I got the Garmin Forerunner 305 for my birthday, and to a lesser extent for completing the half marathon and as a motivation for the next.
I’ve been eyeing the Forerunner since the 205 except I couldn’t justify spending that kind of money on a tool that’s supposed to help me run better. I debated getting the newly released and much smaller 405 but again the price was prohibitive. After a few days of shopping around online I got it from the second cheapest source (because Amazon won’t ship it to Canada and I didn’t have the patience to have it shipped to WA and then cross the border to pick it up).
I love it!
It’s usable right out of the box with no configurations required. I did a test run the first morning on my walk to work – It found a satellite within 30 seconds and just went to work.
It shows the time, distance, pace, average & best pace, calories burned, elevation, etc
I’ve covered about 45miles since I stated using it a week ago. It’s very helpful during my early morning runs – I mostly have an hour to spare and it’s a great tool to rate and help me improve my performance.
It has an easily customizable training feature and a virtual partner you can compete against.
On Monday, I overdid it and went for a rather long run, when it became clear that I was too exhausted to run back all the way, I switch to the training feature and set it up so that I’d run for a mile and rest for 5mins…
It comes with a training software which I haven’t used much. I use Motion Based, Garmin’s online training/analyzing/mapping application. One of the coolest features is that it overlays your run route over Google maps, it also has a player that simulates your run.
I haven’t used the heart monitor yet because I can’t seem to connect it to the unit, from what I’ve read online it’s a common problem – which is rather disappointing, I’ll be calling Garmin if all else fails.
That’s thus far the only con, oh and last Saturday it took a good minute for it to get a signal.
It’s (way) larger than a regular watch but I don’t mind as I’m a fan of large time pieces.
I love it because it makes me want to go out and run/walk.
View Larger Map – 14 mile scenic run last Saturday, I walked the last 7
http://elsbro.motionbased.com – to follow my running activities
5 Comments
Glad to hear good things, I just bought bought the 305 and now I can't wait to get it! Did you ever get your HRM working?
17 December, 2008 at 3:21 amNo, I just need to change the batteries apparently.
17 December, 2008 at 4:28 pmnice article! nice site. you’re in my rss feed now 😉
2 February, 2009 at 6:51 pmkeep it up
nice article! nice site. you're in my rss feed now 😉
2 February, 2009 at 1:51 pmkeep it up