Suunto Race 2 | Is This the Path Watch That Lastly Will get Every part Proper?

The Suunto Race 2 is the most recent high-end sports activities watch from Suunto, the model from the land of the Northern Lights. Regardless of being on the upper finish of the value spectrum for Suunto, it’s a premium sports activities watch at a friendlier worth than different manufacturers, corresponding to Garmin.
Whereas they’ve marketed it as the final word path runners watch, it actually has options which can be going to hit on numerous mutlisport wants.

They’ve clearly put numerous thought in to creating this watch lighter, the battery longer and the display even higher. We’re right here for the upgrades, however nonetheless have a number of areas that must be tweaked.

This can be a high tier operating watch with over 115 sport modes at a a lot lower cost level and with a particular deal with the wants of path runners.

Suunto Race 2 Overview

They’ve name this a look ahead to path runners and we are able to undoubtedly see that in quite a lot of options, however it’s actually not a look ahead to ONLY path operating. So let’s get in to it as there are some particular wins and a few misses with this watch.

The display continues to be a excessive definition AMOLED display, however is barely larger and now thinner with an up to date optical coronary heart fee sensor. The display is admittedly the intense spot on this watch, pun supposed. Whether or not it was brilliant and sunny or humid and gloomy, checking my coronary heart fee or tempo mid-run with out lacking a step was a chunk of cake.

You’ll additionally discover it makes use of the one scroll like Coros vs Garmins 4 button system to navigate the watch.

The Suunto Race 2 is available in lighter this 12 months than the final model, chopping weight down from 83 grams to 76, whereas the load of the watch with the titanium case is right down to 67 grams.

The metal model of the watch (for individuals who want critical sturdiness) comes with a detachable 22mm silicone watch band and is water-proof as much as 100 meters.

Organising the watch was pretty simple with the prompts that give you every step. The damaging half about setup with Suunto is that most of the settings, corresponding to coronary heart fee zones, are up to date in your watch as an alternative of within the app. The digital crown makes scrolling simpler than it must be, however it’s far simpler to enter numbers into an app than to scroll from 0 to 180-something to arrange your coronary heart fee max.

Fast Take Professional’s and Con’s

Purchase the Suunto Race 2

Battery Life

Listed as 55 hours in efficiency AND 200 hours with decrease GPS accuracy, that is once more a function geared in the direction of our ultrarunning pals, however one all of us recognize in needing to cost much less. After all, all battery life relies on the options getting used.

Even in every day utilization mode with ongoing HR monitoring it could go 16 days.

You’ll see in a battery settings display the choice to have it at completely different settings to extend battery life. We haven’t but wanted to take it on a 3 day hike to confirm, however battery life must be good, should you can keep in mind to show off the dwell monitoring, as beforehand talked about.

As soon as I discovered why my battery was draining as much as 35% in sooner or later and turned that off I seen it solely drained a number of share factors every day after. All in all, and even with the 4 or 5 days of fixed looking for the dwell observe app I received 9 days out of the battery earlier than having to recharge it.

GPS and Maps

When operating out within the wild I discovered the Suunto Race 2 to provide correct distance measurements as effectively. The seashore path I spend numerous time operating has marked distances, and I made psychological notes of my distance once I would cross them to examine for accuracy.

Since this is without doubt one of the areas they targeted on for path runners, let’s have a look at some screens! Coach Amanda loves flashing her elevation charts out in Colorado, however they aren’t fairly as spectacular right here. She additionally mentioned that downloading maps has change into a go to function in her watches as a result of it saves time from pulling out a telephone and attempting to find out which flip to take.

The Suunto Race 2 additionally has breadcrumb navigation obtainable within the occasion you intend out a brand new route and don’t need to miss a flip someplace.

I did discover a number of the voice queues didn’t come by means of, and fortunately I used to be paying consideration for vibrations alongside the best way. The voice queues additionally periodically went out throughout lap monitoring, which isn’t horrible because you do get the aforementioned vibration.

For these of us with a major different who will get some peace of thoughts by means of getting a dwell monitoring hyperlink while you head out for an extended weekend run and plan to be a number of miles throughout city, you’ll must obtain the Suunto Plus extension app, “Stay.T”, then allow dwell monitoring every time to ensure that it to work. And it helps to show off the dwell monitoring after you employ it so the battery drains slower.

Exercise Monitoring

The Suunto Race 2 is full of 115 completely different sport modes, lots of which most of us won’t ever use, however that’s change into the sport with watches recently.

As it’s primarily a operating watch, it comes loaded with the operating possibility loaded first. You’ll be able to organize the completely different sport modes based mostly on what you employ probably the most, which turns out to be useful should you finish a health club exercise and need to hop on the treadmill and never should scroll by means of 79 choices.

Talking of the treadmill, I used to be pleasantly shocked that the space measured was pretty near what the treadmill learn once I examined it throughout a treadmill run. For the report, my Garmin that prices practically twice as a lot is without doubt one of the least correct treadmill monitoring watches I’ve ever used. The one damaging to the treadmill monitoring function is the shortage of an choice to calibrate your watch to match.

Suunto provides you the choice to personalize your knowledge screens with sure knowledge factors you discover crucial. That is additionally a function on Garmin, however the digital crown makes it a lot simpler to scroll between screens as wanted.

Along with operating exercises, I additionally tracked energy coaching, strolling, and even a number of boxing matches on my Oculus VR headset. Most had been pretty easy, however I discovered the energy coaching function to be missing the power to trace units and relaxation durations. You should utilize the lap button however it logs every as a set, moderately than including a relaxation interval between every set.

Coronary heart Fee Monitoring

I discovered the guts fee monitoring to be pretty correct. I wore the Suunto Race 2 each throughout exercises alongside my Garmin and through sleep. My coronary heart fee graphs through the exercises had been as shut as may be, and my HRV and resting coronary heart fee throughout sleep had been largely the identical, give or take one or two beats.

The most important variance I noticed was an evening the place the Suunto Race 2 logged a resting coronary heart fee of 47 whereas my Garmin Fenix logged a 53, however I slept on my left arm with the Suunto so I could have simply minimize off circulation and slowed my pulse in that arm.

Now, I’m conscious that wrist coronary heart fee monitoring will not be probably the most dependable methodology, however prior to now I’ve concurrently tracked my coronary heart fee throughout a boxing exercise with a Garmin and my chest strap and the most important distinction I seen was my wrist coronary heart fee being 8 beats increased once I was hitting the velocity bag for a couple of minutes. 

Should you’re the kind who likes to watch your coronary heart fee ranges after a exercise (like me), it’s simple to make use of the digital crown to scroll right down to the dwell coronary heart fee function and have a look. You can too examine your blood oxygen ranges on demand, not simply in a single day.

App Options and Integration

A few of the options with the Suunto app I discovered to be considerably complicated.

The app format is a bit too busy and never simple to replace. The dashboard would typically present my most up-to-date exercise, whereas different instances it could present a run or energy coaching session from a number of days prior.

The small watch icon permits you to join and replace the display, however it didn’t at all times appear to work. The answer I ultimately discovered was to close off and restart my iPhone, so there’s an opportunity it’s an iPhone compatibility situation, however in any case it’s one thing to look out for.

The choice to arrange an interval run within the app was good and simple and was probably the most environment friendly possibility obtainable.

Importing structured exercises from different sources corresponding to Remaining Surge or vDotO2 created some minor issues. The primary interval exercise I imported from Remaining Surge was a easy 10 instances 75-second hill sprints with a 2 minute restoration jog, with a 25 minute warmup and cooldown.

After the primary couple intervals I seen the intervals had been lasting longer than supposed, each with the hill sprints and restoration jogs. Probably the most minor of the nits I’ve to choose is that there isn’t any countdown when an interval is ending, however a single beep. I discovered it complicated as a result of it sounds the identical because the beep while you’re above or beneath that interval’s goal tempo or coronary heart fee vary.

One different space missing readability with the exercise function was the shortage of an interval counter. Throughout the aforementioned hill exercise I saved scrolling by means of my screens on the lookout for a counter to inform me what number of intervals I had remaining, however was unable to search out it.

Miscellaneous Options

I discovered the shortage of stress measuring to be a pleasant change of tempo. Should you’re like me and undergo durations the place you obsessively examine your stress ranges in your watch, which can or might not result in extra stress, good riddance.

There’s a reference to emphasize ranges within the “Assets” part, which is akin to Garmin’s physique battery, however there isn’t a continuing numerical worth added to it.

The power to examine textual content messages throughout a run is at all times useful. And should you want to be utterly unplugged you may at all times simply flip the function off. For Android customers you could have the power to ship pre-loaded solutions to textual content messages.

Regardless of a few of my gripes I do assume the Suunto Race 2 is a watch that’s effectively value its price ticket. Should you’re a runner, or perhaps a multi-sport athlete it could deal with absolutely anything you throw at it.

In abstract, the Suunto Race 2 is a light-weight and dependable coaching companion that can get out of your means and allow you to transfer. It may be a watch that can help you thru your operating, swimming, biking, triathlon, and even every day adventures.

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