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Garmin Forerunner
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5.2 miles on the Forerunner, 5.6 miles after adjustments in Tracklogs!
Just got my own PC so I cant wait to start downloading my runs.
I've seen them on ebay for reasonable money.
Has anyone experience good or bad?
You can get them for £152.99 off Wiggle.co.uk without the worry.
Wookie, the data cable does come with the unit.
Ran the Kenilworth half today. Gave me 13.3miles for the 13.1mile course.
When I imported the run into memory-map, it showed a few wayward points, and these are part of the reason for the extra 0.2 miles. Also, it's unlikely you'll run the shortest distance round the course - so this will make up the rest. Anyway, it was a great asset for pacing myself. First time I've used it in a race and I'm glad I spent the money on it.
Caveat Emptor and all that.
PS.. I promise I don't work for GPS!
Wardi - that's where I bought mine from. good to know that the support's there if I need it.
So Very Tired- whats this tracklogs thing you mentioned?
There's a free demo on www.tracklogs.co.uk
Most of the UK will show up as 'unlicensed' - you'll need to click on the bit(s) on the map of the UK with a red square round them.
I don't think so - anyone care to add comments to that thread? (The more informed, the better, as I'm not 100% sure of my facts!)
I read somewhere that a lot of GPS's (and possibly including Timex) use Garmin technology.
Looking back through the threads someone posted how to charge via USB - given USB also has send/receive lines has anyone tried to make up a combined charger/data USB cable? I'm emigrated to Australia next year so the fewer UK style power bricks I need to take, the better.
Paul
I immediately bought a USB serial adapter as I couldn’t face going round the back of the computer – although an embarrassing failure to put the serial plug into cradle properly saw me tearing my hair out thinking the thing didn’t work. So I had torch in one hand, serial port in another, trying to discern a serial port from a midi port or the endless unused ports I seem to have in my computer. Even then things are not great: if I forget to remove the serial adapter from the USB hub, my computer 100% refuses to boot up!
I also bought tracklogs for my local area – this works really well – although I haven’t worked out yet how to plan a route then upload it to my Garmin – Can’t seem to get my head round waypoints and the like.
I only ran once with it on my wrist – I like to wear watches loose on my wrist, which doesn’t really work with my Garmin. It now sits on my upper arm, which feels far more comfortable. I also get less weak GPS signals and means I can carry on using my Polar HR monitor, which I feel lost without.
My first few runs were a bit hit and miss as I was hitting the stop button every time I came to crossroads and I was confused as to why a 1 mile marker would flash at, say, 3.45m. I then read that pressing stop automatically generates a laptime, and that the autopause avoids this. I found that for the auto pause to come on I had to massively reduce my walking min/mile pace, which occasionally confuses Garmin when its pacing goes a bit funny. Personally I would like to be able to stop the watch without generating a laptime as I often stop my watch to run over long crossroads – an action that would restart the Garmin timer.
I was delighted that my 16 mile run I guessed purely on feel 5 years ago was measured as 15.96 miles by Garmin! I now rest easy in having not massively overestimated my mileage all these years!
I can also report it works superbly in Japan, where the map feature came into play for the first time, as my friends and I got lost in the Suzuka backstreets whilst out running. God knows where I may have been without Garmin.
All in all a great buy! I really think that it is a steal at the £115 I paid for it – the interface is just so intuitive and shows that a lot of thought has gone into making it an item for runners.
If I were to suggest improvements for future models they would be to smooth the pacing more – it does tend to wander all over the place; to have the option to turn the lap feature off when you press the stop button; an option to upload certain runs rather than every run stored on the Garmin (This may exist – haven’t worked out how…); the option to show pace/min and mph on the same screen; and to have USB rather than serial port.