My mother and father are FitBit users and after speaking with them here and there about the trackers I decided to check some out. After looking into the different options on the market I decided to go with Jawbone's UP24. I really only looked at FitBit Flex and the UP bands. I like the "holistic" approach that Jawbone (or at least Jawbone's marketing department) takes.
I ordered right from the company, in hindsight, Amazon would have saved me a few bucks and would have shipped faster but I received it and began wearing it immediately as it came charged. I started wearing it around 5pm and hit the treadmill once I got home, I soon found myself at 92% of my recommended steps for the day and thought "I need to calibrate this thing" but alas, I did not. I failed to run the next day and found myself at my desk rather than in the field due to the less then tropical temperatures (wind chill of -2 in New England is rough...) . I tracked only 80% over the entire day. I love the sleep data and have actually gotten over 7:45 hrs of sleep every night since I got the band, something I wouldn't have guessed.
Because I use RunKeeper, the UP24 was a better choice for me because the two connect and work together. I have been an Endomondo user for the past few years but RunKeeper's ability to set long term goals won me over. The only thing I dislike about RunKeeper taht Endomondo rocks at is giving you other activity options, Endomondo offers an extensive activities list which includes everything from tennis to hiking to ice hockey. RunKeeper's "other" activity list is very limited and I find myself having to log my ice hockey games under "Sports". I guess it is called RUNkeeper so I can't hold it against them. On the app I was able to set my goal of 500 miles and each run I track or log builds to that goal. RunKeeper then talks to the UP app and voila! I can access my run data in UP.
Thus far I am impressed with both and will continue to use it on a daily basis. The sizes are a little tricky as my wrist measurement fell in between the large and the medium, I opted for the medium and find myself giving it an extra squeeze here and there to keep the limbs overlapping like they are in the package but looking at images online it seems that they don't necessarily have to overlap as much as I like them to.
Having something that gives me feedback like these apps and bands do is interesting for me and helps me stay on target. They are welcome additions to my training repertoire and I think they can only add to the assessment of my running and activity. Plus it feels a little Star Trekky, and I LOVE that....
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