FEATURE #1 A CLEAR DISPLAY OF THE RUNNING STOP WATCH
The running stopwatch or “chrono” is the most important feature of the watch. The stopwatch enables you to record your time over long runs and in competitive races. The digits need to be clearly viewable at arms length and while you are moving and it is also an advantage if your timepiece allows you to view two or three simultaneous data fields and supports customizable screens.
FEATURE #2 SESSION AND LAP STORAGE (AND RECALL)
Runners who keep a training diary require a watch that can store their training data long enough to record it in their logs. Many watches can store a session log in memory and individual laps of the session. More advanced watches can even accommodate the warm-up and recovery periods of a session and statistics over a long term period.
FEATURE #3: COUNTDOWN OR INTERVAL TIMER
A countdown timer features is exactly what it claims to be. It counts down to zero from a specified time.
It is useful because a runner’s repetition training is often structured around timed efforts and a timed recovery period.
An interval timer is a series of varying length countdown timers that run in sequence. When the last countdown timer in the sequence has run, the session either stops or repeats depending on how you set it up. This is even better for repetition training because the duration of the effort and time of the recovery can be different lengths.
OTHER FEATURES
Here are a few other features that can be nice to have in a running sports watch:
A HEART RATE MONITOR DEVICE
Most advanced running sports watches provide a heart rate monitor device. A heart rate monitor measures the frequency of your heart beats and displays it to you in real-time. Knowing your heart rate at any one time can help you determine if you are exercising at a high enough intensity level to achieving a performance gain.
Another useful measurement is heart rate recovery. Your heart rate recovery rate can be a telling indicator of over-training. Over-training is bad because your body will not respond optimally to your training efforts.
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