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Be the best athlete you can be with Mio LINK, a strapless, continuous heart rate monitor wristband. Buy now. Free shipping.

The best? Really? Even without any of the data backed up??

For the past year and a half, I have been running with a Polar Bluetooth heart rate monitor (HRM) snapped into a Lululemon special edition sports bra with a HRM band. I have really enjoyed having all the extra data about my run performance. Watching my HR helps me figure out when and how long to take a break, when to take easier run days, and what it looks like when I put in 95% effort versus 90% effort, etc. I've been getting a bit bored by cycling through the same 3 sports bras for a year (first world problems, I know), and I do not enjoy using the HRM strap that came with the Polar HRM (even though it was a soft strap, it tended to chafe me).

My husband hated the strap from his Polar HRM so much that he stopped using the monitor altogether. This is a real shame because (1) he is in better cardiovascular shape than I am and needs to find some way to compensate for how easy it is to keep up with me and (2) he needs the numbers to kick him in the ego about how hard his effort was during a solo workout. (He's a team sports kinda guy anyway.)

I considered getting the Mio ALPHA when I first read about it, but the price was really too high to get me to close the deal. I'd been considering giving up using an HRM for all but my interval days when I came across the Mio LINK through a random Google search. Uhhh...there's a strapless HRM that can work with all the other gadgets I've already got AND it won't chafe me? Yes, please. So I ordered two of these babies: a small white/grey one for me and a large black/grey one for the hubby.

I was so excited at the prospect of this invention that there was necessarily a let down when it arrived, and I tried it out for the first week. Unfortunately (but obviously) I can't use my Polar app on my iPhone. The MioGO app is by far an inferior substitute for the Polar app. It offers no audio feedback whatsoever. This is a major problem if, for whatever reason, the HRM disconnects and you need to reconnect the device (which happens - often). Additionally you necessarily must use GPS within the app, which is a major phone battery suck. No thanks. Finally, and this is the biggest negative, the app doesn't even keep a history of my heart rate throughout the workout that I can see. It will give a max and an average - why not a chart? What an absolutely worthless app! To get any benefit from it, I would need to stare at my phone often during the workout. No thanks; I'd rather see where I'm going and enjoy one of the precious few moments I get to be outside on a workday.

On the plus side, the MioLINK is still pretty useful. It has a color-coded flashing light that indicates when I cross through different training zones, and you can adjust the range of the zones. (I wish I could adjust my max heart rate because my fast-beating heart does, in fact, go above 187 bpm.) I like the visual feedback I get from this flashing light, and I've been using it with no problem so far to monitor my HR on long, slow runs and during my rest intervals for fast runs. So far my husband is quite satisfied with the physical aspects of the Mio on his wrist as well. (Update - his Mio disconnected from the app during a workout this week as well.)

I have been able to sync the Endomondo app with the MioLINK. This app does give audio feedback and has not caused random dropped connections with my HRM. The problem, of course, is that I must pay for Endomondo premium in order to gain access to additional tracking of my heart rate during my exercises. Call me cheap, but I've already paid $100 for a fancy new HRM. For all the benefits of the Polar app, I only had to pay $70 + chafing for the Polar HRM. I have such high hopes for the MioLINK. If the company would improve their app, I think this product would be hands-down the best HRM on the market.

Obviously, I have not been paid to write my opinion by any of the companies mentioned above.

#marathon training #heart rate monitor #mio link #miogo #mioglobal