Just switched to using a Timex Run Trainer 2.0 and yesterday was the first time I used it in a tri. I don’t like wearing anything on the swim on my wrists, and I have a Garmin 500 on the bike, so previously I had always just set out my Garmin 310 next to my run shoes, turned on but not recording so I would just grab it and go, putting it on as I left T2.
I tried going with the same idea with the Timex, but I noticed that when I came back to it 3-4 hours after setting it up, it was no longer finding my HR strap. It was reading everything just fine when I set up T2 early in the morning, and my HR was reading fine from the same strap to my bike computer throughout the ride, but it just seemed like it wasn’t looking for the HR strap anymore.
I’ve noticed similar things once or twice if I turn the watch to “chrono” mode and have my HR strap on, where it picks up everything initially, but if I don’t start recording within a few minutes, it drops the HR signal. If I’m actively recording, I’ve never had any issues with dropping the signal though. I can also remedy it by going into the settings and re-searching for the HR sensor, but that’s certainly not something I’m going to do in a race.
I believe the heart rate strap will stop transmitting if there is no detected heart rate which causes the watch to stop looking for it. Also, if I set my watch down to connect to the GPS satellites before a run it will connect and stay ready for a while but eventually disconnects if I don’t start the workout soon enough. I’ve looked but can’t find how to keep the watch ready to go.
I think its a software characteristic of Timex watches to go into a power saving mode. Haven’t had it happen with my HRM, but I’ve had my GPS watch drop signal if I wait too long in ‘run’ mode before starting it. It happened last weekend at a running race when I set up my watch and then we had a long wait for the start with the National Anthem and a gabby RD spending a long time spending all the sponsors, volunteers, etc. When we finally started it had defaulted back to the home screen and I had to set it up again in ‘run’ mode on the fly to start timing.
Mark
I suspect that it does go into energy saving mode rather than “searching” for something which uses a lot of power. If it goes in to power saving mode, you can also go into settings – sensors – search – heart rate. It would be a bit of a pain if in a race, that’s for sure, but it connects quickly, especially with HR. I suspect that once you have calibrated it in transition, you could easily just turn it on and “connect to sensors” and it should sync up pretty quickly.
Hmm ok. It was still in the “chrono” or essentially “run” mode, and the pace data from my file for the first few seconds seems fine, so I don’t think it gave up on GPS signal after being set down for 2-3 hours.
I’ll play with it in training, see if maybe stopping/starting less than a second makes a difference to trick the watch into thinking I’m just taking a break and it should keep looking for the HR strap.
Otherwise, I’m just gonna have to live without HR data. No way am I navigating the menu while leaving t2
You could put it on in T1 and then turn it “on” on the bike…pretty easy. But don’t start the chrono until you start the run. That way you would have all GPS and HR functions connected, but not collecting data until you pressed ‘start.’