Optical heart rate monitoring is a technique that has been around for decades, but it's only recently that the technology has been viable for use during exercise. The Optical Heart Rate Monitoring works reasonably well most of the time, but there are enough problems to limit its viability.7.3 Score Breakdown with a Stryd Footpod.7.2 Score Breakdown with a Standard Footpod.3 TomTom Cardio Runner Heart Rate Graphs.See Watches for Ultrarunning for more details. The TomTom is not a good choice for ultrarunners, as its battery life is too short. If you get your Cadence right, many other things naturally fall into place. What's my cadence? Cadence is one of the most critical and often overlooked aspects of running.
(This does seem ironic from a company that specializes in GPS navigation devices.) Where am I? The TomTom has no navigation features.Without the ability to display current Pace From A Footpod while getting all other data from GPS, the TomTom can't answer this question. Because of the nature of GPS, watches that rely on GPS signal alone tend to have serious problems with current pace. How fast am I running? Knowing how fast you're running can be a nice to know, or it can be vital for your training or race performance.How far did I run? This is the most basic question, and the TomTom now has reasonable GPS Accuracy (see below for details.).For a simple evaluation of a GPS watch, I look at how well it can answer some basic questions: I think that the TomTom is only worth considering if you really want the built in optical heart rate monitoring, otherwise look elsewhere. You're paying a premium over some of the better watches, especially as the optical HRM does not work well. Other than that, the TomTom does not inspire, though with the latest firmware it's fairly respectable and easy to use.
The key feature of the TomTom Cardio Runner is its Optical Heart Rate Monitoring, rather than requiring a separate chest strap. The TomTom cardio runner, showing the green LEDs that provide optical heart rate monitoring.