Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Looking for a better way to track workout data

The two major problems with phone-based GPS are accuracy and battery life. A phone will vary the distance +0.1 miles over a 3 mile route which isn't accurate enough if you want to know your true pace - training for a 5K for example. The battery issues are worse in winter - cold kills the battery and working the touch screens can be a problem. I used Runkeeper (phone based) for a couple years before the lack of accuracy and battery issues tipped the scales. Running friends and family also used Runkeeper so I ended up with a 15 or so 'friends' that could all track and support each other.

I switched to a Garmin GPS watch and their app "Connect". There's a sync option between Connect and Runkeeper so all my activities are uploaded to both systems. The Garmin and Connect are my official record, but the social aspect of Runkeeper is still a go. About half of the 15 friends evolved to do the same. Garmin also provides pool and open water swim tracking which I need.

I have a mid level watch that cost around $350 (the swimming stuff drives up the cost), but a very decent run/hike/bike watch with heart rate will cost $150-$200. Of course this being the Campfire, you could also spend a grand easy.

The wife has a garmin watch. The first one broke on her, but they warrantied it and she likes the replacement. The swim stuff it does is pretty cool.

Strava on my android has worked fine for me for mountain biking the past few years, as long as you get cell service...
Won't cost anything to give it a try.

I use a Garmin watch and Strava for running, but Strava feeds off of Garmin Connect. Strava is definitly good for accountability and motivation especially if you have friends who use it.
But I actually like Garmin Connect better for raw data. I think it’s more accurate, Strava does some monkeying with the data it gets from Connect. I also download the .gpx files from Connect and import them into Gaia (not sure you can do that from strava). This saves alot of battery if you’re out scouting, but you don’t get your info in real time.