This wasn’t the blog post I was thinking about a couple of days ago. I had grand plans to write on the plane ride home recapping the trip but ended up feeling so tired and uninspired, but I promise trip recap to come soon.
While I was out on a run in Baska Voda, I noticed that my watch, the Nike+ GPS SportWatch had condensation in the screen. However, when I got back inside the hotel room, it disappeared. I didn’t think much of it again until a couple of days later when the screen started flashing on and off. Needless to say, my watch was telling me something…
A very sad Nike+ GPS SportWatch
Long story short, I contacted Nike+ support who, by the way, are super friendly and very fast to respond. They gave me two options – 1. Send back the watch, wait for an inspection to determine if the issue is covered within warranty and if so, Nike will send me a new watch within 14 days. Or 2. Advance exchange where they send me a new watch which will arrive in 3-5 business days and I send my watch back. If the issue is covered within warranty, I do not get charged but if not, I will be charged $120 (they will have my credit card on file). Since this was the day before we were leaving Croatia and I knew I had a busy week ahead of me away from home (I know, again!) with a work conference and then a family event, I really needed a watch as soon as possible. Also, I started having doubts about sticking with Nike. They haven’t released a new watch in a while plus the press lately about them firing the wearables team and reviews from people with similar issues that I was seeing continued to have problems even with the replacement. When the watch started acting up, I took it as an opportunity to research the other devices out there. Even if I went with option 2, I wouldn’t have a watch at the earliest until the end of this week which is unfortunately too late for me (I’m not sure what that says about my addiction to run / track with a watch).
Interval workout on the new Garmin Forerunner 220
After much research, I settled on the Garmin Forerunner 220 (I will still be sending back my watch to Nike for inspection and hopefully a replacement) and was able to order it from the hotel room in Croatia the morning we left and the watch was already waiting for me at home before we even landed! Thank you Amazon! I was very torn between the Forerunner 220 and 620 but due to the extra cost and uncertainty of whether I wanted to run with a heart rate monitor currently, I chose the 220. If you’re in the market for a new watch, be sure to check out some of these great reviews: The Wirecutter, DC Rainmaker, and Runner’s World.
Alzheimer’s team at Tuesday speed practice
I ran an interval workout with the Alzheimer’s team last night and on the treadmill tonight with the watch and it seems to work great. I love how it is so light and the menu is easy to navigate as well. I am still in “test” mode with the watch though and my CTO (I mean Josh!) is helping me with importing all the Nike data and updating the mileage tracker on my site. It’s a fairly big transition given how tied I was (and still am) to Nike with the watch and FuelBand. Over a year and a half ago I attended a Garmin event at a local running store and I was the biggest Nike supporter out there but I am starting to change my views. A detailed review of the Garmin Forerunner 220 will come once I’ve had the time to test the watch more and evaluate the data aspect as well.
In the meantime, I assure you that even if you don’t see the mileage tracker update, I am running and in full marathon training mode. Stay tuned for my travel and watch updates.
Hopefully a thumbs up for the new watch
Do you run with a GPS watch? Which watch do you run with?
