Garmin 310xt question

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beaky1980
beaky1980 Posts: 85 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
So I have an odd question, and I'm horrible at getting my point across but I'll try my best. My fiance and I are going on a 4 day tent camping trip soon where we plan on doing a lot of hiking and biking during the day. Of course we also plan on making some stops to take pictures, grab a snack, take in the scenery, etc. But we plan on being away from camp probably 8-10 hours a day on average. I kind of wanted to wear my garmin 310xt with the heart rate monitor soft strap at least during the bike rides, since my fitbit doesn't track that very well. Does anyone have any advice, suggestions, comments, etc. when it comes to wearing one of those for extended periods of time? I'd be turning off the actual watch while we are stopped, just didn't want to have to take off the strap. Or am I just out of luck? Does this make sense lol?

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  • beaky1980
    beaky1980 Posts: 85 Member
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    Bump?
  • beaky1980
    beaky1980 Posts: 85 Member
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    Just wanted to add, I'm not looking to use my garmin as an all day activity tracker, I have my fitbit for that. I'm mainly concerned about the bike rides. We will probably be taking long trips on the bikes combined with some hiking. My fitbit will track hiking and general walking around. I wear my garmin for my runs, which I'll be doing as well.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
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    The main impact is probably the battery depletion on the HRM module itself rather than anything else. In some models there is a handshake between the module and the wrist device, so it may go to sleep if it's not receiving a handshake signal. check the manual.

    From a personal perspective I end up with nasty chafing on my sternum if I'm wearing a strap for more than about 3 hours.
  • beaky1980
    beaky1980 Posts: 85 Member
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    Thanks...I'm not too worried about the battery since it has about a 20 hour life.

    Anyone else have any input?
  • beaky1980
    beaky1980 Posts: 85 Member
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    Bump again?
  • jturnerx
    jturnerx Posts: 325 Member
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    I don't really understand the question. The longest I've ever used mine was during a 24 hour event. Other than having to recharge it with an external battery on the fly it was no different than using it for a one hour run.
  • beaky1980
    beaky1980 Posts: 85 Member
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    Yeah, I'm really bad at wording things...I think what I'm trying to ask is can I leave the strap on all day, but only use the watch itself as needed? Like say we bike 20 miles...I want to be able to use my garmin with heart rate monitor for that. Then we stop and take in the sights, eat something, I don't want to be using it then but I don't want to have to take the strap off because we will probably go biking again in a while. Or we go for a 20 mile bike ride (using the heart rate monitor), hike for 10 miles (not using heart rate monitor but keeping the strap on), then biking another 20 (using the heart rate monitor). Does this make a bit more sense?
  • beaky1980
    beaky1980 Posts: 85 Member
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    Bump
  • FrenchMob
    FrenchMob Posts: 1,167 Member
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    If you wear the strap all day, it still sends the signal whether the watch is on or not, so you'll use up the battery quicker. But those straps usually have a decent life expectancy so you might have to replace the battery after 6 months instead of 1 year type of deal.
  • gobonas99
    gobonas99 Posts: 1,049 Member
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    Yeah, I'm really bad at wording things...I think what I'm trying to ask is can I leave the strap on all day, but only use the watch itself as needed? Like say we bike 20 miles...I want to be able to use my garmin with heart rate monitor for that. Then we stop and take in the sights, eat something, I don't want to be using it then but I don't want to have to take the strap off because we will probably go biking again in a while. Or we go for a 20 mile bike ride (using the heart rate monitor), hike for 10 miles (not using heart rate monitor but keeping the strap on), then biking another 20 (using the heart rate monitor). Does this make a bit more sense?

    I have a 310XT. Yes, you can stop the watch and just leave the HR strap on. Mine automatically picks my HR back up as soon as I restart the watch (although I've only had it not counting for maybe 30-45 minutes between biking and running once when tri practice got rained out during the bike - went home, waited 20 minutes for the rain to pass, and got a short run in). Just make sure you reset the watch between activities (vs simply stopping and starting it), otherwise after the first stop you'll get a popup box with recovery HR data that won't go away after you hit start again. HTH! :flowerforyou:

    On a side note, when I wear the strap longer than 2-3 hours at a time, I get a bit of irritation - the garmin HR strap is not as flexible as my polar HR strap (which I could wear for almost an entire day with no issues)....I've started putting a tiny bit of Body Glide on my chest where the bottom of the strap sits, and that does seems to help some (but not completely prevent).

    ETA - and yes, it will totally suck your battery. I'd actually probably turn the watch completely off when you're stopped...that should help prevent some of the battery drain :smile:

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