Choosing a Health and Fitness Ecosystem - Part 8 - The TomTom Ecosystem

The final ecosystem in the line-up is TomTom. Although they started off with the ability for users to easily export data to almost any service, TomTom got off to a real rocky start in regards to their app, computer software, device firmware updates and fixes and website. Fortunately, for the most part, their latest devices have been pretty solid, with the most recent line being really awesome. In addition, they have really overhauled their apps and site, making TomTom a great contender in the ecosystem arena.

Devices
One of the things that drew me to TomTom when they first entered the fitness arena was that they made a multi-sport watch that was extremely affordable. Now, they still don't offer a mode for triathlon, so I definitely don't recommend TomTom for triathletes who are competitive and/or need their metrics tracked in a steady manner for a race. That aside, when I was just getting into triathlon, it was amazing having a watch that tracked literally everything I needed for training. TomTom now has a diverse line of products, ranging from running watches, to multi-sport watches, daily fitness trackers to daily activity monitors.

Even though I already noted it, I think it's important to emphasize how affordable TomTom's product line is. They truly offer one of the easiest user interfaces on their devices, one of the best GPS I have ever used, and similar products are usually much more expensive; and by affordable I mean under $200. You might not get all of the fancy smart features of an Apple Watch or Polar M600, but you are going to get almost everything else you want and need.

Website
I was with TomTom in the beginning, and their website was very vanilla, especially compared to every other competitor's website. However, the always made sure they could send data to virtually any service out there, making TomTom's platform one of the most flexible. Today they have really beefed up their website to create a mostly one-stop-shop for your stat needs.

Main Tabs

You start off with "Latest". This will have various tiles, such as Distance, Average Resting (HR), Sleep, Goals, map and summary of latest GPS-based workout, and your latest workout. There can be multiple goals, but you can only have one cardio-specific goal, such as running, cycling or swimming. The other goals that will appear if you choose is Weight and Steps. You can then click on any of these items to see more detail. Overall, this is a wonderful and clean screen, giving most people exactly what they want and need to see.

Activities

Next you can see all of your activities that have been logged via your TomTom device. It's very similar to Strava's activities list, which makes it an easy-to-view screen with details of each activity a click away.

Planning

The Planning screen is a very neat tool. This screen allows you to take courses (Trails) people have posted via GPX format, and upload it to the My Sports site. You can then upload this course to your watch. There are also the pre-defined "Races" which you can customized and appear on your watch as well. This is really fun because it serves to track your best performance for a given Race distance. Synced races include Running, Cycling, Treadmill and Freestyle (indoor swim).


Progress

Finally the Progress screen is just a visual analytics page to let you see trends for all or specific activities, as well as specific stats for the activities. It's a wonderful and simple tool for analyzing your workouts and races.

Set a Goal

Goals are extremely simple and allow a user to quickly set a goal then go. This is very similar to FitBit and this feature is excellent! You can set an activity-specific goal, such as a specific number of running miles per week or total time cycling per week. You can also set a weight goal, as well as the standard 10k steps per day goal.

Sleep

I wanted to break this part out because I am very impressed with TomTom's sleep tracking. Of all competitors, I have found TomTom to be one of the best at accurately tracking sleep. As you can see from the picture below, it does an amazing job at identifying when you are actually sleeping or napping. It was almost 100% accurate with my times.

Apps

TomTom technically has 2 apps; TomTom MySports and TomTom Sports. Although you can still use MySports, it's technically the old application, and when you download Sports, TomTom's newest app, you can migrate your MySports data over and use Sports as your default.

The Sports app tabs mirror the website for Latest and Activities. However, instead of Progress, the app calls the tab Trends. Finally there is a Manage tab to all you full customization and account / profile management.

The Latest tab is what loads first. Like the site, it shows a clean summary that has most of the important stats you would want at-a-glance. Activities is identical to the web version, and Trends is very similar to the web version as well, so nothing new and important to note here.



Final Thoughts

Overall TomTom is probably one of my favorite companies for general activity and sports tracking. The wrist HR is very accurate, chest strap HR is right on point, and devices, sites and apps are insanely simple to use. However, TomTom is designed for people who cross train or just want daily activity tracking. Their devices don't really have any smart features and don't really give enough stats for the stat-hungry athlete. In addition, although devices like Spark 3 can track multiple sports, it does not cater to multi-sport such as triathlon. But their devices work well, sync well, and can send data to almost every major site and service out there, making TomTom compatible with virtually everything.

This concludes my Ecosystem write-up. If you have any questions or comments, let me know. Enjoy whichever ecosystem you choose, and remember, always have fun and if you need motivation, go with the ecosystem that most of your friends or motivational friends are using.

Interim Plan: Week 4 - Complete

All moved in! Well, for the most part anyway. But I am done moving stuff from our old house to our temporary housing until the house sells and we find a new home. I was able to get in some workouts, which was super exciting. I also got in some walks as well. I am looking forward to starting my training plan next week for cycling!

Swimming
No time this week, but I will start back next week.

Cycling
I was able to get a stationary ride in, where I mixed high resistance and single-leg drills. Overall it was a good session, but man-oh-man do I need to work more on leg strength.

Running
I got in both a treadmill run and an outside run this week. Even though I felt like I was going to die from my outside run because I haven't done hills in forever, it was so invigorating. I cannot wait to run outside more often with the weather getting so nice.

Strength
As usual, I lifted tons of stuff all week. And as usual, I completely no formal strength routines. It will be nice getting back to them this upcoming week.

Nutrition
Despite the busy schedule, I did alright with eating well. However, I did suffer a little here and there, and also just didn't have time to log most meals. I will be resolving that this upcoming week as well.

Final Thoughts
Overall a very productive week. My upcoming week will have some missed activities due to travel, but I'll get most of my workouts in. So happy spring is here!

Interim Plan: Week 3 - Complete

And another insanely busy week done! My wife got severely sick, so I stepped up my game and was able to finish everything up at the house. Despite her being so sick, she was still able to help out a bunch, which along with the help of my mom, was crucial to get everything done. I had many days of non-structured strength training again. I also managed to get myself severely sick at the end of the week. Oh well, I knew it would it would happen. So, again, no structured workouts for the week plus getting sick, but I still got everything done! Woohoo!



Swimming
I had planned on going to swim to help loosen up, but my ear issues from getting sick would have probably worsened.

Cycling
My bike is in storage right now, so although there was awesome weather, it wouldn't have mattered since I was getting hit with near-flu symptoms plus intense allergies.

Running
Well, I ran up-and-down stairs a few thousand times over the course of the week, so I guess that counts for something, haha!

Strength
The usual box and furniture moving. Although, I lifted a filing cabinet which slipped, bruising the heck out of my leg. However, my legs have been super tough thanks to all of my prior strength training and it didn't slow me down at all. Hurrah for strength training!

Nutrition
Since I got sick and couldn't taste or smell anything, my eating was really good because there was no need or desire for anything unhealthy. Trying to decide if not being able to taste or smell is actually a good thing. Nah, I really like smelling and tasting.

Final Thoughts
I am recovering still today, but I think tomorrow I will have enough strength to get back into things. I am hoping to go for a run and mow the lawn. I am also hoping to figure out a good strength routine to add to things. I will have to push back the start of cycling training a week or so, but it will be worth it.

Interim Plan: Week 2 - Complete

What a crazy week. I had removed any planned workouts from my schedule. I wouldn't have completed any even if I tried. However, with moving, I pretty much got a 6-9 hour strength session almost every day. It's proof that all of the strength training I have been doing, as well as my stretches and cardio conditioning have really paid off. Despite the extreme levels of effort I have put in, my recovery has been very quick and for the most part I am feeling well.

Swimming
As I noted, no swimming this week, but I am sure going to try to get a session or two in next week to help my body recover more.

Cycling
Nothing here either. With the weather getting so nice now, I hope to be riding into work soon.

Running
I didn't run, but my new running shoes arrived and I can't wait to start breaking them in.

Strength
No formal sessions as I mentioned, but I lifted a ton!

Nutrition
Despite moving stuff, I ate fairly healthy this week, with last night being the exception. I didn't have time to log everything, but I'll be good this week about it.

Final Thoughts
Moving is almost over, so mid-week I hope to get back into my workouts. I just hope I don't get sick from all of this.

Interim Plan: Week 1 - Complete

As I have noted before, I am in the process of selling my house and moving. So this past week and the next week are devoted strictly to that. I still have a workout plan, but I am not in any way trying to force myself to stick with it, because honestly, most of my days when I am not at work at spent from dusk until dawn doing moving stuff. At least I am getting some good strength building with this.

Swimming
I didn't get any swimming in, although there were some days I really wish I had the time. My muscles were achy all week.

Cycling
I was able to get a 30 min cadence ride in this week. I was even able to bump up another level of resistance for almost half of the ride. I am really excited for cycling training to start in 2 weeks.

Running
I was able to get an outside run in. I had the following goals: 1) Run outside 2) Run for 30 minutes without stopping 3) Start retraining myself to gauge cadence and pace. I achieved all of these. I learned that over 1.5 years without running outside, I have lost most of my ability to gauge cadence and pace outside. However, it was a good start and I am hoping for an improvement on my next run. Also, I had forgotten how hilly my route was, and for having run on treadmill at incline 0 for many months now, it was quite a shock to my legs. I maintained good form though and had no knee issues. My feet and legs were completely dead after the run though. Fortunately, I have been doing enough strength training and cardio that my recovery was almost 100% the next day.

Strength
I didn't get any formal sessions in this week. However, I have been lifting 100lb tanks, yard equipment, furniture, building stuff, and the list goes on for my move and home sale, so I got a lot of strength work in, even if it wasn't structured.

Nutrition
I did pretty well with nutrition this week. I did horrible logging it, but I maintained good eating habits and even lost some weight! I hope to continue this progress, but hopefully with being more consistent at logging my food.

Final Thoughts
Overall a very successful week, as I wasn't sure I would have any time to workout. Next week will be the same. I cannot wait for this to be over.