Garmin Forerunner 920 XT

So once we got into triathlons we decided we needed a good multisport watch. After searching around online we came to the conclusion that the new Garmin Forerunner 920 XT was far and away the best choice. The only problem was that it cost $500!!!! We knew that one watch wouldn't suffice, we would both need our own but how in the world could we afford to pay $1000 for watches.... that seems CRAZY!

Well luckily it was Christmas time and our local Running store had all watches 20% off one day for the 12 days of Christmas. The day before that  we received a Christmas present of $100. I went to the running store and they only had the watch without the heart rate monitor and it cost $450. 20% off of that brought it to $360, then with the $100 Kassia received we paid only about $280 out of our own pocket. Now we had one watch how were we going to get the other one? Well luckily we have the Chase Preferred credit card which has fantastic rewards. We had 40,000 points and that equated to $400 to Amazon, we used those points and only had to pay $100 out of our own pocket. Add that all up and we paid a grand total of $380 for both watches. What an awesome deal!!! We were super excited about it, we haven't owned a sport watch before so we were a little worried about figuring it all out. I've spent a few days trying to figure mine out, I haven't done a workout yet we have been so busy with family parties for the holidays and all that fun stuff, but I can't wait to test it out next week.

First things first I was pretty surprised at how comfortable it was. The wristband doesn't dig in and I know I could wear it all day without being annoyed by it. I think the size is perfect, it's obviously bigger than most watches but most watches don't do what this watch can do. I think it looks great too, it's not super flashy and it will look good with casual clothes.
At first I was overwhelmed but as I read the manual that came with it, it took me through the basics that I needed to know. I also Googled a few reviews and got very in depth instructions that were extremely helpful. The review by DC Rainmaker was very thorough and helped me figure out how to do certain things that the manual didn't.

First thing was getting it turned on and then putting in my personal information such as age, weight, height etc. That part was easy! One of the first things I wanted to figure out was the bluetooth connection, I thought it was awesome that when it was linked through bluetooth that text messages and phone calls can show up on my watch, how cool is that? I walked through the bluetooth set up and it was pretty easy following the manual and the steps on the Garmin Connect Mobile App. I tried out the texts and phone calls and it worked perfectly. I wore my watch for the rest of the night, my brother and I were texting about the College Football Playoff games that were on and the notifications showing up on my phone were driving me crazy. My watch would vibrate and then my phone would 2 seconds later. I decided to turn the bluetooth off and I just figured I would have to turn it on when I was working out. Then today I was playing with the watch some more and I figured out that I could choose to have the smart notifications come through only when I'm working out. This watch does all the thinking and the hard stuff for me! All you have to do is go to Settings and go to Smart Notifications and there are the options for you, you can choose to have notifications come through when working out only or all the time. Good job by Garmin, it's an awesome feature.

The next thing I wanted to figure out was the Activity Tracker, this watch can count all your footsteps throughout the day as well as calories burned. This part was way easy you just have to go to Settings, Activity Tracking, Status and then turn it on. You can also choose to have it show up on the watch or not and Garmin has even given us a friendly little reminder that tells us to get off our butts when we have been sitting too long. Luckily this reminder can be switched off, I switched it off because if I'm in school or studying I don't want my watch wigging out telling me to move. Once I got the activity tracker turned on it started counting my steps right away and counting calories. The step count shows up right under the time, to see the calories you just have to scroll down and it will show up.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, I've done a little bit of research and I know most of figuring this watch out is going to come from getting out on the roads and running and biking and taking it to the lap pool. So far I'm super impressed with this watch, I love how Garmin has made it easy to figure out and easy to use. I can't wait to get out and start crushing my workouts with it. We will keep you posted periodically as we continue to figure it out and let you know how great it is!