Today my attempt to navigate while running with the Garmin Instinct 2 was a failure for two reasons. The first reason is that I didn’t study the map that closely, because one of my assumptions was wrong. The second reason is that the map updated after the turns we had to make. The result is that you realise once you’re committed, and when you’re running with a group you don’t have the luxury of turning around quite as easily....
Posts tagged “garmin”
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Navigating with the Garmin Instinct 2 — May 4, 2026 -
Playing With Our Sports Data With Eleventy and Strava — Apr 9, 2026This month Apple wants me to walk ten point three kilometres with the Apple Watch 10 times. Garmin and Strava want me to cycle 8000m uphill, 800km horizontally, and more. Apple, Garmin and one or two other companies want me to walk 300,000 steps per month....
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Thoughts on the Garmin Vivosmart 4 — Jan 22, 2019The Garmin Vivosmart 4 is the first activity tracker that I see tracking descent as well as ascent. It is yet another fitness tracker and in theory I had no need for it as my Suunto Spartan Wrist HR Baro and my Apple Watch Series 4 do almost the same thing.... -
A Solar Powered Watch in Spain — Nov 29, 2021A solar powered watch in Spain... -
Having a Cold with Garmin and Apple — Mar 1, 2026Yesterday I woke up feeling tired and both Garmin and Apple said that I neded to rest. What I thought were allergies turned out to be a one day cold, I hope. According to the Apple Watch my HRV crashed down and in the evening I definitely had a cold/flu dream.... -
Back to Suunto From Garmin — Jan 14, 2026I like Garmin Connect and the Garmin Instinct 2. Both the app, and the device are good and they’re reliable for tracking sports on a daily basis. Having said this, I felt the urge to slide back to my Suunto devices and the Suunto app. For many, many, many years I was very happy with suunto getting two dive computers, one feature watch an ambit 2, ambit 3, Suunto Spartan and Peak 5....
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The Garmin End of Year Summary — Dec 4, 2025The Garmin Connect End of year summary is currently available, and updating daily. The stats are quite interesting,... -
Garmin Connect, Explore 2 and Instinct 2 Experimentation — Nov 16, 2025Garmin connect isn’t as smart as I thought. I thought that if I used the Explore 2 with a heart rate belt, that I would get training status and training readiness. For a week I was tracking with the Explore 2 as my primary tracker. Data is missing....
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Of Apple, Casio, Garmin and Suunto Wearing — Oct 22, 2025There was a time, for decades, if not centuries, when a watch provided us with the time. We would wear it in a pocket, attached to a chain, we would stare up at a clock tower and we would see the time. We might even hear church bells to indicate every quarter, half and full hour. In the last decade we have gone from wearing watches to tell time, to watches that quantify us....
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Strava - How to Upload Manually — Oct 8, 2025Since Strava has decided to sue Garmin, and since Suunto has decided to sue Garmin as well, for different reasons, I feel now is a good opportunity to remind ourselves of how to upload to Garmin and Strava manually....
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Sports Tracker is Waking Up — Oct 6, 2025In the 2000s I was using a Nokia N95 8gb with Sports tracker to track my walks every day. Eventually, when I started scuba diving I switched to Suunto to track dives, and eventually wore one for hikes, and then I upgraded to the Suunto Ambit 2, 3, Spartan Wrist HR Baro and then the Peak 5.... -
On Strava Being Irrational — Oct 4, 2025It is irrational and absurd for Strava to sue one of its’ most important providers of data, Garmin. Every run, hike, climb and other sport that I have done for years comes from either Suunto, Garmin, Apple Watch or another brand. Garmin is huge in the cycling community.... -
Playing With Strava Premium for a Free Month — Jul 15, 2025Years ago, when Strava was newer, and more appealing I eventually decided to pay for Strava because I wanted to support the project. I wanted to help make them sustainable. The same is true with Zwift. When both of them got VC funding I ended my subscriptions rather than renewing for another year. This was years ago.... -
Public and Private on Strava, Komoot, Garmin and Suunto — Jul 10, 2025For years I have used Sportstracker, and then Strava and Komoot and others. Whether I use one platform or another isn’t much of a concern. I can send my data everywhere. The question is whether I make that data public, private, or a hybrid compromise.... -
Cycling with the Varia RTL 515 — Jun 30, 2025A few days ago I went on a group ride. I noticed that a high percentage of bikes had bike radars so I checked to see the price of these devices once again. For a year or two I have considered getting a bike radar but didn’t because I found that the price was too high. I believe that recently either the price went down or the offer of cheaper alternatives improved....
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The Mature Smartwatch Habit — Jun 5, 2025I see people. I see them say that they have given up on wearing fitness trackers and smartwatches because they hate the tyranny of the device. I have felt an intense dislike for Apple behaves in particular. At the same time I have been playing wit Sportstracker for eighteen years or so. My fitness tracking habit is old enough to drink and old enough to drive.... -
Of Suunto, Garmin and Apple — Apr 15, 2025For years I wore no watch, and then I took up scuba diving, and then I wanted to wear a watch when climbing, and then it escalated from there. Now I have Garmin, Suunto Apple, Casio, Xiaomi and other watches. It’s easy to justify wearing the Apple watch because it’s a smart watch so it has a niche. It’s harder to justify the Garmin, Suunto, Xiaomi and Casio watches because they overlap each other.... -
Epix Gen 2 First Impressions — Oct 22, 2024I saw that a Garmin Epix (Gen 2) watch was lying unused for a few days in a row so I asked if I could borrow it to experiment with and the answer was yes so that’s the Garmin watch I am wearing now....
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Garmin and Other Services — Sep 18, 2024Yesterday I wore the Suunto Peak 5 alongside the Apple Watch SE rather than the Apple Watch SE and Garmin device as I usually would. The reason for this is that I want to continue playing with Suunto devices, and I’d like to wean myself off of the Apple Watch, for at least a week or two.... -
Apple Watch SE Versus Others — Aug 17, 2024People will always ask me why I wear two watches and the answer is now "because one is a smart watch and the other is for sports, and people accept that quite easily. The reasons I used to give are no longer needed. I learned how to keep a short answer convenient, and easy to accept.... -
A Reminder of Why I Stopped Using the Garmin Watch — May 3, 2024Yesterday I was reminded of why I stopped wearing the Garmin watch, replacing it with Casio watches instead. It’s because Garmin, Suunto and Xiaomi don’t count walking as real sport. Imagine, you’re wearing a watch twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, every day, and charging it every month with the Garmin Instinct, and every few days with the other devices, and you see the absurdity of certain trackers.... -
On Being Asked Why I Wear Two Watches — Apr 16, 2024During the Via Ferrata I did on Sunday I was asked why I wear two watches and I answered with a joke before giving the serious answer that I wear two watches at once because I want the data from both watches. I was asked why I need the data from both watches and that’s where there is a change that is happening at the moment....
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The Garmin Etrex Solar — Dec 6, 2023I quite like Garmin devices. I like that my Garmin Instinct Solar can run forever in summer, and less time in winter. I like that the Garmin Etrex SE can last for days or even weeks with my type of use. I also love the idea of the Garmin Etrex Solar. They make the claim that you “Get unlimited battery life when used in sunny 75,000 lux conditions or up to 200 hours with no solar charging.”...
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Reverting to a Single Watch — Aug 29, 2023Today I asked Google Bard whether I should wear two watches at a time and it told me not to. Specifically it told me not to wear a Garmin watch, and a Suunto watch at the same time as they may interferer with each other and more. Before the Apple Watch I only wore one watch at time. I wore the Suunto Spartan watch. When I got the Apple Watch I started to wear two watches at a time because they feed two different databases and the data is not shared from one to the other.... -
The Unquantified Self and the Garmin Etrex SE — Aug 8, 2023Since boyhood I have liked watches. There was a period when I wore none, but eventually I got the habit back and now I regularly wear two watches. I don’t wear two watches because I like to wear two watches. I wear two watches because Apple sends to one database and Garmin sends to another, and there is some functionality that is dedicated to one platform. If you want Apple functionality you have to wear an Apple Watch, and if you want Garmin features you need to wear a Garmin watch.... -
Garmin Instinct Solar Low Battery — Jul 23, 2023Yesterday just as I was telling the Garmin Instinct to start tracking I noticed that I had 20 or less percent of battery left so I considered turning around, to swap to another device. I didn’t, and I just went for a 12km walk. During the walk I was more focused on keeping the watch face facing into the sun, to keep the sun powering the watch and it worked....
