So that's it, you've been on a few jogs around the block, maybe even ventured as far as the local park or the river. At first, you've chosen to do it, to get some fresh air or as part of a weight loss programme, happy just to be running for the fun of it.
Then you start to wonder. How long is it taking me to get to the park? Am I faster than I was yesterday? You begin looking through some phone apps to track how you are getting on. The first applications you look at will probably be Map my run or Strava. You load up your app of choice and mess about pressing the start button. Inevitably you will have purchased a purpose-built leather armband to store your phone in during your run, so you wrestle the phone into the pouch and then strap it to your arm.
You then set off and after a while you notice it, only slightly at first but there it is that niggle, not staying in position - it's not that bad at first but, then it gradually becomes more pervasive as your run continues until it takes up all your focus.
Then even worse you get to the lights, with that red man stopping you from crossing the road and you can't stop the timer. That average pace is dropping by the second and its not your fault, just some poorly timed lights that aren't aware that your chance of a PB is diminishing by the second.
If only you could get to your phone to stop the clock while you wait, maybe you can still rescue the situation. But, no the phone has gone to sleep there is no waking it up. No longer able to show off your new PB, you shamefully upload the time with some veiled excuse as to why you didn't smash it today.
So, what to do? How can you improve the experience? A quick look through the running magazines, reveals that the smartwatch is the way to go. Accessible on your wrist, long battery life and no unwieldy container to have to drag around on your already weary limbs. So, which one should I choose? In this instance, we've gone for the Garmin Instinct, a reasonable price with a rugged build that is well suited to life off-road. Ok, it's not got the built-in maps or the music player, what it does have is a wealth of stats that will keep your geek brain happy for days.
A quick unboxing shows that it is well built and fits snuggly on my wrist. Already charged I hook it up to the Garmin connect and quickly get to know all those interesting facts about myself that I couldn't get to grips with just on my phone. So I know that following the online shop my stress level has increased to a virtually apoplectic 47, while the wind is blowing at a measly 0 miles per hour through my house, I know we have a 50 % chance of rain.
So I now take it running, out in the wild, I no longer need to worry about my phone dying on me. The GPS and all my stats are stored on my wrist until I return to base and I can upload them to my app of choice. What's this? I can easily pause my run while I wait at those lights, or maybe, if I'm off-road, a line of cattle heading down the road. Now I've cut out the chunks of the run while I've had to stop, my times look better.
When my watch is attached to my smartphone; I know when every email, text or game request comes through, so less chance of me missing anything important ever again.
So, it looks like it's a winner for me at the moment, I can run out all day and it still calmly records my every move. It tells me how stressed I am feeling, or how depleted my body battery is. And now I can show off my great PBs on Strava when I get the chance.