by saying that this isn’t the first Amazfit watch I’ve tried out. I had a chance to check out one of their previous, super-affordable sport-focused smartwatches, but I didn’t rate it high enough to even warrant a review. It felt so unfinished and beta, I didn’t even know where to begin.

Amazfit is a Chinese brand, established in 2015 with very, very limited presence in North America. Most of their smartwatches are a little more “lifestyle” focused. Think: cheaper Fitbit.

As such, their limited traction in the U.S., coupled with limited interest in endurance sports—especially triathlon, with its open-water swim/tri/multisport features—means it probably isn’t on a lot of athlete’s radars. But with the release of the mostly capable Cheetah Pro, Amazfit is worth another look (with a few caveats, below).

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The Basics

Like many “endurance sports-focused” smartwatches in the $300 price range, the Cheetah Pro ticks the multisport basics—open-water and pool swimming, cycling (though not advanced metrics), running (including only cadence and stride length as advanced metrics), triathlon, and customizable multisport mode (for brick workouts, duathlon, swimrun, etc.). It departs from the typical $300 smartwatch feature list when you get into stuff like the super-bright (and quite pretty) Gorilla glass-covered AMOLED screen, multiband GPS, offline mapping, offline music, a built-in speaker and mic, and a battery life that in our experience exceeds the 14-day published spec. Features like this you usually find in the $450+ smartwatch range.

Granted, not everything is executed perfectly (or even well), but there are so many sports and everyday, “lifestyle” features on this watch—with limited documentation and iffy on-watch navigation—it’s actually difficult to find or use them all. Read on for what works and what doesn’t.

Amazfit Cheetah Pro Review: The Good

As mentioned, there is an absolute embarrassment of riches when it comes to functions, and, while we’ll get into a few that are missing, it’s tough to find something on your smartwatch wishlist that isn’t built into the Cheetah Pro. Tri-important functions like open-water swim, triathlon mode, and multisport mode all work well enough for 95 percent of a triathlete’s needs, and we found each customizable (enough) to present the data fields you want for most training or racing applications.

In terms of hardware, the touchscreen is definitely a pleasant surprise at this price. It’s tough to find a decent AMOLED screen on a sports-capable smartwatch for under $400—the Garmin Forerunner 265 series (which also has a Gorilla Glass AMOLED touchscreen) is probably the closest, and it runs $450. We can confirm that the screen is quite responsive, with minimal ghosting, and the colors are bright and vibrant, even in direct daylight, without completely tanking the battery life. On that note, though Amazfit advertises 14 days of basic use and seven days of heavy use (read: triathlon-level training), we actually found it exceeded these projections by a good amount. We got somewhere between 15–20 days using the always-on display for everyday use, and around 10–15 days with a good slate of workouts thrown in.

The Cheetah Pro also has physiological metrics, like “performance readiness,” recovery, and workout impact—as well as AI run coaching. Further testing could confirm the accuracy of these metrics (maybe), but they were oddly different than our Garmin Enduro 2 control. The important note is that you’ll again get functions usually found on $400+ devices, on a watch that costs far less—and they’re easy to use and understand.

One of the big drawbacks of Amazfit’s previous sports-focused smartwatches was their impossible-to-use user interfaces. The menus were tough to navigate, the settings abstract and not super useful. It’s worth noting that Amazfit has made amazing progress on their UI, and though it’s far from perfect, it’s at least competitive with brands like Suunto, Garmin. Polar, and Coros. The menus make sense, they’re mostly easy to navigate, and they pair well with the AMOLED touchscreen.

Amazfit Cheetah Pro Review: The OK

While the feature list is impressive, and on paper the hardware totally outperforms at this price point, a few lingering issues make the Cheetah Pro a little more “beta” than the finished product you’d see from top competitive brands such as those listed above.

To start, the multi-band GPS is somehow inconsistent when compared with other multi-band GPS smartwatches. On-land distance consistency wasn’t too bad, except in deep canyons, but in the open water we found variances of 10 to 20 percent both relative to the Cheetah Pro (same route, multiple laps, below) and when compared to traditionally excellent open-water smartwatches like the Garmin Enduro 2 or Fenix 7-series. While these variances might not seem like a lot, if you set your lap timer to go off every 500 meters during an open-water interval workout, you could be doing a 400 or you could be doing a 600 from lap to lap. That’s quite a bit.

Elsewhere, but slightly less importantly, we found the elevation gain to differ vastly from high-end smartwatches (below), with very unusual variances in steep terrain. At first, we assumed this was due to a lack of a barometric altimeter (common on smartwatches under $400), but the feature list says the Cheetah Pro is baro-equipped, so the discrepancy is a bit of a mystery.

We also found the performance of both the touchscreen and the buttons (which include a rotating bevel, oddly similar to much of ) to be slightly inconsistent—functioning most of the time, but not always. And after only a few ocean swims (with the recommended fresh water flushing), we had some rough play in the rotating bevel, though it still worked.

Finally, smaller things—like no run power (though it does have somewhat advanced running metrics like stride length and cadence), a very limited on-watch post-workout data screen (forcing you to use the Zepp app, which is actually very good), and intermittent issues with smartphone connectivity—might not be make-or-break for the Cheetah Pro, but it does show that Amazfit isn’t 100% there when it comes to their sport-focused devices.

Conclusions

When compared to the previous Amazfit models that I’ve tried (and hated), the Cheetah Pro might as well be from another brand. Clearly, Amazfit spent some serious time on this smartwatch, spoke to actual athletes, and did some R&D before releasing it into the wild. Also, more than a few menus and UI elements (along with the shape and button style) do look eerily similar to some of Coros’ stuff—if you’re going to “borrow,” you could borrow from worse. Most of the issues we had are pretty small, but some of the hardware problems—like GPS accuracy, elevation gain accuracy, and button/touchscreen inconsistencies show that Amazfit might have ticked the boxes, but still have some ways to go if they’re to compete with Garmin, Suunto, Polar, or Coros—excellent price aside.

Meanwhile, $300 is an absolute bargain for an AMOLED touchscreen smartwatch with a ridiculous amount of sports functions (and a surprising amount of great lifestyle functions that almost no one else is trying in a sports-focused smartwatch, like the speaker and mic).

We obviously only scratched the surface on all of the different features in the Cheetah Pro, but an exhaustive review would end up a tome—especially since the features and functions don’t always work quite as advertised. Bottom line: if you’re looking for a smartwatch under $400 and you need a nice, bright color touchscreen, you literally won’t find anything else that works for tri—but you might need to sacrifice some accuracy in the meantime.

The post The Bargain-Priced, Full-Function Smartwatch You’ve Never Heard Of appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

On Tuesday, U.S. special counsel (and triathlete) Jack Smith filed a federal criminal indictment against former president Donald Trump. While the wide-ranging indictment involves questions surrounding Trump’s role in the 2020 election, the real question multisport athletes everywhere want answered this week: How “triathlete” is Jack Smith?

To help you sort through the partisan toxic sludge of news and opinion overflowing from this week’s flaming dumpster of a news cycle, we’ve compiled eight real, unbiased tri facts about special counsel Jack Smith so you can arm yourself with enough ammo to totally trigger your Facebook friends’ and family’s social feeds—no matter which side of the aisle they land.

1. Jack Smith has competed at two WTS (ITU) Long Distance Triathlon World Championships.

Smith competed for the U.S. in 2008 at the Almere-Amsterdam ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championships in the 35-39 age group and at the 2018 ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championships in the 45-49 age group. Being a member of Team USA does bode well for Smith’s level of patriotism.

2. Jack Smith is also a duathlete.

We won’t stir up the whole triathlete vs. pot here—it could get uglier than anything political already out there about the man—but we’ll just leave it here that he competed at long-course duathlon worlds in 2018 in Fyn, Denmark, and in 2019 in Pontevedra, Spain. Save your comments on tri/du for social.

3. Jack Smith finished the Hawaii Ironman World Championships in 2014 in 13:53:59.

As a top age-group athlete in the 45-49 division with a PR “in the 10-hour range” according toÌę, it’s no surprise that Smith raced in Kona against the best in the world. Sure, there might be throngs of people jeering him wherever he goes today, but he can always think back to memories of crowds cheering him down Ali’i drive.

Clearly suffering in the heat and humidity of the hot Hawaiian sun and Madam Pele’s relentless winds along the Queen K, Smith came out of the water in 1:30, rode a 7:15 bike split, and finished his day to the sound of Mike Reilly’s voice with a 4:52 run. Though it wasn’t close to his “10-hour range” PR, finishing Kona is still finishing Kona. Do you want a special counsel or aÌęsuper fast special counsel?

4. Jack Smith has done “over 100 triathlons.”

Smith said inÌęÌęin 2018 that as of November 2017 he had done 100 triathlons, including nine “Ironmans” and over 20 halfs. With Trump’s indictment spanning 45 pages, it’s a good thing that Smith has years of experience filling out that many entry forms.

5. Jack Smith is a better biker and runner than swimmer.

With two appearances at duathlon world championships, this makes sense; his results show him in the 1:20-1:30 range for an Ironman swim, but he bikes in the 2:30 range for a 56-mile 70.3 split and runs around 1:35-1:45 for a half. Will swimmers get behind Smith’s investigatory style? Will he have enough biker and runner allies to get him to the finish line of a trial?

6. Jack Smith is “a ‘literally insane’ cyclist and triathlete.”

According toÌęÌęwith former Eastern District of New York colleague Moe Fodeman, Smith’s tenacity as an investigator who “leaves no stone unturned” and “drills down to get to the true facts,” is due in part to his multisport mastery.

7. Jack Smith raced 70.3 World Championships back in 2006.

Having competed in tris since 2002, Smith has been a competitive age grouper for well over a decade, and he finished with a time of 4:38:54 to put himself at 102nd place for the 35-38 age group back at 70.3 Worlds. While his 36:15 swim, 2:21:15 bike, and 1:34:47 run shows that he’s no Johnny-come-lately to multisport, what does it mean for investigating political malfeasance?

8. There is a pro triathlete also named Jack Smith.

Though he does slightly resemble a younger version of the special counsel, the Australian (whoseÌęÌęand Google searches are probably blowing up huge right now) is very fast—he finished Ironman Western Australia last year with a time of 9:26.

Aussie pro Jack Smith, if you’re reading this: You might want to turn off comments in your socials for the next year.

The post The Lawyer Investigating Donald Trump Is a Triathlete. Here are 8 Things to Know About Him. appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

that American pro triathlete Collin Chartier tested positive for EPO from an out-of-competition test performed on February 10, 2023. Upon receipt of the positive test, Chartier admitted to the use of the banned substance to the agency, and as a result received a reduced ban of three years, down from four according to the ITA.

Erythropoietin, known as EPO, is prohibited under World Anti-Doping Agency regulations because it stimulates erythropoiesis (red blood cell production) and can modify the body’s capacity to transport oxygen, increasing stamina, and performance.

In a social media post released on Monday morning, Chartier went on to further admit his use of a “PED in November after feeling like I have lost my way in the sport,” due to “intense pressure and expectations to win the biggest races in 2024.” His post went on to say that he had no plans to return to the sport after the three-year ban was lifted.

Despite having a relatively inauspicious short course career, Chartier was an up-and-coming triathlete in the long-course scene.

Coached by Mikal Iden, the brother of reigning Ironman world champion Gustav, he was a shock winner of last year’s inaugural PTO U.S. Open in Dallas in September where he won $100,000 topping a highly competitive field including Magnus Ditlev and Sam Long.

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Training alongside two-time Ironman world championship runner-up Lionel Sanders, the victory came three weeks after his first full-distance Ironman victory in Mont-Tremblant. Chartier then had a disappointing debut in Hawaii in the Ironman World Championship in October when he finished 35th.

Prior to those results, Chartier’s highest competitive finish was a win at Challenge Salou in October 2021 and a third-place finish at 70.3 Boulder in August of the same year.

Fellow pros posting in response to Chartier’s Instagram message gave mixed comments, with 2014 Ironman world champion Sebastian Kienle saying: “Let me guess, you bought it on the internet and also learned how to use it – all from the internet. Nobody helped you, nobody knew.”

Former triathlete-turned-elite-runner Lauren Goss commented: “Dude brave of you . No one sees the mental health side. Walk through the fire.”

Despite being PTO-ranked No 14 and an automatic qualifier, Chartier was not on the start-list for May’s big money PTO European Open in Ibiza. He had originally planned to race Saturday’s Ironman Texas and had been training at altitude in California, Ecuador, and Girona in Spain.

The International Testing Agency (ITA), the testing body who administered and discovered the adverse finding is a Switzerland-based, not-for-profit that claims no connection to “sporting or political powers” on its website. The ITA conducts testing for the Ironman organization from a pool of Ìęas of this writing—which includes Chartier.

Coincidentally, Ironman said that 2023 is the first year the brand has delegated results management and prosecution of doping cases to the ITA. “Testing plans are based on a variety of factors and differ from individual athlete to individual athlete, with review of specific performances, intelligence, and the testing plans of National Anti-Doping agencies to maximize resources,” Ironman said in a statement.

“Ironman does acknowledge the significance of the decision made by Collin in promptly accepting responsibility for his actions.”

The post A Pro Triathlete Admitted to Doping After Testing Positive for EPO appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

We’ve reviewed Apple watches before, and, in the past, have always told endurance athletes, “It’s a nice watch, but it’s not really for what you do.” That’s especially true for those, like triathletes, who train every day, usually twice per day, and have a particular affinity for data, accuracy, and workout organization. Apple watches have great apps, beautiful screens, and the best touchscreens in the game, but their built-in workout profiles and post-data analysis have left something to be desired. And the battery life—oh the battery life!

But now, with the release of their “adventure-focused” Apple Watch Ultra, Apple has—for better or for worse—thrown its hat in the endurance sports ring with the big boys. I wore the watch for a week of workouts—running, cycling, and swimming once or twice a day—plus during a mini-triathlon to see how it holds up to real-world endurance use. Here’s what’s new, what I liked as I spent hours using it, what I didn’t like, and my conclusions.

Apple Watch Ultra: What’s New

Before I get into the specifics that make the Apple Watch Ultra an endurance/outdoor contender, let’s quickly take a look at what’s new:

• Increased battery life – Though Apple advertises 36 hours of smartwatch use, I found that even with workouts once or twice per day, I got three days between charges with all functions on (that’s 72 hours, twice the promised duration). They’ve also told us that, using overall low-power mode, there’s enough GPS-on workout time to do a long-distance triathlon—which I haven’t had a chance to test. The overall low-power mode reduces the frequency of smartphone “check ins,” disables the always-on display, and a few other non-essential background tasks without lessening the resolution of heart rate or GPS while working out. Better yet, the Ultra will soon have a low-power workout mode that gives you 60 hours of smartphone time with 15 hours of working out. This low-power workoutÌęmode will give even more training/racing time, but with fewer GPS and heart-rate data points.

• New case –ÌęThe updated Apple Watch Ultra case is 49mm and has a raised lip around the screen—as opposed to the rounded screen on previous models—and a bigger digital crown.

• New “Action” button –ÌęOn the left of the case, Apple has added a new “action button” that can be assigned to various tasks like a quick workout start, a quick stopwatch start, and various actions within workouts—depending on the workout profile.

• “Precision Start”– This one is a little weird, but Apple (finally, finally) has a selectable mode that allows you to actually start a workout when you hit start or press the action button, as opposed to its maddening “3
2
1” countdown.
• Better sound – Though not exactly a sports-related feature, the Apple Watch Ultra has a three-microphone array that helps reduce wind noise outdoors by self-selecting a mic based on wind direction. Apple has also installed a dual speaker system (yes, on a watch) that is substantially louder than previous watches.
• Updates to watchOS 9 – Though many of these updates may end up on other watches, new workout features like triathlon (which we’ll dig into below), multisport (for bricks and nonstandard swim/bike/run events), and automatic track detection (coming soon) are huge for endurance athletes. In more general updates, Apple has included compass waypoints and backtracking, as well as a new “Siren” alarm system and a host of diving functions we won’t get into here.
• LTE – Ok, this isn’t new, but it’s included on the Watch Ultra, and unlike previous iterations, you don’t have a choice. Apple says 18 hours of “all-day LTE,” but that’s just for walking around. For working out, it’s substantially less. Apple didn’t have an exact figure, but they did say that the low power mode required to do an iron-distance triathlon would mean substantially fewer “check-ins” with LTE. So yes, you could do an event and be tracked if you wanted (with the “Find My” function), but it wouldn’t necessarily be effective in low power mode for an Ironman.

Apple Watch Ultra: What We Like

As noted before, the Apple Watch series was always a bit frustrating for athletes—the super limiting battery life meant you had to charge it pretty much every night, and you couldn’t go on super long rides, or adventures, or race long-course tri or ultraruns with it. Even if you loved everything else about the Apple Watch, that was always a deal breaker. The good news is that with the increased battery life and low-power options, you’re looking at a smartwatch that can effectively handle nearly any workout, event, or outdoor adventure that you could throw at it. Apple also teased a low-power workout mode that would give additional battery life, but with reduced resolution of GPS and heart-rate readings coming soon.

Battery life aside, the more robust build of the Apple Watch Ultra makes it feel less like a piece of fine art and more like a tool for training. And it’s not just looks—the raised lip of the case protects the precious screen better than previous models by a ton. It’s also safe to say that the “Precision Start” function and “Action” buttons are both things that pretty much every other smartwatch ever made already has, but both were gaps missing in Apple’s exhaustive function quiver.

With all of this combined, the Apple Watch Ultra is a solid watch for anyone training for a triathlon or a marathon or really any other endurance sports activity—regardless of distance. șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű of training, Apple’s “lifestyle functions”—things like text messaging, weather, music, third-party apps, contactless payment, and (way, way) more—are basically unparalleled. Yes, Fitbit has some fun stuff and a nice screen, but Apple is still lightyears ahead of any competitor when it comes to smartwatch power and integrations. As an example: The three-mic setup is nothing short of magic when making calls on the watch—no one is even remotely trying to do this stuff, except for Apple. It’s also a decent (yes, just decent, more on that below) outdoor adventure watch.

Also, let’s not forget that since the untimely demise of the Forerunner 945 LTE, this is one of the only full-function workout watches with legit batteryÌęand LTE connectivity. So if you like to go training (or racing!) untethered to your phone, like so many of us do, this is still one of the only ways to stay in touch via LTE. That’s not nothing.

Apple Watch Ultra: What Could Be Better

Many of the “outdoor” functions like navigation and mapping are still on-grid. If the Apple Watch Ultra is supposed to speak to the hardcore adventure set, the lack of offline mapping and navigation seems like nothing more than an oversight (or lack of a mapping partner, maybe), and the compass waypoints and retroactive backtracking—while cool—aren’t exactly going to save your life in the backcountry. The battery is better, for sure, but to consider this a multi-day hiking and backpacking watch over something more expedition-worthy is reckless at best. If you’re with a group of friends backpacking for a week, it’s probably not a bad choice, but if you’re doing a solo multi-day adventure or tackling an unsupported fastest known time (FKT), I wouldn’t count on the Ultra as your only navigational tool, like you could for other upper-end adventure watches like the Coros Vertix 2 or the Garmin Fenix 7/Enduro line.

In terms of more workout-specific capabilities, the battery life (finally) brings the Apple Watch into the realm of long endurance athletes like triathletes and ultra runners, but it still lacks some of the data power that both groups might really need. Triathletes should be encouraged that this is a watch they can finally do a full Ironman with (and all of the related Ironman training), but many serious long-course triathletes might be frustrated by the lack of native cycling power connectivity. The multisport crew might also complain about a lack of open-water swimming distance alerts that pretty much all open-water ready smartwatches have right now. And while native running with power is a total game changer for the ultra/trail running set, given that currently only Polar and Coros have that built-in, serious runners might take issue with how inflexible the power metrics are in the workout screens. Yes, having average power and average three-second power is great (and the ability to move those metrics around), but lap power is sometimes just as important, if not more.

Finally, there’s the Gucci-patterned elephant in the room: The price. Sometimes it feels like Apple gets a bit of a pass on pricepoint because it has so many great lifestyle integrations and really cutting-edge hardware, but because Apple wants to play with the long-distance training/adventure crowd now, they need to stand and be compared to other smartwatches in that world (see our competitive comparison below). Eight-hundred dollars gets youÌęa lot of smartwatch in the endurance/adventure realm—for instance, the Garmin Fenix 7 or Forerunner 955 series or the Coros Vertix 2. All of those watches have some very very robust training modes, loads of customizable sport functions, navigation, and insane battery life. No, none have a beautiful screen, smartphone integrations, or LTE like the Apple Watch Ultra, but in terms of working out/navigating the outdoors, they’re still on another level.

Apple Watch Ultra: For Triathletes

The best part of the Apple Watch Ultra? That triathletes, especially long-course triathletes, finally have a valid choice in the Apple lineup. Assuming you’re not interested in cycling power connectivity (most triathletes probably use a cycling computer for that), and the fact that there are no open-water distance alerts (bummer), this new watch not only goes the distance in battery life, but it has something special, just for us: Automatic triathlon transitions.

Yes, Wahoo already scooped Apple with their own automatic transition function that can tell you’re going from swim to transition to bike to transition to run—and mark each one—but Apple’s new Ultra Watch actually does it better. In our tests against the Wahoo Rival, the Ultra outperformed the Rival in accuracy between transitions every time. (Note: The Ultra also does manual transitions with the action button, as well.) Though you can’t go back and edit your transitions like you can in the Wahoo app and “fix” any mistakes in marking transitions, the Ultra did a fantastic job of knowing when I went from sport to sport to sport.

The addition of a “room” with various multisport configurations—things like run-bike-run, swim-run-swim, etc.—is also a great addition to the Apple Watch OS ecosystem, as you can finally do bricks or nonstandard multisport events, with just a little bit of preplanning.

On the note of workouts, the Apple Watch Ultra does have some cool built-in workouts that you can select when you’re feeling uninspired by your training program, and of course you can create and edit your own workouts on watch—without the need for an app. Apple also says there will be a “track detection” feature coming soon that will actually recognize—via Apple Maps data—that you’re in proximity to a track (U.S. only), and prompt you if you’re going to be running on it. If so, you’ll choose a lane, and it’ll snap the GPS tracking and distances to that track. While other brands like Garmin and Coros have something similar, no one can automatically detect that you’re near a track. For better or for worse, it’s a reminder that the Apple Watch Ultra is paying (very close) attention to you.

Conclusions

In the past, Apple watches have been a great lifestyle smartwatch that integrates incredibly with the Apple ecosystem. They play music send and receive texts, check emails—basically most things a smartphone can do now. They also let you go for casual workouts and track your “fitness” (lowercase) as you went. The Ultra still has all of that. Now, with the Ultra, Apple wants to be considered an endurance sports/adventure outdoors player up against the watches we used to buy to supplement our Apple Watch purchases—from brands like Coros and Garmin and Polar.

Now, instead of having your Apple Watch for going to the office or going out at night, and your “workout watch” for serious swims, rides, runs, hiking, and backpacking, Apple wants to be all of these things: Leave your Garmin at home, let it die. Does Apple fully pull this off? Not quite, but they’re dangerously close. For $800, you’re still not playing in the same sandbox as an $800 Garmin or Coros watch, but if this watch was $500 (with LTE), those brands would be sweating big time. Even so, the issues we have with the Apple Watch Ultra aren’t core issues—I can’t imagine it’d be a tough lift to get offline mapping, especially given that the storage is already there (32 gigabytes). It also doesn’t seem incomprehensible that Apple could somehow get cycling power in the workout app via Bluetooth or add an average lap running power data field.

Apple has proven that they do understand the multisport athlete with the Ultra. They nailed something really complex (the auto transition mode), corrected something basic (“precision timing”), and spent real money and time on something tough (the battery) that signals that endurance athletes are important to them. Having the exhaustive multisport “room” goes a long way as well.

Is this the watch that replaces all of your watches? It very well could be.

For a competitive comparison with the Garmin Fenix 7, Coros Vertix 2, Suunto 9 Peak, Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar and Wahoo Rival, see the bottom of the .

All photos taken by the author

The post The Verdict Is in: The New Apple Watch Ultra Can Handle an Ironman appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

It doesn’t matter if you ran the mile in college, ran it on your high school track team, or ran it in gym class for the (much-dreaded) physical fitness test. The mile looms large in the psyche of pretty much everyone who has dared to put one foot in front of the other and time ourselves doing it. People in the seat next to you on an airplane might not know that a 2:15 marathon is fast, but they probably recognize the significance of a 5-minute or 4-minute mile. Its length makes it manageable and accessible, but that same accessibility also makes it commonly feared: The mile sucks and most everyone knows it.

So before we get into the gory details of my latest mile attempt at age 38, due to the inadvertent goading from this website and its , a little bit more about me. I was a high school track and cross-country standout growing up as a kid in Maryland. After graduating, I ran well enough to talk/walk my way onto the team at Penn State — thanks to an old-school coach who had more interest in developing okay kids from the east coast than importing fast kids from elsewhere and making them slightly faster. As the years progressed, I went from a 4:20-something miler in high school to running a 4:01 1600m leg on Penn State’s school-record-setting DMR as a senior. Now to be clear, I considered myself a steeplechaser and not a miler, though I ran the mile pretty well too.

In the years that followed, I left running behind (sort of) and traded my track spikes for cycling shoes and goggles and my baggy cross-country singlet for a one-piece triathlon suit. I raced around the world, swimming, biking, and running for a job until that one day when I was stretching on the floor of my hotel room, looked up at the desk, and noticed the same sticker I had seen at some point in that same room, years before. Groundhog Day had finally descended on me (the Bill Murray movie, not the weather prediction superstition), and the whole thing felt like swimming, biking, and running in circles. Traveling the world as a pro triathlete had lost its novelty, and it was time for The Next Thing.

Without getting into too many (more) details, I spent the next years running when it was convenient, working hard uphill, maybe doing a road race here or there, and coaching high school cross-country and track. I still ran fairly often, and I was in pretty good shape, but if you had put me in a race with one of my top high school guys, I probably would have walked away sheepishly humbled. I still worked hard from time to time, but I hadn’t truly been measured in that old familiar way in a very very long time.

Then, like it came for everyone, the pandemic hit. Now before your eyes glaze over, this isn’t a story about self-discovery during the coronavirus or about how I learned to slow down and appreciate something or whatever. This is not that. This is still about the mile.

At some point in the last two months, I decided it was time for a new next challenge. Thanks to the fateful appearance of that seemed to scream at me: Chris, you need to run the mile again!, I decided my newest challenge would also be one of my oldest.

Looking at my calendar, I was going on vacation four weeks from the day I read Mario’s story, so I figured I’d cut the plan down, just a little bit. This was fine, I reasoned, because the plan looked like you hadn’t done any hard workouts at the start, and I had already done a few intervals here and there with my high school kids. Plus, I’m a Former College Runner, so yeah, I could cut a corner here or there and still be awesome.

The initial time trial went well — like really well. I ran in a pair of road racing shoes that had been sent to me for a review. (Oh, did I mention I’m the executive editor over at Triathlete? No matter, carry on.) Out of respect for my old-man body, I decided to pace myself very evenly at the risk of going out hard and dying on the third lap — like almost every overexcited high school freshman has done since the dawn of time. I was running by myself, so it was just a matter of staying controlled and finding a manageable pace. I hit my splits almost dead even at 66s, and without really killing myself, I ended up with 4:26. Not bad for an old man and basically no track training!

So that was exciting. Knowing that it was still in there, deep down — and though it was a very far cry from my days of 4:0-something, at least I was near High School Chris. Over the next four weeks, I did my track workouts and my hilly runs and all of the hard little things on the training plan. The track workouts oddly didn’t get much easier as I went (“Old School Chris” doesn’t recover as fast as the High School version, I guess), but it was fun doing something pointy and serious on my runs — going out to the track with exact splits to hit and no waffling about “a decent effort” or “just pushing a little bit today.” I had to hit a certain time, and if I didn’t, I didn’t. The track don’t lie.

In fact, I liked to imagine myself as some cool pro runner or college guy home from school, walking onto the track alone, hitting workouts in spikes in the early hours of the day, before everyone else was out of bed. There was a monastic seriousness about the whole endeavor, without any fanfare or Strava kudos. Of course I wasn’t a cool pro runner, a college guy, or a monk, but it was a good feeling nonetheless.

And while each workout seemingly hurt the same or somehow more than the last one, the thought of that pure mile goal carried me through those four weeks. I didn’t have to think about race strategy, nutrition, the course profile, or anything like that. When the day came, I would bring the fitness I had gained over the last four weeks and nothing else.

The day finally came, and I decided to head out to the track early. It was sunny, but not hot, and completely windless — classic mile conditions for sure. I started myself unceremoniously, witnessed by no one but two early-morning joggers in the outside lanes. No gun, no “runners to the line,” I just went over and hit start on my watch.

I pushed the first lap in hopes of hitting my goal time of 4:19. If I could run that, I’d be ecstatic and all of the work would be worth it. The first lap: 64 seconds. It hurt, but not too much. I knew I needed to be slightly under if I was going to hit that time, and a 64 didn’t seem like too much. Second lap: 65 seconds. That one hurt more than I’d hoped — one of those laps where you’re thinking I bet I’m going 63-second pace right now, but nope. Then the third lap happened, just like it does for every high school miler: 67 seconds. Ouch. Suffering.

Things were getting bad and the joggers in the outside lane began to shy away and avoid eye contact with the horror show happening over in lane one. I looked to them for help, but they knew there was nothing they could do for me. This was my fault, and I had no one to blame but myself. The last lap was all arms and feet and shoulders with the legs just along for the ride. My head did all of the things I always tell my high school runners never to do. I slouched; I probably drooled, there was nothing pro or college or monk-like about what I was doing during those last 400 meters. I’d describe my state at that moment using the word “undignified” in a Victorian accent. It was ugly.

The last lap was 67 seconds, and it was literally all I had before almost passing out. I finished with all of that drama and hurt and blood in my mouth in an unsatisfying 4:24. Only two seconds faster than I ran four weeks ago, with substantially more effort and pain. It was disappointing, and educational (hello pacing 101) — but there’s more to it than that.

On my cool-down I realized I had done something special in those four minutes and 24 seconds of hurt. The mile doesn’t care who you are or who you were or what work you’ve done. It’s cruel. It does no favors for friends. But that’s also the true beauty of the mile: It scans an exact black-and-white photocopy of who you are right there — warts and all. You can’t blame nutrition or hills. The course isn’t long or short. On that morning, that’s where I was as a runner. I found my limit that morning, and it was 4:24. And today it’s a rare gift to find where our limits truly are and compare them to where we once were. There’s a satisfaction in that that’s rare, and it was well worth the price of pain.

—

About the Author

Chris Foster is the current executive editor atÌęTriathleteÌęmagazine and a former pro ITU/short-course triathlete. After a collegiate running career at Penn State University, where he was a part of the school record-setting distance medley relay with a 4:01 mile leg, Foster represented the U.S. national team at the ITU Elite Triathlon World Championships in 2010.

Today he lives in Los Angeles with his wife where he tends to a small flock of chickens, runs the nearby hills, and swims in the Pacific when it gets a little bit too hot.

The post I Fought The Mile, And The Mile Won appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

When it comes to smartwatches, Garmin has traditionally had the longest feature list and the deepest analytics of any other brand. Nowhere is this more obvious than in its Forerunner 9xx line. This has always been Garmin’s most “sport-friendly” watch — while other lines like the Venu focus more on lifestyle and the fenix line focuses slightly more on outdoor/adventure activities. The new line has seemingly split the difference between the outdoorsiness of the fenix and the Forerunner, but the Forerunner is still typically the line ready-made for athletes. The latest version of their maximal Forerunner 945 now adds LTE cellular service into the mix, but only for a few, mostly pre-existing functions. Read on for our extended review for what that all means (and doesn’t mean).

Garmin Forerunner 945 LTE: The Base Features

If you’re looking for the TL;DR version of the Garmin Forerunner 945 LTE review, check out , but here we’re going to dive into the most important features, then we’ll take a look at what’s new. If you’re super familiar with the already, you can skip this quick section and scroll down for the LTE newness. In order from most to least important (we’ve left off anything that’s not super relevant for triathlon training), below are the base features of the 945:

Tri-Related Sport Profiles: The 945 boasts pool swimming, open-water swimming, indoor and outdoor cycling (with cycling dynamics like power, L/R balance, and more with a compatible power meter), indoor and outdoor running (with some built-in dynamics, but running power sensor compatible), trail running, and track running mode. It also has built-in triathlon and swimrun modes along with a fantastic multisport mode that lets you create a sport profile that links multiple sports together — this is not something that other smartwatches do nearly as well.

Pace Pro: This is an often unheralded and recently added function that allows you to input a course via the Garmin Connect app, answer a few questions about how fast you want to run the distance and how you want to pace it (negative split, positive split, etc.), and then it spits out a pacing plan that will guide you live as you go. While this might not seem groundbreaking, the fact that it takes into account hills is a huge boon for athletes who need help pacing on long runs.

Training Effect/Recovery Time/Performance Condition:ÌęI lump these together because they do similar things: Training effect tells you how much of each system you engaged during your workout (aerobic or anaerobic); recovery time uses your workout info to tell you how long you need to recover after the efforts. Performance condition tells you early in your run how prepared you are, physiologically, for an effort.

Daily Suggested Workouts: While it won’t take into account a goal event coming up, if you’re ever at a loss for what to do while building your base fitness, this handy recommendation comes up before every session and takes into account your current training load and rest status. Take it a step further with Garmin’s free “Coach” training plans that help guide you.

Livetrack, Live Event Sharing, Incident Detection/Assistance:ÌęThese are grouped together because they all share very similar use: safety and tracking. In the standard version of the 945, these all require a connected phone (Android only for the Live Event sharing). All of these share where you are, how fast you’re going (and even heart rate), and mile splits with preselected contacts. They also notify these contacts if an incident occurs (either by force, or if you choose to send an alert).

Onboard Mapping:ÌęThis is one of the features that’s unique to the 945 and higher-end fenix models. Built-in color maps allow you to navigate in real time, without the need for a phone and give you a better experience with their built-in suggested routing that uses crowd-based data for popular courses.

Big Battery (in some cases):ÌęWhile we’ll get to this more below, the 945 has good battery life for smartwatch mode (two weeks), with GPS (up to 35 hours), and with GPS and music (up to 12 hours). We found that in practical use with one to two workouts each day, the watch lasts about a week before needing a charge. With LTE mode on, it drains considerably faster, and we’ll get to that further down in the LTE section.

Sleep Tracking:ÌęMuch like other smartwatches, the 945 has decent sleep tracking that lets you know your quality of sleep, length of sleep, and the amount of time spent in each type (deep, REM, light, and awake).

Onboard Music:ÌęThis is near the bottom of the list, as it’s more of a lifestyle feature, but you can store music on the 945 either via a USB connection or download premium Spotify playlists over WiFi. The watch pairs with Bluetooth headphones (or speakers), and you can control music either on the watch or on your connected smartphone with the 945.

The LTE Features

All of the features listed above are present on the original 945 — though some were added as software updated later. Below are the new features that come with LTE:

Phone-Free Livetrack, Live Event Sharing, and Assistance:ÌęThe functions we listed above are now available without a phone needed, though it will require the LTE service to be set up ($5+/month) and connected to compatible cell towers.

Spectator Messaging:ÌęThis is actually pretty cool, as it allows any approved contacts who are receiving the Livetrack information for that session to message you, phone-free. You can also send an audio message. The message pops up very quickly on your watch, then disappears.

Assistance Plus: This is like the extreme version of Assistance, that coordinates a response from Garmin’s IERCC — the same group that does response for their InReach devices. Once triggered (no need for a phone), you can either cancel the call or it will set into motion a series of events that will coordinate your rescue and communicate with an emergency response team.

Yes, this is a fairly small list (right now), but it leaves space for more cellular functions later down the road, and gives some clues to what they may be.

What It Doesn’t Do

Sure, this could be a huge list (“It won’t cook you breakfast,” “It won’t be your friend,” “It won’t do your workout for you”), but it’s important to note that the LTE service is not exactly like the cellular services you might be used to in smartwatches from brands like Apple or Samsung:

No Texting Or Calls:ÌęIf the 945 LTE isn’t connected to your phone, it won’t take or make calls, and it won’t receive or send texts. It will receive spectator messages, but only when in a sport mode, while training, when connected to LTE, and when a contact is specifically sent the Livetrack link. Also, you can’t currently send any response to the spectator messages, though you can respond to the Assistance Plus messages from the IERCC.

No Streaming Music (Or Any Data):ÌęYou cannot stream Spotify via LTE; you can’t receive any data, like the weather for instance, unless you’re connected to a phone.

What We Like

While I won’t go into the basic 945 features that work well — there are a lot of them — I will dig into the LTE features specifically. On the outset, there are some huge benefits to having phone-free emergency services, but much of that comes with some caveats. We’ll get to the caveats later on, but first the good.

When it comes to running, it’s very very unlikely that you’re going to be carrying a phone (especially in a race). In that case, the assistance features are a fantastic lifeline if you’re in a place where the risk of danger is high and the potential for quick help is low. While you could argue that that situation should obviate the need for a phone anyway, some people just can’t bear to bring a phone when they train.

In terms of race-day use, the phone-free LiveTrack function is probably the most important thing, and doubly important to long-course triathletes and their families. While most iron-distance events have notoriously poor in-race tracking with check-in stations that are few and far between, it’s a very big deal to know when your athlete is where. It could be the difference between a massive family-vacation-ending meltdown and the triumphant finish line moment you’ve been dreaming of (trust me, from experience). While it’s very, very tough to figure out (and not mentioned on Garmin’s website anywhere we could find), there is actually a way to extend the battery life of the 945 LTE while in LiveTrack LTE mode out to 18 hours. This is buried deep in the “Safety & Tracking” setting, under LiveTrack, at the bottom, where it says “Power Save.” If you’re doing an iron-distance event, you need to switch this on before you get going. If you don’t, you’ll have an epic watch and LiveTrack fail that will make everyone grumpy at the finish line.

Though it’s not quite as impactful in that “save-your-life” kind of way, spectator messaging could have more of a practical use than assistance. While we’ll talk about some of the potential for issues later on, being able to receive updates while racing is actually a huge deal. Of course getting an attaboy from the family is great, but imagine if you could get updates on your competitors or conditions down the road as you go. That would be a big deal. Also, being able to receive a message that you need to get home quickly while out training could have a more positive “domestic impact” than you might think.

Some Caveats

One caveat with this watch is the availability of LTE service where you’re training/racing. In situations where you might need serious medical assistance, there’s a good chance that you’ll be very far from a cell tower. While this won’t apply to everyone, it’s worth being thoughtful about where you actually might need help and if you’ll be able to get out a signal. Keep in mind, the same could be said for bringing a phone with you, but you’ll have more flexibility with a phone when searching for a signal.

Then there is the distinct possibility that the whole spectator messaging thing could actually be illegal in a race. Ironman, USAT, and even the UCI all have rules banning two-way communication, though there may be some room for interpretation. USAT’s rules say:

“Participants may not use communication devices of any type, including but not limited to cell phones, smart watches, and two-way radios, in any distractive manner during the competition. A “distractive manner” includes but is not limited to making or receiving phone calls, sending or receiving text messages, playing music, using social media, taking photographs or using in a one or two-way radio communication. Using any communication device in this manner during the competition will result in disqualification.”

“A distractive manner” is an important phrase, as you could argue that there is nothing more distracting about receiving a quick message on your smartwatch than looking at your splits, but there is a distinct advantage to having a set of eyes and ears out on the course with you. The UCI has this rule in place simply due to the way it could artificially impact in-race dynamics.

Silver Linings

While the new Forerunner 945 clearly isn’t perfect, that doesn’t mean it won’t get better. The fact that Garmin put an LTE chip in its highest-end sports watch means that it has the opportunity to be much more, later down the line. The opportunity for two-way texting is definitely there, given that you can send and receive emergency messages with the Assistance Plus operator — though it may be pre-made messages or something that’s awkwardly typed on their revamped character entry “keyboard.”

And while streaming data for music might not be in the cards, there is potential for other simple streaming data to go back and forth on future software versions of the 945 LTE — it already transmits a wealth of data during the Livetrack and live event sharing.

Finally, with just a little more battery boost — I’m looking at you, battery — this could be a viable all-day, frequently updating distance tracker that would allow spectators’ lives to be forever changed for the better.

FromÌę

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