This , I goal to run three Spartan races in an effort to kick up my health journey a notch. It is a journey that is taken me 5 years to get to, and whereas I’ve slowly climbed the ranks amongst my fellow Spartans over time, I nonetheless have a lengthy option to go earlier than I ever contemplate the opportunity of making the rostrum.

Regardless if I ever podium, although, the important thing to enchancment is thru coaching. Quantifying my outcomes with a smartwatch is very useful, however with the number of obstacles and forms of health discovered all through a Spartan race, which watch is the easiest way to trace issues?

I turned to 2 of my favorites from final , the OnePlus Watch 3 and Google Pixel Watch 3, each of which I’ve frequently turned to due to their fitness-tracking accuracy and detailed stats. And whereas I choose the smaller measurement of the 41mm Pixel Watch 3, the battery lifetime of the OnePlus Watch 3 is a fair higher plus.

After I completed the race, I in contrast my stats utilizing a mix of instruments. Strava pulled the info off my OnePlus Watch 3, whereas Google’s Fitbit does all of the work for the Pixel. All of these have been dumped right into a web-based instrument known as Quantified Self, which makes it straightforward to immediately evaluate stats and GPS-tracked maps at a look. Now, for the outcomes.

Let’s get Spartan

In the event you’ve by no means attended a Spartan Race earlier than, this is the gist. Spartan Races are available in three lengths: Dash (5K, 20+ obstacles), Tremendous (10K, 25+ obstacles), Beast (21K, 30+ obstacles), and Extremely (50K, 60+ obstacles). Obstacles are quite a lot of challenges that embody something from rope climbs to crawling underneath barbed wire, angled partitions that you need to run or climb over, and even carrying heavy objects for a set size.

So far, I’ve solely run Sprints and don’t have any intention of working longer. I am not Michael Hicks, and I can not run 20-mile races, however I’ve participated in Ninja Warrior competitions prior to now, so obstacles are my robust swimsuit. The various nature of a Spartan Race makes it robust to measure with a watch that is constructed for working, however they nonetheless present measure of information to work with for comparability.

Usually, I run Spartan Races in my dwelling state of North Carolina, the place issues are rather a lot hillier, however I made a decision to strive one whereas on trip within the a lot flatter (and warmer) state of Florida.

Whereas each watches are fairly even keel throughout the board, a couple of stats stood out to me. First off is the elevation change, the place the OnePlus Watch 3 appeared to suppose Florida is rather a lot flatter than it really is.

Whereas nearly all of the circuit via Burt Aaronson South County Regional Park in Boca Raton is very flat by my North Carolinian requirements, a number of obstacles have been above or under the elevation of a lot of the remainder of the course.

The bucket carry, for example, had me trek up a man-made hill that was a couple of dozen ft excessive, whereas one other impediment had us wading via a pond that we needed to navigate down a hill to succeed in.

Trying on the graph, it is clear one thing malfunctioned on the OnePlus Watch 3. Whether or not this was a bug or one thing else, I am undecided, however I do know that I did not get correct altitude info from the OnePlus Watch 3. I’ve by no means seen it do that exterior of this one race (after all), and I’ve taken it climbing a number of occasions.

I do know this was a fluke although, as a result of after I have a look at the remainder of the info, each watches are impressively neck-and-neck. That is spectacular to me as a result of it confirms my ideas in my OnePlus Watch 3 initial impressions the place I stated that OnePlus mounted all the problems I had with the OnePlus Watch 2, particularly giving it correct health monitoring capabilities.

OnePlus outfitted the OnePlus Watch 3 with a extra exact dual-frequency GPS, and it reveals once you zoom into the map. Within the map under, the OnePlus Watch 3 is orange, whereas the Pixel Watch 3 is blue.

I do know from working the course that I wasn’t working round as erratically because the Pixel Watch 3 suggests. As an illustration, I do know I did not run underneath the bushes on the suitable facet of the picture. I caught to the trail because the OnePlus Watch 3’s observe reveals.

Likewise, the unusual loop you see on the left facet from the Pixel Watch 3 did not occur prefer it reveals. That was a 20-foot rope wall that I needed to scale, then flip round and make my method again down. The OnePlus Watch 3 has an identical round movement to the trail, but it surely’s way more inline with my precise actions.

Which is greatest?

Taking a look at the remainder of the bevy of accessible stats — it is severely overwhelming if you do not know what these imply — it is clear each watches are shut sufficient to one another in monitoring to name this a tie. Even the center price was useless on, exhibiting a 177 bpm common all through the hour-long race.

For me, the selection between the 2 will be damaged down into two details. Need a smaller smartwatch that is further comfy to put on? The Google Pixel Watch 3 is your best option for that proper now, however a smaller OnePlus Watch 3 is on the way that may absolutely problem it.

If you’d like a watch with wonderful fitness-tracking capabilities and a battery that’ll final you a mean of 4 days on a single cost — sure, even with common health and GPS monitoring — the OnePlus Watch 3 is a no brainer. That is OnePlus’s greatest but, and it is nice to see the corporate bettering its merchandise in significant ways in which imply you will not need to sacrifice one thing when selecting them. I assume “By no means Settle” is again, huh?