The Coros Pace Pro Running Watch Makes Me Feel Like I’ve Got a Coach (and Navigator) Right on My Wrist

Total, working is a fairly low-tech sport—all you actually want is an effective pair of sneakers. However there’s one piece of drugs that many runners fully geek out over: the watch.

Immediately’s prime GPS working watches may give athletes every kind of knowledge about their coaching, from coronary heart fee and stride size to VO2 max estimates and race predictions. “It may be one method to monitor your health enchancment in the event you’re somebody who likes information,” says Chicago-based working coach Amanda Wagner.

One of the crucial common manufacturers in the present day is Coros. It’s solely been round for 10 years, which makes it pretty new in comparison with long-standing manufacturers like Garmin and Suunto. However it’s shortly gained traction amongst runners.

“It is identified to be a powerhouse working watch model at a very nice worth level,” Wagner says. “It is identified to be correct and join quick to GPS.” It’s additionally obtained a repute for providing distinctive battery life, making it significantly enticing amongst extremely endurance athletes who desire a tracker that lasts so long as they do.

The model’s newest launch is the Coros Tempo Professional. It updates the older Tempo 3 with a vivid AMOLED display screen, longer-lasting battery life, downloadable offline maps, and a quicker processor (in order that it’s extra responsive as you’re tapping round). Plus, it’s obtained eight occasions the storage capability. At $349, it’s priced within the midrange of working watches—not probably the most budget-friendly, but additionally not the best top-of-the-line luxurious choice.

Wanting intently on the specs, I used to be intrigued by the lineup of premium options: The Tempo Professional affords simply what most severe runners need, with no bunch of extraneous bells and whistles that may drive up the value on higher-end watches. So I obtained a pattern to check out, utilizing it to trace runs, walks, energy coaching, and sleep. And I discovered it to be an distinctive coaching software that truly helped me log higher exercises.

Coros Tempo Professional — $349.00

• Show: AMOLED (1500 nits)
• Battery life: 20 days for every day use, 31 hours of dual-frequency GPS
• Controls: Touchscreen, digital dial, again button
• Connectivity: Bluetooth, WiFi
• Reminiscence: 32 GB
• Waterproof score: 5 atm (sufficient for swimming, however not diving)
• Guarantee: 2 years
• Coloration choices: Black, gray, blue

• Exceptionally lengthy battery life
• Brilliant display screen with easy-to-read graphics
• Downloadable maps with turn-by-turn instructions
• Impressively exact GPS (and fast connection)
• Exercises are straightforward to create and observe
• Captures a great deal of information

• Unreliable sleep monitoring
• Performs MP3s however can’t stream music or podcasts
• Setup will be time-consuming

Battery life

Lengthy-lasting battery life is without doubt one of the greatest promoting factors for Coros watches generally, and that’s true right here even with the model’s first (energy-sucking) AMOLED show. Coros says a cost on the Tempo Professional lasts 31 hours with dual-frequency GPS on, or as much as 20 days with common day-to-day use. I discovered an hour-long run solely ate up 4 % of the battery energy.

This longevity is big in the event you’re doing ultramarathons or Ironman races. It’s additionally simply tremendous handy. “Consider, say, an Apple watch—these perhaps final a part of a day versus this Coros watch, it’s going to have an extended battery life,” Wagner says.

It additionally costs shortly. When it first arrived, I opened up the field to search out the Tempo Professional charged to 75 % (a pleasant perk for these of us who love the moment gratification of a toy we will instantly play with). I plugged it into my pc to obtain some music, and inside a couple of minutes it was already as much as 91 %.

One factor to notice: The watch comes with a charging adapter that connects to any USB cable, which is handy. However the adapter itself is tiny and feels straightforward to lose. (Coros appears to anticipate this, providing a keychain you possibly can stick it in for safe-keeping.)

Setup

To get going with primary capabilities, I discovered the setup fairly simple and minimal. However I needed to hunt to determine any fancier options like methods to obtain a coaching plan or add music. There’s no video to take you thru all of the steps, and so they aren’t all the time probably the most intuitive, so I ended up Googling virtually every part.

The display screen and {hardware}

The Tempo Professional’s AMOLED display screen is vivid and straightforward to learn regardless of whether or not it’s darkish or tremendous vivid out. In the meantime, the brand new, quicker processor makes it tremendous fast to faucet round by way of tons of knowledge proper in your wrist.

The one place the place I discovered it’s not probably the most responsive is definitely getting the display screen to mild up. Once I saved it on the “Gesture-Primarily based” setting to increase battery life when not understanding, the watch face didn’t all the time present up instantly after I lifted up my arm to take a peek.

The display screen is 1.3 inches, and it comes with a silicone band, which I discovered decently snug. It’s not so large that it will get in my approach, and it’s mild sufficient to put on 24/7. Nevertheless, as somebody who doesn’t love sleeping with a watch, at night time I discovered it a little bit clunkier than a Whoop band.

GPS connectivity

Coros says the Tempo Professional has a brand new satellite tv for pc chipset and {hardware} configuration for the model’s most exact GPS efficiency so far. I discovered it all the time related to GPS for me shortly in simply two to 6 seconds.

To test how correct it was, I appeared again in any respect my maps after my runs. I may see it captured my actual path throughout a road, as an example, reasonably than exhibiting a wiggly line. There have been slight deviations of a foot or two, however no main aberrations, even round buildings that sometimes freak out my outdated Garmin.

Doing a exercise

In concept, one of many main perks of a superb working watch is the power to program exercises proper onto it. In apply, this may typically be so cumbersome it’s not definitely worth the problem. However I discovered Coros makes it tremendous straightforward to construct a exercise within the app, and there’s additionally a library of coach-designed exercises and even full coaching plans to select from.

On the run, the watch gave me clear alerts of when to start out an interval, when to get well, and how briskly to go. I preferred the best way the pacer choice saved me trustworthy about my pace in a non-irritating approach, solely giving a mild nudge each 65 seconds when my tempo was off (you possibly can customise the frequency). In the meantime, coloured traces made it straightforward to see my coronary heart fee zone at a look. It felt like having a coach on my wrist inform me precisely what I ought to be doing when in order that I may focus in on the working itself.

The Tempo Professional appears primarily designed for runners and triathletes. Living proof: You possibly can select between “run,” “indoor run,” “path run,” and even “monitor run,” plus 4 completely different biking and two swimming choices. However you can too monitor different actions like snowboarding and rowing. I used it to trace a few energy coaching periods, simply because I may.

“Quite a lot of runners find yourself having fun with their watch a lot that they wish to monitor all their information and all their actions with it,” Wagner says. For lifting, there’s an auto-rep counting function, which typically labored and typically didn’t, relying on the train. It additionally recorded my coronary heart fee, which isn’t the purpose of energy coaching, however hey, good to know. I don’t know anybody who buys a look ahead to lifting exercises, so the dearth of usable options right here isn’t surprising. However I did like having the ability to hold monitor of how a lot time I spent doing energy work all through the week.

When you end any sort of exercise, you get a bunch of stats to scroll by way of proper on the watch (like coronary heart fee zones, elevation, cadence, stride size, restoration time), and have an opportunity to notice your fee of perceived exertion. Or you possibly can take a look at the information on the Coros app or a third-party platform like Strava or Coaching Peaks. Wagner says she’ll go over this type of information with the athletes she coaches a minimum of as soon as a month, and typically as typically as each single day, relying on how data-driven they’re.

One factor I beloved: The Tempo Professional offers you every day stats with out feeling in any respect shame-y on relaxation days. Even in the event you set every day objectives, there aren’t markers like unclosed rings once you don’t hit them—you simply get a congrats message once you do.

Maps

The addition of offline maps is a large draw for a lot of runners. With the Tempo Professional, you possibly can create a route (on roads or trails) within the Coros app, or import a GPX file. I discovered it’s a little bit extra time intensive to map out a route within the app than in, say, Google maps, however it’s not horrible in the event you’ve obtained some persistence.

Then, when you select to observe a route throughout an exercise, you’ll get turn-by-turn prompts and off-course alerts. It will probably additionally inform you methods to get again to the beginning. Nevertheless, it received’t re-route you once you veer off (such as you’d get with a routable map on a high-end Garmin), so it’s good to determine methods to get again on monitor your self by trying on the map in your wrist

It took me a couple of minutes to get used to the timing of how far forward it warns you a couple of flip—on brief blocks, I’d get a immediate for a flip two blocks forward, which is simply complicated. However you possibly can all the time look down at your wrist and see the route highlighted. As soon as I obtained a way of the rhythm although, this was an enormous assist that saved me from stopping my exercise to take out my telephone and test the place I used to be headed.

Different options

One factor that obtained me excited concerning the Tempo Professional was the power to take heed to music proper from the watch, however this function was really fairly underwhelming. Sure, with 32 GB storage, you possibly can match an enormous playlist, however it solely helps MP3 information—if you wish to stream Spotify or podcasts, you’ll want your telephone. I discovered the Bluetooth connection was additionally fairly darn spotty except I turned off my telephone’s bluetooth connection so it didn’t intrude.

Initially, I used to be additionally intrigued by the Tempo Professional’s all-in-one functionality as each a working watch and sleep tracker. But I discovered the sleep monitoring gave me a superb deal extra credit score than my Whoop, counting the time I spent scrolling Instagram in mattress as “mild sleep.” It additionally doesn’t all the time choose up on naps. So I’d say that whereas it’s useful to get a basic thought of your sleep, if that information’s tremendous necessary to you, I’d suggest a tracker like Whoop or Oura ring that makes a speciality of it.

One cool perk, nonetheless, is that you are able to do just a few well being assessments proper from the Tempo Professional: You possibly can see your coronary heart fee, coronary heart fee variability, breath fee, oxygen saturation, and get an general “stress rating.” It’s not an FDA-approved ECG, however fairly neat for a fast check-in.

Who the Coros Tempo Professional is greatest for

Truthfully, I’d suggest the Tempo Professional to just about any runner who’s out there for a premium smartwatch. The one caveats are that if you would like one which additionally offers you best-in-class sleep monitoring or streams music and podcasts, you’ll most likely wish to hold buying round. (Although you’ll possible have to pay a little bit extra.)

But when a protracted battery life, a vivid display screen, or offline maps are a precedence, this watch really offers you a ton of bang to your buck. “Do it’s good to spend $800 on a smartwatch? No,” Wagner says. “You may get one for $200 or $300 that has all of the options and extra that you just may want.” The Tempo Professional affords simply that. Personally, I discovered that the gathering of options add as much as higher exercises, caring for particulars like the place the heck you’re headed so you possibly can simply deal with placing within the work.