This year has been hard for all of us. Schedules have been thrown out the window, stress is high, and it seems like the rules are changing every day. I haven’t made my own wellness a priority for a while now, and it’s time to change that. I’ve been looking at different fitness plans and apps. I knew that I needed something to help me get out of my house, motivate me to exercise, and keep track all of the other things I’m doing to support my overall wellness so I could see my progress. I also wanted to try running again – I have so many friends who love running, but it’s never been my favorite. Well, I’ve found that something, and it’s a Suunto watch.
I’m very excited about the changes I’m seeing as I use my Suunto watch, and today I’m going to share a few of the things I’m learning as I become a master of running (or maybe just a runner who actually enjoys running, which is a pretty big change for me).
How My Suunto Watch Is Helping Me Run With Purpose
I’m really motivated by results, so seeing the difference that my Suunto watch is making as I shift my focus back to personal wellness and get into a regular exercise and running routine is very motivating.
Adaptive Training For My Schedule
I’m not going to the gym right now, and I don’t have a personal trainer, so the Suunto adaptive training entered my life at exactly the right time. All I had to do was fill out my personal profile, choose my goal (maintain, improve, or boost my aerobic fitness,) and start recording exercises…and the watch created a 7-day training plan with optimal duration and intensity for each exercise.
The nice thing about having the watch both track my activity and plan my training is that it knows if I’ve worked out extra long or skipped a day, and it can adapt my plan accordingly. This is especially helpful for me on super busy weeks when I’m struggling to fit in time to exercise.
Maximizing Your Running Workout
As I learn more about running beyond just the idea of lacing up running shoes and having a quick stretch before you take off, I’ve realized that there is a lot more than just going out to run more to becoming a successful runner. In the past I would always feel like I wasn’t running enough, or I couldn’t seem to run fast enough, and I never really saw the kind of results that I wanted even from regular running sessions. This made it really hard for me to maintain a regular schedule of running.
This was a major game-changer: knowing my Heart Rate Zone.
I’ve learned that adjusting your running according to your heart rate helps to maximize your workout. So all these years that I was running as fast as I could, totally out of breath and miserable, I was doing it wrong. You actually shouldn’t be trying too hard. In fact, if running feels like a huge effort, you probably need to slow down. Seriously. Using the Suunto to help me calculate my personal heart rate zones has helped me to pace my runs better and I’m actually enjoying running more than I ever imagined I would.
Wellness Tracking
Can we talk about sleep for a minute? My blog is literally named Sleepless Mom. If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I’m still working on getting my son to sleep in his own room instead of in my bed. Sleep hasn’t been my friend for several years now, but I’m starting to understand just how important it is to my health and to my recovery time as I’m starting to focus more on getting active and running.
One of the tips that I love from the Suunto site is to increase sleep by 30 minutes a night. So often I feel overwhelmed by not getting enough sleep to the point where I’m stressing out about how many tasks I need to tackle at night, and how I can’t go to bed hours early when the kids are still up, and all of that stress just makes me stay up later and sleep less. What I love about the idea of adding 30 more minutes a night is that it could be as simple as going to bed 15 minutes earlier and staying in bed 15 minutes later. That’s doable, and it can make a big difference.
Tracking the duration and quality of my sleep with my Suunto watch is really helping me to get better in tune with my body and what it needs (and it’s extra motivating for me to get Jake settled in his own room, so I can maximize my sleep quality). In addition to sleep tracking, my Suunto also tracks general activity like daily steps and calories, so I can see the full picture of my personal activity.
If you are ready to get moving and start prioritizing your health, check out the Suunto app and watches – they even have diving watches and accessories if you want to get active underwater!
Jessica — Mom of Sophie & Jake
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