I'm thinking of buying a GPS watch to wear only for tempos, road intervals, and long runs. I don't really want to start obsessing about my pace on every run but would like to be able to run workouts on unmarked, random courses. Has anyone used a GPS watch for this purpose? If so, which model would you recommend? I was thinking Garmin 205 but any advice would be appreciated.
I have the 205. Works excellent for that purpose. You can program workouts. For instance you can program a tempo based on time or distance and include speed settings to keep you in a pace range.
So I might program a run:
warm up 10 minutes pace (NA)
tempo 30 minutes (or 5 miles) 6min/mile pace
cool down 10 minutes
You can also set it so that you are not locked into the times and just hit the LAP button when you are ready to do the next part of the workout.
I am one of those folks who is a bit obsessed with knowing mileage and pace and keeping a record of it.
Yes - definitely worth doing. For the extra $14, or so, I suggest the 305, which is the same as the 205 but has a heart rate monitor. Even if you don't think you'll use it often, it's worth having for the few times that you might want to use it.
FR60, not a GPS watch exactly but does the job and since it runs on normal watch batteries, you don't have to worry about having to recharge it or losing gps tracking coverage. it looks like a normal watch too (i wear the woman's version).
I wear a Garmin for most runs because it is an easy way to remember those runs I did at the end of the week when I finally get around to entering them in a running log. It's quite simple to not obsess over it. Don't.
Don't check it every couple of minutes, don't start racing yourself, don't even look at it until you are done.
If you are unable to do keep yourself from obsessing over mere information, you have a problem far greater than what model to choose and you need to address it
The Garmin 305 is great. The only feature that is not great is the "instantaneous pace," which tends to be off, so since you don't want to obsess about pace, it would be perfect.