Tech that changed my sporty life in 2019 – well, at least a bit

28 thoughts on “Tech that changed my sporty life in 2019 – well, at least a bit”

1. I’m sure you know it already but just in case. MTPdrive allows you to mount mtp garmin (music enabled) as a drive letter. I think they should have a beta to try mtpdrive.com

   1. yes. iirc you have to pay for it
      i’ve already paid for the garmin once

2. If Polar can do what the higher-end Garmin watches do now and just get basic things under the hood right (Hi Polar, you don’t have a power off button and why are all settings app side only AND also don’t work). AND gets that 24/7 cal measurements and steps under control; then you have my business.

   The whole Polar ecosystem needs a fresh coat of paint too. The Polar app looks like something Netscape designed–in 1997.

   I could write a whole piece myself about the woeful state of Polar’s lack of features that are keeping many of us making the plunge, and maybe I will, but I’ll leave my comments at that.

   1. Well, it’s your personal opinion. I’ve been happy with my Vantage V and i don’t need all those gimmicks that Garmin offer. Polar really provides everything an athlete needs. If you’re a gadget geek, you might want to go for Garmin.

      1. Right, you don’t. There are plenty of us that do an are stuck with Garmin (if anything) because of it.

         For example, Garmin tracks long term RHR in its ecosystem. I have years upon years of that info at my fingertips. I can see fluctuations in times of the year as I swap out one routine for another. I can see trends in my health, what worked, what didn’t, odd quirks (example: two years ago I hurt my ankle something fierce at the end of August, which put all training on the shelf for about two months. I saw clearly an uptick in my RHR there)

         A lot of people tend to disregard the “24/7 tracking” these watches do as so nonsense metric. Garmin I argue conditioned most to think this (in actually Polar is horrendous at this, where Garmin is surprisingly good at it; just not currently with the 945). For me, that is the literal backbone of these watches.

         I don’t even want a watch that only tracks workouts! Why bother, when I could get a chest strap, pair it to my phone, pick a training app, and do that; for a lot cheaper!

         I would love to see Polar tackle everything. Take all the “gimmicks” and make them both functional and informative. I would love to see them market some watch faces, have widgets that do different things. I would love for them to put setting watch side because last I owned a Polar watch (Vantage V titan last year) and did a run, I forgot to turn on a setting I needed. I tried doing it in the app, didn’t change the function on the watch, and ended up doing a run with gimped metrics because of it (I think I had the GPS setting off).

         I envy the sleep metrics on Polar. I think there smart coaching is on the right track but needs expansion. I would like things like stair climbing (and actually work), I would love them to allow users to set custom stride lengths for steps, Or to set our BMR (or guess it more accurately), or explain calorie expenditure better than Garmins “Active” and “Resting” setup.

         I want Polar to do Garmin, better than Garmin does Garmin. Garmin is sloppy with their products and it’s getting worse every year. Take one good look at the FR945 forums and you’ll see every other post is about the horrid battery life of the watch (and it’s merited). We’re here still because Garmin gives access to a lot of things we need/want that others don’t.

         Should Polar take a moment to see just how desperate the user base is for an alternative, they could take over a major section of the market. I mean I have even started hoping for COROS to expand outward in terms of both features and connectivity!

         This was my Ted Talk, thank you for listening.

      2. thanks Ted, duly noted

      3. I always wonder why amateurs tend to try to be more professional than actual professionals, in this case elite athletes. It’s a phenomenon that not only percolates sports but so many activities with a layman/amateur and professional side to them, like say photography. Who needs all that stuff you mentioned, and what for? Surely, it’s not for training because most of it is completely unbacked by exercise physiology or has been debunked (like HRV to correlate significantly with training load) by studies.

         You said that “(it) put all training on the shelf for about two months. I saw clearly an uptick in my RHR there”. So? That’s not actionable data, but engages you in futile post hoc theorizing. It’s like saying my RHR always goes up before I get sick. It’s merely an observation, but won’t enable me to prevent my getting sick, thus it’s useless data for training.
         If you read renowned coaches (Daniels, Coe, Pfitzinger, Palladino et cet) the thing that stands out most is their clear stand on descriptive, and prescriptive data for training. All those gimmicks out there are merely descriptive, with most of the features in return literally telling the users what they told it, see Polar’s Recovery Pro.

         Thanks for listening.

      4. I’m pretty happy with my Vantage V Titan and use it with a Polar HR10 chest strap and Stryd Wind.

         I do wish, though, that in a training target one could use power as intensity and not just pulse or speed.

      5. yes that’s a very good point.
         we’ve raised it here before and i think i even raised it with polar some time ago,
         i *ASSUMED* that would happen but now, maybe not. 🙁

         having said that, as you know, the power zone lock is a good way to achieve a similar thing

      6. Indeed, I use the power zone lock when not using a training target, but when I tried that in a phase with intensity “Free” that did not work. I’ll try that again to see if it was just me failing to make that work….

      7. The moment you use a phased workout, zone lock is disabled. It’s like with Garmin’s stepped workouts and alerts who are mutually exclusive.

      8. Yes, my brain has now clicked back in gear.

      9. I asked Polar support if they’re going to implement it, and the answer was that they received requests for this feature so it’s not impossible that it will be implemented.

         It is a bit weird that power as intensity is not implemented considering that power measurement was/is marketed as an important and new functionality of Titan V.

      10. I sent an email to the Vantage product manager a couple of hours ago with the same question

      11. @the5krunner: Did you get any response from the Vantage product manager to your question about support for power as intensity in a training target?

      12. no not yet, I did ask

   2. The server-side dependency and lack of PC connectivity are risks for the customers. If the servers are shut down (e.g., the company goes bankrupt in a few years), not only the watch cannot be configured, but the training data cannot be saved. The lack of repairability and the missing ability to switch the device off is a sign of the built-in obsolescence.

      1. @Oskars: When it comes to hardware, yes, a Polar does everything you need (i.e. record training), and so does a Timex. Software-wise, i.e. training analysis, there is a lot of room for improvement. But that’s true for any company that produces sports devices, Their platforms are usually horrendous (I mean look at Garmin Connect, a 101 of how not to present data). That’s why there are third-party services like WKO, TrainingPeaks, FirstBeat, and the like which focus on the analysis side of things.

         @Chris: Agreed, should Polar go out of business (the thought of which isn’t even a stretch!), and/or shut down Flow, you’re left with dead devices. The migration from personaltrainer to Flow that’s been going on since Dec 31st now(!!!) shows that they are severely understaffed when it comes to technical maintenance, and support. Yet their marketing division spits out one promotional campaign after the other to drive sales of unfinished/unpolished devices abusing their sponsored athletes by putting words in their mouths rehashing old assets (see Tim Don). Again, however, that’s sadly true for any company this day and age. Sales first, then they might think about support.

         My first Polar was an Accurex Plus (back then a tier above the Vantage NV!) that I used for 10 years! I simply changed its battery like very other year, and wear it sometimes to this day, because it’s a simple, good-looking watch. But those were Polar’s gory days, at least when it comes to Europe, where everyone into sports wore Polar.

      2. gLory 😀

      3. I don’t understand how can you even consider Polar going out of business?
         Sure, the don’t sell nearly as much as Garmin but they’re still doing incredibly good for the amount of resources they have, and despite everything, the Vantage sells have been doing very well.

      4. Apple, Samsung, and emerging Chinese brands are evolving rapidly. The sports watch market is in dramatic decline. It’s only a matter of time before Suunto goes bankrupt, then Polar and finally Garmin.

      5. yep, even Garmin will disappear one day. Few companies persist for decades.

         I suspect that rather than fizzling out, companies in this space will make two or three costly strategic blunders and that will be it. Sure Garmin has a massive war chest of cash but their blunders could be more spectacularly costly than those made by the likes of Polar. eg what if someone hacked into Garmin Connect and locked it down for a few weeks demanding bitcoin in return, what if the hackers then leaked personal and medical customer info in the UK/EU…big ransom, big fines and it could happen tomorrow.

         the smartwatch market is still forecast to grow, tho i note you comment specifically about ‘sports’ watches.

3. I’m wondering what happened to the HRM-PRO. There were so many leaks, photos, etc and nothing happened… My HRM-RUN is dying and I’d love to buy a new strap. Bummer.

   1. my hrm-tri is almost dead too. it has new ski functionality in it and that’s why you would have thought a late 2019 release would have been sensible.

4. Jabra Elite 75 active announced for march 2020 at 200 euro, it’s time for a new review! It’s possible that Jabra sends you a prototype to test?

   1. i hadn’t seen that, thank you
      no i had probs getting the non-active version as it was. tho i have had quite a few exchanges with them nevertheless
      but i think that’s because they were lining me up for the active version which i assumed was going to happen. now i know it is.

      it’s the same product as the 65…but smaller. so what did you want to know? even the driver is the same size so quality will be the same.

      1. I would be interested in three questions:
         1- how the elite 75 behave in a real run, are the elite75 stable in the ear or they risk to fall when you sweat. I remember you told that you were a little worried, because maybe with little dimension they could fall more easy than the 65.
         2- a youtube reviewer, MikeWat, says that the Elite 75 (similar to the Elite 65 and other earbuds, for example the Samsung Galaxy Bud) have a similar problem that affects also the Aftershock: when you run or walk you can hear the sound of your steps. Is it true?
         3- Now I have the Jbird Vista and I think that they are good workout earbuds, when I run I hardly notice that they are in my ear. But in the office and when I’m walking around I find them a bit uncomfortable , I feel them big in my ears. You told that with the elite65 you never wear them more than 2 hours, because then you feel discomfort. Maybe the new smaller dimension of the Elite75 improves the confort and maybe it’s easier to listen to the earbuds for longer periods of time?

      2. ok i’m getting the elite75 ACTIVE version which is out soon.

         1.i sweat the current ones don’t come out. I use them regularly eg today in the gym on the treadmill. issue is when you are towelling yourself down and running you can knock one out and there’s no cable
         2. this doesn’t happen to me or i never notice it. this probably happens if you get a perfect seal, so dependent on foam tip size and fit
         3. maybe. will report.

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