Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Watch & Cadence
- Thread starter ashingala
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I wear my Garmin on my right wrist when doing all running and cardio activities and use my 
Watch as my overall fitness monitor. Watch is a GREAT general purpose fitness/health monitor but not a detailed running or biking monitor.
Also you could calculate it manually by taking a screen shot of steps before and after you run and then divide the number of steps by minutes. A real PIA though. Of course this would only give an overall average cadence and not a detailed dynamic graph like Connect.
Watch as my overall fitness monitor. Watch is a GREAT general purpose fitness/health monitor but not a detailed running or biking monitor.Also you could calculate it manually by taking a screen shot of steps before and after you run and then divide the number of steps by minutes. A real PIA though. Of course this would only give an overall average cadence and not a detailed dynamic graph like Connect.
iSmoothRun provides accurate cadence. The app is now standalone for AW2/3.
Julien, out of curiosity, do you also record your runs with AW to get a more accurate distance traveled for the day number on AW?I wear my Garmin on my right wrist when doing all running and cardio activities and use my
I've been going back and forth between Garmin and AW since the the original AW. I'd love to figure out a way to consolidate my data in one platform for simplicity's sake, but haven't come up with the right solution yet.
I'm not Julien, but I am someone who's been running with Garmin devices for nearly seven years (FR610, FR920xt, Fenix3, FR235), and Polar (RS200) for four years before that.
As mentioned above, in terms of overall fitness/activity monitoring and as a smartwatch/communications platform, the AW is well ahead of Garmin. In reverse, Garmin is still well ahead of the AW platform in terms of running.
Third party apps have helped close the gap, but there's an inherent limitation in the AW having only the two physical buttons and the limited degree to which app developers can leverage those. Capacitive touch screens become rather useless when you're drenched in sweat. When you want to do things like change the page to see different stats, or mark a lap, or start an interval, or start the run as you cross the start line, or stop/pause it as you cross the finish, it's much much easier to do those tasks with a single physical button press.
So for the time being, even as the watch apps get better, I'll be keeping my FR235 and strapping it on when going for a run.
All that said, I do need to look at the ismoothrun app. Can anyone tell me if it'll display heartrate in terms of %HRR? (heart rate reserve, aka Karvonen formula)
As mentioned above, in terms of overall fitness/activity monitoring and as a smartwatch/communications platform, the AW is well ahead of Garmin. In reverse, Garmin is still well ahead of the AW platform in terms of running.
Third party apps have helped close the gap, but there's an inherent limitation in the AW having only the two physical buttons and the limited degree to which app developers can leverage those. Capacitive touch screens become rather useless when you're drenched in sweat. When you want to do things like change the page to see different stats, or mark a lap, or start an interval, or start the run as you cross the start line, or stop/pause it as you cross the finish, it's much much easier to do those tasks with a single physical button press.
So for the time being, even as the watch apps get better, I'll be keeping my FR235 and strapping it on when going for a run.
All that said, I do need to look at the ismoothrun app. Can anyone tell me if it'll display heartrate in terms of %HRR? (heart rate reserve, aka Karvonen formula)
Last edited:
If you have the Garmin app on your phone it will export your data to the Health app if you give it the appropriate permissions.
Yes, options for displaying HR are Heartrate, % Max HR, % HR Reserve, Heartrate Zone, Lap/Interval Average HR, Average HR, Lap/Interval Max HR, Max HR, Lap/Interval Min HR, Min HR.
That doesn't work consistently. Often I'll get nothing one day, and then duplicate of the same entry the next day. I think it's a bug in the Garmin app.
Since the Apple Health and Activity apps don't have web interfaces, ideally I'd love to be able to have a way to export AW activity data (steps, stairs, etc.) into Garmin...or another-party site. I just haven't found anything that works yet.
I am Julien and I have been using Garmin's for about 7 years and before that I used Polar for several years.
I wear my
Watch all the time and I put the Garmin on my other arm and use doing any cardio. So I have 2 watches doing any cardio. When running i also use Nike+ on my iPhone for a 3ed recording and if biking I use Strava on my iPhone.Right now I have plantar fasciitis
and only doing a small amount of treadmill running. I'm so sick of stair stepper, elliptical, stair climber, stationary bike, etc. Or more precisely I miss running outside.LOL. Great minds think alike. Stationary bikes aren't so bad if you choose the right one on the 2nd or third row. Still have a deep loathing for treadmills though.
Hope you heal up quick, @Julien -- the 2017 Brasstown Bald Buster 5K is right around the corner. "... a little ol' 5K with just one hill!" Details will be at http://georgiarunner.com/ and/or http://georgiarunner.com/event/brasstown-bald-buster-5k/
Hope you heal up quick, @Julien -- the 2017 Brasstown Bald Buster 5K is right around the corner. "... a little ol' 5K with just one hill!" Details will be at http://georgiarunner.com/ and/or http://georgiarunner.com/event/brasstown-bald-buster-5k/
Hope you heal quickly, Julien.I am Julien and I have been using Garmin's for about 7 years and before that I used Polar for several years.
I wear my
Right now I have plantar fasciitis
For your activity data, do you just view it on your phone, or have you found somewhere online to have it exported and stored?
Treadmills are the worst for me too. I'm only doing a mile at a time (may do 2 or 3 with other machines between) so it's not so bad but running on one for 5 or more miles is stressful and oddly even fatiguing to me. I need to see what's coming up ahead and not staying in one place.
Unfortunately plantar fasciitis is chronic and had it about 5 years ago (other foot) and it took almost a year. I'm hoping to be back running after the 1st of the year or by spring at the latest.
Also Garmin has an excellent on-line site called Connect. I also export all my Connect data to RunKepper and Strava.
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1911114527
I wear both my Apple Watch and Garmin while running as well. I probably get weird looks for wearing a watch on each arm, but can't really beat the physical buttons on the Garmin or the number of data fields and ease of switching between screens
Yup, I've been using Garmin Connect for years. But I'm looking for something with web access to consolidate my running data with all of my other activity data. I've tried importing AW steps data into Garmin (using the FitBit import function) but have had no luck.