Suunto 7 Successor

Jamie BG

@brad_olwin
I am not training for anything specific, so I am focusing on general health and slow overall increase to fitness, strength and stamina while trying to prevent injuries (due to heavy sport load from a kid to late twenties I have knee, back and some other complications - so have to be careful not to overstrain and injure myself). I find the Garmin system works well for general overall health and fitness.

I mainly focus on 7 Day load which works similar to the Training Peaks - i.e. get an idea of your overall fitness levels and whether increasing and decreasing, load focus (what to do & how intense) and Body Battery (how intense)

This isn’t going to work it you are training for something specifically, but for general fitness,
I find this works well and helps ensure I don’t injure myself (unfortunately doesn’t stop me doing something stupid and injuring myself that way - but at least it isn’t caused from over training) . Every morning before I workout I mainly look at:

7 Day Load - am I in the optimal range, or about to drop out or go over - gives me an idea whether I need to up my activity, go a little bit easier or am I likely to up my optimal band (don’t want to push it too high too fast, am trying to focus on slow steady incremental gains (don’t want to pick up injuries or have too many drops and peaks). Or is it time to push to get the optimal band to move up.
I then look at my load focus - too much/too little low or high aerobic and or anaerobic; and in conjunction with 7DL decide what I will do for the day i.e. if I want to maintain, and low aerobic is out of range will look to do a walk or recovery/base run; or if high required will do a run/cycle/swim and focus intensity to ensure I work in HR zones 2-4 - depending on how much I want to 7DL trend; and if I need anaerobic depending and want to push up to next level then will do a Cardio/HIIT/Sprints etc.
Body Battery - will look at that and how I feel and then look at what I want to do. If its low and I feel low, I am not going to do an anearobic or high activity - will be a recovery exercise, most likely a walk.
Recovery (impacted by stress & sleep & activity) - will check to make sure if cleared if doing a high aerobic especially a VO2max and or anaerobic and see how I feel with BB and own impression.

Health:

Sleep - I suffer from obstructive APNEA (very very bad case, have to use a CPAP) - a quick look at my sleep, and pluse ox readings gives me a very good idea if I had an issue with my mask (sometimes the velcro slips and leaks so you may not get a good night sleep - when this happens sleep metrics and pluse ox show it straight away, and can confirm with CPAP machine readings (have to go into a website to see). First thing in the morning I will not feel it, but will by 2pm, so if I had a bad night, I don’t do anything intense so I can make it through the day without collapsing (in some ways I am still recoverying from chronic fatigue - official diagnoses due to lack of deep sleep for years - due to my Apnea).
BB - as stated use more for training; as my stress during day isn’t the best due to a variety of issues.
Stress - don’t really worry about it during the day - unless I get an alert in which case I do a breathing exercise which really helps. Otherwise use it more for what it is doing overnight - if really bad overnight I know my body is fighting something so I get a heads up that I may be coming down with something, so make sure I don’t do any intense activities that day so body can focus on fighting infection, flu, sinus, cold - whatever the issue is.
RHR - ave HR - if stress overnight is bad, then check these - if these are also outside of norm -then I know something is definitely on the way.
[All 3 covid jabs have impacted Stress, RHR, Ave HR this way for numerous days, and have seen this with the one cold/sniffle I have had, and the one day I suffered from sinuses - due to CPAP machine I don’t wake up with sinus issue, it only comes in 30/40 mins after I take the mask off; and has even given me a headsup on a day I had really bad headaches; and a 24hr tummy bug —> so yes useful to know your day is about to be possibly ruined and to take it easy to give your body more energy to fight - plus can dose myself with honey and lemon- find that helps to reduce it).
I track my weight, steps, calories (integrates with MFP) including Carb, Fat and Protein (am jealous with that breakdown by activity that suunto now provides - would like to see that on Garmin).

So overall it has helped me become fitter, stronger, more stamina - hasn’t caused any injuries despite my dodgy backs and knees (my broken ribs was due to my stupidity not my training), and it has improved my sleep habits - improved when I go to sleep, how long I go to sleep and along with my CPAP mask improved my deep sleep (it is not easy to get used to sleeping with a CPAP mask - I am 19months in and it still feels very strange - I doubt it will ever become second nature). And while I haven’t lost a load of weight, I am not flabby and I have lost 2 inches on my waist and have had to buy t-shirts, shirts and jackets as my shoulders have extended yet again (fortunately managed to keep neck in check).

Looking back on 2021 compared to 2020 I more than doubled the distance and hours I have worked out, and managed to be active on 277 days despite being in pain for 2 months with broken ribs.
So while all the science may not be 100% right it is giving me the motivation and certainly seems to be working for as it does for loads of others.

Would it work for a serious athlete or someone training for a specific event - no, but there are still components they can use. Just like there are components that suunto provides that are very useable not matter what your purpose is.

Jamie BG

@olymay
“Right now, I cannot follow a training peaks plan that requires me to run at a particular pace or HR, as it means I have to constantly check my watch during the run. This adds a level of stress I do not want or need. I run to relax and escape, worrying about checking my watch defeats that. However, a watch that notifies me if I’m going too fast or slow, or too hard or too easy takes away that worry and means I can just run.”

And this is one of the things I love about my Garmin - you set up a workout and designate the target i.e. HR stay in zones 2-3. When you launch it you get an additional screen with your normal screens - a target screen which just shows a red, green, red gauge - so its easy to see when you are on target or off it, and if you set audio prompts and have a connected headset to your watch you will be told to increase when below target or decrease when above target - so you literally can just run without having to look at the watch. Find it super useful when focusing on cadence and or HR zones.

lexterm77

@jamie-bg

Out of curiosity I tried pro 80/20endurance hm training on TP and their pro maintenance training and in 10 years since I started training, I have never seen my HR go 30bpm or a 265W lap at 135bpm with 0% drift in 60minutes. Consistency, severe case of OCD and volume is essential.

cosme.costa

@jamie-bg IF works for you you should use it, more in your case that you have some pathologies and you have found a tool that help you to deal with them.

IMHO most of these features doesn’t give any or much value but well, its my opinion. I have changed my 7 field screen in the watch for a five field because I didn’t need to deal with more information while training or racing. I have a Garmin bike computer and some of the metrics aren’t useful at all some are a good idea but doesn’t work well or aren’t reliable.

You say that the watch helped you to be motivated but I think it is more involved to the body chemistry of doing exercise, to start doing exercise you need some motivation but once started with some consistency our body frees some hormones that helps us to keep up and continue doing exercise.

BTW, I do not know in the S7 but in the Spartan and S5/S9’s you can set targets (pace zones, HR zones, power zones), and the watch will tell you if you are over or under. You can also set time or distance targets and the watch will tell you when you have reached half of the target and the end of it.

ChrisA

@cosme-costa I agree with you and @Brad_Olwin, that it seems to be helpful to have real basic training foundation and a clear goal to make progress. I am a very inexperienced runner and can’t give any tips here, but I am a experienced martial arts practitioner and there it’s the same: novice students often come and want to do all the fancy kicks and techniques they see in the movies much too early. But while it’s ok also to try a difficult 360 degree kick or a knife disarm in the beginning , the main goal first is to stand rooted to the ground and do simple punches and straight low and medium kicks for quite some time, at least the first year as your main training part. And I don’t know about experienced runners, but I guess - and see in SA, that they too will do basic training and recovery as a reasonable part of their training as well as black belts in martial arts still train basic techniques regularly

ChrisA

@jamie-bg that’sthere on the Suunto too and IMO the best solution compared to the gauges of Garmin, Polar or Coros

and you can also set alarms for a certain HR zone and get notifications to slow down or run faster and - at least in my experience - I found the Suunto 9 better here reacting on HR changes than Garmin, where it always took some more time for the Fenix 6 to react to changes in HR.

Brad_Olwin

@cosme-costa Well said! And agree with you @ChrisA. I never show HR value in a screen, just use the outer ring to stay in the zone.

lexterm77

@brad_olwin

I got the book, reading since evening at about 1/3 finished. Book is excellent. I recommend reading to everyone before coming here to argue about anything. You do need base line training not only below aerobic threshold but some zone2-3 biology also

Brad_Olwin

@lexterm77 said in Suunto 7 Successor:

@brad_olwin

I got the book, reading since evening at about 1/3 finished. Book is excellent. I recommend reading to everyone before coming here to argue about anything. You do need base line training not only below aerobic threshold but some zone2-3 biology also

If your aerobic base is solid.

lexterm77

@brad_olwin said in Suunto 7 Successor:

@lexterm77 said in Suunto 7 Successor:

@brad_olwin

I got the book, reading since evening at about 1/3 finished. Book is excellent. I recommend reading to everyone before coming here to argue about anything. You do need base line training not only below aerobic threshold but some zone2-3 biology also

If your aerobic base is solid.

I meant Zone2-3 Biology course :laugh: you need to understand words author is saying to make sense of it.

ChrisA

@suzzlo said in Suunto 7 Successor:

Watches don’t run

That might become a similar epic „meme“ in the sportswatch area like Bruce Lee‘s „boards don’t hit back“ in martial arts

suzzlo

@chrisa

suzzlo

@chrisa probably I can design some T-Shirts this message: “Keep calm, because watches don’t run”

isazi

@suzzlo and I’m already listening to “Watches don’t run” a cover of “Boys don’t cry”

suzzlo

@isazi yes, it is very catchy message

Brad_Olwin

@lexterm77 Funny, this is stuff I know very well…

lexterm77

@brad_olwin

It’s similar to other training plans. Majority under AoT, very little between AoT and LT, some Z4 and Z5 intervals. If you put percentage under zones you basically get same numbers 80/20. Part about throwing away watch I liked because watch can’t tell you anything if you never went to a lab. Also I liked how author said the truth about wisely choosing your parents and grandparents and that doing large volume of aerobic stuff at very young age and while growing up has epigenetic effect on how quickly can you adapt to training loads and what can you do.
What else, nose breathing or talk test is useless if you are not aerobically trained.

When Killian Jornet noted if you train only 600h a year you can be good at short distances was funny.

@olymay said in Suunto 7 Successor:

The default map area it downloads is a 54km square centred on your location, so pretty wide

I was reading the thread and my right eye focused on that number: 54km.
I am unable to select an area greater than 42km. Why?

olymay

@g-q said in Suunto 7 Successor:

@olymay said in Suunto 7 Successor:

The default map area it downloads is a 54km square centred on your location, so pretty wide

I was reading the thread and my right eye focused on that number: 54km.
I am unable to select an area greater than 42km. Why?

That’s odd, mine defaults at 54km.

Where are you looking to get this?

I go into the following:

Open Suunto App with top right button
Scroll down to ‘Map Options’
Scroll down to ‘Offline Map’ (under this in grey text it says ‘Tap to define’)
This next screen shows my local map with a 54km square. Using the top and bottom buttons on the right hand side of the watch I can zoom in to a minimum of 3km to a maximum of 10,872km (HUGE!). The middle button confirms the selction.
You can also use the touchscreen to pan the map around as well as pinch to zoom in and out.

Hopefully this works for you.

@olymay said in Suunto 7 Successor:

Where are you looking to get this?

directly on the watch, probably that’s the reason