Just a general thread about running. How's your running going? What are you training for? Did you get new shoes? Sporting an injury etc.
this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2024
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Curious! I have the Polar H10 and can connect it to my iPhone.
Have you tried connecting the H9 strap with the Polar Flow app? IIRC it needs the app to connect.
The fenix and forerunner series are arguably the best for running. As I've only used Garmin, I can't speak to other manufacturers' products.
All watches from these series should work with your strap.
Other things that might influence your choice are watch size and weight, spotify integration, amoled vs MIP screen and whether you do any swimming, hiking or other activities.
Upon receipt I tried connecting the H9 through Polar Flow but my phone can’t see it at all through bluetooth in the device settings. Might be a phone issue? Idk.
I’d eventually like to get into lap swimming, but realistically that won’t be for another year or two, have to find a place that’s convenient, has good hours, and isn’t extortionately priced.
I don’t have a Spotify account, I do have a Pandora subscription. If a ForeRunner can work with Pandora that potentially means I don’t have to carry my phone while running.
I’m not picky about a screen, but whichever kind I go with I’ll probably buy a screen protector of some kind.
I’m a big guy so a large watch probably won’t be an issue.
I noticed the app I'm using is actually called Polar Beat not Flow.
Maybe using Beat is required for the pairing - I don't know much about Polar's software as I only use the app to check the battery level. (It also allows you to turn visibility on or off among other things)
For me the connection goes as follows:
I hope this helps!
About the other stuff you mentioned.
A quick duckduckgo revealed that Pandora doesn't support Garmin devices I'm afraid. Supported music providers are Amazon, Youtube, Spotify and Deezer. This depends on your locale and device though.
When it comes to swimming, most devices struggle a bit with data. Accurately measuring distance for instance. IIRC Apple does quite a good job followed by higher end Garmins. Swimming does require a chest strap in order to get reliable HR, even more so, than running. Although I haven't read reviews of the newest generation on watches, maybe it's getting better. I only do a little swimming every now and then so I can't go into details.
A feature I didn't know I was going to like as much as I did, is Daily Suggested Workouts. During off-season it gives me incentive to go running every day without having to think about what to do and when.
About health data in general, it's good to remember it's quite inaccurate and even when it's accurate it's not necessarily simple to draw any useful conclusions from it. Sleep tracking for instance is very very inaccurate, especially when it come to sleep phases. HRV, PulseOx etc. is mostly pretty useless too but there are differing opinions too.
You could go with a newer, lower end Garmin model, say a Forerunner 255 or the newer 265 or then look into buying a used forerunner 965 or 955 or a fenix 6. Whatever fits your budget.
When reading up on the specs and features, make sure to watch some videos on the specific implementations of the features you're interested in. My Fenix 6 for instance is limited to only giving me my Daily Suggested Workout while newer models can display suggested workouts for the whole week ahead, something I'm a bit salty about. These small differences are rarely highlighted which can be annoying.
I tend to over reasearch stuff even when I only need something basic to be happy with. That being said I found this guys videos quite helpful:
https://youtu.be/cNVV1PwwpmY?si=HMp-tuqz6UaPGRtr