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The Run Testers Podcast | How to Buy a Running Watch
771 Plays1 year ago
This month on the podcast the team is talking about buying running watches, from how much you need to spend to the sort of features you can expect. We'll also discuss the London Marathon, Tom's trip to visit Puma in Boston and Kieran's Comrades training, and there's an interview with Puma athlete Edna Kiplagat.
Kit we've been testing over the past month includes the Nike Vaporfly 3 and the Garmin Forerunner 295, and there's the return of the London Marathon celebrity finish time quiz.
Perfect for that Sunday long run.
Big thanks to Fear of Tigers for the killer intro music. You can listen to more of his stuff over at https://www.patreon.com/fearoftigers
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Transcript
Introduction & Overview
00:00:01
Speaker
Hey, Tommy from The Runtesters with another monthly podcast. In this episode, we are going to be talking about running watches. So everything you need to know about buying a running watch from Battery Life and all the features to make sure that the watch that you're spending your hard-earned money on is right for you. There's also an interview with Puma athlete Edna Kiplagat, who is one of the all-time great marathon runners with wins at some of the biggest events around the world.
00:00:26
Speaker
including Boston, London, New York and World Championships. So I'll be talking to her a bit about her training, about her run in the recent Boston Marathon and lots of other stuff as well. So that's halfway through the podcast. We'll also be answering a load of your questions that you've posted to us on the channel. So if you've sent us a question, it might be in there. Right, let's jump in and do the podcast.
Subscriber Milestone Celebration
00:00:54
Speaker
So guys, podcasts, bit of a momentous one because about three seconds before we joined the call, we hit 50,000 subscribers, which was not planned.
00:01:06
Speaker
I've been sitting by my mic for days waiting for this. What do you mean by that? A nice welcome treat for us. So halfway to that plaque, that YouTube plaque. Yeah. What time did you get first? I think it's like the bronzey one first, isn't it? Silvery one. Who's getting the plaque? Shotgun or plaque? Well, you only get one and then you have to order the duplicates, don't you? Okay. I've already researched it. I've already investigated it. Any reason I do any of this? Three years away at this point there.
00:01:36
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. I worked it out. I estimated it to be like two in a little bit, two in a month. At our current rate. Yeah. All right. Well, I'll put a celebratory sound effect on to commemorate the occasion. Please do.
00:01:59
Speaker
Right, well, let's jump into what we've all been up
Host Introductions & Marathon Experiences
00:02:03
Speaker
to. Not often we get four of us on the podcast. Yeah, I suppose we haven't said who's here, have we? Oh yeah, of course, yeah. For listeners, we've got the whole bunch of chaps on. All the chaps? Tom, Karen, Nick and Mike. So nice treat for you there.
00:02:17
Speaker
Well, I'd say that now. Might not be. Let's jump into training and stuff. We've been up to quite a lot recently, haven't we? Well, some of us have. Nick, you've just done London Marathon. Do you want to kick us off on your training, what you've been up to, what the London Marathon was like? Oh, London Marathon was brilliant. I ran a lot quicker than I expected. Did the first half with a mate. A very wet first half, actually. Looking back, I didn't realise that, but I spent a lot of the marathon avoiding manhole covers. I wore a joke that I was going to slip on.
00:02:43
Speaker
But yeah, first half quite relaxed, kicked on second half, and ran 2.33, so very chuffed with that all round. Training's been a bit weird. So my marathon was, I've only done one long run this year, and that was 24K. So the marathon was my longest run since Valencia, and so I was really surprised I had the legs. But I wasn't reasonable shape. Got back into some short-term shape, did the Essex Road relays. 4.8K, got a 4.8K PV in the relays. Relays are the best. I've decided this now. I only really want to do relays now. They're the best racers.
00:03:13
Speaker
It's the most fun run much harder much more exciting, you know, I get to get stay in cheer So yeah, it's been a fun month. It also did the southern relay. So lots of relays relay based month. How about you guys? I've never seen any relays I went to do part run a couple of weeks ago and then Brighton Phoenix were doing relays in the park didn't know about it So yeah, I think of the invite hurtful. Well, I've just ignored the invites Yeah, yeah, I'm desperate to do a relay. They seem to be like the the in thing at the moment, you know
00:03:39
Speaker
You run so hard. I went out, really, I was on the first leg and I just didn't want to lose the leaders too much. So I went out in the first K and ran, I think, like a 52 first K. I looked at my watch and went, nope. Okay. That's a shame. But yeah, just gradually slowed. I didn't lose too much distance. But yeah, in the end, I think we were fifth in Essex, Orion. And at the Southerns, we got absolutely battered because
00:04:01
Speaker
The standard of running when you go to an event like the Southern Relays is the Highgate Harriers' CT beat us. Their BT had quite a lot of sub-15 5K runners and stuff like that in it. It's ridiculous how many good runners there are around. Nice. All right. Well, you're training for anything, you can't, can you? You've got other things on the right that you need to focus on. Yeah. Once those other things arrive, I imagine training will be different. I'll still be running a bit to review stuff, but probably go to short distances for a while. All right. Still going to work on this window where I might slowly get close to your times.
00:04:31
Speaker
Are they going to happen? I've got long enough, I need about five years. All right, Kieran, your training looks a little bit different than ours at the moment. Yeah, so I'm basically training for the Comrades marathon. So I've basically got a 55 mile ultra, which contains I think about 55 miles of hills in it.
00:04:51
Speaker
So I think I was looking today, there's some crazy like 3000 meters of elevation in a 55 mile road ultra. So I'm supposed to be trying to find hills to run up and down. I've actually had a cold. So I've done none of that. I have done about 30 weighted squats in the gym. So that's going to make all the difference.
00:05:08
Speaker
You saw it. I'm fixed. That's it. I mean, I've got I know with this race, I've got the distance. That's not going to be a problem. I'm terrified of how my quads are going to hold up on the 17th downhill stretch for this. So I'm actually going to go next up. I'm going to go to the one of the Adidas Terrex races, the Maverick races down in Exmoor. It's near my best where I grew up in sort of North Devon. And that one has a huge amount of elevation in I think around 54 kilometres. So
00:05:35
Speaker
That's going to be very hurt. It's in Linton and Limworth, which if you know the area down there, it's basically kind of vertical along the coast. It's famous for having a massive flood there because all the water rolled right down those massive great steep hills. But so I'll be back in my own kind of home territory, places that I probably should have run when I was a kid, but never did.
00:05:51
Speaker
really good events those maverick events did a couple last year yeah they're really well put together they're they're actually really excellent there's like i love the fact there's there's sort of four or five distances on this so you can choose whether or not you go the ultra we do a marathon there's a few shorter ones so nice mix they have good food good beer you know it's a good spirit so um this one should be good fun it'd be nice to be how long until comrades comrades is june the 11th so i've got it's one of those where when i booked in it feels ages away and all of a sudden it's like six weeks
00:06:27
Speaker
I'd like a 10k a day, June 12, 2c. I'm already thinking about tapering, so I don't really...
00:06:36
Speaker
And then, Mike, your training's not quite as positive, is it? No, here he is. No. No, I've definitely been in recovery mode, basically. I've not been able to run massively over the last couple of months. I was meant to ding London, pulled out, probably realised I wasn't going to be able to do it probably about six weeks ago.
00:06:55
Speaker
had a weird first proper running injury. I had to go to physio and actually say, well, this is not fixing. So it's kind of had a weird kind of hip pelvis imbalance, which I've saw a lot of runners have dealt with. It's kind of overuse and yeah, it's just been a rehab program. I've done, have been doing a bit more running first week this week and I've been able to do, or last week, I've been able to do some consecutive runs. So progress is being made and fitting a lot better gutted about London, basically escaped London for the weekend. I couldn't face it ultimately.
00:07:23
Speaker
But yeah, so things are looking better. Definitely. Hopefully I'll be back on with proper testing. I've got, you know, shoes piling up at the moment and I am aiming to get fit and ready for Hackney half, which is next month. So I've got about four weeks, which, you know, I mean, I can run that. I know I can run it. It's just, you know, what time I'm going to do that race. And that's kind of what I'm giving myself a target for. Then trying to find an auto marathon to replace London, basically. So if anyone's got any good ideas.
00:07:50
Speaker
Get to Abingdon with me. Maybe I can join you at Abingdon. Go run Dorny Lake. Tom's doing Dorny Lake. Is that the lapped one? Well, I'm doing Dorny Lake. I'm still desperately hoping I can get a place in Berlin. If I don't get a place in Berlin, I'm not doing Dorny Lake. Tom's getting real serious. He's got a coach now. Big, big effort in auto marathon and Dorny Lake is looking like the speediest option, I'd say. Yeah, I'm a bit worried about Dorny Lake. I've done the half marathon there before and it was so windy. It's hell. Yeah, hellish place to run.
00:08:18
Speaker
Yeah. I've done the half there and it's like, yeah, 50% of the time you can't hear yourself. You did all right, didn't it? You did it, didn't you? I ran a horror at 229, there was no picture. Did you get it on a good day though? It was pretty wet and windy but it was, I don't know, I think in the marathon, I've done a windy day and a half and it was worse than the marathon because you're running a little bit quicker obviously. Marathon I did wasn't full loops either, it was like a horseshoe so maybe it was slightly shorter into the wind each time but
00:08:46
Speaker
It was okay. I think if you get a clear day there, if you just try to put down a time, there aren't actually many fantastic options if you're in great shape. Like, Avon is a good one, but it sounds like you're going there with a ladstone, which might end up being not so cool. Well, I think they're going to meet me there on the day. Okay. So hopefully, I could go, I can go serious on that one. Not like Barcelona, where? No sabotage.
00:09:09
Speaker
I don't want another Barcelona for at least another 10 months. I was getting a coach now and getting going. I'd be eyeing up Valencia myself to having a nice summer of speed, starting training for the marathon in the autumn. I'm still going to spend the next couple of hours working on this Berlin place. But yeah, cool. All right, then let's dive into a bit of kit news.
Vaporfly 3 & Garmin Watch Reviews
00:09:33
Speaker
Okay, so running kit news, not loads that we've got to update on this month, a few, a couple of big ones. And I've got quite a lot to talk about. Well, I can't talk about, but let's start with the vapor fly three. We have got a first run up on the channel on this, but we not really got a lot of videos up on it. We're going to be.
00:09:52
Speaker
hammering that soon with all sorts of videos. I've just been out for my first run in it. It was an easy 60 minute run. It's been a while since I've done an easy run in a vapor fly.
00:10:08
Speaker
Because why would I? I just wanted to break it in to make sure it didn't rub on my... Because I'm going to use it for half marathon on Sunday, working half marathon. So I wanted to test, just make sure it fit nicely. But I did realize that when you run in the Alpha Fly, that's quite comfortable at slow pace, but the Vapefly doesn't really do a lot. So yeah, I'm going to use it for track tomorrow as well. But yeah, Nick, you do a bit more running in it.
00:10:29
Speaker
Yeah, I did London in it. I've done about 100k in it now. I'll get the review up this week, so I won't go into too much detail now, but yeah, it's excellent. It's actually better than I thought it was going to be. I assumed it was going to be very good, but I did notice a bit more of a difference compared to the VapeFly 2 and just how kind of cushy it is. It is a little bit more comfortable while still being ridiculously light. I've done a 4.8k race in it and the marathon in it. Loved it for both.
00:10:51
Speaker
I'm still saying it's got the same problem that all carbon shoes are going to have these days, which is it comes out in a market where you can get any number of brilliant shoes in sales for a lot less, including the VapeFly 2 or the Adios Pro 3, Metaspeed Sky Plus. You can get those for a lot less. I think I personally have enjoyed the shoe more than any other carbon shoe, but it's a marginal thing and it's a lot more expensive. So I think it's brilliant. I really have loved it.
00:11:14
Speaker
But I don't know, I just don't think we're ever going to get that leap again. I mean, you must all remember the first time you used the vapour fly compared to what you were using before for like, you know, the AWS Boston and, you know, that ridiculous leap in performance that you now don't really get because they're all really, really good. But it's still brilliant. Yeah. Well, I'm hoping I've noticed a bit more from it when I run at pace on Sunday than I did today. It was fine today, just didn't really.
00:11:38
Speaker
Not which point is that, which of them have more V4s on? All right, so plenty of VapeFly 3 content coming up on the channel soon. We've also got some new garments as well. Tested these. Mike, you're going to check with this. Yeah, both on my wrist, the 965 and the 265. So I was kind of playing a little bit of catch up in terms of testing with the other guys, but I have had them both now in to test. And obviously the big story here is the fact that
00:12:05
Speaker
Garmin has added an upload display. So obviously we had that on the Epyx and the Venue series and this is about bringing it to the forerunner range as well and crucially trying to maintain the good battery life along with the other features that you had on the 955 and the 255. And I think ultimately, and obviously we've got videos on the channel, we've got comparison video, we'll have a full review.
00:12:25
Speaker
the 965, we've got 265 review on the channel as well. I think for me, I think they've managed to deliver that generally very, very well. I think managed to give that very good battery life and you've still got that strong run tracking performance. And I think obviously you are looking at spending a little bit more money, I think on the 265 side of things compared to the previous version. But I do think in terms of
00:12:48
Speaker
executing something where Garmin is trying to play, you know, trying to offer a bit more of a smartwatch experience in terms of that hardware. I think it's done a very good job and I think it's a positive thing for Garmin in general. I think for people who wanted running watches that felt a little bit more like smartwatches and I think it's very interesting to see how that's going to develop over time. Some videos up on the channel at the moment, aren't we, about those?
00:13:10
Speaker
I think it's more to come. I think the 965, it was pretty, I think DC roadmap called it a very safe play from Garmin. I think the 955 was kind of the best pound for pound watch in Garmin's range. It just did everything that the top watches did. And they went, well, we'll make an AMOLED version and they'd not actually. I've actually found the 965.
00:13:27
Speaker
I have been getting seven days of battery life, even while running 80, 90 k a week. And I was only getting about eight days with a 955. So I'm a bit surprised how good the battery life is. It seems like Garmin is pitching its battery life numbers correctly, whereas some brands don't, they oversell it or get it wrong.
00:13:43
Speaker
Yeah, I've been really impressed with both of those watches. I do like an AMOLED screen. It's one of those things where we live in the UK, so especially when it's a cloud cover, they're brilliant screens. I mean, on very sunny days, when you're wearing sunglasses, maybe there's a bit less visibility there, but I still think they're pretty visible, and then they're a lot easier to see indoors and stuff. A lot of discussion going on in the comments about AMOLED screens at the moment. Hot topic.
00:14:05
Speaker
Yeah, well Garmin's basically just, but what they've done is they've just given it as another option. It's like another option in the range, but with the 965 that is, the 255 not having readiness is still a bugbear of mine. I don't like that. Cause then it's not really a, you've got to choose another difference between the watches, which isn't fair. Yeah.
00:14:20
Speaker
And it's definitely a reaction to the Apple Watch as well. I think it's fair to say. Well, the 90s was absolutely fantastic. Desperate to get that on my wrist for a bit. Yeah, it looks very nice. So other than that, there's not really loads that we've... The Pegasus 40 is of course out now, which I think Jane's the only one who's got the moment. Is that right?
00:14:45
Speaker
Yeah, I'm waiting for mine, but I think generally it's really kind of upper changes on the front. I mean, it's going to be very similar. I expect to be very similar in terms of experience of the previous Pegasus with some changes in the upper department, I think.
00:14:58
Speaker
Okay, and the only other bit of news which is probably quite interesting is On's new shoe. Well, it's a bit of a confusing one this one because On's got a new shoe out which we've seen people testing out on social, but then of course it was the shoe that won Boston. The first female winner of Boston was wearing an On shoe. It doesn't look like the same shoe, does it?
00:15:24
Speaker
No, and the one that Chris Thompson was wearing at the London Marathon doesn't quite look like the shoe. It's a bit confusing. I don't think we've got complete clarity here. No, there definitely seems to be things going on in the on world. But I think that's a positive thing. We're also we're all very impressed with the cloud surfer. So hopefully
00:15:44
Speaker
There's some good things to come. Yeah, there's some slight testing. I think we are coming to the end of a little testing period now. A lot of brands have released everything, so that might be the next big, exciting thing we get for the massive autumn rush. All right, and then finally, I've just come back from Boston, not to run the marathon, just to watch it. I nipped out there to visit Puma and find out about their future launches, their developments, that they're working across various shoes and things. Some very interesting stuff that I can't talk about, but some very exciting stuff.
00:16:14
Speaker
definitely making some interesting, creative things in the future. So as soon as we can tell you about those things, we'll talk about those. But yeah, it was really useful to see, well, one, to go to the marathon.
00:16:26
Speaker
I couldn't get in this year, but I'm going to get in next year. Now I've got my qualifying time. Desperate to do that. I'm quite pleased I didn't manage to do it this year because it was raining. It's not very nice. So, yeah, exactly. Is it always raining there? Yeah. You've actually got to hope the wind is a tailwind. Yeah. Just as soon as you got off in the morning, it just looked a bit dreary. It looked like it looked like beer in England, basically. Are you, how, £2.55. Is that getting into Boston? Do you know what they're, what they walked, what was the time they got in last year? Oh, mine's like £3.10.
00:16:55
Speaker
Yeah, you should be good. Oh, really? Way below. My qualifying time isn't age dependent. It's just qualifying time. Easier. That should be all right. I think that's right. It's around now. I know I've got below the 40 year old qualifying time.
00:17:11
Speaker
So yeah, so I'm doing that actually, but the, yeah, the Puma trip was really interesting and they have a lot of new developments going on, which I think a lot of people will be very pleased about across all different parts of the range. Tom, I heard you were getting smashed at various different activities by other YouTubers, bowling, all that.
00:17:27
Speaker
Right, so I got... This is what we want to hear about. I got badly beaten at Paul by Kate, who just slipped into the conversation halfway through. I think I put in a couple of balls and then she slipped in. Oh, I used to play for the uni team. All right, okay. I'm going to tell them that before I agree to play you. She's got a tattoo of the hustler on her arm. Yeah, she was annoyingly good. And then I got beaten by The Running Channel at 10 Mid Bowling.
00:17:54
Speaker
What about Ed Budd? Did he beat you at Paul as well? He looked quite good. He was too busy playing Puma. I say he was too busy. I avoided him. I wanted off to do something else. I would have lost everything, but I think I won something there. I can't remember what it was, but I don't remember it, so it doesn't really count. All right, then that's it for running news.
00:18:24
Speaker
All right, bit of an intermission then for the
Running Watches Q&A
00:18:26
Speaker
podcast. So normally we have running facts in here, but because the London marathon has just been, we're going to do, we did this last year, I think. The Celebrity London Marathon Times. See how close you can guess the celebrities.
00:18:45
Speaker
Now last year when I did it, I didn't know any of the celebrities, so I don't think any of you did either. So it was just me saying random names. It could have been anyone who'd run the marathon. But this time I've gone through it and actually choice picked people who are actually
00:18:57
Speaker
people that you might know. Right, so let's run through this. First one on here, I hope you know this, because I didn't, but you should. Danny Mills. Footballer. Yeah, yeah. And obviously his son is an on-runner as well, so. And his other son plays for the mighty Toffees as well, so, yeah. We met him at the on thing in Zurich. Yeah, yeah. Oh, don't you reckon? Yeah. Yeah.
00:19:23
Speaker
I glaze over when people start talking about footballs. It's got to be pretty quick though. Surely it's quick for those genes, that background. Yeah. What are you thinking? I'm going to go 3.31. I think I'm going to go 2.54. No, 3.15. Kieran's got it. It's 3.12.18. That's poor. He's let himself down. He's let himself down.
00:19:49
Speaker
Okay, what about, so do you know who Dell Roberts is? Yeah, yeah. So Dell Roberts is a bit already well presented, but she's recently been going through bowel cancer treatment and she got a Guinness World Record for running London Marathon's time to be the fastest marathon with a colostomy bag. But what time do you think she got? I think I know this, I think it's at 3.31.
00:20:09
Speaker
I'm going to say 3.39. I'm going to go a bit higher. I'll go like 3.55. 3.33. Absolutely phenomenal. Amazing. That's incredible. Absolutely incredible time. Another one I didn't know, but you should know. Mark Wright. Ah, the football area. Ugh. 4.20.
00:20:27
Speaker
I mean he's still kind of playing football so I would say probably like yeah maybe 315 I'm gonna say. Is that the old palace player? It's not that old is he? No it's that guy, the early ways Essex guy isn't it who plays football as well. Last played for EFL league two-side Crawley Town.
00:20:50
Speaker
Oh, he's not. He's not righty and right. It's not like the Palace jury. You've got the wrong one here. He has been playing professional football recently. Oh, OK, then, all right. Three-five, three-of-five. Three-thirty-six, fifty-three. We've overwrought your footballers, don't we? There's two sprints. Lazy. Lazy. Well, that's the shit down from footballers here. Marcus Mumford. Of the Suns? Is he one of the Suns? He's one of the Suns. OK. Five hours.
00:21:19
Speaker
Was he playing music? No, I reckon this will be the random quick one. I'm going to say, I'm going to say 341. Okay. 351. Very good. 25. Have you got... Standard one on the list. Chris Evans. Come on. You must know. You must know his general times from previous years. Oh, he's good, isn't he? What was your time, Tom? What was your quickest marathon time? What's that got to do with Chris Evans? I reckon he's done slightly quicker than you.
00:21:48
Speaker
Now we're talking Chris Evans, the old BBC presenter, not the Hollywood star. He's probably really relaxed about it, though, isn't he? He's probably jogging him around now because he's done loads. Four twelve, I'm going to say. No, I think he's still got a bit in the leg. I reckon he's done a three forty eight jogging it. I was going to say three forty five. Four forty three fifty one. What are you doing, Chris? Stop what you're doing. Talking about cars, mate. Tom, have you got even your head on this list? One of my favorite people in the world, the curler.
00:22:15
Speaker
I took that one off because I didn't think anyone would know who that is. You're obsessed. Legend, absolute legend. There was so much curling at uni for no reason. I did have that on the list, but I don't know. She was pretty quick, I think. I'm going to finish here with... I've got two people who will be stenders, but I'm going to pick Adam Wudgett. Oh, Billy. Ian Beale. 2-0-1-20.
00:22:45
Speaker
4.30t. 4.50. 6.15, 26. I mean that's... Can you stop and sign so many autographs? You at least don't have to worry about that. I saw those chip arties from the calf, mate. What was his migration strategy? I haven't seen him since the kind of meme photo of him as an absolute state in EastEnders. I assume he just looks like that, but he probably doesn't, does he? There we go. There's the famous London Marathon celebrity.
00:23:11
Speaker
times quiz. Can we just carry on doing that? I think that's going to be more fun. They really go downhill after a bit, the people that I've got on the list. I have to do quite a lot of research to find out who the other people were. Maybe we'll do another one next time. Should I do one of those after the... Well, have they got to qualify for Boston? Does Boston have general celebrities or do they have to qualify?
00:23:32
Speaker
I don't know. That's a good question. But you does have people that do it through non-qualifying sources, doesn't it? It's got charity places. You know who is a fast celebrity? Who's that guy on Taskmaster, the young comedian? On this one, on the new one. Yeah, what's his name? Frankie Boyle. The guy from Ghost. The guy from Ghost. The Ghost is next to Frankie Boyle. Oh, yeah. He was at a new balance event once. Ivo Graham, that's it. Ivo Graham. I think he was trying to run a sub three some time.
00:24:02
Speaker
He's got the build, the gangling build. There we go, bonus information for any celebrity running fans there. We'll get him on the podcast. Low to them. All right, more of those next year.
00:24:18
Speaker
All right guys, so we get a lot of questions on the channel about running watches and how to buy running watches, and it can be quite confusing for people, especially if they're new to buying watches. And when you're looking at upwards of 500 pounds for some of the more premium ones, it's a decision that probably needs quite a bit of thought. So what we're gonna do here is go through some of the main questions that we get around running watches and help people understand a little bit better about
00:24:44
Speaker
how they can start choosing which one they actually want to be looking at. So let's jump into a nice, simple one. Nick, you can tackle this one to start with. How expensive do you think a running watch needs to be? Needs to be. It is a tough question. I think they are a lot cheaper. As gear goes, the minimum price is still reasonably high over a running watch, I think. To get GPS and heart rate tracking and a reasonable battery life, you're still looking at
00:25:12
Speaker
100 quid kind of thing for the older models from brands like Garmin and Coros, if you're going on the cheap. I mean, Decathlon has a very good watch for 130 pounds, the Kipron 500, but that's still quite a lot of money compared to lots of other things. There are some cheaper ones. Mike's a big, well, expert on the Amaze Fit range, which does have some cheaper ones under 100 pounds, but it gets a little bit sketchy there. You might not get a screen. You can really read that easily on the run. I still think you're probably looking at close to 100 pounds for an older model of a really good watch. That's going to work very well as a running watch.
00:25:41
Speaker
And then from there, you know, the sky's the limit, isn't it? I think probably there's really good watches between, if under 200 pounds these days, there are multi-sport watches as well that offer everything you really need. And then you start looking at frills beyond that price that are great frills, frills I love, like AMOLED screens and multi-band GPS and maps and music and all that. But they're probably less essential than, I think the core features, it's very easy to find now and really good watches for under 200, but it's still not really getting like amazing watches for 50 quid.
00:26:08
Speaker
So out of those different price range, Kieran is one for you. How do you choose a really watch for your price range? Yeah, I mean, this is this is an interesting question because there's obviously so many different kind of features that you'll get across the kind of price ranges. And for me, my starting point has always been to do something simple, like I'll make a list of the things that are kind of essentials, you know, they're the things non-negotiable. Sean Dyche would call them in the football world if he was trading Everton. These are the things that you really desperately want to have in your watch.
00:26:36
Speaker
And that will give you a starting point to go and cross reference a bunch of different devices. And you're thinking about things, some of the things that Nick mentioned that differentiate these washes. Do you really want to have that kind of Uber accuracy, kind of multi-band GPS? Do you care about having offline music? Does the AMOLED screen make a difference?
00:26:55
Speaker
Is your main thing having a really long battery life? Do you want a battery life that extends with kind of low power mode that goes further? Those kind of things. If you can start to kind of put together that shortlist, it gives you something to go and essentially start your research with.
00:27:10
Speaker
about that is I think it's really important to be really honest with yourself about which of those things are really important and there are some things that I think inevitably you might have to make a sacrifice if your budget doesn't sort of stretch up to those kind of 500 and beyond and you can ask yourself a question do I really need it to play music or will I always have my phone with me so that I can listen to music through my phone are there other cheaper ways of getting some of the things I think a big thing for me which makes it interesting we're always sort of testing the heart rate accuracy a lot of the cheaper watches maybe have heart rate
00:27:36
Speaker
optical heart rate monitors that aren't necessarily bang on you can kind of supplement that maybe with a cheap chest strap and add kind of heart rate accuracy without going kind of too far up the scale so you can start to kind of pick out those key points but yeah definitely having a little bit of thought before you go into it about what your your key kind of must-haves are is really useful. Yeah I always think with watches it's
00:27:57
Speaker
It's very easy to look through the features and everything and think I want all those things and I'm going to pay £200 more than I originally intended to. But as we test watches, sometimes we'll test the more entry-level watches and sometimes we'll test the more premium watches. What I often find is that when I'm going for an entry-level watch or something that's probably lower down the list,
00:28:17
Speaker
I don't know, after testing it for a couple of weeks, I don't think I want that watch on because it's got all the features that I'm using anyway. So it may be nice to have some of these features, but you might, you probably don't need them. There's another thing which I think you can, one thing is sort of, if you're coming in at the kind of entry level and you're thinking about where you're running might go and you're a beginner, you might want to give yourself some headroom. So you might find there are features later on that you need.
00:28:40
Speaker
and you don't want to sort of have to invest in two watches. There's another really good trick that you could do right now, which is you could use chat GPT essentially to say these are the four watches that I'm thinking about, pull me together a table of all the specs in comparison and it will do it for you. So you can use it to get really easy comparative stats.
00:28:57
Speaker
out of this. There are lots of the AI tools that make it simple to do all of that trawling. Some brands are really good at putting their specs side by side for their watches. Corals are pretty good at giving you comparatives. Some of the others, it's quite difficult. You have to kind of get a spreadsheet open, but some of those AI tools will do that for you now.
00:29:13
Speaker
How very modern of you. Oh, I think one other thing to talk about in price range, that we don't come back to that much on the channel ourselves, because I don't think it's a huge deal for any of us, it's materials used. But some people will admit, if you start thinking that you need the most rugged watch out there, that massively increases the price if you're starting to think about things like titanium and temperatures it can go to. So that can really put a bracket on your price range if you do need something that's incredibly resilient on that front.
00:29:39
Speaker
And if you live in the UK, don't worry too much about solar powered watches. Alright, so let's jump into a bit more about specifics around features. Mike, this is a good one for you, since you're the man who knows everything about watch features. What different features should people look for in a ready watch? Say you're new to ready watches, what are the main things you should be looking out for?
00:30:01
Speaker
I think there's some pretty consistent things across all watches and I think most runners will generally want. Now obviously you do want built in GPS and every watch has built in GPS but I think on top of that and potentially you might want is you want to have the ability to play around with that level of GPS accuracy because you might not need particularly where you run or the environments you run in.
00:30:20
Speaker
you might be able to preserve your battery life and still get that real optimum accuracy. So I think having that room to alter that GPS accuracy depending on the environment is a really nice feature to have. But you want built-in GPS and pretty much every watch has that. I think also a key thing I think for me, I think most people look for is that ability to play around the data fields and how your screens look and whether that's someone who wants
00:30:42
Speaker
very simple looking bits of data on your screen when you're looking down at your wrist or you want something a bit more complex. Looking for the watches that kind of support that, it might mean that you have to go for a bigger watch over a smaller watch and having the freedom to customize I think is a really strong thing. And ultimately putting the data in front of you that you really want to see I think during that run, for the run, things that can help you govern your training. I think those are key things.
00:31:06
Speaker
We talk about heart rate monitoring a lot. Now, not everyone trains by heart rate. Not everyone needs to see that heart rate information, but if you want that heart rate data and you rely on it, I think having a watch that has the ability to pair external heart rate monitoring tracks, you'll hear us say in pretty much all of our videos, I think risk-based heart rate monitoring is very good and it's good for most runs, but if you really rely on that accuracy, then you want a watch that can pair
00:31:32
Speaker
to a external heart monitor. So, you know, definitely look at what types of connectivity support those watches have and what heart monitors that opens it up in terms of that kind of pairing. I think the other thing, I think, you know, there's other things I think are desirable features, but not necessarily necessary features. When you're starting to look a bit more in terms of your training, a little bit more in terms of your analysis. So whether it's the ability to create workouts, you know, bring the workouts onto your watch, it's easy to follow them, you're not
00:31:58
Speaker
your phone and keeping an eye on what you want to do for that session. I think those are really nice things to have. We're starting to see what just delve a little bit more into training analysis, whether that's helping you kind of look in terms of how to recover, when you should recover, when you should run or kind of rest.
00:32:14
Speaker
You know, looking at seeing you're making very clear improvements, whether you need to kind of ease off or whether there's certain types of sessions you should be doing. Those aren't essential features, but I think there's a nice features to have. And it's very reliant on those other sensors, making sure they're delivering that accuracy and that accurate level of data. So that's something to keep in mind. I think those are the key things I would be looking for. I would be saying to people,
00:32:35
Speaker
to look for when they can fit those key features or running watches all right then nick this is an interesting one came up with this question myself um because it's something that has cropped up quite a bit in testing um and that is what what technical limitations do people need to be aware of
00:32:53
Speaker
when they're picking up a running watch and why that, I mean, it can be anything like features or the software or anything like that. Limitations mostly concern accuracy probably for the most part. They're pretty marvelous these days, modern running watches, but they are still not going to be perfect all the time on accuracy. Heart rate in particular, optical heart rate is a very hard thing to do. I had a long chat with some of the teams at big running watch brands who are very good at this stuff, but if you want to design the worst place you could possibly put a heart rate monitor, it would basically be the wrist while running because you have arms all over the place.
00:33:22
Speaker
as a thin part of the body. So even the best watches are going to struggle sometimes on that front, like Mike mentioned, and accuracy of GPS. I'm obsessed about GPS, love multi-band GPS, but even with the best multi-band GPS available, I use two watches with that at the London Marathon at the weekend, and in Canary Wharf they still struggle to get accurate pacing and distance because it's just very hard to get good GPS there.
00:33:43
Speaker
So you could expect very good performance on both those fronts, but you can't expect perfection. And obviously that fees, there's a lot to do with the training analysis and sleep analysis, particular on the watch is that, I mean, these are useful tools that can certainly help guide what you're doing, but they aren't perfect. And they wouldn't, I wouldn't, you know, state my life on the training readiness feature of a watch or the recovery advisor on it. But it's all those things you want to take a bit of a pinch of salt. They're all very clever. They do work most of the time. They do work up to a point. And then there's a little bit of the potential for inaccuracy because it's a very hard thing to do.
00:34:13
Speaker
The other limitation, I suppose, comes to mind to me of watches is how much battery they can pack in as a trade-off versus things like size and screen brightness and still yet to get the watch that can offer their battery life of something like the Garmin Enduro or the Chorus Vertex II. That's quite a small, delicate watch with a bright screen. It's all those kind of things. It's constantly a trade-off buying a running watch and technical limitations plays into that as well.
00:34:36
Speaker
Cool, and then fine, I'll just add to that. One of the limitations I always find is when you look at the spec sheets or the marketing material around watches, when there's a feature like maps or turn-by-turn navigation and things like that, it's very different on different watches. So just having that feature on a watch does not necessarily mean it's as good as the feature that's on another watch. So sometimes the actual features themselves are limitations because they're not as good as you expect them to be when you get it.
00:35:04
Speaker
and i think that's the same for a lot of the features on those watches so things like music on watches i never find to be that good and never that usable but also it can have an impact on battery life and stuff like that so yeah some of the features just be aware of the features on watches because sometimes they're
00:35:22
Speaker
They're not as good as they sound. Sorry, go on, you go. No, no, just to kind of add a nick in terms of those kind of adding those additional metrics. I think what we're seeing and I think will evolve over time is having these lots of metrics, lots of information, but actually having the actionable data, the actionable insights with that data. I think that is very much a limitation of a lot of these things.
00:35:45
Speaker
where you're having a lot of information thrown at you, which potentially could be useful, but a lot of these brands are still pushing up instead of delivering that information in a way that you can understand and put it to good use. While you can get it with some of the features on these running watches, a lot of the features are still delivering a lot of data, but not really presenting it in a really nice, intuitive way.
00:36:03
Speaker
I'd follow on from that my which is that there's a few things when you look at readiness is a really big one where a lot of the watches calculate readiness by they mash together a load of metrics different metrics whether it's your sleep you've got a resting heart rate other bits and pieces that essentially if they're not 100 accurate at that and we know that there's big limitations on the accuracy of sleep and they try to combine this into the readiness score when you wake up in the morning that readiness score is going to be off so you have to be aware that it's
00:36:29
Speaker
when you're when you're amalgamating a lot of data to try and get you this one really nice and tidy and easy to understand score that says yeah go and or no don't go if the data that's feeding from and six different pools isn't right that's not bang on and I would absolutely recommend watches that go with
00:36:45
Speaker
sort of a straight HRV reading if you can, because your heart rate variability is actually response to all of those other bits of physiology that affect your readiness. So that's a good kind of score. And I think that's a big one. The other one I think is sort of people get baffled by is the idea of productivity and what's
00:37:00
Speaker
not you know when your training is productive and not and I think understanding how and why and where your watch is calculating those kind of training insights and metrics is really important if you can and not all brands are brilliant explaining how they're getting to those numbers and if you don't understand how they get there for me it kind of
00:37:17
Speaker
Yeah, it makes it a bit difficult to really ensure that they're accurate or understand how to use them properly. Yeah, and I don't quickly fall over that. You can see that really clearly with things like race time predictions and stuff like that. So use that as your barometer to know roughly where your watch has gauged by because it's based on these algorithms that might not apply to you perfectly. Actually, I should have mentioned earlier that I think it was quite interesting that people mentioned is I wore two watches and got different GPS readings on both. That's just going to happen. That's because GPS is not that accurate. The same way when you go and run
00:37:43
Speaker
a marathon or a race, your watch will not give you the exact race distance because GPS is not that accurate. It's always the watch's fault, put it that way. Sometimes the race course is wrong, Brighton Marathon, but mostly it's the fault of the watch. Not this year. Yes, it's true.
00:38:00
Speaker
cool all right well that's quite a detailed one let's jump into a really quick one mike you can tackle this one because karen's got a big question coming up so just simply pop mike what's the difference between a smartwatch and a running watch i would say the two things are definitely blurring a little bit more but ultimately i would say the smartwatch can track runs
00:38:18
Speaker
But we'll offer more uses outside of that tracking times. Ultimately, you're getting something more sophisticated in terms of dealing with things like notifications. If you like using kind of music or listen to music on your smartwatch or kind of syncing it over the app support as well outside of kind of run focus things, you're going to get a bit more on that front as well.
00:38:36
Speaker
But I think on the kind of flip side is that you're probably getting a little bit less battery life, whether that's kind of day-to-day battery life, but also in terms of that GPS battery life as well. So that's really what separates, I would say, a smartwatch from a running watch where you're getting something very more focused, something that the running watch will give you more battery life, more in terms of that kind of level metrics out of the box ultimately, whereas you might have to work a little bit harder to find those features or get those features on a smartwatch. Beautifully succinct answer. Very nice. Did you get that off chat, GPT?
00:39:05
Speaker
All my knowledge!
00:39:10
Speaker
All right, and talking about battery life, it's cropped up a few times. Kieran, you're a man who is keen on long battery life. How much battery life can people expect from different running watches? Yeah, I mean, battery life is really important for me. I hate charging my watch for a start, but also, if you're going to do an ultra, you're going to go long, you need something that's going to go over 12 hours to do 100K, even if you're pretty quick, and if you're going to do multi-day, you need something that's going to stretch further than that.
00:39:37
Speaker
I mean, the thing is that actually it's jumped on quite a lot, even in the last kind of couple of generations. So I think most watches at most levels now are starting to offer somewhere around kind of 30 hours in kind of full GPS mode, which is really strong. And I think now you should really be kind of looking for that, I think as the kind of lower benchmark.
00:39:58
Speaker
for a lot of it, unless you're going to do what Nick was talking about earlier and you're going to go for a really sort of cheap sort of hundred pound watch that's an older generation. And then you're starting to get some crazy numbers higher up the scale. The Chorus Vertex II will claim 140 hours, kind of full GPS. The other thing I think, which is a really good thing
00:40:15
Speaker
know, Mike talked about kind of being able to sort of change up your settings so that you can extend that battery life, but max power modes are great. If you're going to go and do a hundred miler, it doesn't really matter how, you know, the accuracy of the GPS tracks are not as important as actually that watch kind of lasting the distance. So you want something that you're going to be able to extend and still have your watch working. There's nothing worse than having that dropout halfway through a big long run like that. It's definitely happened to me. I mean, I go back
00:40:41
Speaker
you know, four or five years and I'd be having to take two watches to do something like 100 mile ultra and switch them out halfway through or charge them up. And we're no longer in that world. So yeah, anywhere between 30 hours and probably like 140, you can expect now. And there's kind of gradations up through that.
00:40:57
Speaker
And Phil, your park runner goes out, does a park run, does a couple of other runs, maybe got themselves a 4 runner, 55, something like that. What sort of battery life GPS are you going to get on those? Anyone? Still looking at it. That's like, I mean, having a look at the kind of bottom, actually the 45, you're getting kind of a weak
00:41:18
Speaker
of day-to-day battery life and then probably 13 to 15 hours in GPS battery life. So you're getting something that's probably going to last for people doing a couple of sessions, maybe a longer run, someone who's probably not running as frequently as someone who's maybe running four or five times a week, but it's probably going to be enough in terms of using those other things. Just to kind of, I thought it was worth adding, is
00:41:40
Speaker
If you are looking at running watches, I think some, you know, these watches are evolving and there's some things that are gonna have a bit more of a battery drain on those watches. So things like having, if you have an AMOLED display, having that screen on always on, things like pulse up sensors, drain the battery life more, music streaming does, the new dual band GPS mode that we're seeing on your watches, those will hit the battery life harder. So looking at those features and really digging into
00:42:08
Speaker
how the companies or the brands reflect those battery numbers based on those features is really important I think as well. I'd also say that looking beyond the GPS figures to real world uses the brands have very different approaches to how your watch performs in between runs so and that massively changes how long they'll last so watch
00:42:25
Speaker
For example, a Corus and a Polar watch, they'll both have 40 hours of GPS. The Polar watch will last maximum seven days because it will be doing quite a lot at night, lots of heart rate variability tracking. They just say seven days roughly is what you need to get from it. Corus watch is going to last two or three weeks because it doesn't automatically even take your heart rate 24-7 unless you turn that on and the screen's a bit duller.
00:42:45
Speaker
A Garmin almost splits the difference. It has a real world usage when you're just training each week. For example, the Corus watch I used recently, I did 15 hours of GPS training across two weeks. Individual single activity will last exactly as long as a Polar watch, but in real world use, it might last twice as long because it's not doing anything in between runs, really. If you get a more basic watch on that front, it can actually extend the battery life quite a lot.
00:43:08
Speaker
and I think some good ones actually now they're starting to give you that kind of customization you can go to a particular area in the watch and start to fiddle with those things and it makes it really easy to sort of see where the usage is going and so you can kind of customize that so I think that's another thing if you know it's great having all those features but the ability to be able to switch them all on and off as and when you need them is also I think starting to be a really really handy thing on
00:43:29
Speaker
on the best watches. I think there's still also a massive differentiation between this and smart watches where I think there are a bit of merging going on now where the Apple Watch Ultra has obviously a two-day battery life, still nothing really compared to a sports watch, but certainly some Garmin watches. I feel like Garmin are saying now that our battery life is actually, we're happy with it. If we can get to four to seven days, we're now just going to start adding more features instead of adding more battery life in the future. So there is maybe a merging around there for those kind of bright screens and good sports tracking.
00:43:55
Speaker
Cool. Okay. Let's talk durability. Probably not too much to discuss on this one, but who's doing it? Nick, how important is durability? Durability is very important. You watch, running watches are going to take some knocks. Like, even if you are purely a roadrunner, you're going to hit it on something or something like that. And it's, you know, you don't want it to chip or fray. You don't want the screen to crack and you want the screen to work for many years to come. I think that was a big deal with AMOLED screens on watches. And I'm still, obviously we've only had things like the epics and that for a couple of years in the venue, but
00:44:24
Speaker
Doesn't seem like, you know, people worry about burning on AMOLED displays that, you know, it starts to get shadows of things that have been on the display in the past. Doesn't seem to have been a real problem. But yeah, some watches are really built for everything, you know, Garmin, the Garmin Instinct range. And then you look at the more expensive metal watches like the Corus Vertex II and the Garmin Phoenix and Enduro watches that are built to withstand everything. Whereas all plastic watches are probably going to be a bit less durable. But I think it's it's still for me, for my life as a roadrunner, it's still quite hard to smash up a watch. They are all pretty durable these days, I'd say.
00:44:55
Speaker
I've cracked one, I think I've scratched one screen I think over my years of testing and that was this year so. Smart watches might be a little bit less that because they like to have things like edge to edge displays which are a bit more prone to taking a knock but even then I've never
00:45:10
Speaker
broken an Apple watch. I've broken several Apple phones. I once drove over my Apple watch in my driveway by accident. That's the level. If you're one of those runners who's constantly under cars, you are going to break your watch a bit more.
00:45:30
Speaker
Cool. Okay. So the last question, this is a bit of a big one, Mike, you can pick this one up, but see if you can do it without an hour of discussion. It's a big question. Okay. So actually you can take it in turns to go through this if you want, but basically what are the top running brands, running watch brands that people should be aware of? What are the sort of top line benefits of each of them and what people could expect from those ones? Let's start with Garmin.
00:45:56
Speaker
I mean massive, massive, massive collection, massive collection, a watch for all ranges or abilities. I think good core, running features across the board, good battery life overall. I think there's something for everyone. If you want something really basic, you have that in the Garmin range. If you want something a bit more advanced, you've got the kind of forerunner, the kind of top end forerunners, the Epics and the Phoenix watches. I think that's the best way to kind of look at the Garmin range of one of watches.
00:46:21
Speaker
I think the area where Garmin is very much clear of its competitors and sports watches is on the top end watches that have the best, by far the best mapping experience, the most easy to use music experience, the best, well, maybe the best, but training now is as good as anything in sports track and the best multiband GPS. So that's, I think, where they're quite clear in that real top bracket of watches, but at the lower ranges, I think their essentials are quite similar to the other brands.
00:46:45
Speaker
Well, then, Coros. Coros, for me, standout for Coros is basically the battery life, really. Although, you know, Nick will talk about this, I'm sure, but you make sacrifices for that battery life. It kind of eeks out the battery life by not having quite a bright screen or maybe the...
00:46:58
Speaker
You pay a little bit in GPS accuracy and some of the other things. But for me, that's still the thing that really stands out for them. And they offer, I guess, kind of a wide range of training insights, performance insights. And what used to be a really, really competitive price, I think that's being squeezed a little bit now. We've seen the prices come up. So there's not so much distance between them and some of the competitors. But for me, it's about that kind of whopping great 140-hour battery life that I was talking about. That's the one thing that still jumps out for me in a chorus.
00:47:27
Speaker
I would I would probably just add that I think of all the ranges and I think which is I think is really I think all stands out of course is the fact they've been very consistent with their updates across their watches I think that's a really important thing I think you know they've tried to give the same features on their cheapest pace watch across to its kind of
00:47:42
Speaker
apex and vertex watches. And you don't really get that kind of level of support, I think, from the other brands. We see people talk about garments and not rolling features back to older watches, but Corus has almost created an ecosystem where they want to try and do that as best as they can for as long as possible. And I think that's a really strong kind of aspect of their range.
00:48:01
Speaker
I think Chorus Re stands out at almost the entry level. Well, the best value watches, things like the Chorus Pace 2 and the Decathlon watches that use Chorus technology, that's where they're really strong because they offer so much battery life and great features for a good price. I think at their more expensive watches, where they're trying to offer values by using incredibly nice materials for less than you find from other brands, but
00:48:22
Speaker
We're not big materials guys. I think we've made that quite clear. But then they do fall behind on things like GPS accuracy. Their music is really like, it's all drag and drop. There's no streaming support. The maps don't have turn by turn. So they have a lot of features, but don't really match up the features that well to what you get from Garmin at the high end. But they are incredible. I think the best thing about them is the way they roll out features across the range. I think it's a very democratic approach. And it means that a watch like the Pace 2 offers incredible value.
00:48:47
Speaker
Okay, we'll delve more into the different watch brands where Mike gets around to doing the best watches video, but you've got one more pick. What are you going to let people know about in terms of the watch brands that they should be looking out for? I think we have to give a shout out to Apple as much as people would probably hate us to say the Apple Watch, but the Apple Watch has evolved into, I for me, not only the best smartwatch runners, but I think one of the best running watches. I didn't think I would be someone saying that, but I think
00:49:14
Speaker
You might have to work a little bit harder to get the best out of some of the other kind of additional analytics, but the core run tracking experience I think is very, very strong on the Apple Watch Ultra and I think on the series as well. And the battery life hopefully will get better, but I do think the improvements are there to be seen. I think Apple have made a really good offering in terms of what they've done with the Apple Watch in terms of a run tracking experience overall.
00:49:38
Speaker
Polar makes some great watches as well and I think they make some really good value watches. I think they're particularly strong at the training load recovery, that kind of thing. I think actually they've got some good crossover fitness and running watches at a very cheap end as well. I feel like they had a moment where they were really trying to kick on, they were being quite innovative with some of the new features that we were seeing
00:49:59
Speaker
like FuelWise and those things and it just feels like it's dropped off a little bit and they've lost a little bit of that ground to the other brands but they still do have great watches in their lineup. Yeah, I really like Polo as a company. I think they really approach things in a good way but I think their designs are falling behind to the other brands and when they have started to introduce features like it was very some really confusing things like the way the multiband GPS was brought to the Ignite 3 quite a random AMOLED watch that had very bad GPS it turns out and
00:50:24
Speaker
Yeah, so there's been a few missteps but it's interesting they obviously they're selling their tech for other companies to use and the Casio watch I tested recently has some polar features on it, had a lot of other problems but the polar features are good on it. All right then, well as I say there will be a best watches video that may be when you're listening to or watching this video so check that out for more of the watches that are available at the moment. Thanks guys.
Interview with Edna Kiplagat
00:50:48
Speaker
Thank you.
00:50:54
Speaker
Time for a bit of a break from the chat. This is my interview with Edna Kiplagat.
00:51:00
Speaker
So thanks for speaking to me. And yeah, I had many, many questions for you. But I think one of the main things that I wanted to find out is that you've done races all over the world. You won a lot of races in different countries. It must be really difficult to work if you're looking back to think what are the things I'm most proud of or what are the defining points in my career where I did an event that I really cared about. What would you say
00:51:30
Speaker
is or are the big achievements you've had in your career? I think since I've danced well in Maraton, the biggest achievement was defending my title in Moscow in 2013 and running my personal best in London Maraton over two hours in 1950.
00:51:55
Speaker
And I've not done many races outside of the UK and America, but you've done races in countries that have wildly different temperatures and weather. How do you adapt your training if you're going to compete in different countries?
00:52:12
Speaker
Yeah, I think before I start preparing for any marathon, I look at the weather, the field, and the coast. So if weather is going to be hot, then I try to rain during hot days, and if the temperatures are cold, then I try to run early in the morning.
00:52:38
Speaker
so that I got used to the temperatures during the rest of the day. So I've been racing in so many countries that sometimes the conditions are so harsh. I remember 2013 in Moscow, 2019 in Doha, the temperatures were so hot.
00:53:00
Speaker
But I was able to do well because I was training early in the afternoon to get used to the hot weather. So it has been difficult. But because of good preparation and mental preparedness, I've been able to perform well. I know it's not easy.
00:53:19
Speaker
But I take that challenge maybe during my preparations so I know exactly what I expected during the race and I prepare my mind for it. And given the choice, do you prefer a race in a warm country or a race in a colder country?
00:53:38
Speaker
I have tried several times to raise in quality conditions but my body does not respond well so I think it's about the mental because if I see the training that I do
00:53:56
Speaker
all the time, it's the same. The preparation has been going on well until the last minute, whereby when I get into the race and it started raining, I get the mentality stopped because I'm afraid of getting cold. So that's when I don't perform well during cold weather, but warm weather, I have no problem. And obviously it wasn't really warm in Boston yesterday. It wasn't ideal conditions.
00:54:25
Speaker
When we started in the morning, it was drizzling. So by the time we were halfway, it started raining again. So I had already gotten the cold. And so when we started racing, my body picked up. And then when it started raining again, the temperature just went down. And I got cold again.
00:54:49
Speaker
My body was up and down and I just got affected with it and I didn't pick up until the last minute when I was so tired. Let's talk a little bit about, you've done so many races, do you feel pressure before a race or have you found a way to manage the stress or the pressure of performing on race day?
00:55:10
Speaker
Before I used to feel very nervous but because I've raised a lot and I've competed in so many different conditions and racing with different athletes all the time so I get experience so I think for the last few years
00:55:33
Speaker
I've never had that pressure of getting it during the last minute, so I think I've been able to manage that nervousness.
00:55:45
Speaker
And well, leading on from that, in 2021, you won Boston at the age of 41. How did it feel to do it at that point in your career? And did you feel like, was it a surprise? Or did you think, I've got to this point now and you were confident in yourself?
00:56:07
Speaker
I think it was not a big surprise for me because I prepared very well and I expected to perform well so when I finished being second and then I realized that the winner was not
00:56:22
Speaker
So when I was given that award letter, I was so happy because I knew my preparation was good and I was ready to win the race. So I was happy because everything went so well and yeah, I let my prize.
00:56:42
Speaker
Right. Well, that's that's just we on the on the YouTube channel, we talk a lot about different races around the world. You've done loads of races. Are there any races that you've done that you really remember fondly if it's whether it's just a nice course or it's just the crowds or anything like that?
00:57:00
Speaker
It's a poster marathon here because it was my first time in 2017 to come and race and the fans were missing from the start to the finish line. So that's when, so if I see a problem, there is a scene.
00:57:20
Speaker
Posten is one of those courses that we are by the fans apart from the start of the finish and Yeah, you get a lot of energy because you feel like you are tired, but you still here that the cheering score calling your name Singing supporting so you feel motivated Hold that way. So it's it's a great It's a great course
00:57:48
Speaker
So in a week's time or in a few days for people watching or listening to this, it will be the London Marathon. So there will be a few days left for a lot of people before the marathon takes place. How do you prepare in the final few days before a marathon? Is there anything you can do or is it all just mental?
00:58:05
Speaker
I think the last few days of preparation I try to lower down my mileage and then I make sure the recovery is good and I try to fuel the nerve and I make sure I get a good massage so that maybe the last one week everything is good and ready to go.
00:58:34
Speaker
OK, brilliant. And over the course of your career, there's been lots of things you've learned and maybe that have taken a while to learn. Is there anything that you've, the point you're at now, throughout your career, you look back and go, that was really important that I learned that lesson in my career because it helped me be a better runner?
00:58:53
Speaker
Yeah, I think before I didn't know that you could take that recovery seriously. So since the first time when I started raising my marathon and I performed so that's when I learned recovery is very important and I've been doing a lot to make sure that my body is fully recovered during the training.
00:59:20
Speaker
and even towards the end of my preparation, I will always watch about it because I need to lessen the distractions that it can make me not focus in my training. So those are the few things that I try to watch. Let's just talk about running kit. So how important is
00:59:48
Speaker
getting the right running shoes and running kit for you when you're racing.
00:59:52
Speaker
Yeah, running shoes is very important because you might train so well. But if you don't have training, try training shoes or try running gear, it affects your mind because you don't want to feel any pain, cut any plistas or you feel the caps. So it's very important to have
01:00:20
Speaker
Like for me, I always prefer to have racing shoes to use for my last long run or my last speed walk so that I can have that feeling before the rest day. So if it's not a good size or if it's not comfortable with my feet, then I have time to change
01:00:41
Speaker
Yeah, it's something that crops up a lot and a lot of elites say that the most important thing is comfort because that's going to be the thing over 26.2 miles that's going to really affect you by the end. And you raced in the Puma DV8 Nitro Elite 2s, didn't you? Which I think is quite a common shoe. I saw quite a lot of people racing in that shoe.
01:01:02
Speaker
A big fan of it myself. Okay, and then now you've done Boston this year. What's life looking like now? Are you training for another event or are you going to be taking some well-earned rest for a bit? Yeah, for now I'll be taking a few weeks of rest. I need to let my foot recap faster and then I start picking up my training slowly and then I can see
01:01:32
Speaker
what resources I can do in the summer. Well, thank you very much. That was really interesting. And I've got some useful tips that I need to listen to myself. But yeah, thank you very much.
01:01:52
Speaker
All right, guys, we do this every every podcast, we answer questions from the channel, normally questions that we haven't had a chance to answer on the channel because we get so many questions these days. And also, I should probably flag now that sometimes we get we get quite a few emails nowadays, and they really long, they're really, really long emails with lots and lots of information on about somebody specific running. It's very nice to get them, but it's really nice. And the people that sending them are really friendly. It's really nice to get some feedback from you guys. But
01:02:22
Speaker
We just don't have time to go through loads and loads of information about your running and everything because we struggle to get back to the quick answers on the comments. So if you've got a question, the quicker and simpler it makes it, the more likely it is that we'll get back to you on it. If it's a really confusing one, it goes into our draft folders and this sort of disappears because we haven't got time.
01:02:43
Speaker
but these are what i've picked a load of the questions that we've got on the channel we haven't got around to answering so let's just jump into these this one's for you nick specifically it's from rico90 uh nick could you tell me please what shoe would you recommend recommend for a road one mile race on a flat straight course i think i think we could all chip in on this answer so it's um i would
01:03:05
Speaker
I mean, assuming that there's no regulations over this, over this, I just pick up a pair of lightweight carbon shoes, like Vapefly, it'd be fine. AgaHocka Rocket X2, DV8, Nitro Elite 2, Vapefly.
01:03:18
Speaker
Pro 3 maybe as well. To Kumi Sen. Kumi Sen's a good shot. Street Fly maybe. It was a straight line, I'd be perfectly happy going at it in the Alpha Fly. If I'm tricky about this question, is it very specific? Are you using these for any of the races? Why get the feeling he's robbing a bank and then running one mile away?
01:03:44
Speaker
They're just hanging them up. In which case, I wouldn't go for the outflow because you are going to need stability when you're dodging round cops. I would say this one, that one mile, if that's really the only thing you want to do with it, you don't need to spend those money on a really expensive one. I'd go for Puma. You could even get something like the Liberate.
01:04:04
Speaker
Nitro two. I honestly think over a mile on a flat straight course, you will probably find, I mean, the gust of wind that day will make more difference than the shoe you're wearing probably. All right. Okay. John Coppin says, which one would you choose between? This is an interesting one because I couldn't quite work out what the name was. Which one would you choose between the shift two and the ride 15? Shift two. Shift two. Yeah. Unexpected. I mean, depends what you're doing with it.
01:04:34
Speaker
I would choose the Ride 15 for anything, but Shift 2's got a bit more stability in it. That's essentially what you're getting out of the Shift 2. Yeah, I mean, I didn't absolutely love the Shift 2 to be honest. I think the Ride 15 is a very versatile shoe, I think, in terms of what you could potentially do with it. So if you were looking for something with a bit more versatility, I think, and also giving you, you know, I think it can work for a little bit of tempo stuff, but not massive amounts. I think that I'd probably go for that.
01:04:59
Speaker
OK, Keith, just Keith says, would you recommend these to run a marathon in? Thanks. And that is the float ride energy for four. So the previous version again.
01:05:12
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, they're not as comfortable and high in cushioning as a lot of shoes these days. I think it's particularly under the forefoot. So if you're someone who ever experiences a bit of forefoot fatigue, then you might want a shoe that has a bit more cushioning on the front there. Pretty good, lightweight, cushioned daily trainer. That's very good value.
01:05:31
Speaker
They aren't in the league, same league as a carbon plate running shoe. And there are non-plated shoes I prefer, things like the Rebel or the HOKEMAK 5. But it's the only balanced Rebel V3 that is. I mean, you can certainly run a marathon in them. It really depends on what your aims are, I'd say. But yeah, the only thing I'd say is there might be a bit of discomfort under the forefoot compared to some other shoes just because they're a little bit lower stack there than a lot of shoes these days.
01:05:55
Speaker
Okay, Russell Bo Camp says, do you think triumph if you want to do most runs is better than New Balance 1080? Yes. Yes. Okay, that's easy. Marco S says, can you guys test the New Balance Propel V4? We'd love to. I'll take this, maybe.
01:06:16
Speaker
It doesn't look quite a cool shoe. I mean, I could tell right now, Mike, obviously, he's been injured. And when I had my little injuries, it's obviously a massive first world problem. I love my job. I love what we do. But it's so stressful when you're injured and like three pairs of shoes arise from a cry. OK, Paul Delaney says, how does it compare to the elite? That's a Liberate Nitro 2. I'm not quite sure which elite is this.
01:06:41
Speaker
With Pima Elite. Pima Elite, yeah. Just get confused then. The, well, it doesn't have a plate in it. It's very, very flexible, lightweight shoe, feels very natural, feel very close to the ground. That's it really. It's basically as lean a shoe as you can get with a little bit of cushioning on. So it's very different than the Elite actually. There you go. Jarek MA2 says,
01:07:04
Speaker
One doubt I have on the 965 is how good is wake-up gesture? I love that I can always see the time, even with a very little move or no move of my wrist. How did you find this? I can take this because I use my watch mainly without the Oison display and it's very, very good. I think it's better than most smartwatches that are really, you know, big up that feature on their smartwatches. And for me, it's very, very good. So I don't know how Nick you found.
01:07:30
Speaker
Yeah, I use it for a little bit. I would turn the oars on display on myself if you are really wanting to look at the time with the least amount of movement possible. If you really want to test that boundary, I'd leave the oars on screen. You can see it from any angle. I do like that. I like that having to move my arm to see the time. That's exciting. That's good. I think it's good. Yeah, but it is pretty snappy. I will say that definitely. It would be fine for daily uses, I'd say. And in the run, I definitely have oars on on though because I don't want any delay on stats.
01:07:58
Speaker
okay uh stephan x 360 says garvin forerunner 265 or 965 running assuming which is the best for running
01:08:09
Speaker
Well, we've got a video on this. I love your video. Not too nice. Let's save ourselves some time then. Watch the video. Yeah, definitely have a look at the video and we'll give you a very clear, succinct response there. Read Max. Okay. And then finally, Paddy Triheat says, I need your help, guys. I was eyeing the Endorphin Pro 3, but there is a big sale on Metaspeed Sky Plus right now. I don't know which to buy.
01:08:34
Speaker
Ooh, two of my favourite shoes. Comes down to price for me. If they were the same price, I'd get Pro 3. If the Met Speed Sky is 20, 30 pounds cheaper, yeah, you'd be fine with it. What if it's $2.99 cheaper, Tom?
01:08:48
Speaker
20 pounds is my buffer for the Endorphin Pro 3. If anything fits within that, I'm getting the Pro 3. I feel like you might get a little bit more life from the Pro 3, but if you're using it more regularly, personally, I think, so basically kind of my testing of limbs today. What's your buffer, Mike? What's my buffer? Your pound buffer. Tom's given his. I want to know your pound buffer. We're going to start adding this into all videos. I don't know. I don't know.
Conclusion & Upcoming Content
01:09:15
Speaker
He wasn't prepared for a buffer question. I don't have a pound, but I wasn't prepared. Dressed him out now. All right, that'll do for questions this month. All right, what we got coming up on the channel, running shoes, the full list. That has been on my list for a while, but we've been waiting for a few shoes to come in. So the Vaporfly 3, and there's a couple of other ones that have been waiting to come in. So now we've got
01:09:38
Speaker
pretty much all of them, we're ready to go. So hopefully we shared that out in May. And yeah, that's going to be some big changes in that one from the last one we did. And then we've got Mike, you've got running watches. Yeah, I think we were planning to do this and then Garmin launched these two new forerunners. So we had to wait for those. So yeah, I think all the big watch launches, running watch launches have kind of
01:10:03
Speaker
You say that's right. I think. I was talking to Garvin at the London Marathon Expo and I think basically...
01:10:12
Speaker
Remember, what is it? World Running Day is like June 2nd and it's like the 40th anniversary of four or 20th anniversary of four now. Let's get this out this month because there are more watches. There will be some more annoying watches. This will be part one. This will be part one. Yeah. And then we'll do a part two. We do best garment later in the year on the way to Hoover up the extinct 2X solar or some nonsense. Okay, the other thing's got this, running headphones.
01:10:35
Speaker
Can't believe he's picking that one up. Do all of this this month? I'm a paternity leave. They're all next month. These are coming up. I've got headphones. After what feels like an eternity with a LOL, there are actually some new ones out, which is... Yeah. Yeah, it's been nothing, has there?
01:10:54
Speaker
I've got a lot of bone conduction headphones I'm testing at the moment. I got a set of bone conduction headphones that I asked them about their main feature and said, this doesn't seem like it's legal. And they've not replied. So essentially the headphone equivalent of taping the top 40 off the radio that those headphones had. Oh, I think I might get those in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Also, I won't name the name, but
01:11:15
Speaker
but also dreadful in terms of battery life and build. So I'm not going to cover that. Okay, cushion shoes. Well, I'll be picking it up at some point. Best half marathons. That's on my list. And then we've got the Nike Pegasus 40 review video coming up as well, which...
01:11:30
Speaker
Sure, many people are excited about watching. So if you want to listen to this, you want to get in touch, you can email us at team at theruntesters.com or you can get us on Instagram at theruntesters or theruntesters on YouTube. Thanks for listening or watching. Catch you next time. This episode of the podcast was presented by Nick Karas-Fry, Tom Wheatley, Mike Sore and Kieran Alger. The podcast was produced by Tom Wheatley. The music was by Fear of Tigers.