Friday, May 9, 2008

Garmin Forerunner 305

Garmin Forerunner 305
This is my new running watch, the Garmin Forerunner 305 (which I got on sale at REI). It is a bigger than I thought, but not really too heavy (until you've ran for over a mile and a half and are ready to collapse). I love having all this data on my wrist while I run. It can track real time distance, time, pace, speed, and so much more. It can even map your routes and stores all this data for 1000 laps in the watch itself.

Using the Garmin Training Center, you can download the data for archiving purposes and to see graphs of your performance. You can also create custom workouts and the watch will alert you at each step. It comes preloaded with a ton of workouts already to get you started. The watch also has alerts you can turn on to tell you when you've reached a certain distance or time, as well as when you go above/below a specified pace or heart rate zone.

Here is a screenshot from today's run. Click on the image to see the details in the bigger version.

w6d3 - Garmin Training Center (by Kitzzy)

w6d3 - 25 minute run (by Kitzzy) w6d3 - cool down easy walk w6d3 - warm up brisk walk (by Kitzzy)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd also say it's worth signing up for a free account on MotionBased (www.motionbased.com)- that will allow you to tie up your GPS track with their elevation data (which they claim is more accurate than the GPS unit on its own), and presents the route overlaid on Google Maps: the Training Centre mapping is almost blank, at least near me!

It also allows you to show off what you've been doing recently, if you elect to make the tracks public, e.g. http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/user/araqnid

Kitzzy said...

Thanks for the link. That is pretty cool, even though some features do not seem to work with the Mac yet.

I see you do biking too, do you have that accessory or can you still use the watch for distance and speed without it?

Anonymous said...

The 305 works fine for distance/speed monitoring on the bike without additional accessories. Although I do have a handlebar mount for my old Polar HRM that I've pressed into service to hold the 305.

Istr that you the bike plug-in you can get for the 305 is a cadence sensor-- to tell you how fast you're pedalling (as opposed to actually going). I suppose that this info, combined with the speed from the GPS and the HRM data, are used to compile a power output fiure, which is what all the roadies seem to compare. But I think it's too much detail for me atm, I prefer enjoying the scenery :)

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