New Triathlon/Multisport Watch: Suunto Spartan Trainer

After about three weeks of carrying around my Suunto Ambit because it had another broken wrist band I bought a Suunto Spartan Trainer (steel). DC Rainmaker calls it "a full triathlon watch for $279."  Of course his review is top notch and of course I read through it before making the purchase. As well as his reviews of the Spartan Ultra and Sport.  All through watches were appealing and in the end the budget model was the fit for me.  There is a fairly good price jump between the trainer and the Ultra with some fairly minor differences in my mind.

Of the extras I missed out on by buying the Trainer model, the lower quality screen graphics and inability to customize the brightness may be the most serious, although I've only had the watch for one day and am still getting used to using it.  Other differences include the mineral crystal glass versus Saphire in the Ultra model, shorter battery life in the Trainer, no touch screen with the Trainer model, and no compass feature on the Trainer.

Suunto Spartan Trainer in awesome steel

Had a great mountain biking ride with a friend a few days ago.  Not only my first MTB ride in many a moon but the first outing here in Utah.  In addition to getting some street grinding cardio conditioning in we hit a portion of the Shoreline Trail.  We're prepping up for the Xterra Pan Am Championship triathlon coming up in September.  Stoked for the off-road tri!  Xterras are always a blast. I've done Richmond and one in Hawaii and neither one disappointed so I'm stoked to be off-road with them again.

It's nice this time around that I live nearby and will be able to go pre-ride the course! Looking forward to nailing that down and going for a ride out there, will be awesome to be racing on the course having already ridden it-I've always been jealous of the folks that have been able to do that.

Suunto map cutout of our Shoreline Trail ride