Many of you have run with an Apple Watch, Google Watch, Garmin, or Fitbit for years. Since 1993, my watch of choice has been a Timex Ironman. Since I run the same routes day to day, month to month, and year to year, I don’t need a watch to tell me where or how far I ran. Looking at my logs, I can compare the 20-mile run from 2011 with the one I ran this year. I’ve measured most of the area race course since 1995. So I know the distances and mile locations are accurate.
My Anthem Medicare Advantage plan offered me a free fitness monitor. Free is good. So, I received a Fitbit Inspire 2 in late March. The Fitbit functionality is not unique from other smartwatches.
This review introduces to those without smartwatches to what is available and my Fitbit experience.
The Fitbit is a data collection device. Worn on my wrist, it is self-aware of when I’m sleeping and exercising. It has detected my walks to the local stores and when I’m doing yard work, marking these activities as exercise. The primary collected data is heartbeats per minute, steps, and sleep cycles.
During a workout, it will vibrate when changing defined heart rate zones.
It has a stopwatch and alarm functionality. However, with the poor screen quality in sunlight, I still use my Timex to record run duration and splits. I turn on my Fitbit to indicate a run. This action bypasses the time for the device to do a self-aware start.
I’ve been starting the device in my house just before starting a run and turning it off once I return to my shaded driveway. The extra recorded time is irrelevant in my logs.
Additional data that is collected is distance run. If you run with a cell phone, I don’t; it will use the phone’s GPS to calculate distance. Otherwise, it is calculated based on steps.
A Bluetooth connection to Fitbit Premium running on a cell phone is required to get the full benefit from the device. Fitbit Premium takes the data from the device and loads it to your account in the cloud. Fitbit Premium costs $100 annually, and Anthem paid my first year.
The screenshots are from Premium.
Heart rate is constantly monitored and recorded during a workout or race. Once near your cell phone, you can graphically see the maximum heart rate and when you are in different stress zones.
This chart is from my Spring Fever 5km. I can see my warmup run and walk pattern. Then for the actual race, how I maintained a constant high heart rate with any corresponding course stress points.
During a run, total minutes in each stress zones are reported. Unsurprisingly, I was in the peak zone for 30 minutes as my 5km race time was 26:25. The colors on the heart rate graph match the zone colors.
Premium uses age to determine the initial heart rate zones. It uses the formula 220 – age. Initially, my maximum heart rate was 154. I tested mine on a track recording a maximum heart rate of 176. I was able to override their calculation with the 176 bpm. I used the 176 bpm for the calculated Spring Fever 5km zones. With my results from the race, my maximum heart rate is now 188 bpm.
From my easy four miles on April 20, more of my minutes were calculated as fat burning rather than cardio. The estimated zone ranges are transmitted to the device. During a workout, the Fitbit will vibrate when crossing zone boundaries.
As the day progresses, heart rate is continually updating Premium. A chart for each day is available. 
The resting heart rate is average when awake. The spikes in the early morning can be correlated to sleep cycles. On this chart, a finger scroll will report a heart rate and time.
The device is sleep-aware. At night, when I’m watching TV and not moving, it will start recording my sleep. You can see a sleep cycle report upon a morning download. That first deep sleep was on the couch. This was a bad night, as A-Fib symptoms woke me up a few times.
I was hoping that the device would record periods when A-Fib is detected. From my episode last fall, we never knew when my A-Fib started, thus unable to figure out the source. The device does report A-Fib. But since I have a history of this arrhythmia, the manufacturer does not support that function for me. The function is not available to those under 18 too. Is there a wrist-worn device I could wear for this functionality?
Other data that can be input into Premium is water and food consumption. Since I already input my food consumption into Nutritionix, I don’t want to input it again into Premium. It would be nice to input total calories and other nutrients rather than detailed foods. I’m not sure how water and food are used in the predictions.
When exercising or not, calories burned are calculated and recorded. I’m not sure how well their calculation works. My calories burned per week are close to my calories consumed. Since my weight has not fluctuated more than 1/2 pound since the beginning of the year, I guess their formula is working.
One daily prediction is a readiness score. It is calculated once sleep data is downloaded. The score is 1 to 100. The day after a 20-mile long run, my score was one, and the morning of the Spring Fever 5km was a 100.
Using the readiness score, under 30 needs to be a recovery day, and above 70 can be a race day. You can see my score of 80, as I have not pushed any runs since last Saturday.
Based on workout efforts, Premium will calculate a VO2 max. Because of my extended performances at more than 85% effort, my VO2 max is between 50 and 54. Looking at tables for 66-year-old males would give me an Olympic-level score. Using my new max heart rate, I assume this number will drop. If not, they’ll need to work on their calculation.
The last screen is health metrics reporting breathing rate, skin temperature, and some heart conditions. Since I’ve been having issues sleeping, I’m unsure if this data is good or bad.
The device’s battery life expectancy is ten days. There is a battery level indicator on one of the watch’s screens. I’m getting about 12 days out of a charge before reaching less than 20%.