New Years Eve Live Stream - CTS Live!
Hello, friends. Welcome back to the Chase of Summit channel. Sorry. I rushed in here. I'm a little little disheveled right now.
Dave:I may or may not have just gotten back from a run, scrambled to take a shower, get ready for this, make sure everything's working, and then go live. So here we are, a little bit ad hoc right now. So, we are live, and I could see a bunch of you already already watching, already in the chat. Really appreciate that. If you are watching, make sure to, drop into the live chat.
Dave:Let me know if I look good, sound good. If anything's wrong with the stream, I would love to know so I can fix it. And also let me know where you are watching from, so we can get that conversation going. Right? Okay.
Dave:Are my ears red from showering? They look to be red. Okay. So, what is this that we're doing today? Well, I do this it's become sort of a every year thing now to to, do a New Year's Eve livestream and and ring in the new year with what else but talking on the Internet, and I thought I'd do another one today because they're a lot of fun.
Dave:It's a good way to just get the conversation going, learn, what you guys have been up been up to for the year, what I've been up to for the year, and just sort of talk through, you know, all the the 2024 happenings and what's gonna happen in 2025. We're also gonna use this time as sort of a a q and a session. I've got a bunch of comments that a lot of you have already sent me from either the Patreon group, YouTube members, or, just via DM on Instagram or something like that. So we'll go through this the questions. And, of course, we will bring in questions from the live chat as well.
Dave:So if you're in the live chat, you've got a question about anything, anything you wanna talk about, make sure to, to drop that in the live chat as well. I've got my delicious Canada dry here. I swear it is not a beer, not yet at least, not till later today, and we're gonna kick it off. So I just wanted to use this moment as sort of a way to, just say thank you to the viewers out there, anybody who's who's watched any of the videos or tuned in throughout the years. It means a lot.
Dave:We've we've hit sort of a staggering number. I mean, to me, it's relatively still a small YouTube channel at this point, but this year was the biggest the biggest, the biggest numbers I've ever seen in terms of views and subscribers and stuff like that. I'm I'm actually gonna talk about those here. I don't know if you care or not, but, I figured it might be interesting for some of you to to see what goes on behind the scenes. And then we'll talk about some other updates coming soon.
Dave:So let's kick it off with the YouTube stats. This year, the Chase's Summit channel saw 9,300,000 views. 9,300,000 people tuned in to watch this stupid face talk about, GPS watches or shoes or something like that. It's kinda wild. On top of that, the channel earned, 32,000 subscribers, which again is the most I've ever seen in 1 year.
Dave:And finally, 760,000 watch hours, just kinda wild. That means 761000 hours of people watching the channel. And then on top of that, the channel hits 36,000,000 total views, which is crazy. So it's been kind of a wild year, and, hopefully, 2025 goes off well as well. That was a weird thing to say.
Dave:And for those of you who don't know, you know, 2 years ago, I I took this thing on as a full time job. I actually quit my job in mechanical engineering to pursue this as sort of a silly dream, you know, closing in on 40 at the time. I'm 40 now. And I thought, well, I'm not getting any younger. I might as well give this thing a shot, and, you know, it's something I actually have a passion for and enjoy doing and love and not my old job where I had to go to a cubicle every day.
Dave:And I liked the work. Like, mechanical engineering was super interesting, and especially I worked in robotics, which is wild. But, like, the whole corporate life, the whole fake smiles, you know, lunchroom talk, all the stuff that comes along with a corporate job is the part I didn't like. So it was nice to just take a leap, go for it, and so far it's been working. So and and this is all honestly, the whole success, not that I'm, like, super successful or anything, but the the fact that I can keep doing this is all because of you, the viewer out there.
Dave:If you didn't tune in, I would have to go back to doing my old job. So thank you very much. It means a lot to me, and I'm just generally pretty excited that it's still working out. Okay. Another I have a couple of updates I wanna get into before we hit the q and a and talk about the chat.
Dave:I see a lot of you in there. Thank you for joining. That means a lot. If you don't know, I also have a podcast channel. So there's a podcast audio only where you can get it on Spotify, Apple Music, or Apple Podcast, not Apple Music, or anywhere else that you get your podcast from.
Dave:And I've been trying to get better at that. I know I've been failing. But in 2025, I have a resolution to get better at that. I wanna get some guests in here. I've got some big ideas.
Dave:So if you haven't yet, check out the podcast channel. It's called the Chase to Summit Trail Talk podcast, which may be going through a brand rebranding to make it a little bit funner. But I've been trying to get better at that, so subscribe over there. And I'll also be taking this live stream that I'm doing now. I'm recording it, and I'll be uploading it to the podcast as well.
Dave:So if you missed this or you don't have time for it or you wanna tune in on your next run or something like that, check out the audio podcast. That way you can get it for free without having to pay for YouTube premium or whatever. 2nd shout out, check out the Discord channel. In the description down below, there will be a link over to Discord where you can join in the conversation. If you don't know what Discord is, that is literally it's like a ongoing live chat.
Dave:I'm in there on a daily basis. There's a lot of other people on a daily basis, and we just talk about, like, fitness tech stuff or running or races or whatever. It's really a fun just recreational area to to chat with like minded people. It's totally free. There's no no commitment or anything like that.
Dave:Although, if you are a Patreon member, you do get some extra perks. But if you wanna just find some people to chat with, check out the Patreon channel. And we also have a shout out to the merch store. I gotta do it. If you don't know, I make my own merchant.
Dave:I hate calling it merch, because the Chase to Summit merch is not so much just merch. It's actually a passion project of mine. This stuff isn't like your typical YouTuber crap that's like drop shipped from a warehouse somewhere. I'm actually making this stuff. I'm buying it in bulk.
Dave:I inventory it behind this wall right behind me. And every time you place an order, I actually pack this stuff in a box. I sign a little thank you card, and I send it off in the mail because I really care and I wanted to have, like, super high quality stuff, and this is sort of the beginning of, like, the product line, I guess you would call it. But I love doing it. I'm excited about it.
Dave:I've been working with some designers about new merch. So check out chase to summit.com where I do still have a Black Friday deal going. Probably gonna disable it soon. But for now, if you want something, you can type in black Friday 20 at checkout for 20% off your order. And I'm wearing a chase chase summit shirt right now.
Dave:You can't see it though because the way I'm positioned. See CTS there? And there's a big logo on the back. But I love this stuff, so check it out if you haven't yet. Okay.
Dave:Final shout out, I promise, and then we'll get this isn't a plug so much as a thank you, but, the Patreon members and YouTube members. If I'm sure you all know what Patreon is, but I've I've had a Patreon account for a couple of years now, and honestly, I don't do enough with Patreon. This is another another area where I have a New Year's resolution. I wanna get better at Patreon. I wanna find more engaging ways to to build a communicate community over there, maybe do some meetups, maybe do some live streams that's only for Patreon members, something like that.
Dave:That'd be a lot of fun, because there is a lot of dedicated people over there on the Patreon. We've got Sean Harrison, who's the longest Patreon member. He's been there for almost 2 years. Bill Gilpatrick, Torbjorn, HB, John Ares, David Lyons, Darren Horton. You guys are just rock stars, and thank you so much for the for the continued support.
Dave:And over on the YouTube side of things, there's also YouTube members where you can sign up. It's similar to Patreon. And there, the longest member has been Bryce Henley. Shout out, Bryce. I've actually met him at some races.
Dave:I met David Lines at a race too. Matt Lundstrom, Val clev, Kooky, Mark Williams, Jonathan Hill, Nikki Cruz, Jody Ferrell, Moses Nekyon. Hopefully, I didn't butcher any of your names. Just just wanna give you guys a shout out for being, just rock stars in in in helping me to continue chasing this silly dream that I'm doing. Okay.
Dave:Moving on. This is a it's kind of a news topic even though it's kind of a plug as well. If you're local to Boston or Massachusetts or New England in general, there's a there's a event coming up in March called the Boston Run Show. It's actually a 2 part event. There's the Boston Run Show on one side, and then the other side is the outdoor events, outdoor expo.
Dave:And these are huge running events. Like, if you if you ever heard about the the running event in Austin, Texas, that's another big one. But in Boston, this is a huge event as well where a bunch of different brands are there. You got HOKA, you got Altra, you got Nike. Oh, bumped my microphone.
Dave:You've got all these different brands from the running and outdoor space that are just showing off their latest and greatest stuff. You can win stuff. You can buy stuff. And I will be there with a booth. So I rented out a booth.
Dave:This is kind of a risk on my part, but I thought it would be a lot of fun to have a presence at the Boston Run Show. So if you're local, you can buy you can get a free ticket. Go down in the description of this livestream. There's a link for the Boston Run Show dot c tickets dot com, and there's a little code there, chase the summit, all one word, all caps, and you'll get a free ticket to attend the event. And then you can come say hi, buy some merch, or just chat with me if you want.
Dave:If you have a question about gear, you wanna meet in person, I'd love to meet you. Anybody local, and definitely show up so I don't feel lonely and sort of, validate the reason I I set up a booth there because I'm worried it's gonna be like me at a table and nobody's actually gonna be there. So help calm my fears. Tell me you'll be there. Get a free ticket, and come visit me at the Boston Run Show.
Dave:I'll be at booth number g84, and that's the booth right adjacent to the Trail Animal Running Club, which is a really awesome local running club that puts on a bunch of fun races I've actually made videos about on this channel. So it'll be really cool to be there and and hang out with everybody there. And on top of that, there's gonna be some guest speakers like Laz. Lazarus Lake is gonna be there, the race director of the Barclay Marathons, and a bunch of other people in the space, Dylan Bowman, professional runner. It's gonna be awesome.
Dave:So I'm stoked to be there. Hopefully, you can make it as well because I would love to meet you if you're in the area. Or if you feel like traveling, it's a fun trip. Check out Boston. Maybe here's something.
Dave:I have an this is something I'm doing on the fly. Maybe I'll do, like, what do what do all those influencers do? They call it a shakeout run. That's what everybody does. Right?
Dave:Maybe I'll set up a shakeout run-in the area, and we can do that before the event. Okay. Moving on. We've got 25 2025 goals in resolutions. I I've made some some New Year's resolutions for the YouTube channel for me personally.
Dave:Because even though 2024 went really well, I feel like there's things I still wanna tweak and change about the content I'm putting out. First of all, I wanna diversify my content more. And here's an example of that, a live stream. I wanna do more live streams, maybe weekly, maybe biweekly, maybe monthly. I don't really know yet, but just more engagement.
Dave:Try to get out there a little bit more and and see what you guys are up to. Have a more, you know, casual conversation. I also wanna do more vlogs, more raced me more race videos, and I wanna kinda dabble in, like, documentary filmmaking, maybe come up with a project and in you know, build a a full film around something. Because review videos are awesome, and I have no plans to stop doing them, but I want to just make more stuff and and sort of scratch that creative itch I have because I feel like the review videos are definitely one thing, and I've gotten very dialed in on on, like, really cranking those out. I have I have a system.
Dave:I'm really fast with them, but also they just don't feel like super creative. I could probably be better at them. I don't know. But I wanna just come up with better ideas. And that's, you know, that's really what I wanna focus on for the channel moving forward.
Dave:I also wanna grow the podcast, get some guests, come up with some fun topics to talk about over there, and really get that cooking as well because it's sort of gotten stale over there too. I shouldn't say that I'm supposed to be marketing my own stuff. But you get what I'm saying. I just wanna get more excited about this stuff. So I'm using a silly resolution as a way to do that.
Dave:In the final thing that may or may not happen is I've been toying with the idea of hiring, not hiring, but like contracting an editor or something to maybe free up more time to do more testing or more behind the scenes stuff because I've become, like, very bogged down with the editing process, trying to be a dad, trying to edit all the video stuff and do the testing. It it's a lot of work. It may not seem like a lot of work, but I promise you I'm I'm trying real hard. So those are my New Year's resolutions. I've got more, of course, but those are the brunt of it.
Dave:And then on, like, the personal side of things, I want to sign up for more races this year. That was a big problem in 2024. I ran the Vermont 100. That was great. But, like, leading up to that, I really didn't sign up for much.
Dave:So I need to I mean, it's already too late for a lot of races, but I need to start thinking about that very soon. So those are the things, man. That's what I've been working on in my head. Okay. One more thing before we dive into the q and a and and start going through these comments over here.
Dave:I'll be at CES, another convention, of course, out in Las Vegas. So on Sunday, this Sunday, this coming Sunday, I'm gonna be jumping on a plane heading to Las Vegas to the Consumer Electronics Show. If you haven't heard of that, it's a wild it's a wild thing. It's like the biggest convention in Las Vegas. Last year, there was a 140,000 people who attended, and I went last year.
Dave:It was crazy. I learned a lot about what CES is, what it isn't, and how to approach it. So this year, I will be returning, and hopefully taking my learnings from last year and bringing it forward and really focusing in on the the things, like the the the brands and things I wanna see better. Because CS is so big, they cover everything. Like, you'll find action camera companies there.
Dave:You'll find robotic vacuums in cars, EVs, Samsung with TVs. You got, LG in their see through TVs last year. Like, a lot is going on. So it's really hard to filter through all that and find, like, the running stuff or, like, fitness tech stuff. So I've been doing a lot of homework ahead of time.
Dave:And actually, this year, it'll be fun, because a couple of my friends, local friends that I grew up with will be coming with me, and they're actually gonna be, like, helping out holding cameras and stuff. So it'll be a fun video when that finally comes out in, I think, quite an adventure for my friends and I. So look forward to that. And if by chance you're at CES this year, drop that in the comments. I'd love to, meet up.
Dave:Say hi. Okay. I see a lot of you in the comments. I see your comments. We're gonna we're gonna go through some of these, and then we will jump into the comments that I recur I I collected before the livestream.
Dave:So we've got Simon here. Good evening from the UK. Looking okay. Great. We've got sunny Florida here.
Dave:It's actually surprisingly nice and warm out today. I know a lot of, the locals are not that happy with it because, you know, around here you wanna ski or do, like, winter sports and right now outside is sunny and 55 degrees Fahrenheit. There's no snow and it's very odd for New England this time of year, But I'm enjoying it. I'll go for a run today, and it won't be miserable. We've got Cody Cox.
Dave:Sounds and looks good. West Virginia. Welcome. Sunny and bright Phoenix, Arizona. Let's see.
Dave:Oh, first question. Any news on the Coros Vertex 3? Short answer for you. No. Sorry.
Dave:And if I did have information, of course, I wouldn't be able to share it, but I don't have any information. Party time. We've got Chris King, Winnipeg, Canada. Thanks for joining, Chris. Chris oh, man.
Dave:I'm a butcher this name. See if I can say it. Chris cry cry Kristoff Podgorski. I come close. I'm sorry.
Dave:Coros Apex 3. No. Unfortunately, I don't have any information on that either. Josie, happy New Year. Thank you.
Dave:Happy New Year to you as well. Hunza Tech wearing a watch 247, Garmin 255, or Pixel watch 3. We're we'll circle back to that in 1 minute. Joshua, hi from Malden, Mass. Sad to see this 50 50 degree weather about to end.
Dave:There you go. Another local you live, Malden is only, I don't know, 20 minutes for me. And fun fact, my parents actually grew up in Malden, Mass. So you're pretty local. Yeah.
Dave:It's very warm out today. It's gonna be sad to see it go. I feel your pain. Okay. We got some other questions that I see.
Dave:I'm gonna start here because these are questions I I are already have in queue. So we're gonna jump back to the questions that I got before I went live because I wanna jump on the Patreon questions first. So if you don't know, I went into the Patreon and I asked, anybody in there if they had some questions for the livestream. Hopefully, you're here. If you're not, sorry.
Dave:So we've got Adrian Camillerie. What are your 2025 running plans? This is a running tech channel, but we also enjoy a great deal of satisfaction in watching you push your limits out there. So this guy kinda goes back to my, you know, resolutions where I wanna sign up for more races and more challenging races. One that's been on my radar, I've already been doing so if you watch the channel you might know.
Dave:I've run the Vermont 100 like several years in a row and I really enjoy that race. Last year I was a sponsor at the race. It was really cool to be part of the race and I love the scene. I love the charity work that goes on there. I love the volunteers.
Dave:The area is beautiful, and it's local to me. It's like a 2 hour car ride. So and it's a it's a, Western States qualifier. So I really like that race. I wanna do it again.
Dave:But my struggle is I wanna do other races too. So I'd love to run a race out on the West Coast, maybe California, maybe Colorado or something in that vicinity. And if I do Vermont, that really locks up the summer because that happens in July. And if I book something for, like, August, it'd be way too close to Vermont, and I'd be wrecked still. So I'm still trying to figure that out.
Dave:But, yeah, long story short, this goes back to my resolution where I wanna sign up for more things. And excuse me. I want to, yeah, just get out there more and and and do some more adventuring and exploring. So I don't really have a plan yet, but I will have a plan soon. That's that's what I'll be doing, in the next couple of weeks, at least.
Dave:Chris Parker, another Patreon member. What nutrition are you currently using for your long runs? So I'm a pretty simple guy. I've I find that I find something that works, and then I sort of stick to that. And I do not recommend copying what I do at all.
Dave:Nutrition is a very personal thing. That's what it drives me nuts when people, you know, podcasters or whoever are like, use this product. It's the best in that's not entirely true. They're like, everyone's so different that I can't say what I what works for me will work for you. I really leverage, liquid calories.
Dave:And typically, I'm using Tailwind, not sponsored by them at all, but I've been using Tailwind for a number of years. And what I like about it is it doesn't have any palate fatigue. It doesn't get old. It I don't feel gross after drinking a lot of it. And it's got about 300 calories per bottle.
Dave:So I stick with Tailwind. I supplement that with gels. Typically, I'm gonna use a precision hydration gel. I like the lemon lime flavor, or I go with a GU Roktane gel. Both those are sort of my go to.
Dave:Again, lemon lime on the Rock chain. I don't know what it is about that flavor, but it doesn't really get old to me. That's sort of the key is to find a flavor that doesn't get old to you because if you're doing a long event, like a 100 miler, like, at a certain point, you're gonna be like, blah, I don't wanna eat that any or drink that anymore. So for me, like, finding something I can continue to eat and drink is critical. And then I do leverage real food considerably, like, at aid stations, salted potatoes, the, watermelon slices, if they've got, like, you know, avocado wraps or whatever, 8 station fare.
Dave:I I will let I will leverage that in conjunction with what I'm eating. I typically don't eat a lot of, like, candy at the 8 stations, like gummy bears or whatever. It happens sometimes, but, yeah, I I usually stick to, like, real food at 8 stations, gels, and then tailwind. Hopefully, that helps. And then Chris Parker asked another question.
Dave:My Garmin Phoenix 7 sometimes starts off at a lower heart rate, and then all of a sudden spikes up after a mile or 2 to a more accurate heart rate. Any idea on what this what can cause this? Yes. This is a fun phenomenon called cadence lock. So cadence lock is a it's a really interesting phenomenon because of the way the the heart rate sensor on the back of your watch works.
Dave:I've got a Garmin, Phoenix 8 here. You can see a little green blinky light. That blinking light goes at a certain frequency. It'll it'll flicker. You've seen it every time you take your watch off.
Dave:It'll flicker, and it takes a sample every time it's flickering of your heart rate. And what can happen is it can accidentally pick up your cadence while you're running. So every time your your foot hits the ground, it makes your watch wobble a little bit, and it will allow a little bit of light to get under the watch. And that will confuse your heart rate sensor into thinking that little bit of light you just saw is your heart rate, but it's actually your cadence. Now every watch on the market today, every, high end or mid range, running or GPS sport watch has a built in algorithm inside to eliminate cadence lock, but there none of them are are perfect.
Dave:So what can happen is you can start your run with a cadence lock. Your watch is confused about your heart rate. And then a mile or 2 or 5 minutes later, it kicks in and picks up your your accurate heart rate. So that might be what you're seeing. A way to remedy this might be to, I've heard people like shaving their wrist in that area to get a better contact with their heart rate sensor.
Dave:I don't go that far. Maybe I should. And then obviously making sure your your strap is really tight to the point where you can't really comfortably fit a finger under it. That's really the gold standard. And if that doesn't work, you can try a different strap.
Dave:Like a nylon Velcro band can get a better secure fit. Hopefully, that helps. Next question from r h. This is from the Patreon as well. I wanna hear more about your band, and I'm not talking about watches.
Dave:This is a question. So I I preread this quickly, and I was very confused about this because not many people know, but, like, I think in the early 2000, I was in a a band. I played guitar for a band. And the band did well. We played shows.
Dave:We toured locally a little bit, and we had a CD out in, like, Best Buy. You could get you know, Newberry Comics if you're from this area. And, Yeah. We did pretty well. But I I don't think I've ever talked about that on the channel.
Dave:So either this person knows me or they did some digging on me and found out about my band, which is kind of funny. Well, the band's name, well, I'm not even gonna bring that up. Yes. I was in a band. I played guitar.
Dave:I was a avid guitarist for a long time. I started playing guitar when I was about 8, 9 years old, and I played right up until I mean, I could still play today, but I played pretty you know, I played a lot, you know, multiple times a day up until, like, my late twenties. I think right around the time when I had kids, I kinda stopped playing as much. I could still play, but not not as great. Alright.
Dave:So we've got more comments from the YouTube members and stuff, but I'm gonna jump back, see if we've got any questions from the audience out there. We've got c Chad run chiming in. If you haven't checked out his YouTube channel, make sure you do that. Good running content over there. We've got, Stefan Murniakov.
Dave:I'm really bad at names. I'm sorry. From Serbia, Europe. We've got Lucas f h. Thank you for your good work.
Dave:I like the work you do with your reviews. I consider your opinion when buying a new Garmin watch. Happy New Year. Happy New Year as well. New Year's to you as well.
Dave:Matt LeGrande. Yo, Dave. What's going on, buddy? Happy New Year's. Happy New Year's to you, Matt.
Dave:And, again, check out Matt's channel because the dude is a wizard with a camera. For real. Best b roll in any, any sports tech review. Kristof Podgidsgaard. I'm sorry.
Dave:I can't say that last name. Is it possible to buy your stuff living in Europe? Yes. So we now have international shipping. I've got a contract with a a special shipping service that makes it way, way cheaper to ship internationally.
Dave:Typically, a hat, I dropped it over there, but, like, a a standard hat from the store will cost about $10 US $10 US dollars to get to, Europe or just about any country out there. So if you are international, it's available there as well. Chad says the Boston event sounds great. It does. I can't wait to go.
Dave:And he asked to so no daily vlog. No. I don't have I don't know how people do that. I don't know how people, do a daily vlog and and upload every single day. I feel like I could do that.
Dave:Like, I can edit fast enough, but the content would just be so boring because I'm not that great at coming up with a daily material. Always learning. Yo, Matt. Good to see you here. Yeah.
Dave:Matt, stick around, man. We've got c Chad run with a question here. I should probably make this a little bigger. There we go. How do you think your content here on YouTube will change in this next year?
Dave:More tech, more running, or something else. So the plan in my garbled, you know, crazy I wish you could see what goes on in my head, is to continue the reviews the way they are. Stay current with, all of the upcoming products, but layer in way more additional, first of all, short form content. I need to get way better at that. I'm I'm, like, way too old for short form content, and I really wanna pepper in a lot more personal content of running, training, racing, just, you know, stuff that's more like me and less of the review stuff.
Dave:I you know, the review the review stuff will stay at full force. I just want more diverse content on top of that. Because what I found this is probably boring to you. I'm sorry. But what I found is, like, the review content is really great, for bringing in a new audience.
Dave:Like, if you're thinking about buying a watch and you're like, oh, what's up with the Garmin Phoenix 8? You'll probably find my video. And then through that, you might find my other content, which is great. That way, it's like, that brings you in the door, and then you learn, hey. This guy also runs ultra marathons.
Dave:Maybe you wanna watch a video on that. I don't know. That's kind of my theory. But those people that come for just a review, they're not really here for me per se. They're here for information, and then they go off on their merry way, and they never come back again.
Dave:I think that's my theory behind review videos. I love making them. I'll continue to make them because that's my bread and butter and what I like to do. But I also wanna just bring much more other much more diverse stuff. I'll I'll leave it like that, technical information like that.
Dave:Okay. Here we go. Christophe. I think I'm saying your name right. Three most important things in a running vest.
Dave:What's your recommend for a 100 mile race? Three most important things in a running vest. I guess I would say number 1, comfort. That's a deal breaker. If you find a vest that, like, checks all the boxes in terms of storage, but it's really uncomfortable to wear, no bueno.
Dave:Comfort's number 1 because after 30 miles wearing something, you can find like your chest starts to hurt or you're chafing or something. So comfort's number 1 for me. 2 would be, storage the way it manages storage because a lot of vests don't hold like a modern day smartphone. It's funny like all these companies come out with like smartphone shorts or a smartphone running vest, but the phone doesn't fit because modern day phones like this iPhone 16 are just so big that it doesn't fit in a normal pocket. So I guess storage would be 2nd.
Dave:And 3rd would be weight for me. Yeah. Weight. And weight is twofold. So the weight of the vest physically, I don't want a heavy vest, and I don't want a hot vest.
Dave:I run-in a lot of warm weather races like Vermont is in July. And during those kinds of races, I don't want, like, too many layers on me. And some of those vests have, like, 3 layers of fabric, which can cause, it can get real hot. So that's those are my top 3. Wodgie Wodgie.
Dave:I think I said that right. Is the the accuracy of the distance calculation on the Amazfit T Rex 3 reliable? Yes. I think so. So if you watch my review, I've not only since that review tested it for months on end, I found that the GPS accuracy in distance are just about as good as any high end sport watch out there.
Dave:Anything from Garmin, Coros, Suunto, Polar, it does a really good job. Of course, it's not perfect. None of them are. And if, if you watch the smartwatch review video or smartwatch awards video I just put out a couple of days ago, you'll see that my top pick for accuracy was actually the Suunto race s. I like that watch for accuracy, but the Amazfit is no slouch either.
Dave:So, yeah, it's pretty good. Excuse me. Lucas f h, do you have any news considering the Garmin foreigner 975? I have a 965 looking to upgrade. I purchased the Phoenix 8 and thought it was too expensive, so I got refunded.
Dave:Okay. Yeah. So the Phoenix 8 is an awesome watch, but I agree it is a very, very expensive watch. And one one can definitely argue it is overpriced, but it just has so many features, and a lot of the features can't be touched by other brands. That's, I think, a misconception a lot of people have about the Phoenix 8 because there's really not a lot of competition with everything it has from offline mapping, full blown dive capabilities.
Dave:You know, you add everything up and it makes sense. However, it is overpriced if you're not a diver. If you don't make use of some of the features, like, why pay for them? So the 965 is one of my favorite all time Garmin watches. I wore that watch from the day it came out up until the gate the Phoenix 8 the the day the Phoenix 8 came out because I was such a big fan of it.
Dave:The looks, the weight, the the the display, the accuracy was all there for me. It checked a lot of boxes, so I I really like that watch. When it comes to the 975, I have no information on that. No rumors even. I would expect a 975.
Dave:I don't know if we'll see it this coming year. Maybe. If it if we do see it this year, it'll be probably in the May, like, June, May time frame. That's usually Garmin's move. In fact, there is a holiday in May called the national running holiday or I forget the name.
Dave:It's one of those made up holidays where the the national running day. I don't know. But that historically has been the day when Garmin launches a new 4 Runner model. So if it happens if it doesn't happen by that day, I would expect it not to happen. That's my theory.
Dave:But the 965 is still a banger. Like, I have no issues recommending that to this day, and it's marked down because it's kind of an older watch now so you can get it for a really good price. So yeah, if you got one, stick with it. Happy New Year, Dave, from Vasilis. Thank you.
Dave:Happy New Year. I know in the US, it's hard to get Xiaomi or Huawei watches, but I have seen some watches from them on Amazon US. I'd love to see a review on their watches. Okay. Huawei, I have a hard time saying that word.
Dave:Huawei watches are incredibly incredibly high demand. They are requested in every video. Every time I post a video, I get a comment saying, what about Huawei? What about what about the GTS or GTR? GT 5 Pro?
Dave:I forget the name of it. So the problem is I live in the USA, and they're hard to get here. There's a couple on Amazon. I think they're overpriced. I think they jack up the price here in the USA because the g t, the gt5pro, I think they call it, like, the one that is probably the most requested in my videos is, like, 4.50, $450 on Amazon in the US.
Dave:And I don't think that she I don't think the price should be that high. So, yes, I am aware. A lot of people are interested in them. And, yes, I plan to resolve that issue, very soon. I will be purchasing some, testing them.
Dave:I just need to make sure they're actually gonna work. Like, I don't wanna have to jump through hoops with VPNing into, like, a Spanish server to make the watch work on my phone. I don't wanna do all that. So if it works natively with the app on my phone, I'll I'll get one. I'll try it out, because, yes, a lot of people like them, and, it seems like for good reason.
Dave:Like, the the look of them is pretty cool. They they have a very stylish look, very classy looking with, you know, lots of gold features and stuff. So I'll see what I can do. Cody Cox, would be awesome to see you run Leadville. That race looks crazy.
Dave:Yes. That is on my very short list of races I wanna do. There is a lottery for that one as well, and I need to start thinking about how to make that work. But, yes, that is certainly on my list. Happy New Year from Magnus.
Dave:Happy new running miles. Oops. I just almost banned somebody. Sorry. Nick, are you still using the Apple Watch Ultra, or are you sticking with the Phoenix 8?
Dave:So kind of a confusing answer to this. Most days I have 2 watches on. I try not to wear them in every video because I feel silly with 2 watches on. The Apple Watch Ultra 2 has been worn quite a bit this year. The thing is the Ultra 2 black that they just came out with in September isn't all that different than the Ultra 2 that wasn't black.
Dave:And then the Ultra 2 in itself is not that different from the Ultra 1 that came out a couple of years ago. So I don't spend a whole lot of time investing on, like, new testing scenarios on that watch because I've really beaten it to death in a lot of different videos. If you have a specific question or a specific like angle that you wanna see, the Apple Watch Ultra reviewed on let me know I might be interested in that but like risk real estate's very valuable. I've got 2 risks. So I typically focus on, what's like the next big thing.
Dave:But, yes, it does get worn from time to time. Christophe, but I'm not gonna say it, but thank you for the question again. You mentioned about your brand, your band, oh, during some of the podcast, if I remember. Yeah. I guess I I may have talked about it on a podcast.
Dave:Maybe that's where he got the information about my band. Felcarino. Did I say it right? Hi, Dave. This may be old news, but do you buy everything yourself and or return it?
Dave:Review devices, I I'm hearing YouTube creators are getting squeezed for revenue and are being pushed by to sponsored reviews. That's a can of worms. Let's open it up. So this goes back to some of the ethical questions about YouTube channels. And I if you are in the creator space, I highly recommend you tune into a podcast called Colin and Samir.
Dave:If you're not in the creative space, don't listen to it. It's only for people who make YouTube videos and are, like, obsessed with it, which I am. So Colin Samir just had a guy on named Linus Sebastian, who is the the CEO or not the CEO he's the owner and founder of Linus Tech Tips which is a huge YouTube channel they employ hundreds of people they have like a 100000000 views a month they're a giant company now But he mentioned something in that interview that I found super interesting, and it was the definition of the word review. The word review has gotten to a place where it no longer means anything because of YouTube content. And maybe I'm up on my pedestal here feeling like an old guy, but there's so much garbage out there on YouTube that claims to be a review in the title.
Dave:And then the second you click on it says, sponsored by blah blah blah, whatever brand that might be. And inherently, a review cannot be sponsored because a sponsored video if you don't know, typically this works the way this works with a sponsored video is a brand will approach a person. They will tell that person will pay you x amount of dollars to talk about our product on your YouTube channel. However, part of the stipulation there, part of the contract that you sign when you make a paid review is that you're gonna let that brand watch your video ahead of time. And when they do that, they're gonna take notes.
Dave:They're gonna write down what they like, what they don't like, and then they're gonna send you a revision or a request for revision. That request will be like, please delete what you said here. Please add this. Delete that. And they will remove all negative comments about whatever product they're trying to sell.
Dave:So whenever you see a paid review or a sponsored review, it's not a freaking review. It's a commercial. And, yes, I do sponsored I do sponsored content on this channel from time to time. But if you go and watch it, I explicitly tell you this is not a review. This is a sponsored video by what whatever brand, and it's just a product highlight.
Dave:And I enjoy making those videos. It's also financially, it's a it's a good thing to keep the the lights on in this place. And it's also a good way to connect with a brand and have a relationship. And, you know, I feel like as a viewer, I don't even mind sponsored videos. I still watch them from my favorite creators, so that's why I still make them.
Dave:But I also don't expect I don't accept sponsor money from any brand that I review. So if you watch my channel, you'll know I don't make sponsored Garmin reviews. I don't make sponsored Chorus reviews. I don't take money from Amazfit. I don't take money from Suunto.
Dave:That's just the way it works for me. I feel like once you open that door, it's an easy way of losing your credibility, and that's something I value on this channel. So for me, this is long winded, but it it rubs it grinds me. It grinds my gears when I see paid reviews because they're they're everywhere and they're not reviews. They're they're highlight videos.
Dave:They're they're overviews. There might be a might be a tutorial maybe or a product feature highlight, whatever you wanna call it, but it's not a review. A review cannot be sponsored by the the brand that makes the thing that you're reviewing. A review can be sponsored by a different brand. Maybe a power bank company can sponsor a watch video.
Dave:That's fine. But if you're if you're diving deep on an in-depth review on something, it it just can't be sponsored. I'm sorry. It's the way it is. My opinion I know opinions vary, but the frustrated frustrating reality is because of all the other creators making these paid reviews, it makes people like me look bad because then people assume that I'm doing that too, and I'm not.
Dave:That's that's all I can say about that. And, I didn't even answer your question. Sorry. Let's go back to your question. That was a a tangent.
Dave:This may be do you buy everything yourself, or do you return the review devices? So this it depends on the brand and the product. In certain situations, I'll buy the product and I keep it. I don't return anything because that feels a little bit slimy. So what I do is I buy it.
Dave:I keep it in a organizer. And then, if that thing becomes obsolete or it becomes, like, replaced down the road, I'll either give it to somebody or I'll sell it, like, on Facebook market or eBay or something like that. And in some cases, the devices are loaned to me. A lot of times, a loaner device, I get to keep for a few months to test it out, then I have to send it back. And then in some situations, a device is sent to me to keep, but not indefinitely.
Dave:Usually, eventually, I will send it back once it becomes obsoleted. So yeah. And there's really no free lunch. Like, it sounds great to get all these test devices and stuff, but if you accept something, it, you know, it always feels like something is it's supposed to be something in return. It's kind of a weird feeling.
Dave:Okay. Hope that answers your question. I think we lost some viewers over that one. I'm sorry. I just it it grinds my gears.
Dave:We got Matt LeGrand. I'm also thinking about mixing up my content and trying some different stuff in 2025. That'd be a great idea, Matt. I'd maybe we should work on something together. That'd be fun.
Dave:Come out to a race. That's what we should do. You should pace me at a 100 miler. That'd be fun. And then I'll do I'll do a triathlon with you.
Dave:I'm not swimming, though. That's off the table. Okay. See Chad run, black diamond distance 8 did great for my 100 miler this year. Solomon advanced skin 12 is a popular one too.
Dave:Yeah. Another vest I've been wearing lately is the, Yosui vests. They make, like, a 5 liter, an 8 liter, and a 12 liter. The company is called Uswe. It's a u s w e.
Dave:I believe it's a Swedish Switzerland company. I'd I'm not really sure, but they make a really cool product because it's, totally different kind of vest. It's got sort of like a seat belt buckle in the front that locks, and it's like static. And then your adjustments happen on the sides to snug it down to your body, which is it's pretty cool. So check out Usui.
Dave:Shout out to Usui. Robert Berkovic. Thanks for making videos. Really helped me make my choice. Thank you for tuning in.
Dave:What else we got here? See Chad run with another vest. The innovate race pack 8 is a grace a great pack and only $60. Wow. I'll have to check that out.
Dave:Oh, Nick, are you still wearing an Oura ring or ultra human ring? Also, considering all the different devices you wear, which one do you find yourself consistently using to analyze your health metrics in HRV? So I've been wearing right now, I have the Ultrahuman ring Aeron, and this is sort of my go to ring. I can't explain why. I have an Oura ring gen 4, gen 3.
Dave:I pay for their subscription still, and I do wear it occasionally just to see, like, what's changed, what need any updates that have been happening or, just get accustomed to it. Just stay relevant with it really. But I really like the Ultrahuman ring. The form factor is hard to beat. It's so light.
Dave:I wish I had a b cam here to zoom in on it, but it's just so small and light and fits my finger really well. So I find myself wearing this the most, and, the app has gotten a lot better. They keep updating it, and there's no subscription. So big fan of the Ultrahuman ring. They they really did well with this one right out of the gate, but the Ouring is also very good as well.
Dave:I will say though when it comes to, like, analyzing HRV and all the metrics, I still rely on my Garmin. For whatever reason, I really like body battery, training readiness, HRV status, and how that all rolls together with my activities. I feel like it represents how I feel in the morning a little bit more accurately where a lot of these other devices like the Ouring, Ultrahuman, or even, the Whoop Band or, yeah, all these other products, they always feel, like, a little bit generous. Like, sometimes I wake up feeling really rundown or maybe I have a cold. And occasionally, some of these other devices will still give me a really high readiness score.
Dave:Like, with the Oura ring, I'll wake up kind of feeling wrecked, and it'll still tell me, like, yeah. You're good. 80%, something like that. And that happens occasionally with the elder human ring as well, but it's gotten a lot better. I feel like they're dialing in the algorithm on the elder human ring.
Dave:But with the Garmin, I find that if I wake up feeling wrecked, my body battery is toast. It's, like, 20 or my training readiness will say 5. So it just represents how I feel a little bit more accurately. Chris King, when considering a fitness watch, I see Garmin and Apple as the big dogs. Then I see Cora, Suunto, and Polar.
Dave:Do you see the day when any of those 2nd tier brands get gobbled up by someone? That's a great question. So let me how do I phrase this? When it comes to those 2nd tier brands, the one brand I see moving sort of the fastest and and could argue is putting a lot of pressure on the bigger brands is Corus, especially when it comes to running in ultramarathon running. Yes.
Dave:That's a smaller segment of the population, but Chorus has invested a lot of marketing material in ultras, and they've got a lot of athletes now wearing their stuff. And, honestly, they've been putting out better and better stuff every year, and their cadence of firmware updates really makes them competitive. I think once they can get around the hurdle of, you know, some of the things that bigger companies have advantages of, maybe like Spotify support or or streaming platforms or app support, that's when the the tides could shift. That wasn't your question though. That's just one example of a brand that is 2nd tier right now that I think is making waves, and I think they could move in the right direction to being a bigger, you know, mid tier maybe.
Dave:I also think Suunto has been doing a lot of good things lately, like with the Suunto Race s. That watch is banger for $350. But from what I understand, their financials are not looking too great. The one brand I do worry about is Polar. I really like Polar watches.
Dave:I like the Polar Flow app. I like the Polar Grit X2 Pro. In fact, it just won a war an award in my last video for best looking watch. I really like how that watch looks. But the thing about Polar is, like, their software cadence is, like, they do, like, one big soft software update a year.
Dave:And to be honest, in today's in today's landscape of smartwatches, that's not enough. You see, Apple is cranking out software updates. Garmin is like a quarterly thing. Coros is a quarterly thing. Suunto, not super fast, but they have been coming out with newer stuff.
Dave:Polar is definitely at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to software updates, and their software has not changed in, like, 5 years. If you go all the way back to the Polar Vantage M, I think that watch has the same software pretty much as the brand new polar vantage v 3 or grid X2 pro. It's not identical, but it's pretty close. So I think they need to make some big strides in terms of developing more software, maybe hiring more people for the development side of things because I could see them being gobbled up, as you said, by a bigger brand. And we can kinda see some of that already happening.
Dave:For example, Polar technology is being implemented in G SHOCK watches now. So Casio G SHOCK, if you buy a Rangeman GBH, H1000, whatever their crazy model numbers are, you'll find that the sleep algorithm is driven by Polar Flow. So it's got the same Polar sleep technology, but in a Casio watch, which is kind of odd to me. So it seems like Polar is starting to, like, license out some of their software maybe in order to make up for the the lack of financials coming from selling devices. I'm not really sure.
Dave:Time will tell. See, Chad, run. Love the channel and personality that you bring. Hope you have an epic New Year. You as well, my friend.
Dave:Thanks for tuning in. Soul Brothers, shout out Dave, and he chat. Oh, I think I already answered this. So Costas Cree Costas Cree. What's your opinion on Huawei watches and how good are they?
Dave:So I need to find out because as I've mentioned, Huawei watches are probably the the highest demand in terms of people commenting on my videos and asking for stuff. The GT 5 pro is asked for a lot. Like, to look at my last video and scan through the comments, you'll find a lot of requests. Unfortunately, I live in the USA. And, again, here, it's kinda hard to get the watches.
Dave:They're not really on sale. There's some on Amazon, but I've mentioned before, they're overpriced. So I haven't bought one yet, but I guess I need to. Cody Cox, do you have a subscriber goal for 2,025? 200 k, 300 k, question mark?
Dave:Boy, that would be nice. So I think I talked about this at the beginning of the stream. This in 2024, the channel picked up 32,000 subscribers. That was pretty high for this channel. If we hit 200 k in 2025, that would be awesome.
Dave:I don't know if that'll happen. And, honestly, I'm not really driven by subscriber numbers. It it is cool. Subscriber count is it's a it's a validation. Like, for example, when I tell people I do this for a living, a lot of times the first question is, oh, how many subs do you have?
Dave:And, you know, it really means nothing grand scheme because the the money like, the way Google AdSense works, it's all about views and engagement and all of those other things. So you could have 20,000 subscribers. And if your channel is getting 2,000,000 views a month, you're gonna be making more money than I am and getting more comments and engagement. So it's like subscribers are just a number, but it is cool. YouTube sends you a plaque.
Dave:It makes you feel like you've you've done you've accomplished something. It's a goal. Right? So, yeah, I I personally will be very excited when the channel hits 200,000, but it's not something I it's not something I'm, like, striving for. So I don't really have a goal for it.
Dave:Second question from Cody. Do you think the CMF Watch Pro 2 is good enough to get a full review from you? No. So I should probably do a follow-up short on that. Maybe I did some testing with that that CMF Watch Pro 2 for people who don't know, the CMF Watch Pro 2 is a watch made by the company.
Dave:Nothing. They have a subsidiary. Nothing is a bigger brand with more expensive products, but they have, like, a lower end brand called CMF. And I reviewed or I didn't review. I unboxed their watch called the, watch pro 2 a couple of months ago.
Dave:Now this watch actually looks really cool. It feels surprisingly good for the for the price. It's got some metal parts to it. It's got a replaceable bezel. You can actually unscrew the bezel and put a new one on.
Dave:It's got a nice AMOLED display and a lot of interesting features for the price point because the price is, like, $59, just kind of a joke for a smartwatch, and it works with iOS or Android. So I unboxed it. I did a brief overview of what it can do on the channel, and then I talked about their earbuds, the nothing buds or the CMF buds pro 2 whatever. Pro 2 buds. And, I didn't do any testing or anything in that video.
Dave:It was just purely an unboxing. So I did some testing, couple of runs, nothing crazy, and the GPS accuracy, not very good. The heart rate accuracy, not very good. And, honestly, the data behind the scenes in the app, not super confident inspiring. So I don't know if I'll spend more time on it.
Dave:Maybe I will. But if you're thinking about it, I would say it's kind of tricky. Because at the price for $59, if you were just looking for a smartwatch that you wanna, like, wear from time to time and get your text messages, it looks kinda cool. It it gets gets the job done. But if you want, like, a running watch, you wanna go, like, run a marathon, don't buy that.
Dave:Save up a little bit more. Buy something that's a little bit more functional. That's my opinion. But I will say on that note, the CMF Buds Pro 2 are some of the best earbuds I have. And again, those are super cheap.
Dave:They were like, $59, I think. They have active noise cancellation. They're super comfortable, and they've got a knob on the case where you can adjust your phone's volume. It's surprisingly cool for for the money, and they sound great too. Justin k.
Dave:What's a feature that you would like to see from a smartwatch in 2025? I've been doing a lot of thinking about this, and this kinda goes back to my last video. I did the smartwatch awards, a couple of days ago, and I have a category in that video called most innovative. And I found myself struggling to think of a watch that was just so innovative that blew my mind in 2024 because it really didn't happen. But I've thought about a little bit more, and I think I think the most interesting thing, the most exciting innovation that could come in the next year would be an Apple Watch with significantly longer battery life.
Dave:And I think there's hope of this because Apple is on, like, a 2 years cycle with their Ultra model, the Apple Watch Ultra. There was the Ultra. They skipped the year, then the Ultra 2 came out. And now we're on, like, year what is it? Year 4 of pretty much the same watch.
Dave:So I think there is opportunity this year for them to maybe stick some new battery technology in there. There's the new, like, Graphene battery technology or was it silicone battery technology that allows you to cram more battery capacity in a smaller package size? So if they could use that technology and maybe optimize their their CPU, GPU, all that stuff under the hood, that could be really interesting. Because I would I would kill for an Apple Watch Ultra with, like, 7 days of battery life. That'd be so cool.
Dave:We're not there yet. Next question. Felcarino. I just started with, with a running coach after reentry after a couple of years of cycling only. Your videos are inspiring by the way to get running again.
Dave:My coach uses training tilt. Would you review coaching platforms? That's an interesting topic. So personally, I've never used a running coach, but I actually thought about it might be fun for a video to hire a coach and see if it actually makes me better. Because I'm at a pretty heavy plateau.
Dave:Like, I mean, I feel like I'm in decent shape, but I've I haven't really progressed much in recent years. I've pretty much stayed the same. So it would be cool to see if I actually get faster. That may be something I I might try. And, yeah, maybe I should try some of those platforms out there.
Dave:One of them is, Runna, r u n n a. That's one I'm really interested in. I might give that a shot, but I've never heard of Training Tilt, so I have to check that out. Dhruv Patel. Hopefully, I said that right.
Dave:Sorry if I didn't. Happy New Year. One question. Garmin Ford or 165 or soon to recess for 2025 as a person who goes to the gym consistently and wants to begin running. So, tricky question because the Garmin Fordo 165 is significantly cheaper than the Suunto Race s.
Dave:I would say if you are primarily focused on going to the gym and road running, you probably get more value out of the 165 because the Garmin ecosystem has a lot of benefits from body battery to HRV status. The Suunto Race s, I would say, is more geared towards somebody who might wanna get into to hiking, trail running, that sort of thing. It feels more like an outdoor watch. Of course, both can do both things. The Race S will give you mapping and navigation.
Dave:But, again, if you're only road running and going to the gym, you don't really need mapping. So it's really gonna boil down to your specific use case. Both are really good. I like both quite a bit. I would say you could save money with the 165, and you probably won't miss the features of the Race S, if that makes sense.
Dave:Juan Reyes. Happy New Year. Do you think Apple would create an app like Garmin? Want to have everything in one place or get or they're get too much money from their developers that makes more financial sense for them. I've wondered this for years.
Dave:It drives me nuts the way Apple does things. Like so for example, if you're an Apple user, you know that you've got your activity app for all of your runs and bike rides and things and your step count. But if you wanna look at your HRV, for example, you have to go into Apple Health, scroll through all your metrics, and find your HRV. It got better with the the updated iOS 11 where they introduced the vitals app. So they sort of put all your vitals in one place.
Dave:But I agree, it's still kind of fragmented because vitals is one thing, training load is another thing, health metrics are down here, your step counts in the activity app, like, why isn't it all just in one place? And I think for someone who started with an Apple Watch, it probably makes sense to that person. But for someone like me who maybe started on a Garmin or a different sport watch, that's where it kinda breaks your brain. Like, why can't you just put it all in one place? I don't think they'll ever change it.
Dave:I do think their incentive is to say, here's the basic information. If you want more, go download a third party app because Apple loves to leverage their third party apps. That's my take on it. Scott t. I just bought a Coros Peace Pro and a Coros Heart Re Monitor today.
Dave:Congrats. Enjoy it. Peace Pro is an awesome watch, and I was super excited when they they announced that this year because I was begging for them to do an AMOLED display. I know a lot of Chorus users are like, AMOLED's the worst. Why did you come out with it?
Dave:But come on. I I like AMOLED. MIP will stick around, I think, but I I also have this weird feeling that Corus probably sold a lot more Pace Pros than they expected, and I bet we'll start to see a shift with their future watches being AMOLED as well. But I could be wrong. We'll find out.
Dave:Trails trails of an old runner. I have a Garmin epics gen 2. Would there be a significant improvement in heart rate accuracy if I used a chest strap instead of the wrist sensor? So that's kind of a loaded question. Heart rate accuracy has a lot of variables.
Dave:That's gonna depend on if you have tattoos like me on your wrist, if you have a lot of arm hair, the color of your skin, your body fat percentage, how tight you wear your band, a lot of variables. So some people will get very accurate results with watch x. It doesn't matter what watch it is. Some people will get bad results with that same watch, which is sort of a systemic problem for GPS watch reviews on the Internet. Because when I get good results, I will tell you, in a video, but somebody else out there may get bad results and trash the same exact watch.
Dave:The problem is we're both samples of 1. And all we can do is communicate what our personal experience was, and that may or may not be reflected in your personal experience. So what I can say is if you are getting or you think you're getting bad results from your epics gen 2, maybe try a different watch band first. And then if you're still getting bad results, yeah, you'll definitely get better accuracy from chest strap or an armband just because, like, ECG sensors on your chest are sort of the gold standard. So I would go with one of those before you go with an armband.
Dave:If you can't do the heart rate, the chest strap, if that's uncomfortable, go with an armband like the Coros, band or the polar o OHR plus or Verity Sense that will fit the bill. Hopefully, that helps. Dhruv Patel. Would the Crohn's Pace 3 be a better fit than the Garmin Forner, 165? Apples and apples compared to apples kind of.
Dave:They're in the same price range. They do almost all of the same things. The 165 has more smart features and wellness features like body battery, and it can install third party apps and stuff. The PACE 3 gets better battery life, and it's got the MIP display if that's something you prefer. It's really gonna boil down to your your, personal preference.
Dave:Here's a good one. I cannot say this name at all, so I apologize. So I'm not even gonna try. But this person asked, review of the Rolex Explorer. I don't even know what that is.
Dave:I get this I get this question a lot from people in the comments, like, what mechanical watches do you wear when you're not wearing a sport watch? And the reality is I only wear sport watches. I don't I don't wear mechanical watches. I think they're cool. Like, the omegas and the dive masters and Rolexes, pretty cool, but, yeah, too rich for my blood, first of all, and, not practical.
Dave:Like, they only tell the time of day. I don't I don't do it. Oh, commented again. I am Greek. This is why when it comes to your name.
Dave:Yes. I can see that. I still can't pronounce it. I'm Greek too. See my tattoo?
Dave:It's Greek, but, I don't speak the language. Unfortunately, my mom was the Greek one. Her family is off the boat, Greece, but I'm pretty removed from it. I like the language. I think it's a beautiful country.
Dave:I don't speak it. Marcy o m, just got the 4 0265 and the 965. Love the new screen, smaller size. Oh, from the 965, do you expect a new wearable band from Garmin? Still use the Fitbit band because Garmin ones are far behind.
Dave:Okay. I've made a whole video all about this, and overwhelmingly, people agree with me that Garmin needs to come out with a health band, like a a displayless simple band, like a whoop band for Garmin. They haven't done it yet, but, yeah, there's still hope, I guess. I don't think, I don't think they will do it, to be honest, but there's still hope. Alright.
Dave:I'm gonna jump back to the other questions I have from Patreon just real quick. Okay. Here's one, from CVAP CVAP2011. What is your what is the best daily driver watch that you've experienced in the past couple of years, and how long did you wear it for? So that would be the Garmin Forner 965 was probably my favorite.
Dave:For me, that's just like my personal opinion. I wore that watch for 2 years, I think. I wore it the day came out, and I wore it, like, extensively after that. I love the form factor. I love the display.
Dave:It was great, and I enjoyed wearing it. That's the answer to that question. Next question from Travis Walker. Favorite sports watch that's also a gotta. I think that means go anywhere, do anything.
Dave:Not sure what that is. I guess that would be like, you're talking, like, tactical watch, maybe something like the Garmin Instinct 2 x. That's probably one of my faves because it's got that tactical vibe. It's built rugged. It's got the built in flashlight, crazy battery life.
Dave:Yeah. And then from Eliza 6491, what is the biggest running invention dropped this year and also the biggest story in running dropped this year? Interesting question. So the biggest running tool or invention, that's a tough one. I don't really know.
Dave:Like, what new stuff came out this year that really changed the game for running? I might go back and just say it's an app. Like, all these training apps are really they're really hacking the system when it comes to, like, hiring a running coach. You know, like, run with Hal, run up, but somebody just mentioned another one, training tilt. These apps, you know, you can pay a subscription fee of, like, $5 a month, and then they use, like, AI to come up with training programs for people based on their activity level and their goals.
Dave:I think that's super cool and probably the future of what's to come. So I would say that's probably the biggest invention this year. And, the other half of this question was the biggest story in running. I'm gonna give that to the Appalachian Trail fastest known time. The FKT of the Appalachian Trail by Tara Dauer.
Dave:Right? Yeah. Tara Dauer, that was 40 days and 18 hours. Unbelievable. Just to the fact that a female runner just destroyed a bunch of like, some of the best the best trail runners in the world, like the men, she destroyed their times.
Dave:It's so cool. And just kinda shows you where the sport's going. So pretty exciting. Another question from, always learning. Favorite running shoes of 2024.
Dave:I will give that to you. So I've got a few. Is that okay? I might give that to you, the ultra Olympus 6. I know a lot of people hate that shoe, and it's a heavy shoe.
Dave:But I was 60 miles into the Vermont 100 endurance race, and I was wearing ultra Mont Blanc carbons, and my feet were destroyed. So I swapped those out for Olympus sixes, ultra Olympus sixes, and they were, like, wearing tanks on my feet. So when I stubbed my toe or hit a rock or something, I was just so well protected. So I gotta give them a shout out. Another shoe I've really enjoyed this year is the HOKA Tecton X3.
Dave:Super expensive shoe. It's like $280. But the integrated gator, the comfort, they made the last a little bit wider so it's more comfortable for me. Really enjoying that shoe. And finally, my favorite road shoe this year is probably the HOKA Mach X2.
Dave:I just kill killed a pair yesterday. The outsole peeled off after, like, 400 miles, but they are great, really awesome shoes. And I got one more question from Frank Malcolm. Your favorite watch to wear that is not a smartwatch. I think I just answered that question.
Dave:I don't wear any watch. That's not a smartwatch. Sorry for the audio listeners. I'm sipping my my, sparkling water. Okay.
Dave:Jumping back to the chat. Got a couple more, then we're gonna head out. Jeff LeBlanc. What's up, Jeff? Local runner, local race director.
Dave:Can you talk about how you see watches starting to take advantage of AI and what brands you predict will be the forerunners in that space? That's a really insightful question, Jeff. So I think the AI train is gonna show up in unexpected ways when it comes to sport watches, and I think it's also gonna show up in brands that you wouldn't necessarily think about. One of those brands is Amazfit. Amazfit has been, like, full steam ahead with AI in their watches, and I think we're gonna see them take a leap even further in the coming year.
Dave:But I do think everybody's gonna jump on board. I think we'll see Garmin get on board. Apple's gonna do something with their Apple intelligence and training plans. And then, yeah, I don't know if we'll see anything from, like, the 2nd tier companies like Coros, Centopolar, but it would be interesting. It's definitely gonna be available everywhere, though.
Dave:As to what they do with AI, I don't know. Like, a lot of this stuff, is it really AI, or is it just the the same machine learning that we've had? You know? It's hard to say. But it would be cool, I think, in my opinion, just to get more, like, insight.
Dave:So for example, now when you wake up in the morning, yeah, you get your body battery, your training readiness, you know, whether or not you should train that day. But if we could use AI algorithms to take all of those bits of information and blur give you a blurb, like a paragraph of exactly what to do with that information, I think it would be really interesting. Miguel Varela, are you still using Strava? Yes. I am, but I typically don't make my runs public.
Dave:So you'll see me on there and the stuff you do see go public is typically, like, a longer run or a more exciting thing that I wanna share. But, like, my everyday training runs, I don't bother sharing because, a, it's weird when people know where I live, and, b, no one cares about me running around my block a 1000 times, I think. Talking about AI training, this is Marcio, and by the way, talking about training AI. Garmin AI training plan sucks. He he oh, I think my software actually blurbed that out, but I'll say sucks.
Dave:My personal opinion. What's your experience? Yeah. I tend to agree. I think where you get value from Garmin's I think they call it Garmin coach, is with their if you're a beginner.
Dave:So if you have no idea what to do, if you are if you are just getting couch to 5 k ready, you wanna get off the couch, you wanna get more fit, and you literally just don't know what to do, I think it's a good starting point because it will let you know, here's a rest day. Here's when you should do a longer run. Here's a, you know, high intensity workout. Here's intervals, whatever. I think for a more experienced user, that's where the debate is like, there's not a lot of there's not a whole lot of value.
Dave:And I do think third party apps like Runa, like, Training Tilt, whatever, will provide more insight. Jeff LeBlanc. I signed up for NordicTrack's Ifit AI coach, and all it does is text me reminders to run and recommend training plans. It does nothing useful. Yeah.
Dave:That's Ifit, man. I have had a bad streak with Ifit. I I don't know. I mean, they've they've definitely gotten better. I haven't tried their training coach thing, but, yeah, for the money they get for that, it's like, what is that?
Dave:Like, $35 a month for Ifit? The videos are cool. They definitely pass the time on the treadmill, but, yeah, some of the other features. I don't know. Maybe I should dive deeper on that.
Dave:Training tilt is for assigned workouts, plus my coach can see all my Garmin uploads. Oh, that's cool. And overall loads like riding and riding and walks. Cool. Stephen Markin Marin Kovik.
Dave:Nailed it. Will you answer questions on YouTube? Thanks. Yeah. Sure.
Dave:Drop into the latest community post, which is like a, you know, Twitter thread and, comment on there, and I'll try to respond to it. Arm HR isn't always good when sprinting. Yeah. Correct. I mean, I would say this goes back to the sensor topic, like chest strap versus armband.
Dave:If you can deal with it, if you don't mind wearing the chest strap, that's the gold standard. You're gonna get the best results from that because that's literally using electrodes that are picking up the signal of your heart beating to determine your pulse, where the armbands, whether that be the polar verity sensor or the the new Khoros HRM, both of those are still using an optical sensor just like a watch, just higher up on your body, which gives it a better chance of walking on. But it still faces the same challenges as a watch just in a better location. So if you can deal with it, do the chest band. If you can't do if you can't do the chest band, I know a lot of women have a hard time with the chest band.
Dave:The armband is a good alternative. I really like armbands. I I get really good results from them, probably because I'm not very fast. That might be why. Alright, friends.
Dave:We've been on the air for, what, 1 hour and 14 minutes. So am I gonna I'm gonna go ahead and wrap it up because I am losing my voice. It is New Year's Eve, so I still need to keep my, keep my my throat fresh for all the yelling that'll happen later with my kids when the ball drops. If you don't know what the ball drop is, I'm sure you do. But that's when the New York City ball falls down, and we go into 2025.
Dave:Fun fact, my wife and I, we went to New York City, 2 weeks ago, and we saw the ball in person, and it's much smaller than you might think. It looks like this big when you're when you're actually there standing in Times Square. But that's neither here nor there. Alright. I just wanna give you a huge shout out.
Dave:Thank you to everybody that's in the chat right now. Thank you for commenting. Thank you for leaving in the live chat. Thank you for for chatting. Thank you for watching this stupid channel that I keep doing.
Dave:I really appreciate everything, and the fact that you allow me to keep doing this. It's been a lot of fun. It's been a fun year, and I think 2025 is gonna be even funner year. I hope it is for you. Hope it is for the channel.
Dave:Hope that hopefully, we can get some fun content out there. Stick around. Make sure you subscribe to the channel. Subscribe to the podcast channel. Check out the merch store.
Dave:Buy a t shirt. Help support the channel, and I'll get them shipped out to you. What else? Check me out on Instagram. Follow me over there.
Dave:Follow me on threads. Do all the things down there like I always see, and I'll see you all in the next time. Have a good one. Happy New Year. Bring in that 2025 with style.
Dave:I'll see you later. Bye.
