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Polar s625x
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I was reading the manual again while waiting for the train this morning and spotted something that made me think... When I turn my foot pod on the green light comes on once but doesn't flash continuously as the manual suggests. Do other people's footpods flash continuously or just once? Is mine a freak?
I think it's going to have to go back to the shop today.
Eeyin, you are my hero.
we have a super accurate 6-axis sensor at work (measures accel in 3 directions and rotational rates).
it cost the best part of £15k so i think you've got the better end of the bargain there
and it's definitely too heavy to stick on your shoe... and that's without a power supply.
DT - I went through exactly the same thing trying to turn the sensor on - thought it was broken because it just wouldn't flash - then I figured out that you had to hold the button down for longer!!!
The instruction manual leaves somethings to be desired that's for sure.
Interesting that you were getting a reading at all considering you didn't turn the foot pod on. how does that work??
Ive always been slightly sceptical of some mile or km markers especially. Now I'll be able to check.
Also it is now possible to see how far you run in a football match golf course, or see how far a postman, housewife or any profession walks.
Unfortunately I took one look at the weather this morning and decided not to bring my kit with me to work so I can't test it out at lunchtime...
Still, went on the treadmill last night to have another comparison of the accuracy. (Earlier in the thread I compared my 2mile loop). I'm also having the same problem of converting miles and km's. At 1/2 mile on the treadmill, the watch said 0.77km. I was starting to panic - this would be about 3.75% out in just 800m. By the mile marker though, the watch had caught up and read excatly 1.6km. How pleased was I!!
All in all, I did just over 4 miles and the watch was spot on. I think I did try and confuse it by recording in km's and then trying to download and set up the Polar software in miles. I will have to standardise on one or the other and just leave it.
The middle 2 miles of the 4 i did were intervals. I did 2 mins at 10mph and 1 min at 6mph. This was clearly shown in the heart rate and the speed lines on the graph although not as straight and flat as you might expect although I assume that the treadmill wsa running at a consistent speed. I put this down to my own individual running style.
The same cannot be said for the altitude however. I set the watch up in the bedroom and just left it at 0m as I didn't know how high up I was. The gym is down a big hill from my house so I should have had negative readings. I was also running on a flat tradmill so I should have had a reasonably flat line on the graph. This was not the case and the readings were all over the place.
Tonight I am circuit training so that will be interesting to see the readings then as we do shuttle runs etc as part of the circuit. Thursday will then be a rest day (watching football = well planned) and then a long run Friday so we will see how the watch performs.
> watch said 0.77km. I was starting to
> panic - this would be about 3.75% out in
> just 800m. By the mile marker though,
> the watch had caught up and read excatly
> 1.6km.
I've noticed that on the treadmill I sometimes use, the distance calculated is based on the speed you set it to run at even if it hasn't spun up to that speed yet. i.e. if I set x km/hr it might take a minute to get to that speed even though after 1 minute it says you've run all the distance at x km/hr.
So far, I'm very pleased with it. I've been waiting for the release for months and so I'm probably still in the "new toy" phase. I'm impressed by the accuracy so far which I was a bit skeptical about beforehand. The wtach itself is well made the chest strap is a major improvement on the old ones. As others have said, the manual isn't that great. Download it from Polar and you'll see what we mean. I guess its difficult to navigate around such a multi function device with only 5 buttons but the manual could be better.
Time will tell however. The software is different to the Coach Light software and will take some getting used to. Things like battery life etc will all crop up.
I like it a lot compared to my Polar Coach. Do I really need it and is it worth £237? My rating so far is 9/10 and that's only due to the manual.
seriously considering how i can get a garmin, polar, nike etc.. unit together in the same place to directly compare.
re treadmills: the indoor tri competitions stipulate you must use the arrows to change speed, as when you enter it via the keypad it calculates distance at that speed as soon as you enter it, not waiting for the belt to spin up.
so i agree with foo bar.
I'll try and repeat the session using the arrows as suggested and see what the results are like.
If it is a BARR sanctioned event then the KM markers should be on the nose. The official measures are quite strict on the KM marking points.
i was really worried that having waited so long and being so excited about it, I would be disappointed with the actuality - but I'm not.
It seems to be accurate, the watch is great in terms of being able to display exactly what you want to see (3 lines!), and although it is big - I don't find it uncomfortable or cumbersome (I wouldn't wear it all the time though).
I need to figure out how to use it to best suit my needs, but am hoping that it will encourage me to do things like speed work and tempo runs, which I always avoided doing in the past because I find it really difficult to tell how fast I am going.
I really think it is going to be perfect for that.
Other things - the chest strap is marvellous, not a chafe in sight, and the footpod is light enough not to notice.
On the downside - I am still having trouble with the exercise sets - the transfer between watch and software and back again just doesn't seem to work at all, and as previously said the instruction manual could have done with at least a bit of user testing.
Overall - considering it was a pricey bit of kit, I don't feel that I have been in anyway cheated out of my money, and if I had the choice again, then I would definately buy one.
score - 9/10
Can you setup all 5 zones?
Is that the right answer?
I think that is it. I don't mean exercise profiles; I mean actual heart ranges:
zone 1 ( 100-135) zone 2 (135-150) etc.
When you are done you can see the time you spent in each zone. You usually see the time spent in the zone, the time spent above the zone, and the time spent below that zone.
I have just downloaded it no problem.
cheers