The best smart gadgets for your workouts

These days your mobile phone will provide a lot of the data support you need for your workouts. Whether it be consulting and ticking off workouts saved in your calendar or using the GPS tracker for walks, runs or rides, your trusty phone can do a lot.

For greater data acquisition wearable tech like a smart watch can provide you with more detail about your workout. I use a Garmin 645 Music to track runs, rides and kayaking. Having a wrist-based heart rate for evaluation of effort and intensity zones is useful. It also tracks cadence and other repetitive movement patterns, and very handily plays music, storing up to 500 songs plus podcasts/ebooks, connecting to bluetooth earphones for your listening pleasure.

I also you use a Stryd footpod for advanced analytics about running form, but this is beyond the scope or interest of most runners.

Some days, wearable tech can just be ditched entirely, and you go out without the interference of data, just enjoying the world in all its natural and built beauty.