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Garmin Fenix 3

28 bytes added, 10:29, 26 April 2016
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* '''Where am I? '''The Fenix 3 does not have full color maps, but you can download a course, and it will give directions back to the start. This is not as good as the Epix or the [[Leikr]] with their full color maps, but it's at least as good as any other watch.
* '''What's my cadence? '''[[Cadence]]''' '''is one of the most critical and often overlooked aspects of running. If you get your Cadence right, many other things naturally fall into place. Not only does the Fenix 3 get [[Cadence]] from a [[Footpod]], it will also get it from the Garmin Run Heart Rate monitor. There is also support for Cadence from the internal accelerometer, though I find that's not as accurate. The Cadence alerts are especially useful for keeping you on track.
For ultramarathon running the battery life of the Fenix 3 makes it a good great candidate. If you hope to be still moving during the [[Second Dawn]], the Fenix 3 might be for you. See [[Best Running Watch#Watches for Ultrarunning| Watches for Ultrarunning]] for more details.
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* The Fenix 3 will upload your workouts to Garmin Connect via USB, WiFi, or via a smart phone and Bluetooth. The smart phone can upload a workout as it takes place, which is nice for folks tracking you during a race, though it means wearing the watch and the phone together. If you plug the Fenix 3 into a computer it will function as a flash drive, giving you direct access to your workouts as '.FIT' files. The FIT files provide compatibility with a huge range of software.
* The Fenix 3 will not display [[Heart Rate Variability]] but it is possible for it to record [[Heart Rate Variability]] for later analysis. To enable this recording, you need to download a special FIT file from the firstbeat.com web site. (There is a [[Connect IQ]] app that will calculate HRV, but you can't use it during a workout, something I hope will be corrected in the future.)
* My testing showed the 24 20 hour battery life is actually 22 hours. That still puts it quite a bit longer than the [[Garmin Epix]] or [[Garmin 920XT]] which also have shorter claim longer battery lives than claimedbut they don't actually last as long. This The 22 hours is good enough for shorter ultramarathons, or faster runners in 100 milers and the extended mode allows for 50 hours with degraded GPS accuracy.
* There is a nice display that shows the route you've taken for navigation, but there is no support for displaying a map; you need the [[Garmin Epix]] for that.
* You can use the Fenix 3 as an activity monitor, something that's common to many new sports watches. I find the Fenix 3 too big to want to sleep with it on, so I didn't use it for activity monitoring.