I have blogged before that as a kid growing up I was mad on James Bond 007. Even now I have all the DVDs, most of the books though I never joined the official fan club.
I remember my parents buying me a James Bond watch when I was probably 10 years old. I cannot find a photo of it but it was kind of like this one but silver and it played the 007 theme as an alarm, fantastic! I remember running around the park playing it!
Yesterday I bought myself a new watch. It doesnt have a built in magnet that can attract bullets, doesnt have a built in camera but what it does have is GPS.
Thats right. Yesterday I treated myself to a Garmin Forerunner 305. I tried it for the first time today and I am really happy. So what is so special about it.
It basically synchs up with a satellite and tracks my run. It gives me an accurate readout of my distance, my average pace, my average speed, my maximum speed. This is a serious bit of kit and for 2500 SEK so it should be.
Out of the box it was pretty easy to set up. A first charge which gives ten hours of life. At the start of my run, it took a minute or so to locate the satellite and then bang we were off. It was very interesting to check out my pace. Its something I have had no idea about previously. This is really important for my races because I will know what pace to start out on and when I can crank things up.
I only planned on doing 5k today but, as this is the main attraction of the watch, I went off in a different direction and just enjoyed the run. I was feeling good and enjoyed it and clocked up a 6 mile run, thats 9.65 in Kms.
When I got home, it downloaded the info in seconds. I could now read my performance stats which will get even more interesting as time goes on. It also draws a map based on the GPS and it replays your run on the map. The conditions were not great today. In some places I think I needed a snorkel as the melting snow creates huge deep puddles. I could see on the virtual replay where I slowed down to navigate my way through them.
I could also certain parts of the course where I put my clog down, just under 9 minute a mile pace in some parts. Thats amazing for me!
There are a lot more features which I will investigate in due course. I love the feature where I can run against my best time and see on the screen whether I am in front or behind of myself. In simple terms. If I run the course I did today next Sunday I can race against todays performance. This will lead to better running times.
There is also a heart rate monitor though I didnt try that today. I am not so fussed on my BPM…yet!
As I have said all along, pace doesnt worry me. I just want to finish the Half Marathon, then if I enjoy it I will do more. However distance does trouble me and I was concerned that maybe Google Maps was way off what I was actually running. It was actually pretty close so I give a lot of credit to Mapmyrun here.
So now I know I am running the right distances and can kick on.
Once upon a time I ran over a park with the 007 theme ringing out of my watch, now 25 years later I am running again but this time with radar and satellites 
Delicious 
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Do these have any health risks as with past GPS products?
Nothing that I have read or heard about to be honest. Runners tend to be very health conscious so I doubt these would not be selling if there were major risks.
Then again who knows in 20 years time…
GEEK!!
I track my run distance and pace and things like that with a simple nike thinghy on my shoe. Seriously less cool than a GPS on your wrist
Mæt upp din vilo- og maxpuls så får du dessutom mer ut av din træning! Du vet i vilket puls-læge du ska træna och kan se om du ska øka eller sænka farten lite, beroende på vilket mål du har.
Ett exempel:
“Låg intensitet försiggår på 50-60 procent av din maxpuls. Är du lätt tränad ska du börja här. Träning på den nivån kommer att förbättra både uthållighet och kondition. Är du redan i god form kommer träning på den låga nivån att bevara din form utan att förbättra den. Det är bra när du vill låta kroppen vila utan att formen blir sämre.
Mellanintensiteten är på 60-80 procent av maxpulsen. Är du i god form förbättrar träning på den nivån kondition och uthållighet. Hög intensitet är över 80 procent av maxpulsen. Där ska du bara träna om du är i riktigt god form och vill bli i ännu bättre, om du t ex tränar inför en tävling. För att förbättra formen ska du också träna i intervaller med puls över 90 procent av maxpulsen.”
I never thought I would see the day when Rosie calls me a GEEK!!!! Always the other way around, as we said the other day we have both changed since the old days!
@Therese. Kul att du commenterar på svenska eller är det norska?
Jag vill börja med min heart rate monitor men inte just nu. Det är mer viktigt att göra min kilometers. Sedan kan jag jobbar med pulse rate.
Mycket glad med Garmin, toppen!
Excellent purchase mate, being a geek myself this has made running a lot more fun =)
As said, running after your heart-rate is something very useful, you can figure out at what rate your body starts pumping lactoacid, planning your runs according to that rather then pace will make you train much more efficiently.
From what I remember you are using OS X right? There is a really really good piece of software called TrailRunner that replaces the junk that you get from Garmin, http://trailrunnerx.com/
Thanks Carl Henrik, I will check this out.
By the way are you still in the US?