Keeping track in China

Recently I wrote about how I used my Suunto Ambit to get some pretty interesting flight informations
When we headed for Beijing end of September. But also after landing, the Ambit proved to be a valuable companion.

First, I did record our way from the airport to our apartment, which we can use for friends to visit later this year. Also, saving some main POIs like the the Community Center for Resident Registration helped to map out this points later on the map at home.

Lately, at the mid-autumn festival, we spent the afternoon in Chaoyang Park, having a funny boat ride on the Lake, which you can follow us on thanks to my Suunto Ambit track (it really did track perfectly, even our boat had a covered deck).

Chaoyang Park Boat Ride

Greetings, Steve

To China: Tracking My Way

Here we are, in the middle of Beijing for not even a week now. Inspired by DCRainmaker's Review I ultimately wanted to try the Suunto Ambit on our flight to Beijing. So I did track it right from the gate to somewhere deep into Russia by having the watch positioned close to our emergency exit row window. By doing so, the GPS signal was clear and the Ambit did a great job (see pics). Additionally, as we had the feeling it was quite colder during this flight than usually, I was able to check the Ambits Temp data, showing only some 11degrees Celcius in it's tracking position near the window. Fortunately, we got offered really warm blankets that kept us warm and cosy.

Departure from the Gate

Flight tracking

Somewhere over the West Siberian, I did a double check on our flight direction (I did definitely trust the pilot, but just wanted to be sure ;-)), again the Ambit helped out, and showed us flying directly eastwards. Perfect, so I could sleep calmly.

Going Eastwards

Finally, approaching Beijing city, I really was interested on the incoming plane's route (it seemed we were flying right round the city in the south), so I quickly tracked the approach and landing, and was proven right.

Approaching Beijing

On our flight to Beijing, the Ambit has proven to be much more than just a training or Mountaineering device. And I'd did so further on the streets and even waters of Beijing! (stay tunes for me to follow up on that)

Greetings, Steve

Suunto Ambit: 1st week résumé

It´s a week now since I got the Suunto Ambit, which feels just to be the right time for a more elaborate résumé. Since then I used the Ambit for tracking my way to work and a weekend shopping trip, used the HR functions during indoor cycling sessions and did a full HR and GPS test during an outdoor run. Additionally, I defined several POIs, gave the navigation function a try, checked the Barometer regularly and wear it as a watch all day long.

1st week´s moves

This said, the Ambit is my new best tech-gadget friend, and the first training “tool” that fully delivers to my expectations.

Ease of use
Being kind of a tech-toy geek, setting-up and using the Ambit for me was quite self-explaining. The set up using movescount.com worked flawlessly, for compass calibration I used the explanation from the user manual, all training and watch functions are intuitive to use.

GPS tracking
As mentioned, I had my first run with the Ambit some days ago, running in city environment, in and around Vienna´s “Altes AKH”. For those who do not know the location, it consists of several patios with a lot of trees, which make a nice running spot in the midst of the city, but is not ideal when it comes to using GPS devices. I tried to track the route before, using my iPhone with several apps as well as a Garmin Edge 500 (used off the bike), and compared to both, the Ambit did a great job. Not only did I have steady pace information on the watch, but also did the recorded track fit quite properly. The Ambit track showed 4.66km versus the same track created on gpsies.com showed 4.80km, which relates to a roughly 3% difference. Keeping the non-ideal environment in mind (e.g. the Edge 500 used while running did not track anywhere near that exactly and showed jumping paces all the time) the result does completely fit my needs. I am already more than curious to see how the Ambit will track in a city 10 times larger than Vienna, as I will have the opportunity to use it during a 3 month stay in Beijing.

Running track

Customization
Besides data storage and analysis functions, movescount.com enables you to customize your Ambit (with regard to personal data, sport settings, custom screens per sport, routes etc.). I customized not only the standard sports selection (running, swimming, indoor cycling, cycling, orienteering and mountaineering) but also the recording settings of each sport (recording intervals, HR and PODs used, GPS usage) and the different screens for each sport. It seems you can set up an indefinite amount of screens to switch in between. For myself, I found to be able to live with a maximum of 3 screens per sport (be aware that additional functions like navigation automatically add an additional screen to your basic settings - perfect!). Each screen basically shows 3 data fields, being able to allocate more than one data field to the bottom row, switching through them by using the view button. Even though the Garmin Edge was also highly customizable, and my Garmin FR60 does a good job in customizing data fields shown, the Ambit is as comfortable to customize as can be.

Training data storage and analysis
Coming from Garmin connect and trainingstagebuch.org, I had no issues at all switching directly to movescount.com. Additionally, I started to test rubiTrack as offline training software on my MacBook. rubiTrack syncs directly with movescount.com, making it easy to keep data backup offline, while adding different analysis options (but that´s another story to follow up on). While I am missing some functions on movescount.com I was used to have in previous applications (e.g. actual vs. planned training comparison, more customizable Charts and Reports), it offers others that non of it´s predecessors had (e.g. direct route planning with POIs, more interactive track information like stopps and direction)

Latest move

Day to day use
During my first week with the Ambit, I already got several compliments while wearing it as a watch. While the Ambit is for sure not unimposing, it fits perfectly to free-time outfits as well as a business shirt – in my opinion, at least for the more casual office days.

Greetings, Steve

Suunto Ambit: First Impressions

With regard to the updates I did promise about tech stuff, this one also serves as part of training update ;-) After some time of looking for an "all-in-one" training solution, data-wise, I decided on the Suunto Ambit to be my training companion from now on. Here are some first impressions of the watch, with calling it watch definitely being an understatement!

Suunto Ambit Silver, HR

Screen in Watch Mode, Date - Time - Day

Button view, GPS unit at the bottom

Main decision points: (1) swim proof, (2) batterie life of up to 50h data recording in training mode, 30days in watch - altimeter - barometer mode and (3) positive reviews on GPS accuracy and functions.

I already did some test runs with GPS tracking during commuting to work and a shopping trip today, as well as a first indoor ergometer session testing the HR functions. Still, I do have to analyze the results yet, which calls for a further update soon.

Greetings, Steve