Runner's Blog: Owner Ed is crushing on his new GPS watch

By Ed Griffin

I admit that I am in love with my new Garmin Vivoactive 3 GPS watch. This is causing me some issues around my house because I am spending all of my waking time with this beauty, much to the chagrin of my wife and dogs.

When I went to Marcia, our purchasing manager, to see what new watch would give me all the fun stuff without being complicated, the words could not come out of her mouth fast enough: “Garmin Vivoactive 3 is the one you want.” And away I went.

Now, to call me a technophile would be fake news. I am a simple, make-it-easy, start-my-watch-and-run kind of person. This watch was so easy to set up, I did not even have to ask my senior in college daughter for help. Garmin makes it easy and the accompanying phone app keeps all your data on your phone as well.

This is a multi-sport watch and you can choose from thousands of watch faces. There are more than 15 preloaded apps including running, treadmill, indoor track, bike indoor, walking, walking indoor, strength training, cardio, elliptical and more. I even was able to link it to another cool running app called Smashrun, so all my Vivoactive 3 data is automatically uploaded each time I log back onto the Smashrun site.

My new prize tracks steps, sleep, stress, weather, Vo2, text and e-mail and also has a bunch of other options I have not even tried. You can turn off any you don’t want. Even with using the GPS, I only have to charge it every three to four days.

The Garmin Vivoactive 3 is not inexpensive but a recent price reduction puts it at $269.99 (and it's on sale for $249.99 through Feb. 17). Given how much you can use it, it's the cheapest date in town!