MULTISPORT WATCHES
Triathletes have come to love their toys – we’ve become obsessed with tracking everything from our power output on our rides (and now, in some cases, on our runs) to our pace on our runs to keeping track of both our distance and speed in the pool. And scarily enough, all that information can be gleaned from just looking down at our wrist.
Do you need all this info? It’s certainly not a necessity. It can help monitor your progress and training, for sure. For some it provides excellent motivation and helps to stay on track with your fitness and training goals. These watches can also be valuable tools for pacing appropriately, too, which can be a critical component of racing. It is worthwhile to note, though, that the better the athlete, the less likely you are to see one of these watches on their wrist in a race. The next time you head to a masters swim, check out how many of the fastest swimmers are even wearing a watch in the pool. (The answer will be none.) The best athletes are very aware of what they’re bodies are capable of, and follow that “feel” in their training and racing. Possibly the most compelling reason to use a multisport GPS watch is that it can help you get the feedback you need to develop that feel much faster.
The technology keeps improving all the time, too, so what was once a huge computer on your wrist has whittled down to a regular-sized watch that provides lots of data. All these watches will sync your workouts to some sort of a training log software (and, in the case of the Garmin 735 XT, even to Strava) so they all serve as a great way to keep track of all your workouts. We have a look at some of the latest products on the market.