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Mi Nuevo Vivoactive

After four steady months of swimming and biking, I decided I should go ahead and get a multi-sport watch. I really wanted it for swimming, as I'd had no real method for tracking my progress, and even my laps I 'd been counting in my head, hoping I didn't skip a number. So I went to the bike shop to check out what was available, and the choice was pretty much made for me after I looked at the prices. I "opted" for the Garmin Vivoactive, which seemed perfectly suited to my needs for a starter multi-sport watch. I was still just amazed that I could wear a watch under water!

FYI, I'll probably never use the golf function.

I've used it for two rides and a swim so far--but I noticed something was off on the first two summaries:

The coolest feature is that I can see my strokes per lap, which are pretty consistent!


5,606 calories burned on a 20-mile ride--pretty amazing, no?

As much I wanted to believe it, I knew there was no way I was burning that many calories during my workouts. I then realized that someone at the bike shop who shall remain nameless, when setting up my profile, entered my weight as 776 lbs. Because it's hilarious. So after I corrected that, I went on one more ride and got accurate stats:

While my speed had been getting better, this was a windy day and I caught four red lights :)

The watch itself is pretty easy to use, once you figure a couple of things out (like how to use it). It's primarily touch-screen, but the on/off and start/stop buttons are on either side of the watch face. Also, the charging dock is magnetic, so the watch goes is really easily to charge, which is an improvement over my Forerunner 210, which uses prongs that must be perfectly aligned with the holes on the watch back via a clip. The Vivoactive charging dock plugs right into the computer via USB, and there's no additional plug to deal with. This can be a pro or con; it's simpler and less messy when I'm at home, but if I were to travel and not have my computer with me, I'd need to bring a wall plug with a USB port.

I will say that the stats aren't very large on the screen while the watch is in use, but I don't have any vision trouble, so it's not an issue for me, luckily. It may be a drawback for others.

Truthfully, I was struggling with motivation throughout dealing with this foot thing, and the watch is a great new tool to keep me pushing toward goals and improving my performance. I used to geek out over these stats with my running watch, and now I can do the same for the other sports that look as though they'll remain in my near future, and hopefully much longer.

Also, I've been working on my Spanish, mostly in my head, during rides, trying recall all the words, phrases, and conjugations I learned in college and prior. So for this week, I can say that las cosas estan mejorando (I had to look up mejorando :-/).

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Anonymous said…
Do u know if this watch can be used for open water swimming? I just started looking for a mutlisport watch but I want one that can handle open water not just laps.
September 13, 2015 at 10:23 AM
Lee Davidson said…
Hi there. It doesn't use GPS in open water and doesn't specifically have an open-water setting, but you can enter a custom "pool size" in yards or meters (mine is preset to a 25-yard pool). I haven't experimented in open water yet, but if you know how far you're going to swim (in yards or meters), I'm guessing you can enter that and it will track the whole distance as an interval, which will give you stroke, pace, and calorie count. Or, maybe if you left it in 25 yards and swam a mile, for example, it would track each 25-yard "length." But for a fully GPS-enabled multi-sport watch, the Garmin 920 would be a good (albeit pricey) choice.
September 13, 2015 at 12:22 PM
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