Between run club culture, cool street running outfits, races selling out and super trainers everywhere, running has never been bigger as a sport.
But between all the tempo sessions, sweaty selfies and long run vlogs, there are still hundreds of thousands of people who are beginner runners out there — complete newbies to the sport, who need a helping hand out when choosing things like watches and shoes.
Into this fray steps Garmin, who this month have launched two entry-level affordable smartwatches designed for new runners getting into the sport — the Forerunner 70 and the Forerunner 170 (with and without music).
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The watches retail for $399, $479 and $549 respectively — so they aren’t exactly a steal.
But when compared with more pricey models like the Forerunner 970 that I own myself at $1,399, they are the perfect piece of kit to dip your toes into tracking your running without having to spend more than $600.
I’ve been testing out the Forerunner 170 Music for the past few weeks to see if it’s worth the price tag for runners looking to get into the sport.
Here’s how I found it.
The Forerunner 170 on paper
When it comes to features, the Forerunner 170 contains a lot of the tech specs that Garmin fans know and love.
I’m talking a bold, bright and responsive display, premium features like the ability to play music, Garmin Pay, distance, pace, heart rate monitoring and zone training, as well as performance condition estimates.
It also has a few of the additional features I love about my Forerunner 970, like race time predictions, training status and my favourite training readiness.
This is a feature that literally tells you how ‘ready’ you are for any given run on a particular day.
Taking into account everything from your sleep to the activity the day before, heart rate variability and training acute load, it’s an invaluable feature for amateur and established runners alike.
We all know the tendency to get into something and overload it or go too far, pushing yourself towards an injury instead of resting when you need to.
The training readiness feature on the Forerunner 170 is a fabulous addition to the watch to help you keep an eye on your body, and only push it as hard as it needs to be pushed.
You can, of course, track other sports including watersports on the Forerunner 170, but it is predominantly aimed at runners.
With extra insights like a Sleep Coach, Health Status and my favourite Morning and Evening Reports, it really is an all-round holistic wellness watch that can help you improve in a number of aspects of your life.
How did I find it?
Putting on the Forerunner 170 for the first time was remarkably easy and felt natural.
Like my existing Forerunner 970, it has a silicone strap that allows you to sweat in it and easily wash it and wear it again.
A lot of the features are also remarkably similar, although admittedly with nowhere near as many insights as I get from the premium option.
I liked the mix of the personalised beginner-friendly workout training plans and advanced training metrics in this watch.
Every time you want to run, you get a daily suggested workout, which then adapts after every run to match your performance and recovery in time for the next suggested run.
Like a coach on your wrist, the watch is really quite clever, allowing you to train for an event, achieve a milestone, or improve your fitness with training plans that adapt daily based on your recovery and health metrics.
The battery life on this watch, like all Garmins, was impressive, with up to 10 days in smartwatch mode and up to 20 hours in GPS mode.
It’s also handy to get a gauge on your predicted 5km, 10km, half marathon and marathon race predictions, even if they are a little pessimistic in my opinion.
I like many things about this watch and the amount of detail it gives you about your health.
I have just two main gripes. At $479 or $549 for the Forerunner 170 without and with music, I don’t really think it can be described as an entry-level smartwatch.
And I wonder if some of the extra bells and whistles Garmin have put on the watch (like Training Readiness and Training Status) could have been left out, in order to both cheapen the price and lessen the feeling of overwhelm the potentially beginner runner feels when putting this watch on.
Sometimes, the watch would tell me I needed to recover for as long as 66 hours, when I knew for a fact that I was fine and would be back out the next day, potentially doing a mini tempo session.
But, overall, I found the watch incredibly impressive and a great buy for someone who is looking to really lean in to the sport and commit to its various data points.
Is it worth it?
I think the Forerunner 170 is definitely worth it if you’re someone looking to take your training a bit more seriously and start giving yourself a bit of structure to your running.
Its health and sleep metrics are still superior to all other smartwatches out there, and it is genuinely inspiring to watch your race time predictions come down on the watch as you get fitter and faster.
If you’re in the market for something cheaper and don’t have quite as much budget, you could also look at the more affordable Forerunner 70.
For more information and to shop from Garmin, head to the website here now.
