Thoughts after wearing a sports watch for a year

Well, who would have thought that starting a business as a creative freelancer actually turns into being very busy? Not me.

Anyhow. My watch recently rewarded me with a "one year of adventure" badge, which seemed like an unnecessary bit of gamification.

But it made me think. What changed since I started wearing this watch a year ago? Apart from the awkward white tanline above my wrist, of course.

I've never been a watch person. The only time I ever wore one was in elementary school, for about two weeks. How I was on time more or less before cell phones came around is a mystery to me now.

As it turns out, I had to turn 39 to find out: it's a whole lot quicker to check your wrist, rather than pulling a phone out of your pocket.

But that's not why I bought the watch. It was mainly out of curiosity. The lovely people that used to be colleagues and I now call friends simply didn't stop talking about their body batteries, laughed when their watches told them they were stressed or needed rest and simply looked endlessly cool after a run, when they stopped the recording by pressing a button on their watch, rather than staring at a phone. They were showing off their insane watch tanlines and helped each other out with weird charger cables. I just wanted to be part of that tribe, I guess.



What they also told me: Garmin can be a bit harsh when it's talking to you. And upon further inspection, I wasn't a huge fan of the very functional (Android-y?) looking user interface. Which is when I noticed that the designers around me all wore a different brand: Suunto. The design of their watch interfaces were kinder to my eye and I was told, it doesn't make you feel like a failure just based on its tone of voice.

I bought a Suunto Race S soon after.

What I use my sports watch for (sorted by frequency)

• Timer. This makes me laugh out loud when I think about it. But having a timer with you at all times, reminding you the laundry in the machine is done or that the bread in the oven needs ten more minutes to perfect its crust is extremely helpful and I use it multiple times a day.
• Body battery. It's a mystery to me why Garmin's very fun and intuitive term "body battery" wasn't adapted by Suunto. I pull up my (lame sounding) "Resources" multiple times a day, just for fun. Seeing a low number helps me check in with myself. Seeing how much impact training has on overall energy was a good lesson, too. Outrageously, I've never been above 93% and never below 10%, which reminds me to treat these as "fun facts" and not take them too seriously.
• Tracking activities. Yup, I do that, too. I also love comparing my pace and heart rate on my running loop over time. I never knew I can be geeky like that, but also forget to check again for months.

Surprising benefits

• Sleep. It was a shock to me that I wasn't sleeping enough at all on a regular basis, when I started wearing my watch. I am making sure I get enough sleep ever since and this definitely has improved my overall wellbeing. Sometimes you need a watch to rub it in your face.
• Training fatigue. When talking about the effect wearing the watch had on me shortly after I bought it, my very wise friend Marius said: "There are those who wear a sports watch to help them exercise more, and those who need it to exercise less. We probably are the latter." And he's right. Seeing how high my training fatigue is after a long ride helps me keep my feet still for longer to make sure I recover properly.
• Fitness age. My watch tells me my fitness age is more than ten years lower than my actual age whenever I feel like checking and that alone makes it worth the investment. Instant mood boost.
• It's a quiet companion. My Suunto doesn't patronize me about my sleep or stress levels and leaves me to do draw my own conclusion from the metrics. Which I like. It doesn't force any info on me, if I choose to ignore it (except that I need to charge it about once a week). In a world of too many devices wanting us to tell too many things constantly, that's a feature, in my opinion.
• The looks. If I'm being honest with myself, I do like the look of a sporty watch at my wrist. It's giving "I'm a super professional athlete and need to be able to track my spontaneous sprints to the grocery store and those are definitely happening thank you very much." At least it's giving me that feeling and that's enough, really.

This could have been my conclusion.

But then recently, after sleeping in my friend Vera's campervan at Lago di Garda for one night, I got a super nasty bug bite right next to my left wrist. For the first time in 11 months, I wanted to not wear my watch.

And it made me realize: Nothing happens, if I don't track my sleep for a night. My heart is still beating, even if I didn't track my heart rate for 24 hours. Nothing happens, really.

So now, when I'm feeling very rebellious, I'm not wearing my watch for a couple of hours, or when I sleep. Sometimes I realize it's been charging in another room for half the day, and I don't care at all. Which used to be different and feels like I've entered a new era. The era of "It's just a device".

I'll probably still wear it with my wedding guest outfits, just because I think it makes every outfit cooler – and I'm happy to admit it.

Would I buy this exact same watch again?

100% yes. But if I'd buy a watch now, I'd wait for the Suunto Race S 2 – which is bound to come out soon and hopefully will have a USB-C charging cable because I cannot be bothered to bring an extra electricity plug with the oldschool USB-A port anywhere I go, if you could please change this Mr. Suunto CEO, thank you very much.

5 things that caught my eye recently

1. The perfect cycling jersey by Mura Cycling, made with 31% wool (🤤). The print is pure joy. It's sold out for both men and women, but I'm hoping they'll restock so I can start wearing more than one jersey all the time.
2. The print of this jersey by Fingerscrossed also looks super cute, but not cute enough to spend 185 Euros. (Don't quote me on that, if you ever see me wearing it, haha.)
3. This ad (the song!) for Mons Royale's Solace Seamless collection. It was so convincing, I'm wearing the Merino Seamless Tank as we speak and even feel comfortable in the shorts, which has never happened before (though I haven't worn them outside the house yet, I'll let you know when I unlock that level).
4. These foldable bikepacking camp shoes by Pedaled. They look SO dorky, but at least I wouldn't get wet feet from damp grass?
5. Also considering Kung Fu shoes as an unconventional but cheaper alternative (props to Marius for thinking this one up). Or do my feet need to air out more? Help! I'll be at the start line of Hackenpedder bikepacking race in two weeks.

Do you have any tips for camp shoes for multi-day racing events? Considering not bringing extra shoes at all. Also, would you be interested in a race/event recap, or are we keeping this to Gear Talk, strictly?

Let me know!
Stephanie

PS. Thank you Anton, for insisting it's important to keep writing these. This one is for you. 🫰🏻