A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be able to buy a Garmin Forerunner 15 off of my marathon training partner. If you don’t know what that is, don’t worry, I’ll tell you all about it today. What the most important thing for you to know is that it is AWESOME! It’s a watch that helps you to truly keep track of how for you’ve ran, but it does sooooo much more, and we’ll talk all about it here today!
Today, I’ll tell you what the Garmin Forerunner 15 does, how to set it up, and all about what I think of it.
What is the Garmin Forerunner 15?
The Garmin Forerunner 15 captures stats from your run like time, distance and pace. When paired with a heart rate strap (also available through Garmin), it also records your heart rate and heart rate zone so you’ll know when you hit your target. Training with heart rate also allows you to monitor when you need to rein it in and when you can push yourself harder.
If you want to track the steps you take throughout your day when you’re not working out, you can, without wearing a separate activity tracking device (although I would NEVER give up my Fitbit, because I LOVE the sense of community I get with it). Forerunner 15 counts your steps and the calories you burn all day. When you upload your data to Garmin Connect, this allows you to monitor your progress toward fitness goals and see overall fitness trends. Forerunner 15 also reminds you when it’s time to move if you’ve been sitting for more than an hour. When you get that cue to move, just walk for a couple of minutes to reset the inactivity indicator…. Pretty cool, right?
The Garmin Forerunner 15 has an auto lap function that automatically alerts you when you complete each mile, giving you a friendly beep and a backlit screen that flashes your time for that mile. When you complete your run and save it, you’ll see a summary of how you did, including your total time, distance, average pace and calories. Forerunner 15 even lets you know when you achieve a personal record, like your fastest mile or longest run to date.
For outdoor runs, Forerunner 15 uses GPS to accurately record your time, pace and distance. To track distance and pace when you hit the treadmill or an indoor track, just pair Forerunner 15 with an optional foot pod, which attaches to the laces of your shoe.
You won’t have to worry about charging Forerunner every night. The rechargeable battery will last up to 5 weeks in watch/activity tracking mode or 8 hours when using it with GPS on your outdoor runs. Forerunner 15 has a water rating of 5 ATM (50 meters), which means it resists rain and sweat and can even join you for a swim.
If you buy a used Garmin Forerunner 15, here’s the manual…
Since I bought a used one, and not everyone is as obsessive as I am about keeping up with manuals, I had to find it online… I’ll save you the trouble of looking everywhere for it, here’s the link.
I want to reiterate that I would NEVER ever give up my Fitbit, I love it too much! BUT, I am LOVING the ability to track my runs that the Garmin gives me that I have been unable to get with apps on my phone or through Fitbit. If you get a Garmin for your runs, I can promise you that you won’t be sorry… This one is one of the less expensive models, and they do have ones that cost a lot more, but this does everything that I want and need it to do for now, and it’s easy to operate.
I’ll close with a tutorial video, just in case you’re lazy like me, or if you need a visual (also like me).
