convince me to get a garmin 305 (Read 970 times)

It's faster than using the mapping feature here or at any of the other google mashups for calculating how far I went. It isn't 100% accurate, but its close enough and tracks me on trails (which can be tough to follow from aerial or satellite photography that is a few years out of date.) I like looking at the heart rate and pace numbers after the fact. I haven't made much use of them while running, though. If you don't want to spend the money, just keep on w/the nike+ is my advice. It's a fun toy, but before I had it I was perfectly happy to go outside with my $50 timex watch, and I still don't sweat it if I don't wear a watch when I go out for a run.

You don't need it at all, in my opinion. Here's what I use it for: I track the distance, and I use it in races to determine my pacing. Right now, I think I've gotten to the point where I rely on it too much, so I've started paring down the display. I've even considered going back to the regular wristwatch. It comes in handy when I'm traveling, so I can refer back to it when I get home to update my log.

I'm a cheap guy and I don't regret buying mine for a minute. Mostly because I love trail running and love to know my current pace. One other point: you could go to the 205 (give up heart rate) and save $50.

This is one of the best things that I've enjoyed about it. Also, when you're traveling, you can just get dressed, lace up the shoes, strap on the Garmin and go and don't have to worry about a route or how far you've gone in an unfamiliar setting, Garmie will tell you.

I'm looking forward to that feature this weekend. In the past when I've been out of town I have to make a real point of remembering street names or guesstimating how far I ran. Now I can just go and enjoy the run. And have something geekier than anything my brother (enginerd) has to show off, too! k

When I was looking into buying a heart rate monitor I was torn between the 305 and the Polar RS200sd. I liked the 305 because it has a GPS and can plot my route, but it is very big and clunky and if the GPS signal is lost then it plots a straight line between the point where the signal was lost and where it was reacquired, totally screwing with distance. I eventually decided that I didn't need the GPS functionality, as tempting and as and cool as it is, as most of my runs are on pre-planned paths that I know well, and so I opted for the Polar. The Polar uses an accelerometer foot-pod style device for measuring distance, similar to the Nike+, but it is very accurate (once you calibrate it by running a 5 or 10k on a 400 meter track. I couldn't be happier with the Polar! It logs all my important running data, and even lets me upload them to my computer or the internet! In fact, I designed the website in my signature to receive my heart rate monitor data directly from the Polar's output and dynamically calculate certain fields such as average pace, average speed, etc. The Polar was a bit more expensive than the Garmin would have been, but, in my opinion, well worth it, and an indispensable product to my recent success as a happy and injury-free runner!