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Comment by iends | Hacker News Reader

As a runner, I used to pop on a garmin gps device and go for runs to help measure my training. Some days I would measure my heart rate with a chest strap to help my training. Apple watch, while generally not as good, it is good enough, and is something I can just wear all the time and provides the same functionality.

It also has a lot of extra features like unlocking your computer without typing a password, allowing you to respond to text messages without getting out of the shower, etc. It really does provide a lot of value.

Allowing you to ping your phone is also incredible when your toddler likes to grab things and puts them in random places.

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I'm glad you have the option and whatever keeps you running is a good thing, but I love exercising with as little as possible. It gives me a good time to truly unplug and be alone with my thoughts, I also think it lets my body set the pace.

Anecdotally, smartwatches are quite unobtrusive and pretty quickly reach 'just there' if you wear one the time.

Mine is much closer to a keyring that you pull out as needed than a smartphone that comes out all the time, certainly closer than I'd expected. Of course, the other part may be that as with a normal watch, you tend to glance for a second and be done with it for a while.

Running with nothing is great except if you want to make data driven decisions to optimize your training. Even basic speed work requires a timer and a track. (Or just a smartwatch).

This is overkill for 99.999% of people who aren't at the top tier of competitive running where it makes a difference. For the rest of us, just pushing a bit harder and a bit longer will have all the effect of whatever you would have done with all this data, for far less cost and effort.

Unless the idea of tracking and data analysis is... part of the fun and motivation to continue doing it.

Even amateur's can use the data to make better workout decisions that lead to better outcomes, too. My workouts and quality of life are objectively better by using a smartwatch, and I'm a bit surprised by the luddites here on hacker news of all places.

Oh well, the markets have clearly spoken about the objective benefits of smartwatches.

I'm sure it's my bubble, but all the runners I know run with watches at least. Almost all of them use some form of GPS watches. It's nice to be able to go outside and just run, and not worry about routes when you want to do anything more than a few miles.

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