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Training watch

post #1 of 10
4/12/10 at 3:01am
Thread Starter 
I was curious if any of you use a watch when running or training?

I'm thinking of picking up one of the heartmate monitor ones that also estimates distance? Does anyone have a good suggestion? I'm shying away from ones w/ GPS b/c I want to keep the cost down since I'm not convinced I would use it regularly.
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post #2 of 10
4/12/10 at 3:59am
I currently have a Suunto Core, which I bought back in '07 for my military service - the only use I have for it is timing my intervals and runs now.
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post #3 of 10
4/12/10 at 4:18am
I've been using different versions of the Timex Ironman Triathlon for the past 15 years or so, mostly for the interval timer feature.
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post #4 of 10
4/12/10 at 8:46am
If you don't want to pay for GPS, don't bother with the distance measuring. The foot pods are not really accurate enough to be useful.

I have a heart rate monitor and never use it. Ask yourself whether you really need it, or do you just think it's a neat gadget? A basic timex does everything I need.
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post #5 of 10
4/12/10 at 4:56pm
I use a Timex Ironman 20th Anniversary Edition (hard to find now, but it's a perfect running watch) for more running/biking purposes. I also have a heartrate monitor that links to another Timex Ironman watch, which I find useful when I'm running/biking because it lets me know whether I'm in my targeted HR zone. I think Apple has a footpod product that links to certain Ipods, but I've never used them so I've no idea how accurate they are. Running with a GPS is a bit of an overkill for the vast majority of people (me included), IMO. You can use Google Earth to determine the distance beforehand or afterwards if you're really anal about it.
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post #6 of 10
4/13/10 at 11:25am
I found the Nike Ipod system to be very useful and accurate to +/- 10% the distance recorded by a Garmin GPS. I noticed one issue is that a route with a lot of hills can throw off accuracy. Also, I only used it for runs up to 5 miles or so, and I don't have experience with it over longer distances. The nice thing about having a distance measuring system is that you can make last minute route changes and still have a reasonably good measure of how far you've gone.
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post #7 of 10
4/13/10 at 12:29pm
I use a black rubber Casio "illuminator" I bought from the commissary when I was in prison. Works fine for the pre-dawn runs, but the buttons are of the tiny metal variety. There's a version of the Ironman that has 9 interval settings that seems like a good deal on ebay, albeit UAF.
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post #8 of 10
4/13/10 at 12:30pm
I love the Garmin 305. GPS, Heart Rate, all the other normal stuff. I like the heart rate for training b/c it helps me not go out too fast and burn up quick (I'm new to running with the intent of actually training for a race). You can grab it at Amazon now for about $150. The most annoying thing about it is that it can take it a full minute or so to grab a satelite sometimes. It's a pain when you walk out the door ready to GO and then have to stand and wait for that. The software is also fun b/c you can track your splits, overlay each run on top of the others to check progress, map them in Google Earth ( you can even see on the map where you cross the street - pretty cool), and a bunch of other stuff I have yet to get to.

Overall, though, very good.

My wife wore it while running with a friend and her friend discovered that her Nike Pod thing was only actually recording .9 for each mile they were running. As a result, she found out all of her training runs had been 10% short and her time was 10% slower than she thought - which explaind her poor performance in her last 1/2 marathon.
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post #9 of 10
4/13/10 at 2:02pm
If any of you have an Android phone, Google has an app called My Tracks that will do all the timing, distance, elevation, etc. Just get an armband for your phone or a secured pocket and you'll be in business. No HR monitor, though, but there's probably an app for it somewhere. (J/K...but maybe not.)
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post #10 of 10
4/13/10 at 2:43pm
I run with nike + on my nano and find it to be very accurate. You need to calibrate the chip on your shoe (and you don't need to wear nikes - I wear Adidas). I ran a half marathon with it a few weeks ago and it was less than a 2/10ths of a mile off after 13.1 miles.
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