Rogerio Vieira
He is from São Bernardo do Campo (SP), has more than 30 years in the IT career and works as a consultant in large companies. He has always been an Apple fan, the boss of MacMagazine, he has participated in an MM Tour (fifth edition) and, as you can imagine, he is an amateur runner.
I would like to share my experience with readers of MacMagazineparticularly with runners who have questions regarding replacing a heart rate monitor with an Apple Watch.
I’ve been a runner for 23 years and passionate regarding Apple. Since the launch of the Apple Watch, I have tried, in almost all its versions, to use it in my workouts and races. However, the result has always been, until then, frustrating.
In these years of running, I’ve done marathons, almost a hundred half marathons and countless 5K and 10K races — inside and outside Brazil. Behind these races, there’s always a lot of training. My companion for those moments, most of the time, was a Garmin — at other times, a Polar. As they are heart monitors specially developed for sports purposes, everything a runner or multi-sport person (such as a triathlete) needs, with absolute certainty, we have in them. So, over the years, they have become a benchmark for us runners.
I’m telling you all this to make it clear that switching to another type of watch that monitors a race becomes very difficult with these brands. But let’s get to the point: during those years, I tried to have just one smartwatch on my wrist, able to use it in my day to day life as well as in my workouts — because, whenever I needed to train or run, I only walked with my Garmin for this purpose. Many times, on training days, I would leave the house wearing the Garmin — leaving the Apple Watch behind.
And I bought an Apple Watch Ultra
When Apple released the Apple Watch Ultra and updated the system to watchOS 9, my perception changed. It really became clear that Apple has — finally — looked at us runners, with improved features and measurements in the system, a watch with a bigger display and a side button that makes all the difference (I’ll explain later).
Even so, I was reluctant to purchase. First, the obvious: high price. Second, for fear of being more of a commercial proposal and not a technical one. But one thing caught my attention, when I still had my Apple Watch Series 7: the update to watchOS 9 brought the improvements I had been waiting for, and I was able to “test” this version in practice in some training sessions and races. New metrics appeared and others improved, such as cadence, contact time on the ground, among others so trivial in heart monitors — as well as the possibility of performing interval training (the so-called “shots”) so awaited by runners.
Therefore, even with the Series 7 screen at its 45mm, I thought it was small and decided to invest in an Apple Watch Ultra.
The Pros of the Apple Watch Ultra
For more than 60 days now, I’ve been using the Ultra in my training sessions and races, and I have to confess that I no longer miss my Garmin, oddly enough. I want to point out that I always used an intermediate and up-to-date Garmin — until then, I had the newly launched Forerunner 255, with a 46mm screen.
The Ultra’s screen is large and very sharp, thanks to the brightness and its great quality. I should point out that, on the Garmin, although it is in color, the screen is low resolution. This means that, in the dusk of dawn or when the day is getting dark, the view of the screen is a little difficult. Particularly in this regard, I have hypermetropia of 2.5 degrees and this point in particular was decisive for my definitive change of watch.
Another very important positive point is the fact that the entire ecosystem is integrated, using the iPhone or not, and that makes life a lot easier. I use the Ultra as a cell phone, so I don’t have to run around with my phone, I can listen to podcasts and songs on Apple Music directly with the AirPods Pro, I get messages (SMS and iMessage, WhatsApp, etc.), among other advantages — things that no monitor cardiac offers.
Dual-frequency GPS is a big plus. The accuracy is incredible, far better than heart rate monitors—even compared to Garmin, which makes devices for very precise navigation and aviation controls. In the figure below, in repeated turns, it manages to show and distinguish distances smaller than 1 meter.
It’s good to remember that many of the things I mentioned above can even be had on an older Apple Watch, as long as it’s updated to watchOS 9.
However, the icing on the cake for a runner is the new side button, which gives us very good operating autonomy. If you set it to pause a run, for example (when you find yourself in the middle of a longer run and need to take a break), it becomes impractical without a physical button as the touchscreen doesn’t work. I say this not in a technical sense, but in a practical sense, because in the natural mechanics of running (with the movement of the arms) a lot of time is wasted moving things on the screen with your fingers — touching exactly that point on the screen makes you lose your rhythm and your concentration. Now, at the press of a button, you immediately perform this function — not to mention rainy days. I remember that this has always existed in heart rate monitors like Garmin, Polar and others.
To conclude this part, the fact that I finish a workout or run and it’s instantly available in the app is really cool — unlike the monitors, which I need to sync and waste time with it.
What still isn’t cool…
I might say, right off the bat, that the biggest downside of any Apple Watch — even the Ultra — is the infamous battery life. However, for a training runner and even a marathon runner (and like me, a “nagaré” that takes almost four hours to complete one), there is still a lot of battery left. In my case, every day, when I go to sleep, I leave the clock charging in the dock. Therefore, I always have the maximum battery charge during the day, even when I combine workouts.
But Apple still has to evolve in this and in some other points. One of them, which doesn’t get in the way as you get used to it, is the fact that the screen that shows the metrics during your exercise does not adapt the font size, that is, even increasing the font in the accessibility part of the watch, the screen of metrics remains unchanged — albeit using fewer configured metrics.
Still at this point, it’s very bad to get used to the metrics in lines, one below the other, because in a race you need to glance at the screen in a few seconds and already capture all the information or one in particular — and when all are in lines so, it gets in the way and makes you lose concentration. With most heart rate monitors on the market, you customize the screen — not just what you want to see, but in quadrants, with two, three, and even four on the same screen. So, by looking (left, right, bottom or top), you can quickly identify your metric.
Conclusion
Seems obvious, right? It was certainly worth the investment — because, before, I had two devices and now I have only one. And, with the sale of Garmin and Apple Watch Series 7 (even if used), I was able to afford Ultra.
If you can’t or don’t want to have an Ultra, the watchOS 9 update already solves a lot of things and puts you on a higher level to use the Apple Watch in your workouts and races. But, if you can invest in an Ultra, do it without fear of being happy!
Apple Watch Ultra
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