I live far enough north that my mornings have still been relatively cool. So I’ve been prioritizing running early. My afternoons and evenings have been pretty uncomfortable. So we’ve had to skip some of our daily evening dog walks.
I live far enough north that my mornings have still been relatively cool. So I’ve been prioritizing running early. My afternoons and evenings have been pretty uncomfortable. So we’ve had to skip some of our daily evening dog walks.
Lots of great options from Garmin. The Forerunner 45/55 is going to be your most basic and cheapest option. Still reliable, good battery life, accurate, etc. This is what I’d recommend if your buying new.
But if you can find a forerunner 245 on the used market (last gen device) or discounted at a retail store, I’d look for one of them. It’s a pretty solid upgrade over the 55. The 200 series is basically Garmins default best value line. The 245 specifically knocked it out of the park in price to performance and is probably their best selling model.
Of course the newer 255 is “better” but unless you got FOMO, there’s not a lot of reason to pay more for it.
I wouldn’t look at anything higher than the 200 line. The 600s are targeted towards long distance marathoners, the 900s towards multi sport triathletes, and the fenix/Epix towards hikers/rugged sports and people with more money than sense. And I can say that while wearing an Epix.
The Venus are comparably priced to the forerunners I recommended but are targeted more at people looking for a smartwatch first.
I’ve never been on a team or ran for an organization per se, but while I was in college I got really involved in the local running and triathlon community. I turned to training peaks and bought a 5k, 1/2 marathon and triathlon training program through their site. I think it was one that runners world had published. I got down to a 20:40 5k and 1:44:50 13.1 without any formal training and was pretty happy with that!
I find controlled negatives help a lot with pull-ups. Start at the top of the bar, and slowly lower yourself down. Basically a pull up in reverse. You can aim for a specific number of seconds before you are fully extended.