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Earlier this month, I strapped on two different Garmin watches to race a 10K—a mid-range model on one wrist, a premium one on the other—to see how they stacked up. This time, I branched outside of Garmin's ecosystem. For the Brooklyn Half-Marathon, I wore the Garmin Forerunner 970 ($749.99) on my right wrist and the Amazfit Cheetah 2 Pro ($449.99) on my left, pitting one of the most trusted running watches in the game against Amazfit's more affordable and most ambitious claim to the long-distance running space. Here's how it went.

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It's a tie between the Garmin 970 and the Amazfit Cheetah 2 Pro on GPS and core metrics

A quick caveat: I had a slightly botched start to the race—nothing catastrophic, but enough that you should give a little wiggle room when comparing the exact times and distances between the two watches and my official results. For the record, my official race time was 2:04:49 at a 9:32 per mile pace. The Amazfit logged 13.23 miles in 2:04:26 at a 9:24 per mile pace. The Garmin recorded 13.22 miles in 2:04:20, also at a 9:24 per mile pace. Considering the chaotic energy of the starting line (and my own user error pressing "start workout"), both watches performed impressively close to each other, and reasonably close to my official chip time.

If the only thing you care about is whether a watch will accurately track your distance, pace, and heart rate during a race, both of these watches get the job done. The GPS readings were nearly identical, and the heart rate data was consistent across both devices throughout the race itself. The Amazfit had my average heart rate at 166 bpm with a max of 192 bpm. The Garmin entry matches that exactly. For the metrics that matter most on race day, there's no meaningful gap between them.

This makes me wonder if perhaps I was a bit too harsh on the Amazfit Cheetah 2 Pro in my initial review. As a racing watch, it reliably delivers. It's also notably lightweight, which is a major consideration for long distances.

Why I'm sticking to my Garmin over the Amazfit Cheetah 2 Pro

All that said, there are some small ways the Forerunner 970 pulls ahead for me. Garmin's display is just a little more visible and easier to read at a glance, which matters when you're breathing hard and trying to catch your pace mid-stride without breaking form. The "raise wrist" unlock feature is also noticeably more responsive on the Garmin. Again, these are small things, but they feel big when you're trying to check your splits in the middle of a race.

And then there are the running dynamics. I've included the stats screens from both watches' companion apps here. Even people who find Garmin Connect a little cumbersome to navigate (and plenty of devoted Garmin users do) will appreciate the sheer depth of what's there once you find what you're looking for. As you can see below, I even have step speed loss data, thanks to the HRM 600 chest strap. Stay tuned for my upcoming post that goes more in-depth with the running insights that chest strap unlocks.

Amazfit stats in the Zepp app. Credit: Meredith Dietz

Garmin stats in Garmin Connect. Credit: Meredith Dietz

As a racing watch, the Amazfit Cheetah 2 Pro is perfectly capable. But as a training watch for someone seriously preparing for a full marathon (which is how Amazfit is marketing it), the value proposition doesn't impress me. Let's take the 970 out of the equation, since it is $300 more expensive than the Amazfit Cheetah 2 Pro. I still keep asking myself what type of long-distance runner would choose Amazfit at this price over more established brands. The running ecosystem around it—the training tools, the recovery insights, the daily coaching features—just doesn't stand out against the competition, like the Garmin Forerunner 570 ($449.99) or Coros' Vertix 2S ($699). And for the kind of runner who is putting in the weekly mileage to race a half or full marathon, those daily training features probably matter more than race-day accuracy.

Ultimately, both watches here tracked this half-marathon with accuracy I'd feel confident racing with again. For data nerds, Garmin is tough to beat (especially if you have the HRM 600 chest strap to see your running economy and step speed loss). The Amazfit Cheetah 2 Pro surprised me on race day, and I think I owe it a warmer review than the one I initially gave it.

My fellow Lifehacker writer Beth Skwarecki is a weightlifter. I'm a marathon runner. Together, we make one reasonably competent Hyrox athlete—and in a little over one week, we're going to find out if that's enough. Beth and I are competing together in a Hyrox doubles race on May 29. It's something of a joint experiment to see just how little training you can get away with before showing up to one of these things. Hopefully, we will each bring our respective strengths to the competition, cover for the other's weaknesses, and survive. 

But before we're put to the test, let's take a look at what proper Hyrox prep looks like, and the bare minimum you can (probably) get away with if you want to show up to a competition without a ton of training.

What is Hyrox, exactly?

Beth goes into more depth elsewhere, but here’s a quick primer on Hyrox. In brief, it's a running race combined with functional workout stations, repeated eight times. You run 1 km, hit a workout station, run another 1 km, hit another station, and so on. The stations include activities like sled pushes, rowing, burpee broad jumps, walking lunges, and wall balls. While each station may sound manageable on its own, they become far more difficult when your legs have already been tired out through multiple rounds.

You can compete in Hyroc solo, in doubles, or as a relay team. Naturally, your strategy will depend on which format you’re attempting. For doubles specifically, both athletes run together, but you can split the functional movements however you want. That's where smart planning can make a real difference, and where Beth and I are currently scheming to the best of our ability. 

What does Hyrox training actually look like?

You can sign up for a Hyrox-style class at your local gym and get a great hybrid workout without ever joining an official race. "A regular Hyrox class gives you a taste of the format and builds general fitness for the event," says Elaine Cotter, head trainer and manager at an F45 gym in Brooklyn. "A dedicated training plan is more structured and performance-focused—including specific running workouts, both endurance and interval focused, strength progression, race simulations, pacing, and recovery. Taking some classes here and there means 'I want to be ready.' A dedicated training plan means 'I want to race this well.'"

If you're aiming to genuinely compete—that is, to push your time and finish strong—Cotter recommends starting at least 12 weeks out, and ideally, give yourself 16 weeks. That's enough runway to build a running base, develop muscular endurance across all the stations, and reduce injury risk. But what if you don't have 12 weeks? What if you have, say, one week?

Can you do Hyrox without training at all?

What’s the bare minimum of training a Hyrox athlete can hypothetically get away with? Well, in theory, "anyone with any running or strength training experience can complete a Hyrox," Cotter says. "Does that mean you may have to walk some of it or really take your time to recover in certain parts? Probably—but that's okay."

Unlike Crossfit (to which it is constantly compared), Hyrox is fundamentally a running race. "The run is the limiting factor for most people, and it takes up the most time in the race," Cotter says. "So at bare minimum, you should be able to confidently run an 8K [about five miles] without getting super winded. Even a 10K [6.2 miles]...will help simulate the general endurance needed." Strength matters too, and you should be familiar enough with the movements to perform them safely. But at the end of the day, the run is where most people lose time and hit their wall.

That said, Hyrox is far from a road race. You're doing things like heavy wall balls or sled pulls and then immediately going into a run. Running on such heavy legs is “the wildest feeling," Cotter says, "and it happens the entire time during the race." Practicing that sort of transition should be a priority leading up to race day.

Can you prepare for Hyrox with studio classes alone?

This one is relevant to Beth and me, since we've each taken about four or five Hyrox-specific classes in the lead-up to our race. Can our class attendance substitute for a dedicated 12-week training plan? Well, sort of—but only if you're also running.

"F45 classes and Hyrox-focused training are awesome for building the strength, endurance, and engine needed for the race," Cotter says, "but in a class setting, you aren't necessarily getting the running required. If you are just taking classes with no running outside of that, I fear you will find the race quite challenging."

Luckily, I was independently training for a half-marathon before we started this Hyrox journey, so I feel solid about my cardio. I know Beth has been prioritizing her runs the past few weeks, too. Anyone relying purely on studio classes without additional running should temper their expectations for race day.

How long should you taper before a Hyrox race?

I’m no stranger to taper madness. Especially if you know you've undertrained, the temptation is to keep cramming right up until race day. Unfortunately, that’s almost always a mistake. "The trap people fall into is thinking 'I'm underprepared, so I need to cram fitness until the last second,'" Cotter says. "But realistically, in the final week or two you're not building much new fitness—you're mostly deciding whether you show up tired or fresh."

Her recommendation for someone who started training late is to lean toward a shorter taper. The focus should be on maintaining confidence and rhythm, rather than gaining fitness. In the final days, aim for shorter sessions of 20–30 minutes with some intensity and running, but avoid anything that will leave your legs sore. "Showing up slightly undertrained but recovered is usually better than showing up technically fitter but cooked."

Her taper guidelines by length:

• 7 days: Ideal for most recreational athletes. 

• 4–5 days: Probably fine, if training volume wasn't super high. 

• 2–3 days: Survivable, but she wouldn't recommend going shorter than this.

The bottom line

If you're starting from scratch and want to do Hyrox well, give yourself 12 to 16 weeks to train, and build up your running base first.  If you're doing a doubles race and already have some general fitness under your belt, you can probably survive on much less—provided you can handle an 8K and you know what you're getting into with the workout stations. (For Beth and me, there’s reason to hope that our complementary weaknesses and strengths will be well-suited to the doubles format. Beth will likely handle more of the heavy strength pieces—sled push, sled pull, lunges—while I keep us moving on the runs.)

The final piece of advice is to have a plan for how you'll split each station before you arrive. Reps of 10? Reps of 5? Splits of 150 meters? Figure it out ahead of time so you're not negotiating mid-station with burning legs—and have the stronger runner finish each station so the person who struggles more on the run can get a little extra rest before the next one. (Plus, sitting down and strategizing is a great hack to distract yourself from the temptation to sabotage your taper.) 

How will all this theory work out in practice? We'll report back soon.

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As the average running watch gets increasingly high-tech, there’s a new normal for pre-race rituals: Staring at your watch the week before a big event, hoping the algorithm has good news for you.

Both Garmin and Strava offer race time predictions, but how accurate are they, really? I put each platform to the test during the Brooklyn Half Marathon on May 16, 2026. Here’s what I experienced, and what I think every runner needs to know about what these tools actually measure.

How Garmin's Race Predictor works

Garmin's Race Predictor has been a fixture on its mid-range and advanced running devices for more than a decade. The feature provides estimated finish times for the 5K, 10K, half marathon, and full marathon, and it works primarily by translating your estimated VO2 max into race pace equivalents. Garmin says it also uses personal data (age, gender) and recent training history to moderate short-term fluctuations.

Of course, this sort of model assumes you'll execute a perfect race. That means optimal pacing, ideal weather, full taper, proper fueling, mental fortitude, and so on. And while Garmin does display a heat or altitude indicator on the VO2 max widget when conditions affect that estimate, that indicator does not carry over into the Race Predictor itself. In this way, it more accurately predicts your aerobic ceiling, and less so your true expected finish time.

On higher-end devices like the Forerunner 965 and 970, Garmin offers a more sophisticated "Course and Weather-Specific Race Predictor" when a race is entered into the Garmin Connect calendar. This can apply course elevation and environmental adjustments, like, say, race-day heat (consider this foreshadowing). 

For context, I ran this past race with my Garmin Forerunner 970 as my primary watch. (I'm currently working on a comparison of race-day performance between the 970 and the Amazfit Cheetah 2 Pro).

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How Strava's performance predictions work

Strava's Performance Predictions feature is newer, having launched in April 2025. Rather than routing everything through a theoretical VO2 max estimate, Strava's system uses AI and “real activity data”—your own and that from other runners. This activity data allegedly includes over 100 data attributes, including a runner's all-time activity history, recent training load, top performances, and the performances of other Strava users with similar training histories.  

Because each race distance is calculated independently, Strava argues its system achieves greater precision at each distance, rather than extrapolating one metric across all of them. The model generates a new prediction after each run upload and requires at least 20 run activities within a rolling 24-week window.

In my circles, most runners find Strava's predictions to be a bit volatile and “random” compared to Garmin's. This makes sense, as someone who has watched my prediction go dramatically up or down after a single bad (or exceptional) run. On the flip side, Strava acknowledges that the model gives significant weight to all-time history, which can cause it to lag for runners returning from injury or coming off a long break. One notable limitation: Performance Predictions do not account for terrain or altitude. They assume a flat course, similar to a track.

What Garmin and Strava predicted before my race 

Garmin predicted: 2:00:51. This would have been a personal record. In retrospect, it offers a useful window into how Garmin's model behaves. The prediction almost certainly reflected strong recent VO2 max readings from training runs, translated into an idealized race-day outcome.

Strava predicted: 2:10:34. This is a much more conservative number, slower even than my last official half marathon from last September (2:05). Given that Strava leans heavily on historical performance data, including all-time best efforts, this prediction may have been anchored to all my easy training run paces, rather than race-effort data, or it may have reflected a training block that didn't include much high-intensity running at half-marathon-specific effort.

The range between the two predictions—nearly ten full minutes!—is itself a story. For context, at a 10K earlier in May, Garmin predicted 54:04, while Strava came in at 58:14, a difference of over four minutes. (That race was ultimately run extra conservatively due to a knee injury, so I have no interesting results for you there.) But the pattern is telling: Garmin skews optimistic, and Strava skews conservative.

My results: Smack dab in the middle

Because this was a real-world test, I want to note the real-world conditions that affected my time. The Brooklyn Half had a gorgeous course advantage baked in, where the full second half is a net downhill. Many runners target personal bests at this race specifically because of it. 

Unfortunately, racing in May weather is unpredictable, and race day was a scorcher compared to training. The temperature was at least ten degrees Fahrenheit warmer than any of my runs in the lead-up—a significant variable for a runner who is quick to fold in the heat. Plus, the downhill portion offered no cloud cover. I made some water station stops in a deliberate effort to manage my heart rate, even at the cost of pace. For any runner who has pushed too hard in the heat before, you know how the mental calculus shifts: finishing healthy outweighs finishing fast.

Credit: Meredith Dietz

My final time was 2:04:49. This number splits the difference between Garmin and Strava in a suspiciously neat way. Garmin's prediction was 3 minutes and 58 seconds too fast. Strava's prediction was 5 minutes and 45 seconds too slow. So, Garmin was the more accurate of the two, but neither prediction was wrong in a way that would cause a runner to make a catastrophically bad pacing decision.

Remember, Garmin's Race Predictor is engineered to tell you what your aerobic system is theoretically capable of under perfect conditions. For short distances like the 5K and 10K, that ceiling and reality could be pretty close. For the half-marathon and marathon, the gap widens—and it widens dramatically when race-day conditions deviate from the calm, cool training runs that shaped your VO2 max estimate. Runners who use Garmin's prediction as a pacing target without accounting for heat, course difficulty, or their own racing readiness risk going out too fast and paying for it in the second half.

Strava's heavy weighting toward historical data and comparable athletes may cause it to underestimate a runner who is currently in strong shape but hasn't recently logged race-effort results for Strava's algorithm to learn from. If you train mostly at easy paces and rarely race, Strava may not have enough signal to recognize your current ceiling. Plus, Strava's own community has noted that predictions can swing substantially based on a single run, which makes it harder to build race-day confidence around a moving target.

The bottom line

Garmin estimates your aerobic potential under ideal conditions; Strava estimates what a runner with your training history has realistically achieved. Both approaches have blind spots, and both will mislead you if you treat their output as gospel.

For me, Garmin came closer to the actual finish time, but at the same time, it was the more dangerous prediction to follow on a hot day if I hadn't erred on the side of caution. Whatever your predictions say on race morning, remember to consider the forecast, know the course, and allow for a bit of a buffer.

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Garmin has unveiled two new entry-level running watches: the Forerunner 70 and Forerunner 170. Both are available starting May 15, 2026, priced at $249.99 and $299.99 respectively, with a Forerunner 170 Music edition coming in at $349.99. Right off the bat, the big selling points are the AMOLED touchscreen displays, along with a suite of training tools that go beyond what I’d call “entry-level.” On paper, these watches are positioned as upgrades to the Forerunner 55 and Forerunner 165—but whether they actually deliver on that promise is more complicated. Here's what we know so far.

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What we know about the Garmin Forerunner 70

To quote Lifehacker senior health editor Beth Skwarecki, “It's about time Garmin offered a modern-looking watch under $250.” The Forerunner 70 is certainly a glow-up over the Forerunner 55 (originally $199.99), adding a touchscreen AMOLED display, Garmin Run Coach, advanced training features, acute load and load ratio tracking, sleep score, morning and evening reports, and a quick workout option. The run/walk workout feature is a particularly nice touch for beginners easing into a running routine.

That said, context matters. At $249.99, is the Forerunner 70 really competitive with other brands in this price range? The Coros Pace 4 is also $249 and includes dual-band GPS and 4 GB of offline music storage. The Suunto Run is even more affordable at $199, and it, too, manages to offer dual-band GPS and 4 GB of music storage. The Forerunner 70, by comparison, has single-band GPS and just 0.5 GB of storage.

Now, where the 70 does make a name for itself is with Garmin's software ecosystem. Some features that neither Suunto nor Coros typically offer include glances with battery data, sleep coaching with suggested bedtimes, lifestyle logging, weight tracking, sports scores, and a fitness coach that blends strength training with cardio without requiring you to commit to a specific sport. Like with all things Garmin, this is for people looking for more than just to track runs. (Even though watches that “just track runs” are exactly what the London Marathon winners wear.)

One small note here: Garmin's website currently lists the 70 and 170 as a single product, which is a little odd. Whether that's a placeholder or something more intentional, I’ll keep an eye on it.

What we know about the Garmin Forerunner 170

Like the 70 is an upgrade of the 55, the Forerunner 170 is positioned as an upgrade to the Forerunner 165 (originally $249.99 at launch in April 2024, with the Music edition at $299.99). However, it might be more accurate to compare this watch to the fan-favorite Forerunner 265, which was $449 originally, but now regularly goes on sale for $349.99 (which is the current MSRP of the 170 Music).  

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The 170 actually has shorter battery life than the 165: It has 10 days versus 11-13. It’s not a crazy trade-off, considering all the software updates. As Garmin puts it, the Forerunner 170’s advantage is the expanded feature set.

However, the 170 is missing a few features that the 265 had. It doesn't have dual-band GPS, supports fewer GPS networks overall, doesn't have cycling workouts or multisport support, and it's unclear whether it can connect to a power meter (the 265 could; the 165 could not). These are more complicated trade-offs to weigh for anyone who was hoping for a straightforward upgrade.

Now, what the 170 does bring to the table are the kind of software features the Forerunner 570 has been receiving, which the -65 series missed out on. That means things like the Garmin Run Coach (a newer, more capable version), advanced training features, quick workout functionality, a calculator, and lifestyle logging. Advanced training features, for context, include Training Readiness (which scores your recovery), Training Status (which monitors training load), HRV Status (heart rate variability tracking), and Daily Suggested Workouts.

The heart rate sensor is the same as the 165, which is perfectly solid and on par with its competitors. Still, the Forerunner 570 and 970 have a noticeably better optical HR sensor than the 165/265 generation.

The bottom line (for now)

On paper, both watches have their merits, particularly for true beginners who want a trustworthy GPS smartwatch with solid Garmin software support. But for runners upgrading from previous Garmin models, or for anyone considering Coros or Suunto, the value proposition isn’t ideal. To quote a Google Chat from Beth to me: "I'm unimpressed."

Luckily, we'll be putting both to the test soon. Beth will be comparing the Forerunner 70 with other low-priced running watches to see how it stacks up. And I have the Forerunner 165 Music, so I'll be able to see how the 170 Music fares as a direct successor. Stay tuned for our in-depth verdicts.

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Last weekend, I strapped two Garmin running watches to my wrists and raced a 10K—the top-of-the-line Forerunner 970 on one arm, and the budget-friendly Forerunner 165 Music on the other. Whether you're toeing the line at your first 5K or chasing a marathon PR, one thing I learned is that even the most powerful running watch in the world won't help you on race day if you haven't set it up properly beforehand. Here's the checklist I wish I'd had before race day.

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How to train with a Garmin watch before a race

Once you've registered for a race, it's time to start training. Step one: Set up a training plan in Garmin Connect. Once in the Garmin Connect app, navigate to Training & Planning > Training Plans to browse free plans for distances from 5K to marathons. Once you select a plan and sync it to your watch, daily workouts will push directly to your wrist.

Beginner-friendly Garmin Coach plans are compatible with many models, including Forerunner 55, Vivoactive 5, and Venu 2/3. You start getting daily suggested workouts and more personalized, adaptive training plans with Garmin Run Coach in the more advanced watches, like the Forerunner 165 and 265. Jump up to the 570, you'll get projected race time and pace. The most advanced coaching features—like real-time stamina and endurance scores—are selling points for higher-end models, like the Forerunner 965 and 970.

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Health and Fitness GPS Smartwatch

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Running Smartwatch

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Advanced GPS Running and Triathlon Smartwatch

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Running Smartwatch

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GPS Running and Triathlon Smartwatch

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Before race week, take a look at your HRV Status and Training Readiness score. In theory, these metrics tell you whether your body has actually absorbed your training, or whether you've been digging yourself into a hole. HRV Status is available on the Forerunner 255 and above. Training Readiness is available on the Forerunner 265 and above, including the 955 and 970. The Forerunner 165 gives you a simpler "Body Battery" reading, which is still useful, albeit less granular.

And remember to manually add your race as an event. Open Garmin Connect and go to Training & Planning > Courses, or look for the "Events" section. Add your race by entering the distance, date, and location. This does more than just mark the calendar—on supported watches, it activates a Race Calendar widget and begins surfacing a race-day countdown.

If your race doesn't show up in the Garmin calendar, but it does have a published GPX or course file, you can download it and load it onto your watch via Garmin Connect. On race day, this gives you turn-by-turn navigation, elevation previews, and the ability to see exactly where you are on course (with compatible watches).

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How to set up your Garmin watch the night before your race

Here's the checklist I've cooked up after several races with several different watches:

• Charge your watch fully. Obvious, but easy to forget after a week of tapering distractions. Plug it in the night before so you start race morning at 100%.

• Confirm your data screens. Set up your race activity profile so the data fields you actually want—pace, heart rate, lap pace, distance—are front and center. Go to Settings > Activities & Apps > Running > Data Screens. Edit your screens so you're not fumbling through menus mid-race. An extra tip here: For racing, less is more. A cluttered screen with eight data fields is harder to read at race pace than two or three big numbers.

• Set up alerts. Pace alerts, heart rate alerts, or time alerts can keep you disciplined in the early miles. Set a minimum and maximum pace range if you tend to go out too fast, or a heart rate ceiling if you're racing by effort. Custom alert configurations are available across most Forerunner models, but heart rate zone alerts and the ability to set complex multi-condition alerts are more robust on the 265 and above.

• Configure auto lap. By default, Garmin watches auto-lap every mile or kilometer. For a race, decide whether you want to lap by distance, by the race's official kilometer markers, or manually. If you want to manually control your laps, which is useful for shorter races like 5Ks, turn off Auto Lap and use the lap button yourself. In the 970 exclusively, you can toggle on the "Timing Gate" option, and your watch will automatically trigger laps as you pass the predefined official course marker, in addition to showing the actual distance run.

• Check satellite signal. The night before, open the running activity on your watch and let it acquire a GPS signal. This helps pre-load satellite data so you get a faster lock on race morning.

• Set up Garmin's race day features. On higher-end models, make sure you toggle on any race-specific tools available on your watch. This might include Garmin's PacePro feature, which gives you a customized pacing plan for your race. Enter your goal time, and it will account for elevation changes and suggest a smart pacing strategy mile by mile.

Another feature I plan to use during my next half-marathon is real-time stamina, available on the 970. This feature estimates how much energy you have left in the tank and projects whether your current pace is sustainable. It's a great reality check in the middle miles.

How to set your Garmin watch on the morning of your race

• Get a GPS lock early. Open your activity before getting into your corral. Wait for the GPS signal indicator to go solid. Don't start running until you have a clean lock, or your first splits will be inaccurate.

• Put on your heart rate monitor (if using one). If you race with a chest strap like the HRM-Pro Plus, strap it on and let it connect to your watch before the start. I personally don't race with one, but a chest strap will give you more accurate heart rate data when wrist-based optical sensors can struggle to keep up.

• Enable music (if using it). If you're racing with music, queue up your playlist before you get to the start corral. On any watch with "Music" in its name, you can store and play music directly from the watch without your phone.

How to use your Garmin watch during a race

• Use the lap button intentionally. Hit the lap button at official mile or kilometer markers if they don't line up with your auto-lap. This gives you splits that actually reflect the race course rather than GPS-calculated distances that can drift by several seconds per mile.

• Glance, don't stare. It's easy to become a data zombie mid-race. Train yourself to glance at your watch for one or two numbers—current pace and heart rate, for example—and then get your eyes back on the road. The watch should be a tool, not a distraction.

• Trust your training. No watch can run the race for you. At some point, put the data in the background and run on feel. The best use of a race-day watch is to keep you honest in the first half so you have something left for the finish.

What to do on your Garmin watch after a race

• Save and sync immediately. When you cross the finish line, let the watch record for a few extra seconds before stopping your activity. (Damn you, Strava tax!) Then sync to Garmin Connect over Bluetooth while your phone is nearby. Your race data, including splits, heart rate graph, and elevation, will all be waiting for you in the app.

• Review your race analysis. In Garmin Connect, pull up the race activity and review your pace curve, heart rate response, and cadence data. Look for where you faded, where you had a surge, and how your heart rate tracked to your perceived effort. This is some of the most valuable post-race coaching you can get.

Whether you're wearing a $199 Forerunner 55 or the $750 Forerunner 970, working through this checklist before race day will make you a smarter, more prepared racer. The fancier watch gives you more tools—but only if you actually know how to use them.

We’re living through a full-fledged skinny epidemic. Even if seeing celebrities get thinner and thinner doesn’t mean anything to you, notice how marketing for various weight loss products is getting increasingly ubiquitous. When I look around, the onslaught doesn’t stop with all the ads for GLP-1s. What has really caught my eye recently is how I—a fitness writer who happens to be pretty thin—keep receiving targeted ads for different types of “AI body scans.” These services take a few different forms (which I dive into below), but what they all try to sell is the same idea: Apparently, I don’t know enough about my body. It turns out I need to know my body fat percentage, muscle mass, visceral fat, and of course, my "biological age." 

Before I break down what exactly these AI body scans can (and cannot) tell you, know that this is not some takedown of AI tools being used by radiologists to spot cancer from a CT scan. What I’m focusing on here is all the false advertising for consumers like me, people naturally drawn to the shiniest tools to understand every little thing about their bodies. But before I build my health decisions around a number on a screen, I have to wonder about the gap between what these tools promise and what they actually deliver. 

What are AI body scans, exactly?

Body composition scans are nothing new—it’s the AI angle that’s giving the market a fresh angle. The term "AI body scan" covers a range of technology, from clinical-grade DEXA machines used in research hospitals, to apps that claim to estimate your body fat from a selfie.

At the serious end sits the DEXA scan (Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry). Originally developed to measure bone density, DEXA uses two low-dose X-ray beams to distinguish between bone, fat, and lean tissue with genuine precision. It can identify visceral fat (the dangerous kind that accumulates around organs), regional fat distribution, and bone density. A single session might cost between $40 and $300 out-of-pocket, depending on where you go and whether any insurance applies. A company like BodySpec, for instance, has built businesses around making DEXA more accessible, performing around a thousand scans a day and building what it describes as the “largest proprietary DEXA dataset” in the world. 

Below DEXA on the precision ladder sits “bioelectrical impedance analysis” (BIA). BIA is the technology powering most "smart scales," gym body composition stations, and many of those consumer-level AI scanners that keep targeting me with ads. BIA works by passing a small electrical current through your body and measuring how it travels. Fat resists electrical current; lean tissue (mostly water) conducts it well. From this resistance, the device estimates body composition.

Then, at the bottom of the technical hierarchy, sit the phone camera apps. Translating a 2D image into a body fat percentage or visceral fat estimate requires assumptions that are generous at best. These apps may be useful as very rough awareness tools, but so is a photograph.

Another note on "AI" in this context

Again, it's worth being specific about what AI is actually doing in most of these products, because as always, the word can mean a lot of things. In the better DEXA-based services, AI is being used to process and contextualize large datasets, helping users understand their results in comparison to relevant populations, flagging trends over time, and personalizing recommendations. For instance, BodySpec describes using AI to give its scanning service a kind of institutional memory for each client, stitching together health history and personal context so that consultations feel personalized at scale. 

In consumer devices, "AI" most often means that an algorithm has been trained on a dataset to estimate body composition. But the AI is only as good as the underlying measurement, and those underlying measurements might not be accurate in the first place. 

What an AI body scan cannot tell you

Let’s take a look at where the marketing diverges from the medicine, and where some skepticism is warranted. A body composition scan cannot tell you about your insulin sensitivity, inflammation, thyroid function, cortisol levels, or dozens of other physiological variables that determine your actual metabolic health. Two people can have identical DEXA results (same muscle mass, same body fat, same visceral fat reading), but one can have pre-diabetes while the other doesn't.

“I had two people with similar scan results, but very different metabolic health once labs were checked,” says Dr. Raymond Douglas, a board-certified oculoplastic surgeon and professor at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. “And if you're making lifestyle choices based on a scan number alone, you may be fixing the wrong problem."

What’s more, that sort of interpretation of scan results assume the reading was accurate in the first place, which isn’t always the case. “I have years of experience with seeing patients who have high muscle readings but are simply water-retained,” says Dr. Alexander Acosta. “If you have retained more water, say from a salty lunch or your period, the machine is likely to report a 5% increase in muscle mass.” This is especially relevant for those BIA products, like the smart scales you might see at the gym. Your hydration state—which fluctuates throughout the day, with exercise, with diet, with hormonal cycles—skews the result. 

Perhaps no feature of these AI scanners is more aggressively marketed than "biological age." The marketing angle makes sense: What if you find out your body is actually half your age on paper? It’s no mystery how this number has a way of inspiring either relief or dread, and it often inspires purchases. 

Biological age is usually calculated by an algorithm that compares your information with population averages, and those averages are limited. “From my experience, the algorithms don't take into account your genetic background and inherited metabolic rate. The computer may tell a 30-year-old they have a 50-year-old heart due to stress,”Acosta says. “I have actually seen these numbers change by five years after a bad night's sleep.” A number that swings five years based on one night's sleep isn’t a number worth obsessing over, if you ask me.

What body scans are actually good for 

One way to approach all this is to think of body scans as a tool to track trends over time, rather than expecting to have your world rocked from a single session. “Muscle trending up, visceral fat trending down—those are worth paying attention to,” Douglas says. “The mistake most people make is treating a single session like a full medical workup."

If you scan under consistent conditions every few months, you could glean a lot of useful information from the patterns that appear. Are you gaining lean mass while losing fat? Is your visceral fat creeping up despite stable weight? These are questions a body composition scan, done repeatedly, can help answer in ways a bathroom scale cannot.

"A DEXA scan provides a much clearer picture of what is actually happening in your body by measuring body fat percentage by area, lean mass, bone density, and visceral fat,” says Elaine Shi, CEO and co-founder of BodySpec. “It moves us away from guessing based on proxies like BMI—which is outdated and doesn't represent diverse populations—and allows us to make decisions based on clinical-grade insights." For example, Shi says people taking GLP-1 medications for weight loss can lose a significant proportion of their reduction in lean muscle mass rather than fat, which could point to a metabolic problem that would be invisible on a regular scale.

How to use these tools without being fooled by them

If you're going to use DEXA, use it over the course of several months. Numerous scans taken under consistent conditions (same time of day, same hydration status, same proximity to exercise) could show patterns worth paying attention to. If you're going to use BIA devices, understand that the readings are noisy. Don't scan after a salty meal, after intense exercise, or during a phase of hormonal flux and expect accuracy. If you’re interested in inflammatory markers, fasting glucose, insulin, lipid panels, thyroid function, a body composition score is no substitute for bloodwork.

"Treat the scan as an awareness tool, then combine it with blood tests, blood markers of inflammation, and lifestyle habits to draw conclusions," says Douglas. You should also be especially skeptical of biological age scores. A single number generated by comparing your data to population averages on a given day is not a substantial medical insight. And when you see an ad for a phone camera app that claims to measure your visceral fat with AI, ask what the underlying measurement is. If there is no good answer (which there won’t be from a 2D image), the so-called AI has nothing real to work with.

The bottom line

The move away from BMI and toward actual body composition measurement is promising for a lot of people. If your doctor sends you to a DEXA scan to assess your bone density and you’re interested in other insights about your body composition along the way, consider your scan results as part of a bigger trend over time. Your body composition score may be a great starting point, but you still want a human healthcare professional to make sense of the results.

At the end of the day, snake oil will always thrive in the wellness industry. These days, every snake oil salesman under the sun knows to slap on the term "AI-powered" to add authoritative language to imperfect products. Before you spend hundreds of dollars on a body scan (or waste your time and energy with a phone app), consider the limitations of these readings—and be honest about what exactly you’re trying to discover here. A scan that cannot distinguish between muscle and retained water, whose biological age score shifts five years with poor sleep, and whose readings vary with what you ate for lunch might not be giving you the answers about your body that you crave.

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Running is more popular than ever, and with an influx of new runners comes an influx of influencers offering up their advice—some of it helpful, some of it distinctly not. If you've spent any time scrolling through running-related videos, you've probably stumbled across a coach, athlete, or "runfluencer" insisting that you shut your mouth when you run. The advice to breathe through your nose while running is nothing new, but is it actually backed by science?

The answer, as with most things in running, is nuanced. Here's what the different schools of thought say, and how to actually put better breathing into practice on your next run.

Should you really breathe through your nose during cardio?

I personally noticed nose-breathing having a cultural moment online back in 2020, thanks to the popularity of James Nestor's book Breath. My BookTok and RunTok feeds combined forces, with creators latching onto the idea that modern humans have forgotten how to breathe correctly, and that we should be breathing through our noses most of the time.

Whether or not you buy that exact claim, studies do show there are merits to nasal breathing during cardio. When you mouth-breathe heavily, you exhale carbon dioxide too quickly, which can trigger that frantic mid-run "can't catch my breath" feeling. Nose breathing naturally slows your breathing rate and helps your body tolerate CO2 better over time. If nothing else, it's a great way to pace yourself and stay in the coveted Zone 2 (the low-intensity aerobic range that builds your aerobic base and is currently having a major moment).

At the same time, mouth breathing is a completely natural and necessary adaptation at higher intensities, and trying to suppress it can hurt your performance. There's a simple reality at work here: Your nose has a much smaller airway than your mouth. At easy, conversational running paces, nose breathing is entirely manageable. But once your heart rate climbs into higher intensities—tempo runs, intervals, or race pace—your muscles demand more oxygen than your nose can quickly supply. Forcing yourself to breathe only through your nose while running at high intensity can make hard workouts feel unnecessarily brutal.

For most of us, a hybrid approach makes sense: nose breathe on easy and long runs to build aerobic efficiency, and let your mouth open naturally when the intensity demands it.

When to inhale and exhale on your runs

Some runners don't take a strong stance on nose versus mouth breathing, and instead focus more on the timing of breaths relative to movement. This focus is called "rhythmic breathing," where you time your inhales and exhales with your footstrike. The thinking is if you always exhale on the same foot—say, every time your right foot lands—you're repeatedly loading one side of your body at the moment of maximum stress, and that over miles and miles, that asymmetry adds up.

One solution is to breathe on an odd-count pattern. For easy runs, a 3:2 ratio works well—inhale for three steps, exhale for two. For harder efforts, a 2:1 ratio (inhale for two steps, exhale for one) keeps oxygen flowing without disrupting your rhythm. Because you're working on odd counts, your exhales naturally alternate between your left and right foot.

How to breathe better during your runs

Here are some ways to practice breath control during your next workout.

• On your easy runs, commit to nose breathing only. You might discover you've been running easy days far too fast once you can't cheat with your mouth open. If you can't maintain nasal breathing at an "easy" pace, you're going too hard.

• Try the 3:2 rhythm on a relaxed run. Inhale through your nose for three footstrikes, exhale through your nose (or mouth) for two. Some runners find this meditative; others find it distracting at first. Either way, I find that the awareness it builds is valuable.

• Learn how to do a quick body scan. Are your shoulders hunched up near your ears? Is your jaw clenched? Are you taking rapid, shallow breaths? Drop your shoulders, unclench your jaw, and take one long, slow breath to reset. Tension is the enemy of good breathing mechanics.

• Cool down with intentional nose breathing. The last five minutes of your run are the perfect time to return to deliberate nasal breathing.

Remember, you can open your mouth when the intensity demands it. The goal isn't to be a nose-breathing purist at all costs, but to recalibrate your breathing to make your runs feel easier. If you're looking for ways to practice, I recommend trying the Nike Run Club app's guided runs with breathwork coaching cues, as well as any built-in breathwork activities you can find on your running watch (I use some on my own Garmin).

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The bottom line

This time, the influencer-driven buzz isn't entirely social media noise. There's real science behind the nose breathing push, and the habits it encourages—slowing down, building aerobic base, becoming more body-aware—are important for runners at every level. But for me, nose breathing is not a religion. The best breathing strategy is the one you'll actually practice consistently, and which helps you stick to your running routine.

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The Nike Run Club app is a longtime favorite for many runners, and for good reason. It offers GPS tracking, guided runs led by coaches and athletes, structured training plans, and a social layer that lets you cheer on friends and compete on leaderboards. But like a lot of polished apps, a handful of its most useful tricks aren't spelled out anywhere official. Whether you downloaded NRC last week to get into running for the first time, or you've been logging miles on it for years, these hacks will help you get more out of every run.

Sort your runs to track your progress and challenge yourself

You might be satisfied scrolling through your activity feed in reverse chronological order and never think to sort it differently. But being able to instantly surface your longest run ever (or your fastest mile, or what have you) is a great way to both celebrate progress and benchmark where you are right now.

This one sounds obvious, but it's surprisingly not intuitive on the app. In fact, I found this tip buried in a Reddit comment thread. Here's how to do it: open NRC, go to Activity → All Activity, then tap the Filter button in the top right corner. From there, select Sort By and choose from options like Longest Distance, Fastest Pace, and more.

Once you know how to find your personal records, you can take it a step further: use those past efforts as competition. One of my favorite ways to stay motivated is to revisit a previous run and essentially race against it.

Use the beginner-friendly 'First Run' to improve pacing even as a pro

NRC's "First Run" guided run is ostensibly designed for beginners, which is exactly why most experienced runners skip right past it. Here's my tip: Don't! Even as a seasoned runner myself, I found real value in this guided run. It forced me to recalibrate my internal pacing. Plus, it felt like necessary onboarding for the app itself, taking you through how NRC coaching actually works. It covers how the audio cues are timed, how effort-based prompts land mid-run, and how to mentally engage with the coaching format rather than just tolerating it as background noise. If you've ever zoned out during a guided run or felt like the coaching wasn't landing, there's a good chance you've been passively receiving it rather than actively running with it.

Maybe you really, truly don't need to revisit the basics of running slower than you think you should. In this case, think of the 'first run' less as a beginner workout, and more as an onboarding session you probably skipped.

Use a minimalist background to protect your privacy when sharing your routes

A few years ago, NRC made it easy to share your route on a stripped-down, street-name-free background. I know I love sharing the shape of my run without broadcasting exactly where I live or train. That option became harder to find over time, and some users are left missing it.

There are now two ways to get this minimalist background: one annoying, and one easy. The annoying way: After your run uploads, tap the three dots → Share → Route (to the left of "Camera Roll") → More → Remove Background in CapCut. That last step kicks you out of NRC and into CapCut, which I personally don't feel like using. Sorry!

The easier way: Share → Posters (to the right of "Camera Roll"), then scroll through the poster options until you find the simplest black or gray background available. That gives you a clean, minimal route display without leaving the app or involving a third-party editor. If privacy or aesthetics matter to you when posting your runs, this is the move.

Use a companion app to add back lost distance during speed workouts

When you do one of NRC's interval workouts, the app tracks your hard efforts, but it doesn't record your recovery laps. That means your total elapsed time and distance are both undercounted by the time the workout ends.

The real workaround is to run a second app simultaneously. Strava works well for this, as does a GPS watch if you have one. When your run is done, you'll have an accurate total distance from the secondary source. You can then go back into NRC, find the interval run, and manually edit the distance to reflect what you actually covered. It's an extra step, but if your weekly mileage tracking matters to you—or you're following a training plan where volume is the point—it's worth doing.

Get the guidance you want—without all the monologues

You may be a part of Coach Bennett's cult-like following, but that doesn't mean every one of your guided runs needs a lengthy motivational monologue. Unfortunately, there's no in-app setting for you to commit the blasphemous sin that is cutting off a coach's speech. Instead, use this workaround: Once the speech starts, exit the app. Wait a few seconds, then re-open the app. This cuts off the coach's speech without pausing your run. You have to do this manually every time you want to skip through your trainer's words of wisdom, but at least it works.

Otherwise, a certain amount of customization is readily available. Some runners want a check-in every half mile; others find that disruptive and prefer updates every two miles. Some want pace, distance, and time every time; others only care about pace. In your run settings, you can adjust the frequency of audio updates (how often you hear your time, distance, and pace), toggle individual metrics on or off depending on what you actually want to know mid-run, and choose between different voice options for the coaching and cues.

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I spent the last month testing and reviewing the Garmin Forerunner 970, and my biggest disappointment (one of only a few) was that I couldn't use it to test my running economy, since it requires a heart rate monitor like Garmin's HRM-600 chest strap. At the same time, it does lend a lot of legitimacy to Garmin's running economy metric, knowing it requires key inputs like heart rate, stride length, ground contract time, vertical oscillation, and step speed loss.

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"Running economy" has a lot of buzz around it right now. When I asked a running coach (who happens to be a good friend) what separates two athletes with identical cardiovascular fitness, they pointed to the concept of running economy. Now I'm considering buying the additional chest strap, because I'm just that intrigued by this metric.

However, whenever a term migrates from exercise science into trendy buzzword—looking at you, VO2max—the mainstream understanding can get warped along the way, so let's take a look at what the term really means for the average runner, and when it's worth investing in devices that can accurately measure it for you.

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What "running economy" really means

At its core, running economy is straightforward: it measures how much oxygen (and therefore energy) your body uses to run at a given pace. A runner with better economy uses less fuel to cover the same ground. Think of it like fuel efficiency in a car: Two cars might have identical engines, but one gets 40 miles per gallon while the other gets 28. And in both cases, your engine isn't the only thing that matters.

While running economy is real, measurable, and trainable, I've seen "improve your running economy" become a catch-all phrase attached to everything from $300 carbon-plated shoes to specific breathing techniques. Sadly, it's not that simple. Instead, the science shows that running economy is shaped by factors like muscle fiber composition, tendon stiffness, training history, and even your body's ability to store elastic energy in connective tissue. Some of these factors respond to training, but others are largely genetic.

How to improve your running economy

The good news is that the most effective strategies are also the simplest—as long as you work at them consistently.

• Run more miles at easier efforts. Simply growing your base volume is one the most reliable ways to improve your running economy. While tacking on miles trains your body to run efficiently, make sure you really are running easy enough to safely up your total volume. That means long and slow, people.

• Add strides, not just intervals. Short accelerations (think 20–30 seconds), especially with the relaxed technique, teach your neuromuscular system to fire more efficiently. Adding four to six strides after an easy run, two or three times per week, is a low-risk, high-return habit to improve running economy.

• Strength train (with a purpose). Heavy resistance training—particularly single-leg work, calf raises, and hip strengthening—is supported in a ton of research for improving running economy.

• Fix one aspect of your form at a time. Overhauling your gait based on a slow-motion video is usually counterproductive. Instead, pick one cue—slightly higher cadence, a more relaxed jaw, forward lean from the ankles—and practice it during easy runs for four a few weeks before adding another.

• Prioritize sleep and recovery. No surprise to anyone who has tried running while sleep-deprived, but under-recovered runners show measurably worse economy. Remember: Your body adapts during rest, not during runs.

The bottom line

The importance of running economy lives up to its hype, and it's something you can work to improve. Just remember that those improvements come from weeks, months, and years of consistent work—they can't be bought with a nice pair of running shoes. If you're looking for a practical framework to get started, try this: Run more easy miles, add strides and strength work, sleep enough, and change your form conservatively and deliberately. Once I start properly measuring my running economy with my Garmin devices, I'll report back on how it's working for me.

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Today, Whoop furthered its quest to become a comprehensive, one-stop health platform. Since last fall, Whoop members have had access to the Advanced Labs blood testing service—now, the performance wearable company is rolling out "Specialized Panels," a new line of targeted blood tests that let users drill down into even more insights about their body.

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How Whoop's "Specialized Panels" work

To understand the significance of today's Specialized Panels announcement, a little backstory helps. Last September, Whoop launched Advanced Labs, an add-on service that combined in-person blood draws—powered by Quest Diagnostics—with the company's existing 24/7 wearable data. The original Advanced Labs panel tests 65 biomarkers, delivers a clinician-reviewed report, and generates an action plan integrated directly into the app.

Whoop isn't the first wearable company to head in this direction. For instance, Ultrahuman, the maker of the Ring AIR smart ring, launched its Blood Vision feature last year. Still, expanding into blood tests is pretty notable for a wearable that built its reputation on heart rate variability and sleep tracking.

Today, Specialized Panels are the next evolution. For a one-time fee of $299, users can get a blood draw through Quest Diagnostics covering between 75 and 89 biomarkers, spread across one of five panels: heart health, performance, metabolic function, women's health, and men's health. Unlike the subscription-based Comprehensive Panel that came before, these are standalone offerings that members can purchase individually, whether or not they subscribe to Advanced Labs.

Whoop describes this as a move "from broad, comprehensive testing toward more focused, goal-based insights." In theory, you can zero in on what actually concerns you—say, your cardiovascular risk markers if you're a runner, or hormonal health if you're a woman navigating perimenopause.

The mechanics look straightforward enough. Whoop members select a panel through the Whoop app, schedule a blood draw at a Quest Diagnostics location, and wait for results to sync back into the app automatically. From there, Whoop's AI takes over, "delivering clinician-reviewed insights" that explain where you stand and how you can actively improve each metric over time, integrating the results with the continuous data on sleep, recovery, training, and whatever else you were already tracking with Whoop.

The biggest part of Whoop's pitch here is the word "specialized." For instance, the women's health panel, which Whoop previewed in March, shows how targeted these tests can get. It includes 11 blood biomarkers covering cycle regulation and hormonal transitions, among them Anti-Müllerian Hormone, Progesterone, Prolactin, thyroid markers, and several nutrient indicators. Whoop says measuring these will help users understand perimenopause, thyroid function, nutrient sufficiency, and bone metabolic resilience when paired with data on activity, sleep, and recovery. That's a lot of ground for a single panel—and, frankly, a lot to unpack without a doctor in the room.

What to keep in mind

At $299 a pop—on top of Whoop's membership fee, which can run up to $359 per year—these panels are a real expense. And while Whoop positions these tests as empowering, a review like this is not the same as a conversation with your doctor, and "actionable insights" delivered by an AI do not come with the contextual nuance of an actual doctor visit.

And of course, we all have to ask: What happens to your blood data? Whoop says that the company uses end-to-end encryption, strict access controls, and does not train its AI on personally identifiable data. That's potentially reassuring, but Whoop isn't processing your blood itself. Quest Diagnostics handles the actual draws, and Quest's own privacy policy notes that personal health information—including health data and genetic information—can be shared with third parties for operational, analytics, marketing, and promotional purposes. As always, consider the risks before handing over your sensitive health data. The line between a fitness tracker and a quasi-medical device keeps moving, and Whoop is just one of many companies that keeps pushing it.

Running influencers are nothing new, but some of us plugged into the online running scene have noticed a shift lately. When I am drawn in by a caption that reads "my 5K race-day routine 🏃‍♀️ (full breakdown below)" only to discover that breakdown is sponsored by a major running app, I have to roll my eyes. Even if they aren't going as far as lying about their times, these "runfluencers" add a lot of noise and distraction to the community.

Not that there's anything wrong with running influencers in theory. I love seeing someone share their journey from couch to 10K—community is everything in this sport! The issue comes when, in their attempts to profit off the content creator economy, brands like Nike Run Club, Runna, and Strava platform a new class of runfluencer: aspirational, relatable, and, often, quite unqualified to be giving training advice. They're even unqualified to handle their own setbacks, as I've watched an influx of content creators blame brands for their injuries (especially the ones falling for crappy AI-generated training plans). If you prioritize being an influencer over being a runner, you can even get banned from the New York City Marathon.

In short, there's a widening gap between people who look like runners giving advice, and the people who actually know how to train runners. And if you're getting your programming advice from the wrong side of that gap, you are leaving valuable wisdom on the table at best, and setting yourself up for injury at worst.

How the runfluencer economy was born

I've watched this running boom happen in real time. The New York City Marathon lottery has become as laughable as the actual lottery. Even local road races are selling out way faster than before the pandemic. A new wave of first-time runners needed guidance, and they're turning to social media.

The problem is that social media rewards specific kinds of running content: race-day vlogs, before-and-after transformations, and even dramatized conflict with other runners. And where professional athletes have off-seasons built into their routines, content creators can't afford to take time off from their content.

These algorithms don't exactly reward nuance, like the unglamorous reality of base-building, or the importance of running most of your miles at a conversational pace. Boring, correct advice loses to exciting, compelling advice every time the algorithm runs its counts.

Meanwhile, brands have incentives to exacerbate the situation. A sponsorship deal with a creator who has a million followers on TikTok will reach more potential customers than a meticulous training guide written by a certified coach who has only 12,000 YouTube subscribers. As on every other corner of the internet, the result is an information ecosystem that's noisier, less reliable, and harder to navigate.

The most common mistakes runfluencers make

I need to get more specific here, because "influencer advice is bad" isn't necessarily true either. Some of it might be just fine—sensible even. But not all of it, by a long shot. Here are the specific red flags I keep seeing from unqualified runfluencers online:

• Running way too fast, way too often. Roughly 80% of training mileage should be done at easy, conversational pace. Around 20% is fast work, like intervals, tempo, threshold runs. Easy runs don't make for "impressive" content, so the resulting advice pushes recreational runners to run too hard too often, which is one of the fastest routes to overuse injury and burnout.

• Shoe, gear, and training plan misinformation. Creators are rarely positioned to give unbiased assessments of whether a $200 carbon-plate shoe is appropriate for the beginner marathon runner who is watching their video (it's usually not), because their income depends on the relationship with the brand. This is obvious, but worth saying: Content creators are ultimately trying to sell you something. If they give a ringing endorsement of any sort of app or gear, make sure to do your own due diligence on their claims.

• Missing the individual picture entirely. A real coach asks questions. What's your injury history? How many days per week can you train? How much sleep are you getting? Influencer advice, structurally, cannot do this. A video or a post is a one-way street, and, again, their advice might even be based on falsified times.

How to evaluate running advice online

So how do you tell the good from the bad? Here's a set of questions to ask before you let someone's training philosophy into your head.

What are their credentials, and are they legit?

Look for trustworthy certifications: USATF (USA Track & Field) Level 1, 2, or 3 coaching certification; RRCA (Road Runners Club of America) certification; an exercise science, or sports physiology degree; or experience as a competitive athlete. A big follower count is not a credential.

Do they explain the why, or just the what?

Giving flat, prescriptive advice—"everyone should run at least five days a week," or "you should always do long runs on Sundays"—without caveats or explanations is a red flag.

To see what the "why" behind a workout might look like, I recommend reading up on why would you have to run slower, why you should start running stairs, and what the hell a fartlek even is.

Do they readily disclose their sponsors or financial relationships?

Sponsorships and brand deals aren't automatically disqualifying, but they should be disclosed clearly and factored into how you weight gear reviews and product recommendations. Undisclosed sponsorships are a significant red flag.

Where to find good (free!) running advice

An enormous amount of excellent running resources exist online, and most of them are totally free. Here are some of my favorites.

• Hal Higdon's free training plans. These are my go-to. Higdon has been publishing free beginner-through-advanced marathon and half-marathon plans for decades. They're well-structured, conservative in progression, and built on real coaching principles.

• Runner's World. They have trustworthy, downloadable plan options for whatever you might need, from "Start Running" to "Sub-3-Hour Marathon."

• Your local running club. There's a solid chance the in-person collective knowledge in a room of people who've been running for years is worth more than most content online.

• Reddit. Similarly, I often turn to running subreddits (r/AdvancedRunning, r/running), with appropriate skepticism applied. The advanced running community in particular has a high signal-to-noise ratio and actively calls out misinformation. Their wiki is a solid starting resource.

The problem with running apps

Of course, there are everyone's favorite running apps. You won't catch me claiming that Runna, Nike Run Club, and Strava's coach features are outright bad. Runna in particular uses a structured training model, and has credentialed coaches behind the programming.

The issue, then, isn't the apps themselves—it's the influencer-marketing layer that's been placed on top of them, which often creates unrealistic expectations about pace, mileage, and what progress should look like. If you use a structured app, try to understand the training principles it's built on, not just the workouts it assigns.

The bottom line

None of this means you should stop watching running content online—I know I won't. I love seeing other people's journeys, race experiences, and day-to-day running life. There's a big difference, however, between inspirational content and instructional content. Ask yourself the questions above to find runners you can really trust, and tune out the noise.

I've written before about various software tricks to nudge a smartphone toward dumb-phone territory: stripping the home screen down to essentials, enabling greyscale mode, scheduling downtime windows. I tried all of it, and for a time it worked for me, but only in the way that hiding a bag of chips in a high cabinet works—technically an obstacle, but not really a barrier. One tap to "Ignore Limit," and I'm back to scrolling.

The problem is that the key to unlock everything is right there in your pocket. Turns out I needed a small device called Brick to physically restrain me create a physical barrier, and I can feel my screen time habits finally change for the better.

The Brick Phone Access Blocker Device - Subscription-Free Phone Lock, Limits Smartphone Access, Reduces Screen Time & Improves Focus - High-Grade Magnet & Anti-Slip Silicone

$59.00 at Amazon

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$59.00 at Amazon

How Brick works with your smartphone

Brick is a small NFC fob—roughly the size of an AirPods case—paired with an app. You open the app, pick which apps or sites to block (or flip it around: choose only the apps you want to keep, and everything else gets blocked), name it something like Work or Family Time (or just Sanity), and tap your phone to the Brick to activate it.

That's it. And to get everything back, you have to physically walk to wherever you left the Brick and tap again. Each Brick comes with five emergency unbricks you can trigger from the app. I appreciate that those exist, and luckily, I haven't had to use them yet.

Why Brick actually helps you reduce your screen time

Here's the thing I keep coming back to: Every digital-based solution asks you to rely on yourself in the exact moment you're weakest. By the time you're faced with the "Ignore Limit" option, you've already picked up your phone. You're already mid-habit.

Brick changes the physicality of the problem. I've found that the greatest service Brick provides is that it doesn't ask you to resist temptation in the moment; instead, it forces you to set an intention earlier, then it makes that intention stick through physical separation rather than willpower. The research on behavior change says this is exactly the right approach. Environment design beats in-the-moment resolve almost every time. (I just apparently needed a $59 piece of hardware to finally internalize that).

I do have to be honest about how ridiculous this is for me: I spent a lot of money on my phone. And I have now spent additional money ($59) specifically to stop using it. Oh well! That's where my screen time had brought me. On the bright side, Brick is a one-time purchase with no need for a subscription or "premium plan." I'll admit I hesitated to make any purchase, given the irony of the situation and my desire to simply have more willpower. But I've realized my time and attention span is worth the cost, and I'm annoyed it took me this long to act on it.

The StairMaster may be having a moment, but straight-up stair running has been around forever. As a runner myself, I know real-world stair workouts are one of the most effective and accessible training tools out there, no gym membership required. Especially for my fellow city runners without mountains or hills nearby—or really anyone looking to add some variety into their workouts—stair workouts are a great option to try.

What is vertical training?

Vertical training is exactly what it sounds like: deliberately incorporating upward movement into your workout. Unlike "flat" running, every step up forces your body to fight gravity, which changes the muscular demand, the cardiovascular load, and the mechanical stress on your joints. There are plenty of reasons why you'd want to add vertical training of some kind into your routine.

It increases posterior chain strength

Running on flat ground is largely quad-dominant. Climbing stairs, on the other hand, requires serious glute, hamstring, and calf activation. Over time, stair training builds the posterior chain strength that flat running simply doesn't, and that strength translates directly into faster, more powerful running on any surface.

It gives you stride power and explosiveness

Each step up is essentially a single-leg press against gravity. That builds the kind of explosive hip extension that makes you a stronger pusher-off at ground contact. Sprinters have used stadium stairs for decades for exactly this reason. You don't need to be a sprinter to benefit from it.

It's lower impact than you'd think

Compared to pounding the pavement, the uphill phase of stair running is surprisingly low-impact. The key is going easy on the downhill.

It increases your mental toughness

There's a reason the stairs are the end of the "Rocky" training montage. Training yourself to stay composed and keep your form when your legs are screaming is a skill that pays off in all areas of your life.

These are my favorite stair workouts

Before diving into specific workouts, there are some form cues to understand. You want to make sure you're driving your movement through your whole foot, not just your toes. Try to lean slightly forward from the hips, pump your arms, and keep your gaze a few steps ahead. Avoid letting your heels hang off the edges of steps, locking your knees at the tops of steps, or otherwise causing yourself to trip up or down the stairs.

With all that in mind, here are the stair workouts I like to do when I'm training for a race. Ideally, you'll warm up for at least five minutes before you start climbing.

This simple beginner stair workout

Simply climb continuously for 20–30 minutes at a conversational pace. If you are on real stairs instead of a machine, allow yourself to descend slowly each time. Focus on consistent effort, not speed. Cool down with five minutes of walking and calf stretching.

A posterior chain focused stair workout

After your warm-up, run up one flight hard, and then walk down slow. Run two flights hard, walk down. Build up to five or six flights, then work back down. Rest 60–90 seconds at the bottom between sets.

I know that what constitutes a "flight" changes depending on what you have in front of you, so use your best judgment. The goal is explosive, powerful steps—two at a time, if you can do it safely. Aim for a total session time of around 30 minutes.

And intervals stair workout

This one you can do on a machine or outdoors. Do 8–12 repeats of hard uphill effort for 20–30 seconds, followed by 90 seconds of easy descent and recovery at the bottom. You should be working at a 9 out of 10 effort on the way up. (For experienced runners, this is the stair equivalent of track 200s: short, sharp, and effective.)

The bottom line

Be like Rocky. Seriously, when I'm training for a race with any significant elevation, stair work is non-negotiable. But even if your goal race is completely flat, the posterior chain strength and raw efficiency of stair intervals will make you a better runner on any terrain.

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Sleep scores may be one of the most-checked metrics in wearable health tracking, but the companies behind them haven't agreed on a shared language. A Garmin wearer with a 75 is in "Fair" territory. An Oura wearer with a 75 is doing "Good." An Apple Watch user with a 75 might see "OK" or "High" depending on which software version they're running. Where are these numbers coming from, and what are they actually telling you?

Each platform uses different scales, labels, and underlying signals to arrive at that single morning number. Here's a breakdown of how the most popular wearables calculate your "sleep score," and what that score means for you.

Oura Ring 4

$349.00 at Amazon

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What your "sleep score" actually means

For all the scoring systems below, know that it's impossible for a sleep score to be truly "accurate." Your device tracks how long you seemed to be asleep, and makes guesses as to how much of that time was spent in light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep. Then, it distills it into a single composite score, which might have more to do with branding decisions than clinical science.

So while the data that is going into your score (like your heart rate) might be accurate, it's important to understand that the score itself is a made up number. Sleep tracking, at its best, functions less like a medical test that you pass or fail, and more as a way to see patterns over time.

How an Oura Ring calculates your sleep score

Let's start with Oura, since it's widely considered the best sleep tracker out there. Oura's Sleep Score ranges from 0 to 100, with three broad zones for scoring:

• 85–100: Optimal. An 85 or higher means all your metrics appear reasonably healthy. Oura even marks the day with a crown icon in the app.

• 70–84: Good. Your sleep was good, but not great. You're adequately rested and prepared for most daily activities, but there's still room to improve your overall sleep quality.

• Under 70: Pay Attention. Scores below 70 indicate that you may benefit from prioritizing rest and recovery.

According to Oura, your Sleep Score is built from seven contributors: total sleep time, sleep efficiency (the percentage of time actually spent asleep), restfulness, REM sleep, deep sleep, sleep latency (how long it takes to fall asleep), and timing (whether your sleep aligns with your body's natural circadian rhythm).

Oura has been shown to be the most accurate of all the wearables on this list, largely because it reads from your finger, which provides stronger optical signal than a wrist.

One important note: Scores of 100 are designed to be rare rather than regular. If you're never cracking 85, that's not unusual, either. Sleep naturally fluctuates, and there may be periods where your sleep is better or worse. Again, it's more useful to be interested in your trends over time than any single night.

How a Whoop calculates your sleep score

Whoop gives you two numbers—a Sleep Performance percentage and a Recovery score—and it expects you to read them together.

Sleep Performance is expressed as a percentage from 0–100%, measuring how much of the sleep your body needed you actually got. It's calculated using sleep sufficiency (the percentage of needed sleep you got), sleep consistency (how your bedtime compares to the previous four nights), sleep efficiency (the percentage of time in bed actually spent asleep), and sleep stress (time spent in physiologically high-stress states during the night).

Recovery is the broader daily readiness score, also expressed as a percentage, and this is the number most Whoop users check first. Recovery is color-coded into three zones: Green (67–100%) means you're well recovered and primed to perform; Yellow (34–66%) means your body is maintaining and ready for moderate strain; Red (0–33%) signals that rest is likely what your body needs.

Whoop says it compares your metrics to your own baseline rather than to a fixed population standard, which means your 70% Recovery and a friend's 70% Recovery may reflect totally different states.

Whoop also stands out for avoiding a single "sleep was good/bad" verdict. The sleep performance percentage tells you about quantity and consistency relative to your personal need, while the Recovery score tells you how your body responded. Most people consider Whoop and Oura to be neck-and-neck for the top sleep trackers.

How a Garmin calculates your sleep score

Now onto the smartwatches. Garmin offers perhaps the most traditional scoring system of the group. Each morning you receive a sleep score on a 0–100 scale, and based on that score, you're assigned one of four rankings:

• 90–100: Excellent

• 80–89: Good

• 60–79: Fair

• Below 60: Poor

For Garmin, the nightly sleep score is calculated based on a blend of how long you slept, how well you slept, and "evidence of recovery activity occurring in your autonomic nervous system derived from heart rate variability data." What that last point should mean is Garmin tracks the change in time between heartbeats during sleep, and factors that in when scoring your overall sleep quality. In theory, this should account for something like your nervous system staying elevated all night, even if you were physically still.

Garmin also has a Body Battery reading, which shows how well your energy reserves recharged overnight. This it comes from a combination of your heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), and movement data. When your sleep score is low, your Body Battery typically is too.

Garmin (along with the rest of the smartwatches below) is probably best considered as a smartwatch that happens to track sleep, as opposed to a dedicated sleep tracker, like Oura or Whoop.

How an Apple Watch calculates your sleep score

Apple's Sleep Score is the newest entry on this list, arriving in September 2025. But even with this most recent update, Apple's sleep scores are considered to be way too generous.

Your score is calculated based on sleep duration (worth 50 points), bedtime consistency (worth 30 points), and interruptions—how often you wake up and how long you stay awake (worth 20 points). The current five-tier scale, as updated in watchOS 26.2, looks like this:

• 96–100: Very High (formerly called "Excellent," but Apple renamed this category to better reflect that it's an objective measure rather than a promise of how you'll feel)

• 81–95: High

• 61–80: OK

• 41–60: Low

• 0–40: Very Low

Compared to the other trackers on this list, Apple's score seems to focus on habits around sleep (enough hours, consistent timing, minimal waking) rather than trying to take a stab at sleep stages.

How a Fitbit calculates your sleep score

Fitbit was one of the first mainstream wearables to introduce an official sleep score, and its system remains pretty clean and consistent. Your overall sleep score is a sum of individual scores in sleep duration, sleep quality, and restoration, for a total score of up to 100. Fitbit says most people score between 72 and 83.

The four ranges:

• 90–100: Excellent

• 80–89: Good

• 60–79: Fair

• Below 60: Poor

Fitbit defines Sleep Duration as total time asleep relative to your goals; Sleep Quality assesses how much time you spent in deep and REM stages; and Restoration (the most distinctive element) looks at your sleeping heart rate versus your daytime resting heart rate and how much time you spent tossing and turning. A higher restoration score comes when your sleeping heart rate dips meaningfully lower than your resting heart rate.

One catch: To see a detailed breakdown of your restoration score, you need a Fitbit Premium subscription. Basic users see the total score, but the granular component breakdown is paywalled.

What does a score of 75 mean on each platform?

Just for fun, let's take a look at how these different companies interpret the same number. Here's what a 75 might mean, depending on your wearable:

• Oura: Good sleep, adequately rested.

• Garmin: Fair, meaning some things could be better.

• Apple Watch: Just above midpoint of the "OK" tier.

• Fitbit: Near the top of "Fair," below the "Good" threshold.

• WHOOP: Not directly comparable, since it's percentage-based).

The bottom line

No sleep score, across any of these platforms, is a clinical measurement. They are estimates derived from wrist (or finger) sensors, algorithms built on population data, and proprietary definitions that no company fully discloses. Two people who slept identically might score differently, and the same person might score a 90 one night and a 65 the next with no clear explanation.

Again, the more useful way to read these scores is as a trend signal over time, not a verdict on any single night. To get the most out of your sleep scores, I explain the best practices for sleep tracking here.

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If you've been eyeing a Whoop fitness tracker but unsure about the membership cost, your Chase Sapphire card might be about to make that decision a whole lot easier. Through May 12, 2026, Chase is offering cash back on Whoop memberships for both Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Preferred cardholders—and for Reserve members, the deal effectively covers the entire cost of a year's membership.

WHOOP 5.0/MG Activity Tracker

$239.00 at Amazon

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$239.00 at Amazon

What is Whoop?

Whoop is a health and fitness company that makes a wearable tracker and companion app focused on recovery, sleep, and strain. You've probably seen one of these screenless wristbands out in the wild, since Whoop has been one of the best fitness trackers out there for years now. Unlike other fitness wearables, Whoop operates on a membership model, where you pay for access to the platform and the hardware comes included.

What's the Chase Sapphire promotion?

Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders can receive a one-time $359 statement credit for a Whoop Life membership (which covers the total cost of an annual membership) when they use their card to purchase a Life membership on Whoop. Chase Sapphire Preferred cardholders can receive a one-time $100 statement credit toward the cost of any Whoop annual membership when they use their card to purchase any Whoop membership on the site, too.

Simply put: If you have the Sapphire Reserve, you can get a full year of Whoop Life at no out-of-pocket cost. If you have the Sapphire Preferred, you'll get $100 knocked off whichever annual plan you choose.

How to activate the offer

You can't just make the purchase and expect the credit to apply automatically: You must activate the offer through the Chase Offers portal by May 12, 2026, before making a membership purchase.

First, log in to your Chase account online or through the Chase mobile app. Navigate to the Chase Offers section, which you can typically find under your card's benefits or in the "Explore" tab of the app. Search for the Whoop offer and click "Add to Card" to activate it. Once the offer is added to your card, head to Whoop and purchase the appropriate annual membership. Make sure you use the Chase Sapphire card you activated the offer on at checkout. Your statement credit will then be applied after the qualifying purchase posts to your account.

Remember: Don't skip activation. If you buy the membership before activating, you won't receive the credit.

The bottom line

If you were already planning to try Whoop, this is a great opportunity, especially for those Sapphire Reserve holders getting the membership for free. Even for Preferred cardholders, $100 off is a solid discount on what is otherwise a recurring annual expense.

The main thing to keep in mind is the deadline. The offer must be activated through the Chase Offers portal by May 12, 2026, and the purchase must be made using the card the offer was activated on, at Whoop.com. Do both of those things in the right order, and you're all set.

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The Garmin Forerunner 970 is the newest and best Forerunner watch (aka Garmin's flagship running watch line). It’s an improved version of the Forerunner 965, though it does come with a shorter battery life and a higher price tag. Whether that tradeoff is worth it depends on what you're looking for. For data-driven racers and endurance athletes who want to track, analyze, and optimize every aspect of their performance, the 970 is one of the best watches out there. My full in-depth review is still in the works, but a few standout features are already making a strong impression.

Garmin Forerunner 970

$749.99 at Amazon

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Bright AMOLED display (plus a sapphire lens and titanium bezel)

Right out of the box, the Forerunner 970's display feels high-end. The AMOLED screen is vivid, sharp, and easy to read at a glance—whether you're mid-run or just checking your stats on the couch. The sapphire lens and titanium bezel give the watch a durable feel, making it fit for serious training. 

Perfectly visible display, even in the bright sun. Credit: Meredith Dietz

Full-color maps with enhanced navigation

The full-color maps on the 970 hold up impressively well even in signal-challenged environments, including, notably, inside my New York City walk-up apartment, where GPS signals go to die. Whether you're exploring a new route or just trying to get your bearings in a dense urban environment, the enhanced navigation on this watch delivers right out the box.

Here is where I'd normally place a photo of said GPS working from inside my apartment, but then you'd be able to find me. Nice try, readers!

Running tolerance and training readiness scores

This might be the feature I've been most excited to dig into. The Forerunner 970 introduces running tolerance scores that help you better understand the cumulative impact each run has on your body, along with a recommended weekly maximum mileage, so you can keep building fitness without tipping into overtraining territory.

On top of that, training readiness scores greet you from the moment you wake up, pulling together data on sleep quality, recovery, training load, and more to give you a clear signal: go hard today, or dial it back?

"Recovery in progress" isn't totally accurate, since I will be running right after taking this photo. Credit: Meredith Dietz

Sort of a no-brainer, but will do! Credit: Meredith Dietz

The thing is, I can already tell I’ll need to override some of Garmin’s recommendations to rest. As I've written before, Garmin tends to err on the conservative side for distance runners. That said, I love having this data in front of me, even if I occasionally choose to ignore it.

Projected race times

Projected race time isn't a brand-new concept, but the 970's version feels more meaningful thanks to the deeper training metrics backing it up. This prediction shows what your race time and pace could be if you keep training consistently all the way to your goal race date—and with more nuanced inputs like running tolerance factored in, the expectation (and hope) is that these projections will be more accurate than ever. I have a race in May that will serve as the real litmus test. Stay tuned.

Built-in LED flashlight

Last but absolutely not least: the flashlight. A quick double-press of the upper-left button turns it on or off, and it is powerful. In fact, I accidentally shone it directly into my eyes and spent the next several seconds blinking stars out of my vision while trying to type this very sentence.

Beyond my momentary blindness, the flashlight rocks. More importantly, it makes running at night feel a little safer—as long as I’m willing to let the battery drain fast. For anyone logging early-morning or after-dark miles, this is the kind of small feature that could end up mattering a lot.

In recent days, travelers have faced the highest wait times in TSA history, "with some wait times greater than 4.5 hours," said the agency's acting chief, Ha Nguyen McNeill, in a testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security on March 25.

Unlike weather delays that clear up on their own, this madness could continue as long as the partial government shutdown does. Airlines are bracing themselves for more record-breaking security lines, which means more chaos and more uncertainty. You want to be prepared to fight for what you’re entitled to when an airline, for lack of a better phrase, utterly screws you over. Here’s how to always get the most money possible from a canceled or delayed flight.

Know your airline passenger rights

Federal law still does not require airlines to provide passengers with money or other compensation when flights are delayed. This means that in most cases, compensation is at the discretion of the airline.

Canceled flights

If an airline cancels your flight less than 14 days before departure and you choose to cancel your trip entirely, you’re entitled to a refund of both your plane ticket and any pre-paid baggage fees. This typically applies even if you have non-refundable tickets.

Delayed flights

Again, federal law does not require airlines to provide passengers with any sort of reimbursement when flights are delayed. When flights are delayed for unpredictable events like weather or mechanical issues, compensation is at the discretion of the airline. However, the airline is required to rebook you on a different flight at no additional cost. And if you end up stuck in the airport, it's up to the airline to decide what sort of vouchers they offer—more on that below.

Baggage issues

Few things are as frustrating as finally making it to your destination, only for your luggage to be lost somewhere between your departure and your arrival. Airlines are required to compensate you for any “reasonable, verifiable, and actual” expenses that arise due to your baggage damage or delay, according to the DOT.

Unfortunately, you may not be fully compensated for everything that’s lost or damaged in your bag. There is also a cap on the amount of money airlines are required to compensate you if your bags are lost, damaged, or delayed. The maximum liability amount allowed by the DOT is $4,700 per passenger. You should immediately notify your airline if your bag has been damaged and ensure the conversation is documented so you can file a claim with the DOT if you are not properly compensated.

And if your bag is delayed, it’s the airline’s responsibility to find and get it back to you. While most airlines promise to bring your bag to your hotel or wherever you’re staying once it’s found, this is not a requirement nor a guarantee.

Overbooking and denied boarding

Somehow, overbooking flights is not only legal, but commonplace. When an airline overbooks a flight, it can either voluntarily or involuntarily bump passengers. Before bumping passengers involuntarily or without approval, airlines must seek out voluntary travelers willing to take another flight in exchange for compensation. You've probably heard airlines incentivize travelers with vouchers. However, if no one takes the customer service reps up on these voucher offers, the airline may involuntarily bump passengers or deny boarding. This turns into "denied boarding."

Depending on the airline’s reasoning, you may be eligible for compensation if you are denied boarding. If you are bumped from a flight due to reasons such as overbooking, you may qualify for denied boarding compensation. However, passengers are usually not eligible for compensation if they experience any of the following situations:

• Aircraft changes due to safety or operational reasons

• A plane’s weight or balance restrictions prevent the passenger from boarding

• A passenger is downgraded to a lower seating class for an overbooked flight

• Charter flights that run outside an airline’s regular schedule are overbooked, delayed, or canceled

• Flights on small aircrafts (less than 30 passengers) are overbooked, delayed, or canceled

• International flights are overbooked, delayed, or canceled

To qualify for involuntary denied boarding compensation, you must have a confirmed flight reservation, you must have checked in and arrived at your gate on time, and you must be unable to reach your destination within one hour of your original flight’s arrival time. The compensation amount will depend on how long of a delay you face, which is outlined on the DOT website.

What exactly are you entitled to if your flight is delayed? 

According to DOT, you are entitled to a refund if the airline cancels a flight, regardless of the reason, and you choose not to travel or accept travel credits, vouchers, or other forms of compensation offered by the airline.

But while airlines are required to give passengers refunds if their flights are outright canceled, the rules around delays are less clear. For instance, "significant delay" is not officially defined anywhere by the DOT. The most useful, up-to-date resource for what you’re entitled to is the DOT's Airline Customer Service Dashboard. Follow this link to check out a grid of the major U.S. airlines and which services they’ve promised to provide should there be a “controllable” flight cancelation or delay. What counts as controllable includes maintenance or crew problems, cabin cleaning, baggage loading, fueling, and other delays caused by the airline itself.

However, the DOT encourages travelers to reach out to the airlines before filing a complaint. Customer service representatives may be able to resolve your issue on the spot. You can also visit FlightRights.gov for a listing of the benefits and rights they are entitled too.

Finally: Don’t automatically accept that voucher

While some airlines may offer tickets or vouchers for those involuntarily bumped, you have the right to request a check for cash instead. The likelihood you’ll receive one depends on the circumstances around your reason for cancelation as well as the airline’s policies. Still, double-checking with a customer service representative could reap cash rewards. On that note, if you do need to connect with a real human, here’s our guide to navigating an airline’s phone lines.

The bottom line for today's news: Check your flight status frequently, contact your airline proactively to understand your options, and consider having backup plans. Airlines will typically rebook you if your flight is cancelled, but with so many disruptions happening, alternative flights may fill up quickly.

And hey, as a last resort, you can take to social media to publicly complain in the hopes that a representative will finally respond to you.

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I dream of building out a garage gym one day, but for now, I'm content with my "workout corner" in my apartment bedroom. Hey, a home gym can look like anything. Whether you're eyeing a smart rowing machine, a compact massage gun for post-workout recovery, or just a clean set of hex dumbbells with a rack to keep your space organized, there's something worth buying during Amazon's Big Spring Sale right now.

The best deals on at-home cardio equipment

I know how quickly cardio equipment can turn into major investment of your time, money, and space. That's why I recommend equipment that can fold up to store vertically against the wall, so your treadmill doesn't just become a fancy coat rack.

• Original Peloton Bike, $1,295, down from $1,695

• Hydrow Origin Rowing Machine, $1,895, down from $2,195

• NordicTrack T 5 Treadmill, $479, down from $599

Peloton Exercise Cross Training Bike

$1,295.00 at Amazon

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The best deals on at-home strength training essentials

In my experience, adjustable dumbbells are the single highest-impact upgrade you can make to a home gym. But sometimes you just want the real thing, without dealing with pins or spin locks or any sort of fuss. In that case, you definitely want a quality storage rack keeps your gym organized, your equipment accessible, and your floor clear.

• PowerBlock Elite EXP Adjustable Dumbbells, $339.15, down from $449

• CAP Adjustable Dumbbells, $249.99, down from $299.99

• CAP Rubber Coated Dumbbell Weight Set, $159.99, down from $189.99

• TRX Resistance Band Set, $148.71, down from $174.95

• PLKOW storage and weight rack, $79.98, down from $129.99

PowerBlock Elite EXP Adjustable Dumbbells (Pair, 5-50lb)

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The best deals on muscle recovery and stretching tools

I know I've personally got my eye on massage guns and foam rollers to help me survive my upcoming marathon training.

• Bob and Brad Q2 Ultra Mini Massage Gun, $78.82, down from $99.99

• 1-Inch Thick Yoga Mat, $29.99, down from $36.99

• TriggerPoint Grid 1.0 Foam Roller, $27.99, was $39.99

Bob and Brad Q2 Ultra Mini Massage Gun

$78.82 at Amazon

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While we're at it, plenty of other gadgets could technically fall into the realm of home gym expenses. Check out more of the best deals we've found on fitness wearables, on headphones and earbuds, and all other tech during Amazon's Big Spring Sale here.

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I do not like cleaning; my roommate, however, loves it. A good cleaning gadget has the power to unite us—I need something that makes cleaning bearable, and she needs something that makes it extra innovative and fun. And if there's one gadget that lives up to the hype for both of us, it's the Bissell Little Green carpet and upholstery cleaner. It's currently on sale for $74.99 (a cheeky 25% off its list price of $99.99) as a part of Amazon's Big Spring Sale.

Bissell Little Greeen Mini Portable Carpet & Upholstery Deep Cleaner (Tea Green)

$74.99 at Amazon

$99.99 Save $25.00

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$74.99 at Amazon

$99.99 Save $25.00

In my small Brooklyn apartment, this small size is a huge deal. A carpet and upholstery cleaner is must-have to protect my home against whatever grime I track in every day from the New York City streets. And over in Pennsylvania, Lifehacker's Managing Editor Meghan Walbert shares that the suction and cleaning power on this machine have never let her down, especially in the face of her Yorkie-Shih Tzu terrier's nervous digestive system.

Our Little Green guy is so lightweight and easy to transport, I forget sometimes that I don't actually own one myself. The truth is I'm able to borrow it from my neighbor so often, it feels like it's communally owned. Luckily, today's sale is just the push I needed to buy one for myself. Hey, I might even spring for the cordless mini version, also on sale right now for $116.99.