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Garmin Made Me Faster. Apple Watch Made Me Love Running Again

Six months of structured training taught me that Garmin and Apple Watch aren’t competing products — they’re built for completely different runners.

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I’m two weeks away from my next PB attempt, and I can’t wait for it to be over.

I’m absolutely shattered.

In the last three months, I’ve suffered a hamstring strain, back injury, and multiple fatigue-related setbacks. Yesterday was my 78th run of 2026, and that’s when I realised:

My Garmin was making me a better runner, but my Apple Watch Ultra might make me happier.

I’m an amateur runner, a slow runner. Someone who fell in love with running later in life.

I’m in my mid-40s and am now running weekly. Since January, I’ve been in training blocks, focusing on improving my 5km time. In the past six months, I’ve taken more than three minutes off my time, which is a decent achievement, no matter the runner's capability.

As I write this, it’s the 165th day of 2026, and yesterday was my 78th run. I’ve run every 2.1 days, despite losing 3 weeks to injury or illness.

The simple reason for this schedule is to improve my running performance metrics. I’m running because I feel that I have to.

Philosophical Differences

Garmin

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Throughout my training plans, I’ve used my Garmin Fenix 8. It’s a fantastic sports watch and an athlete’s dream. It offers more performance metrics than an Apple Watch and, crucially, those metrics are connected in a way Apple’s aren’t.

Garmin acquired the Finnish-based Firstbeat Analytics, a world-leading sports and data science firm focused on sports wearables. This gave Garmin the lead on just about everyone. But the magic happens because all the data points become an ecosystem that informs one another.

Sleep informs readiness, HRV informs readiness and the recommended workout, Training Load informs readiness and training, accumulated distance informs Running Tolerance, which informs Daily Suggested Workouts. It all feeds into and curates the direction of travel of your current and progressive fitness requirements.

It’s why athletes love Garmin. It’s forward-thinking, acting as a coach based on your own physiological signals.

This, however, instilled in me a mindset: I must do X to improve Y. I was constantly coached by my watch, always focused on improvement.

A Garmin is never passive.

It’s always coaching, always measuring, always evaluating.

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I saw my Race Predictors and Endurance Score improve, and I saw the real fruit of my training.

Sounds positive until you realise that the minute you don’t push as hard or you have to take a few days off due to injury or illness, the trends reverse, creating alarm and frustration.

A Garmin is exceptional for the performance-driven athlete.

The irony is that Garmin’s greatest strength became my problem. The watch was doing exactly what it was designed to do.

Apple Watch

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The Apple Watch is an exceptionally capable smartwatch and fitness tracker. Some have suggested it has a superior optical heart rate sensor, and even its GPS is more accurate than the Fenix’s. But Apple’s philosophy is very different to Garmin’s.

Apple wants to encourage you to improve your health, but at your own pace. It’s not about performance with Apple; it’s about doing the daily basics. Encouraging the wearer to move more, exercise, and to get good sleep, all of which will ultimately set you on the right path.

Its exercise ring is not interested in whether all your exercise is walking or completing Norwegian 4x4s; it views exercise as exercise. Garmin wants your training to be a balance of low aerobic, high aerobic, and anaerobic work.

Apple applauds you for doing something. It doesn’t care if you improve your VO2 Max or aerobic capacity; it applauds you for showing up.

And sometimes, that’s all I want.

The right tool for the right person

I’m fortunate to own an Apple Watch Ultra 3 and a Garmin Fenix 8. They’re both fantastic, but it’s the Garmin which has been on my wrist.

As I come to the end of this training block at the end of June, I’m going to switch back to the AWU3 until mid-August, when I start a half-marathon plan.

I’ve determined that Garmin is the best watch for me when I’m in training mode. It’ll focus my mind and coach my body. It’ll balance my training needs based on my goal. It’ll inform me whether the training is having the desired impact and pivot me if it’s not.

But when I’m not training, I want to run for enjoyment.

The Apple Watch has enough features to monitor progress. Training Load is calculated through accumulated effort. The more effort, the higher the load. It’s enough to inform you how your week compares to the previous 28 days to tell you: are you doing less, about the same, or more, to keep you honest.

Garmin turned enjoyment into a chore

I’m a huge fan of the Garmin; it has been the single biggest influence on my running, because information leads to progress. But despite this, it’s turned my love for the sport into a chore. I’m running not because the sun is shining and I want to be outside, but because my running plan dictates it, and because if I don’t, I know the Training Status will go from Productive to Maintaining or worse.

I complete a run, having given everything in the tank for that particular run, dripping with sweat when I return, only to be told it had no benefit on my training because it was too fast, or not fast enough.

Is that a good thing? Well, I suppose it depends on where you are in your fitness journey, but by wearing it, I discovered a truth:

Garmin will make you think like an athlete, where just taking part isn’t good enough

Training with Apple allows you to run how you want, without the distraction of technical data

When I’m training for an event, I may want that technical data, but for the rest of the year, the Apple Watch gives me what I need.

Staying in the perpetual mindset of an athlete has robbed me of the original enjoyment of the sport I fell in love with. I want to run to benefit from the fitness gains, but maintain the freedom which creates enjoyment.

My Garmin helped me become a runner. The Apple Watch Ultra reminds me of why I love it.