Let me introduce my Christmas present to myself – a Garmin Forerunner 410 GPS watch and heart rate monitor. I haven’t had a heart rate monitor for 18 months or so (lost my last one, don’t ask me how), and over the last 4 or 5 months I realised that my exercise sessions are far more focussed and successful when I am tracking time spent, calories burnt and distance travelled (where relevant). So I set my heart on a Garmin of some sort, and proceeded to procrastinate for so long over which model to get that suddenly it was Christmas. Excellent justification for spending the money – a Christmas present to myself!
I’ve got to say that this model is not the easiest or most intuitive to use. A lot of the controls are activated by swiping the “bezel”, which is the dark grey circular edge to the watch – and the swiping required to move from one menu item to another is not simple. Or perhaps it’s just not simple to me. My various Google searches assure me that I will work it out soon enough, which will be great, because at the moment I am spending the first 5 minutes of each workout trying to determine how to start my Garmin going. I’m used to looking a bit silly at the gym (see: red face, sweating profusely, eyes popping out of head), but my Garmin-idiocy is making me look slightly insane. Still, it was great to go for a run around Lake Jindabyne last weekend and to know exactly how far I had run (not particularly far, but I love the GPS!), how long it had taken, and at what speed per kilometre I was running.
I’m crossing my fingers that my Garmin will be another piece of the puzzle required to motivate me to a more consistent exercise program in 2013. Feeling pretty confident right now that it will.
I should reblog your post as I was going to write the same thing myself! I got the 410 yesterday and I found the same thing about the bevel, having said that, I think you get used to it. I did my first run with it this morning, love it!
Hi John! I haven’t yet set up the software on my Macbook so I haven’t been uploading any data etc … baby steps! 😉 thanks for the follow.
good for you! my husband’s got a garmin, and it’s pretty cool all the things it can track…enjoy the motivation!
thanks Michelle!