This year, I aim to run three Spartan races in an effort to kick up my fitness journey a notch. It’s a journey that’s taken me five years to get to, and while I’ve slowly climbed the ranks among my fellow Spartans over the years, I still have a long way to go before I ever consider the possibility of making the podium.
Sunday Runday
Sunday Runday is a weekly column that talks about the world of wearables, apps, and fitness tech related to running and health. Normally written by Android Central Wearables Editor Michael Hicks, this week is a guest post by Android Central Senior Editor Nicholas Sutrich, who has been on a fitness journey since 2020 when he tried CrossFit for the first time.
Regardless if I ever podium, though, the key to improvement is through training. Quantifying my results with a smartwatch is extraordinarily helpful, but with the variety of obstacles and types of fitness found throughout a Spartan race, which watch is the best way to track things?
I turned to two of my favorites from last year, the OnePlus Watch 3 and Google Pixel Watch 3, both of which I’ve regularly turned to because of their fitness-tracking accuracy and detailed stats. And while I prefer the smaller size of the 41mm Pixel Watch 3, the battery life of the OnePlus Watch 3 is an even better plus.
After I finished the race, I compared my stats using a combination of tools. Strava pulled the data off my OnePlus Watch 3, while Google’s Fitbit does all the work for the Pixel. All of those were dumped into a web-based tool called Quantified Self, which makes it easy to directly compare stats and GPS-tracked maps at a glance. Now, for the results.
Let’s get Spartan
If you’ve never attended a Spartan Race before, here’s the gist. Spartan Races come in three lengths: Sprint (5K, 20+ obstacles), Super (10K, 25+ obstacles), Beast (21K, 30+ obstacles), and Ultra (50K, 60+ obstacles). Obstacles are a variety of challenges that include anything from rope climbs to crawling under barbed wire, angled walls that you have to run or climb over, and even carrying heavy objects for a set length.
To date, I’ve only run Sprints and have no intention of running longer. I’m not Michael Hicks, and I can’t run 20-mile races, but I have participated in Ninja Warrior competitions in the past, so obstacles are my strong suit. The varied nature of a Spartan Race makes it tough to measure with a watch that’s built for running, but they still provide a good measure of data to work with for comparison.
Normally, I run Spartan Races in my home state of North Carolina, where things are a lot hillier, but I decided to try one while on vacation in the much flatter (and hotter) state of Florida.
| Category | OnePlus Watch 3 | Google Pixel Watch 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Distance | 5.26 Km | 5.33 Km |
| Pace | 11:37 min/km | 11:05 min/km |
| Ascent / Decent | 0 m / 0 m | 35 m / 50 m |
| Avg. / max heart rate | 177 bpm / 195 bpm | 177 bpm / 200 bpm |
| Running power average / max | 93 W / 532 W | N/A |
| Calories | 852 kcal | 864 kcal |
| Steps | 7,049 | 7,042 |
| Cadence | 117 spm | 112 spm |
| Stride length | 0.74m | 0.74m |
| Vertical oscillation | 7.7cm | 8.1cm |
While both watches are pretty even keel across the board, a few stats stood out to me. First off is the elevation change, where the OnePlus Watch 3 seemed to think Florida is a lot flatter than it actually is.
While the majority of the circuit through Burt Aaronson South County Regional Park in Boca Raton is extraordinarily flat by my North Carolinian standards, several obstacles were above or below the elevation of most of the rest of the course.
The bucket carry, for instance, had me trek up a man-made hill that was a few dozen feet high, while another obstacle had us wading through a pond that we had to navigate down a hill to reach.
Looking at the graph, it’s clear something malfunctioned on the OnePlus Watch 3. Whether this was a bug or something else, I’m not sure, but I know that I didn’t get accurate altitude information from the OnePlus Watch 3. I’ve never seen it do this outside of this one race (of course), and I’ve taken it hiking several times.
I know this was a fluke though, because when I look at the rest of the data, both watches are impressively neck-and-neck. This is impressive to me because it confirms my thoughts in my OnePlus Watch 3 initial impressions where I said that OnePlus fixed all the issues I had with the OnePlus Watch 2, namely giving it accurate fitness tracking capabilities.
OnePlus outfitted the OnePlus Watch 3 with a more precise dual-frequency GPS, and it shows when you zoom into the map. In the map below, the OnePlus Watch 3 is orange, while the Pixel Watch 3 is blue.
I know from running the course that I wasn’t running around as erratically as the Pixel Watch 3 suggests. For instance, I know I didn’t run under the trees on the right side of the image. I stuck to the path as the OnePlus Watch 3’s track shows.
Likewise, the strange loop you see on the left side from the Pixel Watch 3 didn’t happen like it shows. That was a 20-foot rope wall that I had to scale, then flip around and make my way back down. The OnePlus Watch 3 has a similar circular motion to the path, but it’s much more inline with my actual movements.
Which is best?
Looking at the rest of the bevy of available stats — it’s seriously overwhelming if you don’t know what these mean — it’s clear both watches are close enough to each other in tracking to call this a tie. Even the heart rate was dead on, showing a 177 bpm average for the duration of the hour-long race.
For me, the choice between the two can be broken down into two main points. Want a smaller smartwatch that’s extra comfortable to wear? The Google Pixel Watch 3 is the best choice for that right now, but a smaller OnePlus Watch 3 is on the way that will surely challenge it.
If you want a watch with excellent fitness-tracking capabilities and a battery that’ll last you an average of 4 days on a single charge — yes, even with regular fitness and GPS tracking — the OnePlus Watch 3 is a no-brainer. This is OnePlus’s best year yet, and it’s great to see the company improving its products in meaningful ways that mean you won’t have to sacrifice something when choosing them. I guess “Never Settle” is back, huh?
Gets over half a week on a single charge without losing all the great Wear OS apps and features you love thanks to the OnePlus Watch 3’s brilliant dual-CPU and dual-OS architecture. It’s a huge win for smartwatch fans and a great value for fitness-minded folks.
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