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Earlier this year I made the crazy decision to run my first half marathon which means that I now really need to knuckle down and get the miles in ready to go for the end of October. My training is consuming a lot of time over the week with three runs (including one painful long run) and two strength training sessions.
For me, it’s important for me to track a number of things to ensure that I am getting in the miles as well as recovering adequately. So the tech items that are must-haves for me are the following
- Smartwatch – Mine is the Apple Watch Ultra
- Smart Ring – Oura Ring
- Apple AirPods Pro
So let’s go into detail on why each of these are must-haves for me 😊
My Smartwatch
My smartwatch of choice is the Apple Watch Ultra and it’s my main training partner. And there are two main reasons as to why this is the
Heart Rate/Zone Training:
Before starting my training when I went for a run I would just go all out and run as quickly as I could not really paying much attention to my heart rate. But after watching a lot of reels/YT videos and reading main blogs I realised that it’s actually quite important to pay attention to your heart rate and what Zone you are in.
A big part of my training is slow running to build my base fitness so I am training to run a lot in zone two. My Apple Watch Ultra allows me to easily track this. In the workout app, you have several screens that you can scroll through which have the information you need one being Zones. You can easily see what Zone you are in, your heart rate is in that zone and how long you have been in that zone. This tells me when I can speed up or when I need to slow down to bring my heart rate down into the right zone for that run.
Distance tracking
The one that we all want to know lol how far you have run. I am following a plan which tells me how far I need to run for each run during the week so that I am prepared to smash out the half marathon.
Again in the workout app, you will be able to see how far you have run in what time. This is great if you are trying to stick to a certain pace per mile or kilometre or a certain distance. Both of these are key for my training, I also like that I can see how much of an evaluation I have run which again is good if you are training for a hilly course.
My Smart Ring
I use the Oura Smart Ring and there are two main reasons as to why although there are other metrics the two I focus on are.
Sleep Tracking:
Sleep is crucial for good health and extra important when training to ensure that your body recovers and to prevent injury, So I am always keen to see how much sleep I have got (I aim for between 7.5hrs and 8hrs) but also whether it was quality sleep via the sleep score. I check both of these when I get up in the morning on the Oura but I will also on occasion if my sleep score is not great check the sleep contributors.
These give you more of an insight into your sleep such as how much deep or REM sleep you had or how restfulness your sleep was. You can also look at your trend across the week or month which might help you to see if something new in your routine has maybe affected your sleep.
Readiness Score:
As my training has increased so has my fascination with my readiness score as this gives me an Indications of how well my body has recovered. The ring takes several metrics from your sleep such as HRV (Heart Rate Variability) as well as the level of activity from the previous day to produce this score.
If I have had a hard training session it may tell me to take it easy or if I have had an adequate recovery and that I am good to train. I also find this score useful for telling me when I have not been as health as I should or could have been. For instance if I have a late night snack or maybe a few drinks it will massively impact my readiness score.
Now saying all that I do take it with a bit of a pinch of salt but it’s not going to be 100% accurate and sometimes it best to just listen to your body. I do find it usually though to track trends and generally just help me in my fitness journey.
My AirPod Pros
Whenever I head out for a run these are with me. I not one of those people who can run in silence and just listen to my breath. I like to listen to music (currently (90 Dances Classics) or a good podcast to get me round as for me it feels like time goes a little bit quicker.
I reason I use the AirPods Pros is because they work with all my Apple Device seamlessly. I can use them to control the transparency, pausing music etc. The sound quality is also great and they fit comfortably in my ear so I am not messing about adjusting them when I am running.
Final Thoughts
I have really enjoyed my new found passion for running and training for my first half marathon. I can safely say that all of the above of helped me no end in staying consistent with my training. There are just the tech items that fit with my current ecosystem and you may have other you use such as Garmin etc. it really about the tech that best fits and works for you.