My wife is wanting a watch to keep her pace , heart rate and distance. We have looked at fit , Garmin and TomTom. What do yall suggest. I dont know jack about them. Seems everyone I talk to at the stores have no clue either. Any advice will help at this point.

And a 10.00 stop watch from walmart has already bout got me killed. I thought it was good idea.

Sounds like the fit bit thing that my wife just had to have. She started walking so she really needed one to keep up with steps taken and calories burned and so on and so forth. What got me in trouble is when I measured the distance she was walking with my truck odometer and measured her stride to figure out how many steps she would take. Anyway I had to buy the dang thing and then she quit walking. Hope this helps.😀

I use an app on my phone called map my walk by under armour...

FWIW, my wife loves her Fit Bit.

Fit bit is the way to go and its under $100. I would get the flex.

I have a garman vivofit. I really like it and it syncs with my phone every night. But, it doesn't time you other than having a watch.

I downloaded map my run on my I phone. It keeps distance, time, average time per mile and split time for you and tells you at every mile. So far I have liked it.

All of them are estimates. I get about a tenth of s mile difference between map my run and my garman.

I have two. A Garmin Forerunner that's about 5 years old and a Soleus Fit that's around one year old.

The Garmin is the better watch in terms of features and it has a heart rate strap. I used the heart rate monitor about 3 times and put it back in the box. If heart rate is important, get it built into the watch. The battery on the Garmin is not EASILY replaceable and now only lasts about 45 minutes. I would suggest one that you can replace the battery in.

The Soleus is a very simple (and affordable) to use watch that has an incredible battery life. You can disable the GPS when your not running and just wear it as a watch.

Here are some worth looking at. FWIW, if I were getting another watch, it would be the Garmin Forerunner 15.

http://www.runningwarehouse.com/Garmin_Forerunner_15_Small/descpage-GMFR15S.html

http://www.runningwarehouse.com/Soleus_GPS_Mini_Watch/descpage-SOMIGPS.html

The Fitbit Surge would be my choice as far as Fitbits go. The others don't give enough on-screen info in my opinion. I hope this helps.

I've seen a feedback about the latest Garmin having numerous problems but have not experienced that first-hand.

I have a basic Fitbit Zip that I keep in my pocket or on my waistband to count steps and miles. That's all I want. It will sync to the dashboard on my laptop and keep up with them, and I can also log in food, other activity, goals, etc., if I want to do so on the dashboard.

I've considered upgrading to a Fitbit wristband but don't need to right now. The GPS trackers in these monitors supposedly are not 100% accurate but they're close enough for me.

Runner's World has scads of reviews on the fitness trackers on their website along with reviews on shoes, etc. www.RunnersWorld.com

Good for your wife for wanting to exercise. Encourage her and go with her.

Sounds like hayman has one he'll sell you.

If she has to have one with a HR monitor I wuld go with the Fitbit Charge HR. I have one as does my wife. I have compared the heart rate on it with readings from the clinic and it is within 2bpm. The distance walked is also very accurate when compared to the GPS tracking from mapmyrun app. The negative is that I had one crap out on me but I sent an email to fitbit and their support was awesome, they had a new one shipped to me immediately with no questions asked.

And let me add this after reading Hayman's post....if you use an app, tracker or any fitness machine at the gym as a way of determining how many calories you actually burned during exercise you will be pissing in the wind. If you are using that stuff to lose weight I would scrap it and just calculate your daily caloric need and track your food.

RunKeeper on my phone.

I use Runtastic App on my phone.I know its not as accurate as a Garmin but its free.That being said all the folks I run with that dont mind droppin the the dimes for'em have Garmins and they like them.I would like to save up and get a Garmin myself.

She been running since high school. She just getting back into races. She wants a way to track herself so she can see the improvement.

I know nothing about any of the *bit devices so they may do what you need to do. I have always used Garmin devices. I currently have a Forerunner 620. It is on the higher end of GPS watches and functionality. Some of the features I rarely use. To measure heart rate I have to wear a strap. My son uses a Nike GPS watch and is not concerned about heart rate. He wants distance, pace, and splits. If I were to buy a new one I would probably get the Garmin Forerunner 225 (I think it will sell for around $230). It can measure heart rate optically on your wrist or the user can wear a strap. I hate running with my phone and only carry it with me on rare occasions so I have nothing I can add about any of the running apps.

If she's been running since high school, do not get her a fitbit. If all she plans on doing is running then the Garmin Forerunner 220 with HR monitor would be a great watch for her. It's does everything you're looking for, has very good reviews and I personally know many people that use them and they are all happy with it.