New MIO Alpha Heart Rate Watch Works Great with MapMyFitness Apps
Posted on January 29th, 2013 in Blog. Congrats to Liz Dickenson and the team at MIO on their amazing new product, the MIO Alpha watch.
This tremendous innovation is notable for a few reasons, but here are a couple that stand out:
1.) This product was a smashing success on Kickstarter, and a pretty rare case of an innovative piece of complex hardware that was crowdfunded and actually brought to market in a rapid fashion.
2.) For years, the fitness tech industry has been graced by sightings of the sasquatch – that is, the elusive pursuit of heart rate monitoring off-the-chest. Often talked about, scarcely seen, and never fully developed. Finally MIO succeeded in launching a quality, comfortable watch, and that’s impressive!
But the best part? The watch works perfectly with the new versions of the MapMyFitness iOS apps (MapMyRun, MapMyRide, MapMyWalk, MapMyFitness). With our MVP membership you can set up heart rate targets throughout your workout and get audio alerts to keep you in your desired zone.
Afterwards, you can check out time-series graphs of your heart rate, including zone analysis on the web.
At $199, the Alpha is at the upper end of the price range for heart rate sensors, but this reflects the level of innovation and quality of the device.
If you’re new to heart rate training or want to get a screamin’ deal on a great heart rate product, with our new 1 year MVP membership (packed with awesome features on web AND mobile!) included, head on over and pick up one of our MVP device bundles at just $59.99.
2013 looks to be a big year for innovation in fitness sensors, tracking devices, bands and more – at MapMyFitness we’ll continue to do our best to support all of them!
Very disappointed with the alpha watch…. bluetooth capabilities were advertised but it has been 2 weeks after I received the watch and no updates have been released regarding the non existent bluetooth pairing for galaxy S3 and many other phones I’m sure.
Could you use the 1.0 charging cable to chagre the watch? The only place I could seem to find to buy just the cable was from Soleus and it’s 10.00 for the 1.0 cable and it’s 29.99 for the 2.0/3.0 cable! I’m thinking, what’s the difference between the cables to warrant a significant price difference?
I love this article! I was not a rnnuer until I signed up for my first half marathon. I didn’t get hooked until my second race, 16 months later. Now, I can be slightly addicted. I stay motivated with good music, an occasional new running shirt, and signing up for races! If I am training for a race, I have no problem running. If I’m not, it’s really difficult even though I love running.
I know. For some reason, this race has alawys been called the St Leon Race even though it is primarily in St Peters and heads towards Brookville. To change the name might confuse people into thinking it is a different race.
Yes, not very good when there is No galaxy s3 Bluetooth support, they need to create a app, also they sent me out the white watch when I ordered the black one, not happy about that at all then the tell me they would only have the black one in stock 2 weeks later
Great review. can you peasle post the links to your top GPS watch sunder $200..the ones you most strongly recommend. I run 5k-half marathons and my workouts include speed intervals.I want to be able to download my data and was leaning toward getting this device until I read your thorough review about the software and how unreliable and primitive it is. This will be my first GPS watch and with so many options and so many yay and nay sayers (Amazon review a lot) I am stuck in a rut and don’t know the best one for me.
This is a complete mcoreky They took the old watch, cut some holes for the pc connectivity, threw in some generic software and increased the price. With version 3.0 they will take again the same watch, unlock the HR feature, throw in a crappy HR strap and sell it for 200$ By the time it reaches Timex, Garmin etc functionality, it would cost 700-1000$For that level of (bad) quality anything above 70-80$ is a steal
Awesome post! Glad to see it all came together. Thanks for iudcnling so many of our tips! And I love the photos of your kids a great reason to run and a great way to keep it fun. Bonnie recently posted..
It was so great seeing that our paths were crosisng at the same time and a pleasure getting together once again (first the cruise, then DC, now MO when do you come through Alabama?).Your courage to pursue this encourages me to live life differently (better of course!). May each week of your journey be an Epic Adventure!Mr. James
Not along Glendora Mountain Road or Glendora Ridge Road. Once you hit Mt Baldy Village (at the intersection of Glendora Ridge Road and Mt Baldy Road 20 miles in), you have mulitple options for water. In summer, make sure to pack extra water, as this climb can get quite warm.A useful resource is this cycling water stops map:
I love that ride! Getting up to Baldy Village is fun. The section above Baldy Village is rellay tough for me and I seem to attacking it in stages the first time, I got 2 miles into the climb. The second time, I got 3 miles up. I should gat that last mile next time up :0)Love the blog.
GREAT review. I have the GPS 1.0 and I solery miss the ability to download the data. I’m still on the fence about buying the USB 2.0/3.0 charger so that I can retrieve the data off of my 1.0 watch. It’s $30 on the Soleus website. Have you confirmed that you can indeed retrieve the data off of the GPS 1.0 watch using the 2.0 watch charger? Anyone have a source for a cheaper yet compatible cable?
Awesome Christina! I really like your attiutde towards training for your race. Not letting the weather or job issues stop you from training, even when others might consider either to be valid excuses to skip a workout is very inspiring. The no excuses’ mentality reflects dedication and tenacity towards reaching your goals that is very admirable!
A couple of blogs ago, we were all tanlkig about Runcations. I am running Boston and never been to the city. Someone please give me a location and nice hotel to stay at. Sticking around for a couple of days and probably wont get a car so want to be close. Thanks