Forerunner 230

How did you connect your HR to your watch? I can’t get it to work- I have Garmin 230. Maybe it’s too old?!?!

Fenix 7pro solar. Love it, its functions and battery life! I hope it lives as long as the one it replaced (FR230, which is still working after 8 years of use!)

I have a 165. It's just ok. It's definitely Better At Everything than the 230 I had before. But it's also heavily nerfed vs. the 265, or even the 245. If you do a 200-series watch, the 'S' versions are smaller and available with more fem-coded colors. I'm not that familiar with Runna. Garmin has a fairly strong point of view about who they think their user is. I'm not that user. You may or may not be. I run once a week and ride my bike twice. I settled on that probably a few years ago now. I sometimes do more but that's what I find sustainable. Most of my rides and runs, I don't care about that much. I just want to keep maintaining my fitness. ("Build" is a bit optimistic for this frequency and given my previous fitness peaks.) So the memes surround a few things. Sleep tracking on watches, including Apple, is kind of a shitshow. Garmin ties sleep tracking to some other metrics. If you don't wear your watch to sleep, no problem! Also it'll give your wrist a break. Training Status actually works kind of well, I think. Don't get too spun up about the specific number it comes up with for VO2max, but it probably does correlate well. Daily Suggested Workouts work well for someone with a stable running practice, which I think is both of us, and with a correct max heart rate entered in the watch. If you want to use Daily Suggested Workouts, keep running normally or following your Runna workouts for the first two weeks or so when you get the watch. If you don't know your max. heart rate, you're probably fit enough to do a field test. I found auto detection over reported mine, and made the workouts too hard. If you run 3X/week or less now, don't uncritically start doing all the Daily Suggested Workouts. Keep it to 3X/week until you think you're ready to add more, if you even want to. They actually work fine on lower frequencies. Garmin Coach wasn't super usable for me. The resistance training module was a total bust for me. I usually don't wear my watch outside of running, so I'm not sure about the smartwatch stuff. Also I think for those of us who actually run and do more ambitious activities, step tracking and stair counting are a bit silly, though we can probably all benefit from getting off our asses on non-run days.

You need to set your expectations appropriately. Wrote too much, deleted it. My first Garmin was a 610 something like fifteen years ago. I think the mid-range Forerunners are pretty good. I'm skeptical of the 970 and Fenix and inclined to laugh at people who buy the MARQ. I suspect that part of my attitude here is that my current 165 (don't buy, get the 255 if this is your pricepoint) is way better than my 610 was and a bit better than my 230 and mostly good at what I want to be its core competency. People are pissed off when they're comparing to a fantasy watch that's as good as an actual sleep study, lab VO2max test, educated, attentive human coach, and Google Maps on their phone or at least the Edge or one of the handhelds. And yes, as good at being a smart watch as the Apple Watch. Especially at higher pricepoints, some modules are a shitshow. You need to come in with some idea of what features are important to you and research if they actually work. Or come in with open expectations and just move on when some features don't work.

You're probably going to get each brand's fans telling you theirs is the best. The Garmin Forerunner 200- or 500-series will give you great coverage of running and cycling. I'm less sure about swimming. I know people do it but I'm not much of a swimmer. I think there are some tricks to setting it up well. It should give you ok coverage of basketball. You'll see how it impacts your overall fitness picture. I found the weightlifting module unusable but people do use it. Must-have accessory - an external heart rate sensor. I think there's a right thing for swimming in particular. It should work fine for the other stuff. The handlebars adapter. If maps are important to you, within Garmin you really need two devices.

Lots of options. Check out the Venu series, Vivofit, and Vivoactive. IMO the value-added aspects of the Forerunner are around running and other aerobic endurance sports. Are those relevant to you?

Forerunner can be a great alternative to Fenix if you're price conscious. Or just last generation Fenix. Do you care about maps?

Forerunner does that stuff too. In general, higher-end Garmins add, they don't take away. Are you serious about any of your sports? Like planning seasons, building for events, that kind of thing?

Changed my mind... I think without an explicit indoor rowing activity profile and VO2max, the extra analysis stuff on the Forerunner won't really work. Not sure if any of the watches have that. I know there are some accepted equations to estimate that stuff, though I think you'd also need a reasonably accurate power meter on your rowing machine. So yeah, Venu or whatever is fine.

My opinion, go with the Forerunner. Check out all the chatter from people moving on from their Apple Watches - I get that some of the newer ones have much better support for running but you say you have an older one. And you're not going to want to carry your phone either. How much running have you done up to now?

My first Garmin was the Forerunner 10 back when I first started running and before “smartwatches” were a thing! From there, I had the Forerunner 230, Fenix 5s (was way overkill for what I needed and it was confusing to use), Vivoactive 4s, Venu 2SQ and I currently have the Venu 3s. I upgrade every couple of years and buy them directly from Garmin’s website. They have a side by side comparison tool which is very helpful when you are trying to decide between watches.

If you are very big into running metrics, then you would want a Forerunner. If not, then the Vivoactive series is a great all around fitness watch. It does work well with an iphone. You will not need to connect to Apple Health as Garmin has its own app that will track your health stats and it syncs with the watch. The important thing to know coming from an Apple Watch is that Garmin watches are fitness watches first so you won’t be able to text through it or make calls (unless you get a watch that has a speaker and mic and has this specific feature, like the Venu 3 or 4). You will be very happy with the battery life though!

I’ve had my apple watch series 5 since Sept 2019 and it did not make it through my marathon but I will say I was slower than I expected to be. My garmin forerunner 230 from Christmas 2015 still has excellent battery life and all it’s lacking for me is heart rate. I don’t think it’s necessary to upgrade every 4-5 years but maybe it depends on the watch.

I actually use an arm strap heart rate monitor (COROS) opposed to a chest strap and find it to be very accurate actually…can see a big difference in the consistency of my heart rate changing between watch alone (Garmin Forerunner 215) and having the strap. I believe there is a way to set up alerts if you are outside a heart rate zone for options such as HIIT…I know you can when you select “Running” as an option

i second that. wrist HR with F8 is also faulty for me like 30% of the times, could be because of a wrist or a strap. But i did not see any with F8 improvement compared to F6 or older forerunners