5 Useful Tips Every Suunto Run User Should Know
When I tested the Suunto Run , I found it to be a delightful little watch. It’s lightweight, has a large, bright screen, and offers many of the same features as budget Garmin models, but at a much better price. It’s certainly one of the best running watches available, typically priced around $200. Here are some of the best tips and tricks I’ve found for getting the most out of this watch—starting with a hard-to-find solution to one of the most annoying standard features.
Set your Suunto Run watch to show split times in miles instead of kilometers.
Even if you set the unit to imperial units (miles and so on), the Suunto Run will still count laps and beep after every kilometer. When I first tested it, I searched in vain for a setting that would allow me to switch it to miles or at least disable automatic laps. I couldn’t find one. Judging by the number of people asking this question on the Suunto forums and Reddit, I’m not the only one with this issue. Supposedly, automatic laps can be disabled in the settings, but I checked the “Training Settings” section and didn’t find such an option. I simply resigned myself to the beeps after every kilometer. (Five miles is eight kilometers, for example—a fact I’m now all too familiar with.)
But it turns out there’s a setting to change automatic lap counting. It can be found either in the app or on the watch itself, but either way, the trick is to select a workout type (such as “Running” or “Trail Running” ) and then, instead of going to “Workout Settings,” select “Free Workout.” This is the mode you typically use when running, and that’s where you’ll find “Automatic Lap Count ,” which is set to 0.62 miles by default. Change this to 1.00 miles or turn it off as you see fit. To change automatic lap counting, you’ll have to go into the settings for each workout individually. I wish there was a more general setting, but at least there’s a workaround.
Place the stopwatch at the top of your widget list and launch it with a single swipe.
Every watch has a stopwatch function, but it’s often difficult to access (or requires programming and memorizing a button combination). However, Suunto offers something special: you can add a stopwatch directly to your widget list. So, all you have to do is swipe up from the bottom of the watch screen. These widgets typically display things like how many steps you’ve taken today, how you slept, what the weather is like, or when the sun will set. But you can also add a stopwatch, and I highly recommend it.
When viewing your widgets, tap the top button (it’ll be marked with a pencil icon). Here you can add new widgets to the list or rearrange them. Add a stopwatch and, for convenience, place it right at the top. Now you can start the stopwatch with a simple swipe and tap. And best of all, you can exit the stopwatch screen, and the next time you open your widgets, you’ll see the stopwatch time displayed in real time on its widget. It’s a very handy little feature.
Press and hold the top button to change your running type without starting a new workout.
This is another feature found in most running watches, but Suunto has made it so accessible that you’ll find yourself using it all the time. If you’re running on the road ( Running activity type) and decide to end your run on the trail ( Trail Running activity type), you can switch between the two by holding the top button. After selecting a new activity, your run pauses, and the watch displays how long you spent in transition mode. Press the start button when you’re ready to continue, and Suunto will record the two segments as different parts of the same workout.
This is convenient because Suunto offers many different activity types with slightly different data screens and settings. If your trail run gets hilly, you might prefer the Vertical Run activity to get more power zone data during climbs. Or perhaps you’d prefer to simply switch to Hike , which I’ve done several times during this brutal heat wave. You can also create custom activity types if you want even more control over your data screens and settings.
Calibrate your altimeter and set storm alerts so you’re never caught off guard by rain.
One of the interesting features of many Suunto watches is the ability to alert you to approaching storms. This is possible thanks to the built-in barometer/altimeter, which measures atmospheric pressure. In stable weather, changes in pressure indicate an ascent or descent. However, if the pressure drops sharply, it may indicate an approaching storm. To enable storm alerts, go to “Settings,” then “Outdoors,” and turn on storm alerts .
In this menu, you can ensure your barometer is calibrated. Also in the Outdoors menu, you can select Altimeter & Barometer , and then you’ll have the option to either set your altitude or calibrate your altitude automatically . Automatic calibration uses GPS readings to check the altimeter’s accuracy. However, if you know your current altitude from a map, you can set it manually.
Create a “points of interest” library of your favorite hiking spots.
Suunto makes it surprisingly easy to save points of interest and navigate to them without much fuss. I use these “POIs,” as the watch calls them, to mark interesting or useful spots in my local park. We’re lucky enough to have dozens of kilometers of trails in a small area, and I can’t keep track of everything. For example, I mark water taps so I can find them the next time my pack runs out. I also like to mark places I might want to return to in the future—say, if I see a place I think my child would enjoy hiking.
Suunto offers a wider library of point-of-interest (POI) types than other watch brands. Beyond the obvious—water bodies, campsites, parked cars—you can also conduct detailed reconnaissance for hunting, fishing, foraging, or wildlife viewing. Built-in POI types let you mark spots where a deer likely rubbed its antlers, where you saw marine mammals, or where you spotted mushrooms. You can save your current location as a POI directly from your watch or plan your trip in advance by saving POIs on a map in the Suunto mobile app.
Today I used this feature to navigate to a favorite scenic viewpoint. You simply need to specify a point of interest (POI) as a navigation destination in your trail run or other activity settings. There’s also a navigation app available at the bottom of the widget list (select “All apps “), so you can navigate even if you don’t have any activities running.