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Garmin GPS recommendation (Read 1629 times)

Wing


Joggaholic

    FYI, with regard to battery life, my 405 went from fully charged to fully depleted in a little over 6 hours with gps turned on on one of my long runs (with good signals, clear view of sky). Certainly not as great as the other models others have mentioned above.

    kcam


      The 205 (yes, you can still find them) just went on sale for $135 at Amazon.   To me, it is still the best GPS watch out there in terms of bang-for-the-buck.  


      IMKY13 finish!!

        You can also get the 305 (same as 205 except it has a heart rate monitor) at Wal Mart online for $159.

        Fitness/weight goals for 2014

         

        1) STAY INJURY FREE!!!

        2) Get to 189 lbs by the end of July 2014...and stay there (as of 4-25-14 was at 203 lbs)

        3) Complete Ironman Chattanooga in under 14 hours

        4) Break 4 hours in a stand alone marathon (Goal race=Rocket City 12/13/14)

        5) 4,500 total overall miles for the year:

                 Swim: 100 miles

                 Bike: 3,000 miles

                 Run: 1,400 miles

        Hoban-Jay


          FR 205.  Great watch, good charge and it's cheap!

            Oops .... quoted bbeaty's post, meant to quote wanderlush.  Fixed as best I could.

             

            Sounds like a good training aid.  I read DC Rainmakers review and  one thing that's not completely clear that maybe you could clear up since you have one .... he say's that there are no audible alerts and no vibration engine for vibratory alerts.  If you set up and interval session how do you know when the interval is over?  Is there some kind of alert when the current interval ends?

             

            no vibrations or alerts is correct but it comes with wireless headphones which DO have alerts and you can even choose to listen to your heart rate over the headphones if you have the HRM strap...kind of freaky actually.  Other than that, its a visual aid but I love the fact that I can customize all of my screens to show me exactly what I want.  The mp3 functionality is great too but I already have a Nano.

              I'm curious what problems drove you away from the 305s & 405s, if you don't mind elucidating?

               

              for the 305 my strap broke twice from use and it always felt like it was too big on my wrist...which is why i switched to the 405 because it came with the better strap but the battery life at <6 hours was awful and the sensitivity to sweat or droplets period meant that I always had to lock the screen or all kinds of crazy stuff would happen.  My first 405 died one day for no reason and so I had to buy a second as Garmin would not fix and it too started freaking out a few weeks ago which is when I gave up.  

                [Bold mine.]

                 

                I don't think I'd even consider buying a watch that RA didn't support.

                 

                the motorola has open ANT+ support as well...plus, it syncs with any Android device if you want additional trail mapping functionality (I do) and data collection (I do) as well as being able to play podcasts, mp3's from your Droid playlists.  Motorola has really sort of thought of everything with this device.  

                  For what it's worth I had a Motoactv and returned it. Mine was buggy as hell. I even purchased a second one after firmware updates but still had issues. Returned the second one. 

                   

                  The Motoactv portal is horrible. Their site is pretty worthless. You'd have to download it to their portal, then download a csv from their site, save it to your computer, then upload it here to RA. Kind of a pain. 

                  Running my way to being a little less fat.

                    There is one thing that makes the 310xt and 910xt good choices beyond the triathlete stuff... battery life.  It is significantly longer for these units than their others.  If you are an ultrarunner, consider that.  I get 17 solid hours out of my now-ancient 310xt.  It doesn't go poof on me midrace.  Unless we're talking 100, to which I cannot count.

                     

                    I will say as a gadget head (and slightly obsessed with tracking mileage and workouts) that swimming with the 910 is awesome.  It knows how many laps, even makes a pretty good guess what stroke you are doing (freestyle, breast stroke, back stroke, etc.)

                     

                    Matt


                    Runs With Kid

                      The 205 (yes, you can still find them) just went on sale for $135 at Amazon.   To me, it is still the best GPS watch out there in terms of bang-for-the-buck.  

                       

                      Thanks!  I'm just getting back into long distance running and needed something to replace my old Ironman Timex with the arm strap GPS receiver.  There are way too many choices out there.  After reading most of the other posts on the subject, I took your advice and just placed my order on Amazon.  Sounds like a good deal to me!

                        I picked up the Garmin Forerunner 410 from HeartRateMonitor.com via Amazon.com for $199.95. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-Forerunner-GPS-Enabled-Sports-Watch/dp/B0046BWRUK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341188537&sr=8-1&keywords=garmin+410

                         

                        You'll see a box titled "More buying options" on the right side under the "Add to Cart" button. Heart Rate Monitor delivered it pretty fast with free shipping.

                         

                        I've been using the watch for 2 weeks and I am very happy. No issues with the bezel.

                         

                          I picked up the Garmin Forerunner 410 from HeartRateMonitor.com via Amazon.com for $199.95. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-Forerunner-GPS-Enabled-Sports-Watch/dp/B0046BWRUK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341188537&sr=8-1&keywords=garmin+410

                           

                          You'll see a box titled "More buying options" on the right side under the "Add to Cart" button. Heart Rate Monitor delivered it pretty fast with free shipping.

                           

                          I've been using the watch for 2 weeks and I am very happy. No issues with the bezel.

                           

                          Thanks for the link........I didn't realise Amazon sold them too :-)

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