I have commented on this numerous time, and I still have the same feedback. Optical is NOT a replacement for a strap. It works for steady workouts, but for interval workouts I still rely on HRM because there is serious lag with the optical.

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The key question here is how bad is the lag and how does it affect your workout? For example, if you are doing quarter mile or half mile run intervals, then will the watch catch up to your HR during the interval and be good for most of it? Versus, if you are doing 20 second intervals, I could see a watch HR lag affecting you. And second, are you even able to look at HR during a high intensity interval, or are you looking at HR after the interval is completed? I cannot see my watch during a tough interval, so I would only be able to see an interval during rest. (Old man vision.)

Hows the battery life been for you?

Battery life is pretty good but I use it stock. I find when I loaded the 235 up with widgets, the battery takes a hit. In addition, I often keep BT off.

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I am using HR to see how I am recovering from the specific workout. For example if I do a workout and my HR isn't falling as it should I need to scrape it at some point but often times I can't see the HR is falling because the device is wonky. The difficulty with optical is that it just isn't reliable. It seems that extra sweating, changing HR, etc just causes it to make more mistakes. Sometimes it locks in on my cadence instead of HR. When it comes down to it, when I am doing intervals, the last thing I want is the additional stress from a gadget that isn't working. Believe me, I would love to have one less device but it just isn't there yet.

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A couple of notes on my experience:

1. The optical HR accuracy varies. I've done some comparisons between it and the strap - they usually algin over the course of the workout, but the optical often starts really high (like 150+ bpm when the real number is 100ish). But on the plus side, you do get RHR and sleep data, which some people care about, without having to switch to a different watch.
2. There is a problem - at least on my unit - of the watch sometimes not connecting to my Quarq PM unless I manually tell it to connect. This is also a problem in multisport mode - my 920 has no problem picking up my PM in the middle of a race once the PM wakes up, but in Vineman my 735 never connected. Normally this wouldn't be a problem since I ride with an Edge 520, but the Edge was not fully charged as it turns out, so halfway through the ride it went dead. I'm ok racing on perceived exertion, but it would have been nice to look at the power data from my 735 afterwards to correlate RPE with actual power, only the data wasn't there.

I might go back to the 920 for longer races, but I do generally like the 735 for day in, day out.

Ian

I've been doing test runs to see how long the 735 will last. Put it in multisport mode, hit start at 7 am ish, hit the lap button after some time and let it run til dead. In some experiments my mock splits were absurd, in others I did a better job of matching what I hope to be reality when I race in 2 weeks.

Here's the kind of stuff I've tried. Swim settings how I really want them (gps on), bike running as just a timer (hr and gps off, PM has never been paired - I'll record all that with my 520 and using the dreaded chest strap), run how I really want it (hr and gps on, intend to pull off chest strap in T2 b/c it chaffs the F out of me when I run and the dumb metal buckles dig in too. Oops, I digress).

Basically - and I'd have to pull the info out of GC to confirm since I deleted these bogus tests from TP / Strava - the watch died by 13 h and possibly around 11h 15 min UNLESS I also turned off Bluetooth. In that case (BT off), battery indicator was showing as 50% when I stopped the watch at 14 h (I think).

I already have all sorts of stuff off since I don't care to use it, ie BT notes from my phone, recovery advisor. I've made no changes to back lighting - whatever the default was is still in use.

So I'm going to go for it at Vineman (use the 735 over the 920) b/c I find the 735 far more comfortable. I have very small wrists (5.5 inch circumference) and a rather prominant wrist bone, and find the square shape of the 920 horribly annoying within 10k (actually begins within 30 min).

Now to be fair to the 735 wrt battery life, I personally haven't gotten more than 14 h out of the 920 either for the 2 IM's I've used it. I've received suggestions on how to improve its performance, but won't bother exploring them at this point, since that device is simply too uncomfortable to want to use that long.

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To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive.

I haven't paired the 735 with my PM since my experience with the 920+Stages has conditioned me away from wanting to do so (CONSTANT PM found/lost buzzing)... but I can report it takes upwards of 5 min for a completed workout to be transferred from the 735 to GC. It's annoying as hell - the GC ap says the watch is paired... so what's the hold up? My 520 transfers immediately. I desperately wish GC would include a 'transfer now' option. Also a 'pair now' one b/c the 735 doesn't always pair readily either.

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To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive.

Right, I forgot the item in my list of complaints ("opportunities for improvement") - the BT syncing. Sometimes it just won't sync unless I power the watch down and back on. Syncing with the USB is fine. That said, I also had issues with my 520 syncing via BT this evening. I do like the wifi sync on the devices that support it - I think part of the BT issue might be the GC app. Wifi bypasses that particular single point of failure.

Ian

Thomas,

I'm curious as to whether you have tried with Garmin 235 with a Connect IQ triathlon app?

I like the idea of the Garmin 630 (touch screen and no optical HR) but the multi sport mode and power meter support of the 735 is really nice (not fussed about swimming metrics or some other advanced features).

I have used the Garmin 235 for a quite a while but unfortunately never used the Connect IQ triathlon app with it. 735xt while very pricey, is a great device. Battery life is not so hot, and I am not a fan of the swim mode style, but most aren't turned off by that.

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PSA: $315 through the REI Anniversary sale. Just upgraded from a 910.

Actually, $315 across the board (like Amazon - https://goo.gl/oG5KZO).

It's actually probably the best deal of the year for triathletes wanting a relatively current GPS watch. The FR735XT is new enough that it's still getting Connect IQ updates, so newer apps work on it. It's also getting feature updates (like RD pod support recently).

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My tiny little slice of the internets: dcrainmaker.com

I just ordered one from Amazon - found a $50 gift card that I'd forgotten about, so it made it all that more cheaper! Look forward to transitioning from the 910, which I'll keep as a backup (now what to do with my 'ancient' 310 backup to my 910?).

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Blog: http://262toboylstonstreet.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/NateThomasTri
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Hey, how was your experience with 910? I've got myself a newer version Garmin Forerunner 935 from amazon based on this article https://www.joindouble.com/best-triathlon-watch/ and the review was very good. I need something that is reliable because I'm training for the next year triathlon. My last one, I don't remember it's name died from water damage, even though it was advertised as water proof. I've got my money back, but I still lost a lot of time with the complaint. I hope that my new one will show itself as a durable watch.