I totally love technology, so naturally I was inclined to use it to help me train. A lot of my reading included information on training using heart rate zones. I thought I should check this out. I have a heart rate monitor watch, but it needs a new battery. The other thing is that it requires you to stop all activity to be able to get a good reading. I realized I would need one of those heart rate monitors with a chest strap. I really struggled on this decision, wondering if it would be worth it.
I did some intensive research into watches and heart rate monitors. My requirements:
- cheap, i.e. under $200
- could monitor heart rate constantly
- could tell me my distance/pace indoors as well as out
I looked at the Adidas miCoach set since I had already been using the miCoach app. I could get it dirt cheap at the Running Room’s website (about $100 less than anywhere else). The only thing is that it only connects to your phone/iPod through their miCoach app. It would not connect to a watch. http://www.shop.runningroom.com/product_info.php?language_id=1&products_id=5069
Next, I checked out the Nike+ products. Their watch is pretty cool looking and even has a touch screen. It uses GPS plus a foot pod to track distance. Apparently the GPS is not great and I do not have the Nike+ shoes that will accommodate the foot pod. The cost of the watch is $200, then I would have to buy the $80.00 heart rate monitor seperately. http://store.nike.com/us/en_us/?l=shop,pdp,ctr-inline/cid-1/pid-406329/pgid-431911
I went to the Garmin site next and they have a great product-selector tool. https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=142&ra=true I was able to select GPS and Heart Rate. Yikes, expensive! The cheapest was $179.99 and I would need to also buy a $70 foot pod if I wanted to track my distance indoors. Then I had a closer look at the watches without GPS. If I used one of those with a foot pod, I could track my distance indoors and outdoors.
This lead me to the final choice between Garmin FR60 or FR70 paired with a Garmin Foot Pod. From what I read, the Garmin FR60 doesn’t have a very good wrist strap. It was available at London Drugs for $200 and I could buy the foot pod from Amazon.ca for $50, which was going over budget. I did a Google search for the FR70 and found a company in Calgary that sold it for $129.99 plus $10.00 shipping. Perfect! http://www.gpscentral.ca/products/garmin/fr70.html
The Garmin FR70 and the Garmin Foot Pod are on their way. I will post a review as soon as I get them!
Looks great. Good shopping 🙂