Polar 800sd for data-geeks? (Read 602 times)

So I'm sure this question has been asked/answered many times before, but 1 more can't hurt right? My old Polar HRM finally gave up the ghost and it's old enough (8 years) I think it would cost as much to have fixed as replaced. (Maybe not, but it gives me an excuse to get a new toy) So my first question is about the accuracy about the 800 shoe pod. I've heared some people say the distance (after calibrating) was spot on - others have said it was off by a lot. Any opinions? Does running up/down hills affect the accuracy? What about sprinting vs long/slower runs? I'm also a bit of a information dork. (Part of why I really like the 800 is because of the cadence data) When you transfer your data to the computer is there a way to get access to it? In other words, does Polar use there own propriatary format (ala Micro$oft) or is the data accessible (xml or otherwise)? Thanks in advance. Ben

In my experience, the shoe pod is pretty accurate, within about 1%, IF you run at roughly the same pace that you calibrated. So if you calibrate at a 5k, it will not be too accurate at long run pace. Hills will affect accuracy some too, maybe because your pace on hills is different. Bottom line, it's certainly good enough for training runs, within 2-3%. I really like the pace display. The "total ascent" is way, way too high. As far as data is concerned, the software doesn't work with Macs, even with emulation like Parallels or Boot Camp, something about the IR protocols they use, so you can't download your watch data to the computer. So I really don't know. Personally, given the price and compatibility issues, I think I'd look at the new Garmin.