New Garmin Watch
After months of research trying to find the best Garmin watch for my needs, I settled on the Lily 2 Active. It’s small enough to wear everyday, but includes features I need that my previous Garmin didn’t have – the only options with it were run, run indoor, bike, and other. Now I have a whole slew of options, but the ones I’ll use most are walk, walk indoor, treadmill, bike indoor, and strength.
Given that the alligator clip on the charging cable of my old Garmin broke over the summer forcing me to use a clamp to hold it to the charger, it’s not suitable to pass along so I’ll simply keep it as an emergency backup.
Overview of the Week
Before getting into each day’s workouts, here’s an overview of my workouts from this past week. Scroll beyond the infographic for daily details…
Sunday
Cycling: 45 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin
• Average speed: 16.4 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 8:58 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 66° in the basement, 40° and cloudy outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra
Walking: 3.16 miles
• Average pace: 15:00 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 137 feet
• Start time: 1:50 PM
• Location: neighborhood circle
• Weather: 60° and partly cloudy
• What I wore: shorts, s/s shirt, nylon shell, and visor (removed shell after first mile)
After a morning spin and afternoon walk, I was rewarded with a Garmin badge after each workout for completing 20 hours of cycling in October and then recording a 3-mile walk over the weekend.
Monday
Strength training: 1 hour of total body
Walking: 3.08 miles
• Average pace: 14:50 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 125 feet
• Start time: 11:33 AM
• Location: neighborhood circle
• Weather: 54° and sunny, climbing to 58°
• What I wore: shorts, s/s shirt, nylon shell, and visor (removed shell after first mile)
With a mid-day client cancelation, I was able to fit in a walk earlier than expected.
Tuesday
Cycling: 28 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin
• Average speed: 15.9 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 6:21 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 63° in the basement, 38° and clear outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra
Walking: 3.08 miles
• Average pace: 15:28 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 95 feet
• Start time: 11:37 AM
• Location: neighborhood trails
• Weather: 54° (feels like 43°) and partly cloudy
• What I wore: shorts, s/s shirt, nylon shell, puffer jacket, mittens over gloves, and visor (took puffer jacket and mittens/gloves off with a mile to go)
After a multitasking spin while training a virtual client (my only client of the day), I admired the beautiful leaves while taking my walk.
Wednesday
Strength training: 1 hour of total body
While at the 55+ community training clients, I stopped out front to take a picture of one of the two fall displays framing the clubhouse/gym front door.
Thursday
Cycling: 33 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin
• Average speed: 15.3 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 5:46 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 66° in the basement, 55° and rainy with thunderstorms outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra
Walking: 2.12 miles
• Average pace: 15:20 minute/mile
• Elevation gain: 94 feet
• Start time: 2:41 PM
• Location: neighborhood circle
• Weather: 64° (feels like 57°) and cloudy
• What I wore: capris, s/s shirt, and visor
After taking last week off while on vacation, it was nice to get back into my weekly virtual workout with Kim on Halloween Eve. To celebrate, we even wore Halloween colors! I also wore my new Garmin, my old Garmin, and my Fitbit. LOL I wore my old Garmin just in case I screwed up something on my new watch, and wore my Fitbit because I wanted to continue to use it for my step count through Saturday night when the week ended.
Later in the day when it had stopped raining I went out for a walk, but only wore my Fitbit and new Garmin, trusting that I wouldn’t have problems with the new watch.
With the indoor bike option on my new Garmin, I was rewarded with two badges that I wouldn’t have earned otherwise!
Friday
Strength training: 1 hour of total body
Cycling: 18 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin
• Average speed: 15.8 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 6:31 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 66° in the basement, 46° (feels like 38°), clear, and windy outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra
Balance and Stretching: 45 minutes
I once again multitasked on my spin bike while training a virtual client, earning me three Garmin badges – one just for showing up with a workout on Halloween.
Saturday
Cycling: 38 miles
• Bike: Life Fitness Lifecycle GX Spin
• Average speed: 15.3 MPH
• Surface: N/A
• Elevation gain: N/A
• Start time: 6:56 AM
• Location: basement
• Weather: 65° in the basement, 44° and partly cloudy outside
• What I wore: bike shorts and sports bra
Last Week’s Blog Posts
In case you skipped checking in on my blog this past weeks, here’s what you missed…
- • Sunday – Weekly RunDown: October 19 – 25 / From the New River Gorge to the Great Smoky Mountains
- • Tuesday – A 27-Mile Cache Valley Reunion: Coasting Down Blacksmith Fork Canyon and Climbing Back to Logan
- • Thursday – The Hidden Gem of Utah Cycling: Cache Valley’s Stunning Scenery by Bike
Questions:
- • Which features would/do you use most on your smart watch? ~ walk and indoor cycling
- • Did you carve pumpkins for Halloween? ~ I haven’t in years
- • Which workout did you enjoy most this past week? ~ Tuesday’s walk in search of pretty trees for my fall leaves collage was fun!
And that’s my rundown… Have a great week!
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I’m linking up with Deborah at Confessions of a Mother Runner and Kim from Running on the Fly for their Weekly Run Down. Be sure to check out not only the hosts’ posts, but those of the other great bloggers joining in on the fun!
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links which means if you click on the blue product link and then make a purchase, I will receive a small commission for referring you. You will pay no more or less for the product; however, Amazon will show their gratitude for my referral by paying me.
I use the walking, running and strength on my watch the most. And yes, we carved pumpkins on Halloween this year because the kids were off school! Last minute for sure but they got done!
I”m sure your kids had a blast carving the pumpkins! Yesterday I lifted and forgot to start my strength session on my Garmin. LOL
I use walking, running, hiking, and biking on my old Garmin Forerunner 55. I hadn’t heard of the model you bought! I don’t care much about the badges, but I imagine they are motivating. Glad you like your new watch!
We haven’t carved pumpkins since the kids moved out. We don’t buy them either, because the squirrels chew on them. No need to feed them! lol
Oh, I need to double check and see if hiking is an option. I saved the ones I mentioned to my quick search list. I’ll have to add it if it’s available – maybe I just missed it. Badges don’t really motivate me to do a workout (I’m plenty motivated on my own), but they are fun to see when they pop up after a workout.
Congrats on the new Garmin, Debbie — the Lily 2 looks so elegant!
I use a Garmin 265 and love how versatile it is: road and trail running, MTB, road biking, hiking, and the occasional swim (indoor or outdoor). I could use it for CrossFit, but I don’t. I wear mine 24/7 for sleep, HRV, RHR, stress, steps — basically all the stats!
How are you finding the accuracy and battery life on your new watch so far?
Thanks, Catrina I’m finding I’m getting fewer steps with the new Garmin than I did with my Fitbit – more on that on Friday’s coffee chat. The battery life seems pretty good. It was 98% charged when I started using it on Wednesday afternoon and it was down to I think 23% when I charged it the first time on Sunday late afternoon.
I absolutely love all the changing leaves!
The kids carved pumpkins, but we didn’t. It was so hot and the pumpkin they carved only lasted about three days before it started to mold and melt. it stinks. Literally.
I wish Apple had the cute badges that Garmin does. It’s the one things I miss about my Garmin.
Fall is certainly a pretty season up here – just wish the trees weren’t ugly and bare for so long afterwards…
Look at all those badges 😉 I must have earned many of the door biking badges previously (?) because none of the shorter ones area showing up (10-mile, 20-miles, etc.) but I did get the 50K one last weekend. Oh well, not a deal-breaker, LOL. We finally have some fall color foliage appearing. I was wondering if we’d miss the colors before everything freezes off.
If I remember to turn my Garmin on while strength training I might earn some from that, too. I just had a badge pop up for steps which I’d never earned before because I didn’t wear my Garmin other than while doing cardio exercise.
Hmm! I’m also having trouble charging my Garmin- the plug keeps popping out of the watch and it doesn’t charge. I wonder if I could use some kind of clamp, because other than that the watch works fine for what I need- which is just running and walking.
I refuse to carve pumpkins anymore! I did it every year when the kids were little, and never really enjoyed it (so messy… yuck).
Your fall colors are beautiful! I’m lucky i have so many blogging friends up north, so I can live vicariously.
I remember a similar thing that you’re mentioning happening with my very first Fitbit ten years ago. My old Garmin had an alligator clip which broke in half so I had to use a clamp to hold the Garmin onto the charger. It worked, but I really needed a Garmin with more functions.
Sometimes i leave a comment on your blog and it just… disappears? Maybe I’m commenting twice? I see other people commenting so maybe it’s just me??? Anyway… I’m loving all the photos of fall foliage this week. It’s a good thing I have so many blogging friends up north so I can experience this vicariously!
I need a clamp for my Garmin- the watch is fine but the charging cord is also damaged. Actually it’s not the cord, but something is wrong with where the cord goes into the watch, and it just pops out and doesn’t charge. I have to do all sorts of things to get it to stay in there. Really annoying, since other than that the watch works fine! It’s pretty basic- the Forerunner 55. I just use it for running and walking.
You found some pretty trees his week! I use the walking feature on my Garmin daily. I don’t use it for strength bc my Peloton pushes to Garmin and Oura. Have a great week!
It was a pretty week here for sure!
My “favorite” activities on my Garmin are Run, Walk, Strength, Bike, Treadmill, SUP (I use that for kayaking), Elliptical, Ski and Hike. I don’t use the Strength for any reason other than to keep a timer of when I am at the gym (not using the rep counter or anything else). Your new watch looks really nice! Very fashionable yet packed with features. I do love the Health features of my Garmin, like the morning report with all of my health stats. I never thought I would like wearing a Garmin while I sleep, but I do!
That’s a great tip about using SUP for kayaking, thanks! And I just discovered the morning features this morning – very cool.
Badges and gamification are so fun
I mostly only use run, I let it detect a walk or not.
That and row are probably my most used
For indoor runs I just use what the treadmill reports as good enough since I neer calibrated
I do need to calibrate my new watch for treadmill walking. One thing more to add to the list!
Lovely new blog format!
The trees are just stunning. I love autumn! Great photos. Great week of activities!