Sunshine And Warmer Weather Are Finally Making There Presence Felt.  And Like most of us, this past winter season, for that matter this past year has been one that has given us more in-door, stay at home days then outdoor ones. The weather just hasn’t been cooperative. But hopefully, this year is starting off a bit better with more sunshine filled days that coax us to get outdoors and be active. Whether its getting that yard cleaned up after last years fall and winter seasons made a mess with fallen tree branches, not to mention the leftover fallen leaves that have gone un-raked because of just plain, wet weather!

But now the sun is finally shining and beckoning to us to get outside and get some much-needed exercise, which for many of us means running, power-walking or jogging along our favorite paths, country roads or mountain trails. Just getting outside provides the necessary incentive to move!

Now, because we are going to put that sunshine to good use, we wanted to use an activity tracker that’s made for being active outdoors and the one we chose is the Garmin Fenix 5 GPS Multi-Sport Watch . Just for a few attention getters, the Fenix 5 has a bright, high-resolution, full-color Garmin Chroma Display. And so you can keep track on just how well you’re doing health-wise, it has the functionality of using the new Elevate wrist-based heart rate technology that lets you monitor your heart rate without the need to wear a chest strap!

And it's not just for running, but it’s also a Multiple Sports Activity watch as well. It has "Preloaded" activity profiles for all of your sports and adventures. You can get key stats at your fingertips with the performance widget that shows your training status, training load and more.

Befitting a watch meant for the outdoors, the Garmin Fenix 5 has a rugged exterior that looks like it could take some abuse. Five screws hold a beveled, black bezel in place, while five circular buttons (three on the left, two on the right) ring the 1.2-inch display. There's an inner bezel around the screen, along with an outer bezel; together, they measure nearly half an inch, though that's mitigated visually by the design. When you get right down to it, it's tough to find an activity that the Fenix 5  can’t track! What’s also an asset is its overall size and weight. Wearing the Fenix 5 it never feels weighty on your wrist, and with its good-looking design, you can wear it as an everyday watch and its right there with you when you lace up your sneaks for a run!

Display
The Fenix 5 has an always-on color display (a plus) with a transflective surface that uses sunlight to make the screen brighter. I never had a problem reading the display, even in direct sunlight.
The Fenix 5  also gives you a VO2 max score (a measure of your overall fitness level), the intensity of your training over the past week and a race predictor, which lists how fast the watch thinks you'll complete a 5K, 10K, half marathon and full marathon.

For each run that you do, you get a training effect, which gives you a score for both aerobic and anaerobic activity. A Training Status screen shows how productive your exercises have been and gives you a general sense if your fitness level is improving, holding steady or decreasing.

The Fenix 5's optical heart rate monitor proved accurate, but it did not respond to changes as quickly as a chest strap would. But for just a few points off, it dosesn't really make it a game changer. It’s very accurate based on being worn on the wrist.

The home screen (also known as the Snapshot screen), which has a black background, has two large circles toward the top that show how many steps you've taken and how much sleep you've had. Below that are small blocks for Active Calories, Activities, MyFitnessPal, Intensity Minutes and Floors Climbed.  Great data that you need in one place.

Swiping left or right shows you more information about various activities (steps, sleep, running, swimming, etc.). You can customize how many of these pages show up, as well as their order, by pressing an icon in the upper right corner of the screen.

Battery Life
One of the reasons I prefer wearing Garmin's watches over smartwatches is that I rarely have to worry about recharging. If you're not using GPS or the heart rate monitor, the Fenix 5 will last up to two weeks. That means if you forget to bring the charger on a trip lasting more than a day, you won't have a useless hunk of metal on your wrist. If you are using GPS, the battery is rated to last up to 24 hours, which is more than twice what the TomTom Adventurer (11 hours) offers. If you turn on UltraTrac mode (where the watch pings the satellite only once every minute, rather than every second), the Fenix 5 should last for up to 60 hours. I also like that Garmin has continued to shrink the size of its charging cables. Rather than using a bulky wireless charger like so many smartwatches do, the Fenix 5 has a small USB cable that snaps into a port on the back of the watch.

Bottom Line
The Garmin Fenix 5 has everything you need to keep you honest and provide you with enough data to make sure you’re not only reaching your goals but what you need to do in order to surpass them! This GPS watch is made for the outdoor adventurer who needs or wants to capture everything they do. It provides detailed stats on a multitude of activities, has an accurate heart rate monitor, doesn't weigh your wrist down too much and lasts a long time on a charge. All in All its a keeper and once you have it strapped on your wrist, you won't soon be taking it off.

So, go ahead, enjoy that warm sunshine we spoke about earlier and get yourself out there and get moving!

Depending on just what type of team sport you’re into. Or if you’re a solo athlete that likes to run, do marathons or someone who likes to push the envelope by taking part in Tri-Athlons on a regular basis. It all comes down to being in great shape and having an endurance level that just keeps you pushing on.

Endurance training can have you reaching pre-set-goals that perhaps otherwise you would not be able to attain. The definition of “Endurance” (according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is: The ability to withstand hardship or adversity; the ability to sustain a prolonged stressful effort or activity.

Sound like you during your exercise workouts?? If your doing it right, then you know we are always pushing ourselves to go that extra bit further in our routines. But to be able to do this you need to provide your body with the tools it needs to build itself up so that you can meet the goals you are setting for yourself. And it really doesn’t matter if you’re a runner, cyclist, swimmer, football, baseball player or just upping your weight sets to increase your strength. Increasing your endurance levels will help you to reach or even surpass your goals.

Endurance allows people to work out at a certain intensity or for an extended amount of time (hello, marathon!). There are many factors that combine to create an athlete's "endurance profile," and two of the most important are VO2 max and lactate threshold. VO2 max, or the maximum rate at which an athlete's body can consume oxygen during exercise, is the most popular measurement of aerobic capacity (although it’s unclear if it’s necessarily the most accurate). Although endurance ability is mostly a matter of genetics, maximal oxygen uptake can be improved with targeted training. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts have been shown to do the trick of increasing an athletes' VO2 max. Another piece of the endurance puzzle is the athlete's lactate threshold or the level of exertion at which lactate accumulates in the muscles. In simple terms, your lactate threshold is how hard you can push yourself for a prolonged period without blowing up!

Luckily, it's possible for virtually any athlete to improve both of these measures.  Naturally, your going to want to measure your performance and in order to do this to the maximum you need a reliable fitness tracker and with a combined heart rate monitor and one that fits this bill is the Garmin Fenix 5 GPS Multi-Sport Watch With its ability to track your heart rate, it in turns also keeps track of your VO2 max levels along with the lactate thresholds based on the profile you enter into your tracker. With this type of monitoring capability, you're going to be able to monitor and track your workouts like you’ve never been able to do before. In this way, your going to know just where your low points are from the various readings and know when to take advantage of your “Rest Periods” in order to have your body to be able to recoup and in turn build your endurance levels up on a consistent basis.

Adequate Rest: Resting up is nothing to take for granted. In order to go long and hard, athletes need fresh muscles, any good trainer will tell you this. You need to "Go hard on hard days; Go easy on easy days; and never string hard days together without adequate rest.” Feeling fresh can help anyone go the distance.

Fueling Up (Eating 😊): When it comes to exercise nutrition, carbs, the right carbs, are key, since the body uses glycogen for fuel when the going gets tough. Once glycogen (a substance deposited in bodily tissues as a store of carbohydrates), runs out, the body turns to energy from other sources and begins to burn fat. For extended cardio sessions, consume 30-60 grams of carbs every hour, depending on body weight. Studies have also found a mix of carbs and protein can enhance endurance performance and reduce muscle damage. Which we do NOT want to do! That said, keep in mind that the best mix of carbohydrates, fat, and protein varies considerably amongst athletes. A lot depends on your body’s metabolism rate, along with the type of physical exercise you opt for your fitness regimen. You need to “Experiment, experiment, and experiment”, some more to find the right combination for you.

Following the above recommendations might just have you going further in your training then you've ever gone before. Naturally, we also recommend talking things over with your physician to make sure everything (body wise) is in good condition for you to start pushing yourself harder, faster and most importantly smarter as you build up your endurance levels.

So, let me ask you, just how far did you go today? From the “Go-Getter Staff” here at HeartRateMonitorsUSA.com.