Running with the Garmin Forerunner 305

So this weekend I bought a used Garmin Forerunner 305 secondhand off of craigslist for approximately half the retail price. Wacarra told me about these little gadgets last Saturday on our run, and as soon as I heard about the 305 I was intrigued. Basically, it's a GPS device that fits on your wrist, like a watch... only it tracks all the important things you'd want to know when doing any sort of physical activity or training: distance, pace, heart rate, calories burned, etc. There are literally about 20 different types of data that this thing records. You wear it on your wrist like you would a watch and yes, it's a little bulky and no, I probably wouldn't wear it out on a Friday night, but I did not find it at all distracting to wear while running. There is also an option to strap a heart rate monitor to your chest which communicates with the wrist device.

(Note: not my arm)

So I wore this on Wednesday morning for my 5 mile run and also tonight for my 3 mile run, both at Gasworks. Wednesday didn't work out, as I hadn't cleared the previous owner's user data from the device which was causing a weird conflict with the software. Once I wiped it clean, I was able to start fresh with my new data. There are so many reasons why the Garmin 305 is cool I don't know where to begin. After using it for 2 runs here is what I'm finding impressive:

1. I actually know how far I'm running by distance, not time. In the past, I had measured one mile as 12 minutes of running. Now, I actually know the exact distances I am running. This frees me up to try some new routes.
2. My heart rate is really high! I am averaging almost in the 90% rate of my max, which means I have fallen REALLY out of shape since I stopped running through the summer, but also gives me a good benchmark for improvement.
3. I can set an alert to beep me when I go above or below my target heart rate. Very cool.
4. The unit ships with some pretty basic software, but you can also use the supplementary web-based software called Motion Based (www.motionbased.com). The free version is awesome! You can upload your runs from the device into Google maps, and see all of your data in chart form - what your heart rate was on such and such a hill, how fast you ran during the last mile, how many seconds you stopped for, etc. 

You can also view other Motion Based user runs across the U.S. (there were some runs uploaded tonight from Oildale, CA - my hometown, ahhhh), or filter by your city. So if I want to see what routes people are running in Seattle, I can view them. You also have the option to make your runs private, but why would you want to?

The coolest thing about the software is the ability to replay your run using the Map Player. When you "play back" your route, the little pin glides along your route, giving off real-time data results including what your heart rate was, pace, elevation, etc. at any given moment during the route. It's really cool.

I think this is going to be a useful little tool for helping me improve my pace while training within my target heart rate zone. I'm excited to track my route in Bellingham this weekend for the 15K!