I will start with my newest piece of gear, the Garmin Forerunner 405 w/HR. I have always (or almost always) used a heartrate monitor for my cardio, but my wife recently wanted to start running -- in races -- and asked me if I would join her. We did our first 4 mile race last week in Central Park and now we are signed up for a 10k next month. Since I would be doing more running outside, I wanted a monitor that could also give me distance and pace so that I could set goals and try and keep them. Enter the Garmin 405 that uses GPS to provide the previously mentioned data. There are other ways to track distance and pace, namely the foot pod that Polar uses (and I believe Nike uses a foot pod too). The problem with the foot pod is that it needs to be calibrated (ideally on a track) and I thought the GPS would be more exact.
Yesterday, I did my first run with the 405 and here are my thoughts. Setting it up. Overall, once you get used to tapping the bezel to switch between screens it is easy to use. You can also customize your training views that you can toggle between -- I have one for heart rate percentage and calories burned and one for pace, time and distance. Moving between the screens was easy (once you figure out and get used to using the bezel). The 405 comes with or without the HR monitor, I bought mine with and it worked very well. It syncs up quickly and I didn't lose any readings. One thing to note, if you are used to going to the gym with just the heartrate monitor band around your chest and no watch because equipment at the gym can read the band, this has not been my experience with the Garmin. With the Polar, it always worked well, but I think the gym equipment is specifically calibrated to only read Polar. You also can input your age and weight and other personal information that allows the HR monitor to track your HR zone (percentage of max heartrate etc) and track the calories. Overall, 8 out of 10 for ease of use. Deductions coming from the lack of sync ability with equipment at the gym.
The run. I left my apartment and it did take a while for the GPS to find me--if you live in NYC you are undoubtedly used to this if you have ever tried to get your GPS to work in the car. However, once it found me, I only lost a signal once during my run and quickly caught up once it found the satellite again. That said, I was running along the FDR, so there are no buildings blocking to the east. During the run, the GPS performed well and let me watch my pace and adjust up or down according to my goals. Overall, 7 out of 10. Deductions coming from the time it takes to find a satellite, which is a little annoying.
After my run. I connected on-line -- once configured, which took 15 minutes, the watch automatically syncs with your computer and uploads the data. From there, you can create an on-line account to track all of your information (lap times, calories, distance, pace, split times etc.) Here is the coolest part, it also provides a Google Map showing where you went. Mine is below. NO, I was not running in small circles as it appears towards the bottom, there is a track downtown on the east side and I ran one lap on the track. Pretty cool. Overall, 10 out of 10. The amount of information quickly uploaded to the computer is awesome.
Any questions, post a comment. That's it for now.
