The Suunto Ambit 2R: Up Close and Personal

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Me and My Suunto

It’s been a year now since I switched to Suunto in measuring my runs.  It took me to a different level.  It took me to my first marathon and stayed with me towards the longer road races and trail runs.  With about 2 to 3 races per month the past year, I can say that I’ve made the most of my Suunto.   While I incorporate some bike workouts in my routine, it would always be running that would occupy most of my training schedule.  Having a run specific Suunto Ambit in the Ambit 2R makes tracking down my progress easier.

The Baby Ambit is Here!

Suunto Ambit 2R is a run specific GPS Watch.  Let me start with the look.  Suunto Ambit 2R does not look like your regular sports watch as it can be an everyday watch.  The one you can wear while your exploring the outdoors or even when you’re rocking a formal wear on events.  It’s light on the wrist, compact and loaded by a lot of features.

The next part about the Ambit is customization which you can do using movescount (www.movescount.com).  I choose to have the distance as my key display in the middle with the running time on top.  I have added cadence, heart rate and pace for the bottom display which I check alternately.  I used the pace and cadence to monitor my current pace while I check my heart rate often especially when I’m starting to get tired as it’s a sign that I’m exceeding my heart rate limits.  I also added the run-walk app for my intervals on another view.  You can setup different combination of views depending on what info you need. The different views can be accessed by pressing the middle button (Next) while working out.

It’s Time to Run with the Suunto Ambit 2R

Once you’re done customizing the settings and synchronizing it with your watch, you are now ready to Run.  In your first try, you have to pair your Suunto heart rate monitor with your watch. Please note that Suunto is also compatible to other Ant+ Heart Rate Monitors.  You then choose your desired exercise whether it’s a run on road, trail, track or indoors.  GPS detection is really fast and would just take a few seconds.  Now, you’re ready to run.

The good thing about the Ambit 2R is there is now a cadence sensor based on arms sway without needing a foot pod.  This is really helpful as it gives you real time update on your cadence as sometimes we tend to slow down.  This is also good since you don’t have to invest in a separate cadence sensor.  I set up cadence as one of my default views and try to keep it at 90 steps per minute.  I check on my pace from time to time though I also get pace alert every kilometer.  The last thing, I am watching is my heart rate as I try to keep myself in the aerobic level as much as I can especially since I am doing more long runs than short ones.  When I am starting to get tired, I go to the heart rate view too as it just means that I’m exceeding my limits and it’s time to slow down.

The Suunto Ambit 2R can also be used for indoor running as it uses Fusedspeed technology that approximates the actual pace based on wrist movement.  This also help measuring more accurately the distance when GPS signal is slow outdoors.  I remember I totally lost my focus after entering a tunnel in Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon and there was no GPS signal.  This won’t happen with Suunto since it’s using the fusedspeed technology as it would shift in measuring distance based on wrist movement when GPS signal is down.

Another thing that I liked running with Suunto is that you can have customized apps in your watch.  I frequently use the run walk app since I do run walk sequences especially for long runs.  I also used the ghost runner who runs at a pace you preset to meet your target time.  At any time during the race you can compare your progress with that of the ghost runner.  There are a lot more apps to try that can help you enjoy your run even better.

The navigation features set Suunto apart as you can run a route or point of interest you’ve designed in movescount.  Ever tried running in a new place or trail wherein after several turns, you end up losing your way?  Well, I do that a lot but with the navigation feature, you can track back your route from one waypoint to another.  This is one advantage of Suunto if you feel you’re already missing you can do a deep press on the next button and then it goes to the navigation option.  Just choose trackback, allow the compass and the GPS to synchronize a few minutes and you have a display that shows you the total distance to start or to each waypoint and the arrow telling you were to go. Getting lost is never an option.

Once you’re done with your workout, you just simply stop the work out and store it.  You can access the recap of the run from your watch.  You can get detailed metrics once you upload the workout to movescount.  So after the run, you can now analyze areas where you can improve on or compare against other runs. Movescount will also keep a database of your runs so you can see your progress.