My rather old, but reliable Polar HRM's battery has just conked out, should I....

a) replace the battery, and get further use from my reliable, if rather unsexy, watch

b) buy a new, slightly sexier HRM (polar S200 perhaps)

or c) throw caution and finances to the wind and buy a Garmin 301.

Opinions please

flakey

Dont know about the Polar range but I love my Garmin. I only have the 201 so dont have any HRM functionality, but the GPS functionality is great.

I use it with software from http://www.zonefivesoftware.com/SportTracks/index.html it's the best I have seen.

I am contemplating upgrading to a Garmin with a HRM soon.

Richard

RS300sd
Pricey but awesome!

steepler

I could not find the rs300 on polar's website, do you have a link or is it a variant on the rs200

flakey

Have a look http://www.fitsense.co.uk/Timex-Ironman.php

I have managed to get hold of the following http://www.fitsense.co.uk/T5E681.htm

I really like it, managed to get it for £20 so can't be bad, i use the GPS feature but it also has the heart monitoring as well, but I would not know if the readings were good / bad or ugly !!

thanks granty, hadn't really thought about a timex, does it come with software? Looks like a decent piece of kit

flakey

I think so (but 100% sure) I obtained mine 2nd hand and hence no manual (although you can download these online), the GPS function is cracking, seem to have a strong signal most of the time, being a beginner, I use a small fraction of what it is capable of I'm sure, but I'm sure I will start to use the advanced features when I run more often.

What in particular are you looking for the software to do ? (I'll see if I can find out for you?)

I think with teh Timex you have to buy a separate data recorder to transfer the data to your PC.

I would mainly be interested in ease of transfer of data, and how simple analysis of each run can be done

I've emailed the guy I got the watch from and asked the question about software, I;'m not sure how much detail you want, but what I like is that after each session there is a summary mode on the watch which stores the following, average speed, fastest speed, time, distance etc. This data stays on the watch until you manually reset it (each new run for me)

Is this what you mean ? or are you after something more sophisicated that you can download into another bit of software for evaluation.?

At the moment I simply enter all the data from my watch into a spreadsheet manually. However I know alot of the higher end watches have software which will do this automatically and then allow you to analyse and compare your runs at a later date.

For training ar my level I probably do not need half the functionality that these watches have, however I do like a gadget and a statistic or two!

flakey

Apparently there is no software that comes with this watch, nice watch 'tho!

thanks granty, think I need to do some serious research before I hit the shops

Just purchased a polar 800SD
before you all say it... yes I do have more money than sense!
Can't wait to try it out

flakey

for anyone interested quandry should have another a in it!

looks a tasty peice of kit Flakey, expensive but tasty!!