GPS Running Watches

One thing is you have to send it in to get the battery replaced, then you get another, reconditioned watch back. This costs about $100 and the battery only lasted 15 months. Most people's battery does last longer though.

It's very useful if you are the sort of person who gets lost in their own local area

I used to be skeptical of these things too. But after I bought my first garmin I was hooked. I wish that I had had one when I was still competing. They are great for several types of work outs.

-Tempo runs are great with a GPS it lets you stay on pace without having to think. You just set the window of say 30 seconds so if you want to run 6 min pace you set the low time to 5:45 and the high time to 6:15 then you just run and the watch will beep at you when you get off pace. You never even have to look at it.

-Intervals. Ever travel or find your self some where with no track or known distance course. If you have a GPS you just the work out in your watch and follow it, pace and distance made easy. Its not as good as a real track but handy when you need to do intervals and don't have one.

-Ordinary runs. You don't have to pay attention to it every min you can jsut turn it on and down load the track later. Over time you can watch your trends and see how much you actually ran in graphical form. Everyone always rounds up on mileage and lies to themselves on what their weekly/monthly totals are with a GPS you know for sure.

I think they are worth their weight in gold bro. You can get a garmin 305 at walmart for about $144 (in know because it just came up in another thread). Its a great model and has HR monitor.

I regret not buying one earlier - the best use is for tempos and interval work - Instead of running 800s on a track where I rarely race, I can do them on the hills where I race. No looking at the watch - just listen for the beeps and go.

I have done many quality workouts I would have missed otherwise.

Some people have said that their Garmin gets mixed up when you have large elevation changes. Might affect your trail run timing.

405cx

I want to strap a tom tom to my wrist and run a local race with it.

I will wait until they are as small and light as regular running watches.

Bump.

Anyone suggest any particular ones? The 205 and 305 seem a little bulky by pictures. Do you really notice the weight?

dick john wrote:

I want to strap a tom tom to my wrist and run a local race with it.

I will wait until they are as small and light as regular running watches.

Garmin Forerunner 110. Problem solved. Size is the same as my watch right now and is the same weight I would guess. Either way it feels the same as my regular watch.

110 is only 160 with a discount from runningwarehouse

Is there any difference in features between the 110 and 205? I kinda liked the idea that I could see sort of a "map" of where I went in case somehow I got lost

the garmin 110, its simple and easy to use. i wear it all day even when not running, its not too big, and im a girl

205/305 are big for a watch, but small for a gps. i have run about 10,000 miles in my 305 and dont notice it all.

just changed to the 310xt as the 305 finally crapped out.

most useful feature by far for me is being able to upload my runs and see where i went on googlemaps. (i use a mac program called rubictrack). if you run a lot on trails or when travelling this can be very very useful for discovering new runs.

the other features ive used a few times.

- "take me home". the watch can caluclate a reverse route for you from where you are. only really needed if you get hopelessly lost.

- uploading waypoints. useful if going into the wilderness. you upload a known waypoint and it can show you it on the map, and tell you which direction/distance etc.

obviously all the pace, distance functions are useful too, but you dont really need to go with a costly gps to get that.

305 is probably the bargain watch to get. now the 310 is out, you can get 305 pretty cheap. the 205 is the the same as the 305 but doesnt have the ability to communicate with hr strap, bike sensor & footpod.

and of course, the other use is to help you sue race organizers.

frank12222933 wrote:

One thing is you have to send it in to get the battery replaced, then you get another, reconditioned watch back. This costs about $100 and the battery only lasted 15 months. Most people's battery does last longer though.

Would the battery last longer if you made sure you used it until the battery was almost dead before you recharge each time? Isn't it the number of recharges that is pretty much set for a battery?

lamsdflksmsdfdsdf wrote:

110 is only 160 with a discount from runningwarehouse

What code? cp20 is no longer active (20%).

chicago frank wrote:

lamsdflksmsdfdsdf wrote:

110 is only 160 with a discount from runningwarehouse

What code? cp20 is no longer active (20%).

there are others, search the net, im afraid if I post the discount code it wont work anymore

use the link from flotrack (15%)

thanks. this post helped a lot.

one more thing, does anyone know if there are going to be any new releases some time soon? Because it seems like the 205 has been out for over 5 years...

'Either way it feels the same as my regular watch.'

Does it cost the same?

New Timex watch shows everything on the same screen...without being large and heavy...it is the new standard...Garmin needs to catch up...also contains free online training log software powered by TrainingPeaks™

http://www.timex.com/b/2324179011?intid=fly_201009_glotra

New Polar watch coming in early 2011, similar to the Timex...

Prep Runner wrote:

New Timex watch shows everything on the same screen...without being large and heavy...it is the new standard...Garmin needs to catch up...also contains free online training log software powered by TrainingPeaks™

http://www.timex.com/b/2324179011?intid=fly_201009_glotra

New Polar watch coming in early 2011, similar to the Timex...

without being large and heavy? Man, this thing is huge! But I like it anyways.