Sports Watch Recommendation - Garmin Forerunner 245 Music
This content was automatically generated by gpt-4o-mini (No human review). The original post is in Chinese.
Whenever I share my exercise, energy, and sleep data on social media, there are always people asking me which watch I use. I use the Garmin sports watch Garmin Forerunner 245 Music, which is primarily designed for running, but it’s also suitable for other daily activities, and I really like it. On my recommendation, last Black Friday, a friend also got the same model in a different color, and this year, another friend who loves sports bought it too. Recently, another friend asked me what watch I use, and I was too lazy to explain all the benefits of this watch again, so I decided to write a blog post about it.
First, I want to clarify that this blog post is purely based on my personal experience, with no advertising or sponsorship involved. I haven’t used any other smartwatches (except for the early generations of Xiaomi Mi Band).
Product Introduction
Requirements
Let me first talk about when I bought this watch. It was right when the pandemic started in the U.S., and we had just begun working from home. Gyms in schools and neighborhoods were closed, so I decided to get back into outdoor running. At that time, I bought a smartwatch mainly to record running data (GPS route/distance, time, heart rate, etc.), and I wanted to run without carrying my phone. Later, when Cuihao planned to buy a sports watch, we summarized our needs:
- Strong battery life
- Ability to listen to music (don’t want to carry a phone)
- Focus on daily exercise
- Consider outdoor activities
- Health monitoring
Battery Life
This Garmin watch, I basically charge it once a week. If I exercise a lot during the week (like 30 minutes a day, 3-5 times a week), I might charge it every 5 days. If I don’t exercise much, it might last a full 7 days before needing a charge. We haven’t used an Apple Watch, but I’ve heard it needs to be charged almost every day, which sounds really inconvenient. I’ve used this watch to run a half marathon, listening to music for over two hours, and the battery life was more than sufficient; I still had over half the battery left after finishing. When I went hiking and camping in the Grand Canyon in December, the lowest temperature at night was around 0 degrees Celsius, and the watch’s battery life was completely normal. From 2020 until now, over two years since I bought it, the battery performance hasn’t shown any noticeable difference.
No Touch Screen
Our need for this watch is to record exercise and health data, not to receive messages from the phone. So, we turned off all notifications from the phone (the phone already demands enough attention), and the watch screen is so small. This watch doesn’t have a touch screen; it can only be operated through five buttons on the sides. I don’t find it inconvenient. What we need is not a “smart” watch, but a watch with various sensors that can collect and record data. Not relying on a touch screen actually has some advantages, such as being easy to operate while swimming or when running in winter with gloves on.
Daily Exercise
This watch is completely sufficient for daily exercise. The activities we commonly do include the following, and we always use the watch to record them.
- Running
- Aerobics (Ring Fit, Just Dance, Zumba)
- Swimming (Pool Swim, does not record GPS)
- Table Tennis (no built-in program, needs DIY)
- Cycling
Outdoor Activities
For outdoor activities, this watch performs a bit worse, especially in measuring altitude, which is not very accurate. For some outdoor activities, there are no built-in programs, so you need to DIY. DIY means copying an existing program, like Walk, renaming it to Kayak, and then downloading a small program from Garmin’s app store that can record paddle frequency/distance. I find the DIY programs quite useful.
- Hiking (you can import routes for navigation in advance, but the map on the watch only shows the route, without other markers)
- Kayaking (no built-in program, needs DIY)
- Snorkeling (no built-in program, needs DIY)
If you want a professional outdoor sports watch, you might consider the Garmin Instinct® Solar – Standard Edition series, which can be charged by solar power, but the trade-off is that it does not have music. Here is a comparison link. You can also consider the Garmin Fenix series; this series has a very large watch face (making it convenient for viewing maps), but the trade-off is that it is much more expensive, larger, and heavier, which can feel burdensome for daily wear.
Health Monitoring
In terms of health monitoring, besides the hardware, I think Garmin’s software is also very user-friendly, which I will discuss in the commonly used features.
- Steps
- Heart Rate
- Breathing
- Blood Oxygen
Related Software and Websites
Garmin watch data can be accessed through three main interfaces. The first interface is the watch itself, which is the screen where you usually check the time and view your exercise data. When exercising, I typically look at 3-5 pieces of data, such as distance, pace, time, and heart rate while running. When hiking, I focus on pace, distance traveled, remaining distance, estimated completion time, current time, sunset time (I must finish before dark), route, etc.
I don’t check any health monitoring or exercise performance information on the watch (after all, the screen is so small); I view all this information on the mobile app (Garmin Connect). Most of the information can actually be viewed on the phone, and most tasks can be done there. I only need to log into the Garmin website on a computer to import hiking routes. While writing this blog post, I found that the website indeed displays more chart information than the mobile app (mostly summary tables), which I can check every few months. Most of the photos shared below are screenshots from the Garmin website, while a small portion with a black background comes from the mobile app. I place the data where it is presented better.
Garmin watch data can be synced to other platforms, such as Yuepao. A common scenario is that I used to record my running data on Yuepao and added many running friends (like my dad). Now that I have switched to a Garmin watch, I want to sync my running data to Yuepao so that my friends can see that I am still running and my total mileage will continue to increase. Garmin can do this; as long as I log into my Garmin account in the Yuepao app settings, automatic syncing can be achieved. However, during syncing, it cannot distinguish what type of exercise I did, so distances from kayaking or hiking will also be counted as running distance on Yuepao.
Price
It should be noted that this watch also has a version without music, which usually costs $50 less. The prices I share below are for the music version of the Garmin Forerunner 245 Music.
On May 1, 2020, when I bought it on Amazon, the price was $299.
On Nov 28, 2021 (Black Friday), when I bought it at REI, the price was $249.
On Jul 15, 2022, a friend asked me about the watch again, so I checked Amazon, and the price was only $209.90, which is the lowest price I have ever seen (surprisingly cheaper than the version without music). Highly recommended.
Here is the link: Garmin Forerunner 245 Music
Common Features
Watch Face and Widgets
After I bought the watch, I made a series of settings, including turning off many features that I found unnecessary to save battery life. The content currently displayed on my watch face includes: time, heart rate, sunrise and sunset times, step count, and date. Additionally, my commonly used widgets are: alarm clock and timer (mainly used for cooking, laundry, and similar timing tasks).
Health Monitoring
Intensity Minutes
My understanding is that this refers to heart health points, where you need to exercise for an equivalent of 150 minutes each week, which is beneficial for cardiovascular health. The Garmin watch calculates the time based on the heart rate zones during my workouts. For example, if I run for 30 minutes and it’s classified as Vigorous, it counts as 60 minutes of points. The image below shows my Intensity Minutes over the past year. One great feature of the Garmin website is that each parameter has a question mark; if you click it, you’ll see a help page explaining what data this parameter measures, how it is measured, and how to interpret this data.
Body Battery
I have recently become very reliant on Body Battery, which shows the remaining energy in my body. Occasionally, when I don’t sleep well, the Body Battery indicates that I have charged very little energy from my sleep. If I get a good 10 hours of sleep, my energy starts at 100 the next day. If I have a tiring day, my energy drops below 10 by bedtime. Now, I check my energy several times a day and plan my day based on the Body Battery displayed on my watch. For example, if I wake up with energy below 60 in the morning, I won’t schedule any exercise for that day (no running or aerobics), at most I’ll do some stretching. I also try to avoid letting my energy drop below 15, otherwise, I often feel tired the next day.
The above shows my Body Battery over the past four weeks. During the week of Jun 20-Jun 23, I had a tough time, with three consecutive days of poor sleep. Moving, job hunting, and current work pressure left me very exhausted (with a maximum energy of less than 60 and a minimum of less than 5 each day, my watch constantly reminded me to rest more and avoid fatigue). Later, I took a week off from my boss, so during the week of Jun 24-Jul 1, I was able to sleep in every day, and with sufficient sleep, my energy was high. From Jul 5-Jul 15, I returned to work, during which I had two days of poor sleep, on Jul 5 and Jul 13. I could clearly feel it myself, and the data from the watch matched well; I think Garmin Body Battery is quite reliable.
Stress
Garmin calculates your stress level based on data like your heart rate, and I find this to be quite accurate. When I am under a lot of stress and feeling anxious, the watch indeed shows a higher stress level.
Sleep
I don’t think the sleep monitoring on the Garmin watch is very accurate. Often, I go to bed at 10 PM and wake up at 6 AM, but the watch shows my sleep time as from 11 PM to 5:30 AM. I don’t know how it records that.
Steps
Actually, I rarely pay attention to my step count. I usually exercise for two days and then take a day off, trying not to go without exercise for 2-3 consecutive days. However, from the image below, I found that I often don’t meet my step goal, so it seems I should go for a walk after dinner next time if I don’t reach my step count.
Heart Rate
The Garmin watch continuously records your heart rate, and I personally feel it is quite accurate. My resting heart rate is around 54 (Avg resting), and the average heart rate during activity depends on whether I exercised that day. If I did aerobic exercise, then the average value is higher.
VO2 Max
This watch can measure blood oxygen levels, but I usually turn this feature off to save battery, only measuring blood oxygen when I’m running. The data shows that my blood oxygen has been stable at 50 for a long time. I don’t pay much attention to this data, but it should be used to calculate exercise performance/effectiveness.
Menstrual Cycle
I think this is pretty good. I always forget about my menstrual period. Although I no longer need this feature, when I was still menstruating, I used the Garmin Connect app to track my menstrual cycle.
Exercise Related
Training Status
The Garmin watch determines your current training status based on your exercise over the past few days. Common statuses include: productive, maintaining, unproductive, recovery. I just take a look at this.
Running
Let me share what data I can see after finishing a run.
Music
This watch supports music and can store hundreds of songs. One way to use it is to log in to your Spotify or Apple Music account (I’m not sure if it supports other accounts), and then sync your music. For this method, you need to subscribe to Spotify or Apple Music; for example, I pay $9.99 a month for Spotify because I want to listen to music while exercising and driving. Another way is to import your downloaded music, such as in mp3 format, from your computer to the watch (I haven’t tried this specifically, but that’s how Cuihao imported his music).
Before I bought this watch, I didn’t listen to music while running, but after getting it, I definitely need music to run; it feels like I can’t run without it. The headphones I use are Shokz Aeropex Mini Headphones. I highly recommend these bone conduction headphones; they are comfortable even after long use, and they stay secure while running, so there’s no risk of losing them like with AirPods.
Garmin Coach
Garmin Coach is a running training program with several options: 5k, 10k, half marathon, and full marathon. I have followed the training for two rounds before, but I never managed to stick with it (because there were many other things to do, or I spent time on other sports, so I couldn’t run 3-4 times a week). However, I think this program is quite good. At the beginning, it allows you to set your goals, such as if you want to run a half marathon in three months, what your current speed is, what your target speed is, how many days a week you can train, and usually which days. You can also choose a coach from several options. The program features a virtual coach, meaning there is no real person interacting with you. Based on the information you select, it generates a reasonable training plan.
Compared to my previous training with the university track team, I find that Garmin Coach’s training plan is quite reliable. It includes several components, starting with a benchmark run to assess your true level, followed by: interval runs, hill runs, target pace runs, and long slow runs (usually once a week), among others. Each session also gives your training a score. Compared to the university track team’s training, it lacks resistance training components, such as weighted squats, and does not emphasize warm-ups before running or stretching after running. However, compared to my usual routine of just running 5km at a steady pace, it can still improve my running level.
Course
We only use Course when we go hiking. Before each hike, we log into AllTrails to find the trail we want to take, export the route in Garmin Course TCX format from AllTrails, then log into the Garmin Connect website to import the map into our Garmin account and sync it to the watch. This way, when we start hiking, we can open the corresponding course, and if we go off track, the watch will sound an alert. However, as I mentioned before, the watch face is quite small, and the imported trail only shows the route, so it can only determine if you are on the path based on GPS information, without displaying more map details (like whether there are shops nearby, streams, etc., or even an elevation profile). But based on our multiple hiking experiences, the method I shared above is sufficient, as most of the trails we walk on are well-marked and frequently traveled.
Gear
This section allows you to add your own gear, such as when you bought your running shoes and which pair you use for each run (you can set a default value). This way, you can keep track of how many kilometers your current running shoes have been used; typically, it’s time to replace them after around 600 kilometers. For example, I currently have three pairs of shoes that I frequently use: one pair of Road Running Shoes for daily runs, one pair of Trail Running Shoes for hiking, and a pair of Hiking Boots specifically for tackling difficult trails.
