Runners - Santa needs GPS watch recommendations...please!!

I just bought myself a Garmin 305! And I love it! It has a heart rate monitor, accurate calories, distance, pace, gps, etc. Amazon seemed to have the best prices.

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This, got mine today, I was too impatient for Santa... Love it already...

I don't have a specific recommendation but I do have one other feature to watch out for... my sister has a Garmin that has all of the features you listed, and she loved it. Sorry, I don't know which model. HOWEVER, the battery died last month and you have to send it back to Garmin to get it replaced and it costs $80. She is debating putting that $80 towards a different HRM rather than sending it in.

My advice is try to find a model that allows you to replace the battery yourself.

I don't have a specific recommendation but I do have one other feature to watch out for... my sister has a Garmin that has all of the features you listed, and she loved it. Sorry, I don't know which model. HOWEVER, the battery died last month and you have to send it back to Garmin to get it replaced and it costs $80. She is debating putting that $80 towards a different HRM rather than sending it in.

My advice is try to find a model that allows you to replace the battery yourself.

This! Why should you have to pay so much for a battery replacement. You may as well spend the extra money and get a better watch. Polar FT60 measures cals for everything. 100 pounds on ebay. Garmin forerunners are just for runners but do have the battery replacement issue. So its up to you which you'd rather have. Zara

I would even go one step further and ask for the Garmin 405 - less bulkly/heavy than the 305

I have the basic Garmin 110 (not even sure they make it any more). It has no frills, but works beautifully and gives be all the info I need. I upload to garminconnect.com to view all the details on the computer instead of on a small watch that I can't see well

I love love love my Garmin 305! Yes, it's big and bulky but I love it. I have the HRM strap with it as well.

I have to recommend AGAINST the Garmin 405. I had one for about a year. Loved it at first, then I ran the Garmin update, and all hell broke loose. It stopped holding a charge, would crap out in the middle of workouts, calorie count was all over the map, etc.

I called Garmin, as it was less than a year old (and had read of a ton of other people having the same issues online), and they told me it wasn't the software, but that I could drain the battery down all the way - twice - and it should be fine. Did their suggestions, and it worked - for a few days. then it went back to being wonky. Called Garmin again and they weren't very supportive or helpful. Gave in and returned it to REI as defective for a full refund. I thought about getting another one, but found that I really didn't need the full GPS/HRM suite on the watch. Also, w/o the extra foot pod, the Garmin is pretty useless indoors.


I now use a Suunto T3d HRM with chest strap and RunKeeper on my iPhone to track my runs. I always have my phone with my anyways. Haven't had any issues with the GPS on my phone, and have cross-checked distance on both map my run and in my car. Runkeeper calls out your distance covered, pace, intervals on user defined intervals as well. If I want to know my HR, I just glance down at my watch.

tracking route, distance, pace, and also a heart rate monitor, calories burned, etc.

But no bells and whistles… :-)

I have a Garmin Forerunner 305 and it works well. Like another poster, I didn't buy the 405 because of the reported problems with sweat. Also, the 305 is cheap - it's only $125 at Amazon. Oh, yeh, I've been buying at Amazon since 1997 and it's the only place to get something like this (I even buy food there…)

The -05 models estimate calories burned based on height, weight, and distance covered. It's an estimation and it's going to be wrong most of the time. How wrong? Dunno. My Garmin reports the same calorie burn running here in SoCal (at sea level) as it does at 9000 feet and that doesn't make sense to me. Nor does the Garmin change calorie burns as I become more fit - I did a run today where I was 17 beats/minute slower than when I started running in June. How could I burn the same number of calories?

I called Garmin TS and they confirmed that it's an estimate but I also figured out (after spending some quality time on the Garmin web site) that the -10 models have heart rate based calorie tracking so they will tend to be more accurate than the -05 models.

The Garmin 610 is a very sweet device but it ain't cheap. It's got wireless transfer, a touch screen, and heart rate based calorie calculations.

Mebbe if I could sell my Polar FT60 and my Forerunner 305, I could spring for the 610!

Costco.com has the 405 for $169 shipped!

The HRM will only work while running - if you want to track HRM calories for other activities, you need the 405 CX, 410 or 610.


http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?whse=BC&topnav=&prodid=11676503&ec=BC-EC877-CatHome&pos=14&lang=en-US

Which one you should get depends on what activities you do. I swim, bike and run so I have my eyes on the new 910XT to replace my 310XT. But if you only run or only bike or only swim, they have cheaper ones that do only those activities.

The 305 would be a good starter watch and prices are very reasonable. I got the 205 and quickly outgrew it. I now have the 310XT since im training for a Tri.

This might be more watch than you want or need, but I oicked up the Garmin Forerunner 610 last week and I LOOOOOOOOVE it. It's so helpful! I was using a Polar before just to track HR and calories. It's so nice to get distance, speed, hr, cadence, and pace at the same time in the same place. It all uploads to Garmin Connect automatically and I can compare run to run and see improvements, what I need to work on still, effort I'm putting in, etc.

I just bought myself a Garmin 305! And I love it! It has a heart rate monitor, accurate calories, distance, pace, gps, etc. Amazon seemed to have the best prices.

Calories on the Garmin Forerunner series (including the 305) are based on weight and avg pace maintained, NOT on heart rate.
To confirm, leave it on in your car while driving and see your incredible burn rate. Very impressive, and totally inaccurate.

But, you can take your avg HR from the 305 to a site that uses a Polar Formula and weight, age, sex, VO2max, AHR, and get a good calculation of calories.

I used the 305 for two years, great watch, never had any complaints. I think you definitely get the most features for the lowest price with the 305. It is bulky though and sometimes can take a while to pick up satellites (I would put it outside before starting my run so I didn't have to wait). I recently upgraded to the 610 which is a pretty amazing watch but certainly more expensive. However, I'm currently running over 30 miles a week and that will be increasing to over 40 in the next few months, so in my view, given how much I use it, it is worth the extra money.