Thoughts on Training Toys and the Garmin 405

Last week, I’ve bought my new sports watch. Of course it’s not a simple LCD watch, but a heart-rate GPS-enabled Garmin 405:

Garmin GPS Forerunner 405 mit Herzfrequenzsensor, schwarz

Before making the purchase, I was thinking about my relationship to these toys. In the past, I’ve bought a decent Polar watch (an S410 which was a top-of-the-line model HRM back when I bought it in 2002), a bike (in 2004), a FuelBelt or two, an Ergomo power meter (in 2006), a Camelbak, tons of shoes, socks, shirts and shorts and a lot of other smaller/cheaper gizmos. My parents joke a lot about the fact that I always have the best equipment available. On one hand – looking from people outside the sport, that is probably true: When I spend as much time as I do on my hobby, I want to use tools to help me get better or just enjoy the activity a bit more. (One can certainly argue if the tools did indeed help me get faster, but that’s another discussion.) So yes, I’ve been spending quite some money on “toys”. On the other hand – comparing myself to people in the sport, I don’t think that I’m atypical. My bike (bought in 2004) is probably one of the cheapest bikes in any IM-distance transition zone. A lot of friends have bought three bikes in the meantime and spent a lot more on race wheels. I also think that my purchases are not mainly for flash. So I think that I don’t have to be ashamed of plunking down 240€ for my Garmin 405.

Short Review of the Garmin 405

Now that I’ve had the 405 for about a week, I’m really impressed with the GPS watch. I didn’t run into problems other people have noted (GPS pickup is quick and operation is reliable so far). I’m still a bit skeptical about the battery life of the unit (advertised as 8 hours in GPS mode), but for the normal training runs (still under two hours at this point of the season) this is not an issue.

Here’s a list of the things I really like:

• Distance appears to be pretty accurate, even under trees
  Some people noted that when running in a forest the track is off. For me, it’s working fine so far, even when I’m running in our nice forested areas under a thick canopy of leaves.
  
• Feedback on pace is almost instantaneous
  Any changes in pace are picked up pretty fast by the unit – so you always know how fast you’re running (in “meaningful” units such as min/k – or min/miles for the US/British people).
  
• HR is working reliably
  My “old” Polar watch had some problems near power lines and the train tracks (not much of a problem, but a bit annoying), the Garmin is not having these issues at all.
• Setup is not too difficult
  At first the setup is a bit tricky, but I’ve got things down pretty well now. Usability is as good as the Polar (and much better comparing to other watches I’ve seen).
  
• Transferring data to the PC works
  After installing the required software, transferring data to the PC (and the Garmin program) is automatic. I never got the transfer working on my old Polar, with the Garmin it’s a total non-issue .. just move the watch close to the ANT+ receiver, and everything works automatically. Really well done, even easier than synching an iPod!
  
• Export to Google Earth is easy and cool
  Seeing your running route on a Google Earth blows my mind every time. This was impossible only a few years ago, now it’s a snap.

Already I’m starting to plan different sessions that what I was doing before. One big benefit for me is that I’m much more flexible in doing interval sessions. I don’t have easy access to a nice track, but I still want to add more speed stuff to my training. With the new watch I can do all kinds of intervals at different lengths (both time and distance) and speeds and will be able to get feedback if I’m running the speeds I want to.

Hopefully this will help me get faster in the next months!