Keep Your Sessions On Course With a GPS Watch

The running GPS watch is a tool that has only recently emerged on the running watch scene, but offers so many advantages that runners at all levels in the sport have quickly adopted it as an almost must-have workout tool, and you could hardly blame them. GPS watches deliver in several areas that are beneficial to runners and athletes. They measure distance covered, speed/pace and ascention/descention distances and rates. This is achieved by linking to GPS satellites. GPS watches are so sensitive they can measure slight changes in your location to calculate speed, distance and many other useful data.

While the concept of measuring distance and speed is not a new one – for example pedometer watches have been on the market for years, unlike a GPS capable watch, these systems have never been particularly accurate. GPS watches are not free from issues either, they suffer around large objects that get in the way of the GPS satellite signal, however GPS watches are a far better bet than a pedometer watch and have been demonstrated to be accurate to within about 1 meter horizontally and 1.5 meters vertically in perfect conditions. This makes them a lot more precise and reliable than older speed/distance tracking options that make educated guesses and approximations based on the number of recorded steps taken and estimated stride length. The potential of inaccuracies in a pedometer is huge, given that vague approximations are used.

The precision of GPS has had the effect of causing the adoption of the technology by watch manufacturers, resulting in an increase in the range of GPS sports watches introduced into the market. In particular, there has been a rapid increase in GPS runners watches, in part due to the wide appeal of running. The Garmin company leads the field and in recent years have established a leading position against other sports watch companies. Garmin have gained a wide vote of confidence among runners worldwide with it’s Forerunner line of running GPS watches.

Unlike other sports watch manufacturers, that require you to strap a bulky external GPS device to your upper arm or running shorts, Garmin GPS watches pack just about every feature runners require into a pick-up-and-use, self contained one-piece watch that you can just pick up and use. When it comes to functionality, they do deliver on just about everything. Forerunner running watches feature custom, advanced and simple workouts a handy feature called “courses” that lets you instantaenously compare your position with past performances while running the same course and a virtual partner feature – a computerized opponent represented as a “stick man” that runs and is shown to be either ahead or behind you.

Runners of all levels are adopting the benefits of GPS watches as a vital tool to assist them with their training and serious competitive events. A GPS watch delivers far greater precision when it comes to accurately measuring pace, distance and speed than older offerings like pedometer watches. The current leader in the running watch market is Garmin, however other watch companies such as Timex are fast closing the gap.