Ack! How is October almost over? This time of year goes so fast. I’m excited for November, but sad that two months of Pumpkin Palooza are almost gone. Thanks as always to Marcia for opening up her runfessional… this month I have some Garmin-fessions to share. Let’s get right into it!
My Garmin and I have been having issues lately. You might remember a couple weeks ago when it suddenly informed me that I was stressed out and should consider breathing exercises (mind your own business!) Well, there have been more incidents since then.
A few nights ago I was awakened by a buzzing on my wrist. I checked my Garmin and it was time to run! WHAT??? Somehow, I had hit the “run” button, the Garmin picked up the GPS signal (?) and then I hit it again to start the run. Was I dreaming about going for a run??? Needless to say, I was a little groggy- it took me a couple moments to stop the activity, which had me moving at 0 miles per hour, and then discard it. The whole thing was very confusing in the middle of the night, as you can imagine. I wear my Garmin at night because it’s my alarm, but now I’m rethinking that.
Then there was yesterday. I was just finishing a run, and as my Garmin beeped for 4 miles I stopped and saved the activity. When I went back to check, I was informed that I had run 3.99 miles. WHAT. How in the world…??? Who wants to run 3.99 miles? I protest! HRUMPH. I wrote it down as “4” in my log.
Meanwhile, my husband recently got the same Garmin I have (the Forerunner 55.) He told me that if he needs to, he can hit the “assistance” button and I’ll get a text notification that he needs help. Cool! Wait, why doesn’t my Garmin do that? Oh… it does. I just never set it up, but with the help of my husband, I now have that feature as well. When I asked my husband how he figured that out, he said “I READ THE INSTRUCTIONS.” Oh… those.
There’s a small possibility that some of the snafus I’ve had with this watch are due to the fact that I never read the instructions. I just messed around with it until I knew how to make it do the basic things I wanted- wake me up in the morning and function as a GPS watch for my runs. Then a few weeks ago I messed around with it some more until I figured out how to set the run/walk intervals. Now I have the nagging feeling that I own an expensive watch and am taking advantage of about 1/10th of the things it has to offer. Well… I still own the instructions. One of these days I might read them- you never know!
If you have a Garmin, do you use most of the features?
Are there features on your Garmin you DON’T like? – Yes, I don’t like being told that I’m under too much stress.
29 Responses
Jenny – this post was such a fun way to start the day because it made me laugh out loud!
Especially this: Who wants to run 3.99 miles? I protest! HRUMPH. I wrote it down as “4” in my log.
I suspect every reader of your blog will 100% relate to this comment and I am so glad you wrote it down as 4.
I have an Apple Watch and while I love it, the battery life sucks. It’s quite old now and I realize the newer ones have far superior batteries. But, aside from the battery issue I LOVE it. Occasionally, if I’ve recorded multiple workouts in a day (say several outside walks), it will run out of battery in the middle of a later workout (say, a run – which I REALLY want to count and it only feels like it fully counts if I record it). It shouldn’t bother me as much as it does, but it drives me absolutely bonkers. I don’t try to close my rings each day or check texts on my watch or anything – I just want to be able to monitor all my walks and runs and my blood absolutely boils when the battery dies. The moral of the story: I really should start checking my battery levels before I head out, but that feels like too much work?
Also making me laugh: that your husband recommended reading the instructions. What a novel idea. One thought here – as I am not a fan of reading instructional manuals – is to look up a YouTube video. Sometimes that feels less painful than wading through a booklet and since you can see things in real-time as people manipulate the different options/features, you might find it streamlines the process or at least makes it more fun?
Yes, I never even thought of Youtube, and I’m sure that would be most people’s first instincts (my kids, for sure.) I hate to say it- because I know you’re an under-buyer- but it sounds like you need a new Apple watch! Christmas is coming up, you know…
I love my Garmin – I have the vivoactive – but I have a feeling it is going to need replacement soon. The battery barely lasts 24 hours. I’m often having to recharge it around lunchtime. Well, it’s 3 1/2 years old and I use so many features! I use it for all my activities, and the one thing I wish is that it coordinated with Peloton. Oh well. Yesterday I did a strength workout and then I forgot to turn it off, drove my son to school, had another coffee, looked at my watch…oops.
Is the vivoactive the one you can use for swimming as well? I had that one a while ago. I gave it to my sister and I think it’s still going strong. But she doesn’t use it a lot, so she’s probably okay with charging the battery every time she uses it.
Yikes that Garmin telling me to RUN in the middle of the night would’ve scared me! I rarely wear mine to sleep although it does give good sleep info when I do. Like you, I’ve never read the directions beyond what I REALLY need and what I know how to use it for is barely the tip of the iceberg of what it’s capabilities are. Sigh. Let the record show, I bought it for triathlon and it was wonderful for those…when I remembered to actually hit the button in transitions. Haha!
Um, yes- I can see how remembering to start it in the transitions would be challenging. There are so many other things to think about!
Now I know why I don’t wear mine on a daily basis. My Apple watch ignore me lol
But when I do wear it, I hit start. That’s all the tools I use on it. I know it has more even if it’s only the 230.
Actually, I don’t normally wear mine during the day because I can’t wear it while I’m working. So I wear it all night, and then for my run (if I’m running that day) and then take it off. Who knows what it would be telling me if I wore it all day long!
ha ha Garmin does send some odd messages sometimes. I don’t sleep with mine bc I think it would bother me. That’s very funny that you were dreaming about running. Now that I am in the #LeagueOfGarmin I feel like I should know more about all the features. Who reads the instructions?
When I sleep, I have to put the Garmin on pretty loose- I don’t like to feel it tight on my wrist. It’s not ideal, but my husband and I usually get up at different times so it works well for us each to have a personal alarm that won’t wake the other person.
Oh man, 3.99 miles! That would drive me crazy, too. I used to be really picky about ending a run on a quarter mile. I would run around the parking lot at my running club if we came back and my watch wasn’t at a quarter mile. Runners are weird.
I have a Garmin, but not one that is meant to be your main watch. So I only wear it when running. I like it but definitely do not use much of the features. I did use the interval settings when I was returning to running and was doing run/walk intervals. But then I found that using a tabata ap was way easier/better. So I the most basic when it comes to using my Garmin.
I do wear a FitBit but the alarm setting process has been glitchy lately. So it’s not clear it’s set? It’s hard to explain. I’ve tried to figure out what is going on but have kind of given up so am considering upgrading to an apple watch. But those are sooo expensive and I love how small the FitBit is. I have teeny tiny risks so some watch faces are just too big for me!
My son can’t understand why in the world I just don’t get an Apple watch. Um… the cost? Honestly, I don’t even use the features on the watch I have, so why would I get an even more expensive one.
Wow, that would totally have me in the Twilight Zone if I had that kind of experience in the middle of the night. Obviously, I don’t wear mine while sleeping (it would for sure be scolding me cuz I already know my sleep isn’t my strong suit). I know I’m barely skimming the tip of the iceberg on all of my Garmin’s features, as well, but I am getting more adept with some of the features. I have accessed the online manual (which has like 356 pages, or there abouts) a few times, but have stumbled around on my own to figure out a few things as well. The Garmin Connect app has been a godsend!
Okay, so far it sounds like my husband is the only one who actually read the physical instruction manual. And I definitely don’t want my Garmin telling me anything about my sleep habits- it would be too depressing.
Ha I have no idea if I use all of the features of my Garmin. Yes I *could* read the instructions but I’ve got other fish to fry. I always used to run .01 longer than my planned distance just in case it dropped the last point. Garmin was usually good about recording what it showed on the watch, but Strava was really obnoxious about dropping the last .01.
I have pressed the run button before in the middle of the night but to my credit I think I’ve only done that once. Back when I had a fitbit the alarm was exactly the same pattern as the 10,000 steps notification, so in the few seconds between the alarm going off and me waking up I would often dream that I’d hit 10,000 steps.
Ha, it seems like those notifications should have different sounds- that would confuse me too.
My Garmin lights up when I touch the screen. And then sometimes I manage to get to a screen I don’t want to change. It’s annoying so I’ve taken to locking the screen at night. It still lights up but at least I’m not changing anything.
I have had runfessions totally devoted to Garmin, too!
Yes, I think I remember those runfessions!
I runfess that I’ve never read the directions for my Garmin either – that’s what YouTube videos are for 😉
Okay, glad to hear I’m not the only one!
I’m pretty sure I don’t use all the features of my Garmin but I only have the 35, so features? What features? LOL. It did stop picking up my heart rate, so I guess I need to read the instructions too.
Oh, I had the 35 for a while- I liked it!
“I just messed around with it until I knew how to make it do the basic things I wanted”
This is me to a tee, and is probably also why I ultimately gave up on the Garmin as “too complicated”/”does too much I don’t need”
I’d have written 4 miles too. Strava/Garmin math is real
I always say my Garmin can do way more than I do. I played around with it a LOT when I first got it but mostly to get rid of features I don’t want/need — like the period tracking and such. Some features are intuitive, but others are harder to figure out without a YouTube video. I do love the timer feature — I have it set on repeating 30 second intervals for stretching.
I got my first PSL last weekend and thought of you — at least for the pumpkin spice part of it.
Ah, I’m glad to be associated with PSL! I may not drink the lattes, but I’m been enjoying my pumpkin spiced oatmeal this month.
It’s funny that everyone’s mentioning Youtube- I think my husband is the only one who read the instructions. I thought men were notorious for NOT reading directions???
I would lose my damn mind if it woke me up in the middle of the night, but I can’t get over that you wear it to bed. I can’t have any jewelry on while I’m sleeping. I can’t have so much as a zipper or a button on anything while I’m sleeping. How does it not bother you?! I need more details on what you’re wearing to bed!
Ha ha… other than the Garmin, just regular pajamas! No jewelry or anything. Yes, sometimes the watch bothers me. I have to put it on pretty loose. I wish there were an alternative, but I don’t want to wake my husband up with an alarm.
I love my Garmin (I have the Forerunner 235) but I just found out that it does NOT have the assistance button. Ugh. That would be so nice. I use the livetrack feature when I run outdoors, but it only sends an email (not a text) to my husband. I wish there was better a ” better notification system” on my model. I also wish it would give me more feedback about stress/recovery (although I can see how that can be a bit annoying too at times LOL) . I don’t want to buy a new watch anytime soon, because my watch is 6+ years old and going strong (although some of the newer Garmins look pretty awesome).
Honestly, I don’t think the Forerunner 55 is expensive. We actually got it free (from a rewards program through my husband’s job) so I don’t know. When yours dies you can make sure you get these features!