Polar’s Vantage V & M multi-sport watches once again expand functionality with the latest Free over-the-air firmware update. With more capable hardware offering continued potential for expansion, Polar is putting a lot of development effort into boosting their watches’ capabilities now adding their own FitSpark customized daily training guide, a new real-time Race Pace goal tool for optimizing cross-training efforts while running, and Strava Live Segments for cycling & running…
Polar Vantage watch FitSpark, Race Pace & Strava Live updates
This fall Polar already updated their flagship Vantage wrist-based heart rate multi-sport GPS smart watches, adding improved satellite tracking, overnight training recovery, and sleep stage & quality tracking.
We’ve been taking ad-vantage (sorry) of that Vantage M tech to make better sense of training and recovery ever since. It has given me personally, a better sense of how my riding efforts are stacking up – more of a gentle reminder to chill out or push harder, than a real coach’s insight. And the sleep quality tracking has helped me quantify the effect of working or riding hard late in the evening, and even the effects of hard efforts in hot weather on my sleep.
Now on top of those are over-the-air updates to existing Vantage M & Vantage V users, Polar adds even more new free features.
FitSpark is Polar’s personalized daily training guide that tailors personalized workouts to you based on your activity & recovery history so that you can meet fitness goals without burning out. The “adaptive guidance” is based on the metrics that the Vantage M & V track: fitness level, training history & Nightly Recharge. The new update will suggest daily cardio & strength training exercises, as well as other performance categories with personalized targets that it thinks will optimize your general training.
Race Pace is as simple as live-tracking your runs to help you maintain a steady pace to meet a target time for the running distance that you set. You just pick your ideal pace, and the Vantage M or V will show in realtime how you are doing – whether on target, ahead or behind your preset pace.
Lastly and realistically most important to us cyclists, Strava Live Segments lets you compete with yourself & other in real time out riding on road or trail. I have been tracking all of my rides on the more basic Vantage M.
But now, limited just to the more sophisticated (& more expensive) Vantage V, you also get Strava Live Segments on your wrist. The Polar watch will show: realtime effort data on the segment, where the segment starts, distance remaining, and if you are ahead or behind the leading time.
Polar Vantage pricing & availability
Strava Live Segments are only available on the $500/500€ Polar Vantage V. The new FitSpark & Race Pace are available on both the more expensive V and the more affordable $280/280€ Polar Vantage M as well.
