Welcome to our weekly Tuesdays on the Run! Today we are talking about technology, so linkup with Patty from My No Guilt Life, April from Run the Great Wide Somewhere and me with your running technology post. Don’t have one? Any running post will do!
I’ve had the Bia for around 2 months now, so when April and Patty suggested we write about technology this week, it was the first thing that came to mind.
I’ve run two half marathons with it now and a few shorter runs around my neighborhood. I really want to love it. After all, I joined the kickstarter to help it come into existence. I like it more than when I wrote about it last time, but I still don’t love it.
Here’s what I do like about it:
- The watch itself is cute, lightweight, and comfortable.
- The auto load is some kind of awesome.
- The company is new enough that they are still making changes and the technology that they use allows my watch to update instantly.
- The report you can get on the website is pretty cool too. (I think Garmin does something similar, but I’ve never had success uploading from my Garmin to my computer…)
Here’s what I’m on the fence about:
- I don’t love the go stick. I don’t think I ever will, but I have found ways to wear it. If I’m wearing on of my Happy Girl Skirts, I stick it in one of the leg pockets and hardly notice it’s there. Otherwise, I can carry it in the pocket of my handheld water bottle. It’s not often that I don’t have one of those options.
- I feel like I had more control over what I was seeing on the screen with my Garmin. The company keeps adding options though, so I think that there are more things I can do than I currently know how to do. I hope to figure more of it out soon, but lately all my runs have been slow slogs and not really anything where laps matter.
And here’s what I still don’t love:
- I find the results to be inconsistent. For both of my half marathons, it measured way over the actual distance. For a 7 mile run I did the other day, it measured about a third of a mile over. For my 3 mile run today, it was .08 LOWER. (I also ran RunKeeper today and it was closer to the Garmin’s distance.) I don’t expect them to be exact, but I run the same routes regularly and Garmin is very consistent with where I hit 1 mile, 2 miles, 3 miles, etc. Every.Single.Time. So far, the Bia is consistently inconsistent and it drives me crazy. I have hopes that this will improve.
- The screen is still hard for me to read. Not really anything that they can do to change it, it’s just a case of old eyes and small print.
In the end, I’d have to say I’m still on the fence. I think if I could trust that the GPS is accurate, I could get used to using it and begin to run with just the Bia. But for now, I’ll continue to play with it and hope that they continue to make it work more accurately (or at least consistently…)
Have you tried the Bia? What technology do you use when you are tracking your runs?
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I have never heard of this before. I did not know that you were also hosting the link up. I am sorry I didn’t mention you in my post today. I’ll do better next week!
No worries! Thanks for linking up!
I started out using Runkeeper on my phone and it was great. It was relatively accurate. But then for some reason in the spring it started getting more and more inaccurate. I don’t know if it was the bare trees in Winter and the increased foliage now? For example, it said my 10k race was more than 8 miles! I got a garmin watch as a birthday gift and so far I’m loving it. I have to sit down and figure out more details on how to use it though. I really feel like GPS accuracy is the most important considerations for these types of tools.
Yeah, Runkeeper has always been a bit off from my garmin, but it’s useful in a pinch.
So many cool things you can do with the garmin…
Interesting-your honest comments are always appreciated. I’m really liking my Nike plus watch and find it easy to use and pretty accurate. The battery life is great too
I’ve never even looked at the Nike watches…
You know I’ve been torn about the Bia and ended up getting a Garmin 310XT. I might try the Bia in a future version though since it is really an interesting device. You don’t sync your Garmin to the computer? That’s my obsession!!!
I have an old garmin and a Mac and they’ve never played nice. I’m sure the newer ones work great. I care about my numbers in the moment, but then move on. ;o)
I love my Garmin, even though I have the baseline model (Forerunner 10). I think the GPS is very accurate, same readings on my regular routes and pretty close on races, which is super important to me. The current pace can get wonky though on curves and if I’m in a heavily shaded area.
Yeah, I have a few spots were Garmin goes wonky because of tall buildings, but it’s pretty much always the same places, so I know to expect it. I think that’s my main frustration with the bia is that I never know what it will do.
I love my Bia! I don’t have any problems with the go stick, whether it’s on a belt or my shorts. I also haven’t had problems with the accuracy. There was one week when it was jumpy, but they fixed that. There are some things that can be better (auto-pause please!) but overall I’m pleased. I haven’t worn my Garmin at all since I bought it.
Doesn’t it rub when you clip it on shorts? I’ve only worn mine for 3 miles on my shorts and ended up with an irritated spot on my side. It’s fine in my skirt pocket, but I don’t always wear skirts… I keep hoping that the GPS will settle down a bit, but I’ve definitely had some issues with accuracy. I haven’t given up on it yet, just not ready to stop wearing my garmin.
Thanks for the review. I have been wondering.
I know some people love them and there are definitely things I like about it, but I’m still waiting to fall in love.
I have tried Bia, and I didn’t like it. More than anything the Go Stick was just too gigantic and I found the watch band very uncomfortable. I sold mine.
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