I've only just discovered the Walk With Frodo app on Garmin's Connect IQ store — and as as a huge LOTR nerd, it's going to make the next 1,800 miles fly by | Tech Radar

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I've only just discovered the Walk With Frodo app on Garmin's Connect IQ store — and as as a huge LOTR nerd, it's going to make the next 1,800 miles fly by

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Bilbo Baggins once sang, "the road goes ever on and on". But even so, 1,800 miles is a long way to walk. Fortunately, this little Lord Of The Rings-themed app from the Garmin Connect IQ store — available on all the best Garmin watches on our list — is going to make it fun.

The Walk With Frodo app is available to download for free (you can also donate to the creator via the Pay Pal link in the app's description) and has been downloaded more than 50,000 times in the past five years. It's compatible with pretty much all modern Garmin watches, and works by reading your background activity step count, rather than your recorded exercise sessions.

Walk With Frodo matches your step count to the journey Frodo and Sam undertake in the Lord Of The Rings, from the peaceful land of The Shire to the fiery chasm of Mount Doom. It's a journey estimated by the app to be around 1,800 miles, or 2,897km, which is a long old journey for little legs. However, Frodo and Sam manage it in 185 days, according to the LOTR Project and The Atlas of Middle-Earth — can you do better?

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Periodically, Walk With Frodo will send you updates when you reach various milestones along the journey, such as Tom Bombadil's house, The Prancing Pony inn, or the mines of Moria. Pressing your Garmin's "start" button will reveal more information about a particular milestone.

I'm a die-hard Lord Of The Rings nerd — I re-read the books every couple of years, and the films are my comfort-blanket watch — so this little Garmin app is perfect for me. I can't believe it's been around for five years and I've only just become aware of its existence. I'm super excited at the prospect of completing my long training runs to find I've run to Rivendell, or sprinted through the lair of the giant spider, Shelob — I definitely won't be hanging around in there!

The premise of apps such as this one is nothing new, with gamification strategies having been used for many years now to keep fitness fans glued to smart tech. Apple Watches, Garmin, Samsung, Oura, Whoop... every wearable offers badges, challenges, rewards and other digital "pings" designed to associate activity with increased dopamine. With data comes gamification, tricking yourself into good habits and sharing your achievements with friends.

Occasionally, this can get toxic. Strava, perhaps the most successful proponent of these strategies, uses public leaderboards and segments to keep local athletes competing for titles in a perpetual game of king-of-the-hill. Reports of athletes becoming obsessed with their metrics are almost as disturbing as stories of Strava becoming a national security risk by leaking sensitive military information.

I recently wrote about Garmin's new Pokémon Sleep integration, and how it emotionally blackmailed me into a better bedtime routine by personifying my sleep health as one of 46 little critters made famous by the franchise. Sure, most people can go to bed late on their own terms, but when they have a very tired Pikachu on their wrist, the drive to improve their sleep score is much stronger.

➡️ Read our full guide to the best Garmin watches

1. Best overall: Garmin Venu 4
2. Best premium: Garmin Fenix 8
3. Best budget: Garmin Vivoactive 6

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Matt is Tech Radar's expert on all things fitness, wellness and wearable tech.

A former staffer at Men's Health, he holds a Master's Degree in journalism from Cardiff and has written for brands like Runner's World, Women's Health, Men's Fitness, Live Science and Fit&Well on everything fitness tech, exercise, nutrition and mental wellbeing.

Matt's a keen runner, ex-kickboxer, not averse to the odd yoga flow, and insists everyone should stretch every morning. When he’s not training or writing about health and fitness, he can be found reading doorstop-thick fantasy books with lots of fictional maps in them.

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• I've only just discovered the Walk With Frodo app on Garmin's Connect IQ store — and as as a huge LOTR nerd, it's going to make the next 1,800 miles fly by