Replacement multisport watch

With all the irony of a well timed sitcom, I had yet to get out of bed on the morning after my triathlon, when the doorbell ran for a parcel delivery. It was my replacement Bryton Cardio 60. My GPS triathlon watch

The original had failed on a sea swim in Croatia despite being rated waterproof to 50 metres and having an open water swim function. I can fault neither Rutland Cycles nor Bryton (who arranged for the replacement under warranty) as both acted promptly and didn't quibble at all. I received excellent communication throughout the process. It just took me too long to get around to taking the package to the post office in the first place. Rutland cycles also refunded my postage this morning, which I wasn't expecting.

I opened the package noting that the box seemed different inside to the previous one. Initially my heart sank as I couldn't see the HRM strap or pod. I then noticed a compartment down the inside edge of the package. Inside was not only the missing strap and pod, but also the bike speed and cadence sensor, screen protector and bike mount. I had been sent the upgraded package. Result. Thank you very much.

This is remarkably handy because my bike sensor broke recently. My next adventure is likely to be another overnight ride and it'd be great not to need to unpack my phone at any point and still track the ride.

Although I only had the watch for 3 months of training I feel I could have knocked a few minutes off of my bike time if I'd known how fast/slow I was going. Who knows? Well I will from now on.

Bryton Cardio 60 Review - Part two: Running

I have worn the Bryton Cardio 60 on 2 runs so far. Run 1 was a 6 km loop in the morning without the HRM chest strap and the unit set up straight out of the box. Run 2 was a 10km slow run focusing focusing on  heart rate and stride rate.

Run 1

I strapped the watch on fully charged, but with only my user profile set up on the unit. By the time I’d walked across the communal garden and out into the street the unit had acquired a satellite fix and corrected the time settings. The unit has three fields configured as standard (which I changed for run 2. It was easy to read and understand in use. I had distance/time/pace to look at on this initial run, which was informative but didn’t massively change my approach to training in any way.

Run 2

Before setting off I configured the screen to show Time running/Current heart rate/Pace/Cadence and made sure that the HRM strap was paired and working. I set off on a loop that I thought would offer me around 10km of running with some quite big inclines on busy roads, finishing on a few quite roads then a lap of the park. The aim of the run was to stay under 160bpm for the whole run but to try and keep my heart rate at around 150bpm for most of it. Throughout the run I wanted to keep my cadence/stride rate above 80.

Monitoring this was easy (I will configure alerts and workouts next) but all in all it was good to have a device confirm my perceived effort on this run. My distance calculations were also about 0.5km off so I was able to add that on as I went rather than discover it on  the iPhone app after I’ve stopped running.

I can see that there is a lot more potential for getting my training right by using this device, however I did find myself checking it quite often and not just as my perceived effort changed. A word of warning. The chest strap works beautifully but I may have worn it both too tight and too high. I have been left with 2 puncture/rub points where the skin in broken under my right armpit. I'm going to check for advice online to correct any error on my part though. 

Bryton Cardio 60 Review - Part one: Unboxing

Finally after a couple of false starts trying to purchase a Garmin 310xt that left me £150 down for a fortnight (Gee thanks Amazon) and one returned order I have settled on the Bryton Cardio 60 GPS Multisport watch. There were several reasons for the choice. In an ideal world I fancied the Suunto Ambit 2 or the Garmin Ambit2. I also wanted a bike GPS, wetsuit, new wheels... etc... you get the picture.

Deciding factors were:

1. Rutland cycles had the unit with the HRM on sale for £119 (about half the RRP)
2. DC Rainmaker had an OK and fairly in depth review
3. It looks ok
4. Vibrating alerts for laps/targets/time etc
5. Multisport

So I picked it up from the post office on Green Lanes which was an experience in itself as I was the only person in their not conducting a week's worth of business at 9 in the morning. Hard though it was I made myself wait until I got home to take it out and have a play.

The box itself isn't as classy as the TomTom and a little less pro looking than the Garmin boxes.

In the box is the unit, a USB charger, HRM and strap, 2 instruction booklets (One with 12 pages of English instructions) and three copies of the warranty.

The Bryton Cardio 60 (With printed screen protector still on)

HRM and strap

USB Charging clip

Wrist shot (I have relatively large wrists)

The unit is surprisingly light and a little flimsy feeling. I am not massively concerned although the waterproof rating is only 30m. It is comfy on the wrist, does not feel particularly big, and the strap locks quite nicely to the strap loop.

I had already signed up for a Brytonsport.com account so I just needed to download the agent and update the software on the watch.

The site is pretty basic, but it appears to be ideal for an amateur like me. I'm going to customise the screens after using it a few times and see how it goes.

***Update***

I tested it this morning on a gentle run and uploaded the info to the bryton site. The info is easier to read and analyse than it had been using the Runmeter app. It also appears to be more accurate (I'll need to test consistency) compared to googlemaps. When I mapped out a route on googlemaps then ran it on runmeter I'd frequently come up a lot shorter than the plan would suggest. I came in at 5.95km on a suggested 6km route but I started recording after I'd crossed the road, so I probably lost 20m. Not too shabby so far.

A main motivator for getting something like this for a race as complex (technically) as a triathlon is that I need to be training to complete each section as fresh as possible, which requires me to monitor my heart rate and pace. Difficult without kit.I entered my current times into a calculator online (at running free) and it reckoned I'd be all done in 03:09:55. Well we'll see.

Distance	Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run	Total Time
SuperSprint 400/10/2.5	7:30	3:00	20:17	5:00	15:06	50:53
Sprint 750/20/5	14:20	3:00	42:00	5:00	31:30	1:35:50
Olympic 1500/40/10	29:17	3:00	1:26:57	5:00	1:05:40	3:09:55
O2 2000/80/20	59:48	3:00	3:00:03	5:00	2:16:55	6:24:47
Half IM 1900/90/HM	37:21	3:00	3:23:45	5:00	2:24:55	6:34:02
O3 4000/120/30	1:20:25	3:00	4:35:37	5:00	3:30:27	9:34:29
IM - Expert 3800/180/FM	1:16:17	3:00	7:01:53	5:00	5:02:07	13:28:18
IM - Beginner 3800/180/FM	1:16:17	3:00	7:22:59	5:00	6:02:32	14:49:49