Yesterday I was looking at the data from a five mile run I had done on Saturday, and I noticed something unusual in the pace track. About 3/4 of the way into the run the pace reported slowed to about 10:30 min/mile for a bit, then sped up after to a low 7:00 pace (you can see this in the image below via Garmin Connect). I wasn’t watching the Garmin at the time, but I know that I did not slow my pace down that much at any point in the run, so this seems to be one of those instances where the watch flipped out and tried to catch back up.

What’s interesting, and the reason why I’m writing this post, is that shortly after the pace anomaly the GPS track went off course. You can see this in the map above where the track does not follow Metalak Drive (you can see it pass right through a house!). It then regains the proper track on Loon Ave. The period of wayward tracking seems to correspond exactly to when the watch sped up the pace to compensate for the slow-down anomaly.

I’ve had a draft of a Garmin 620 review sitting in my queue for awhile, but have held off since I’ve wanted to see if maybe a firmware update would resolve these issues. Unfortunately, they still happen often enough that I worry about recommending the watch to others. Curious if anyone else has noticed the loss of tracking accuracy following a real-time pace flip out?

What I’m going to do is share data from a few runs that revealed some interesting patterns to give an idea of what you can learn from the device. I still find the data more a curiosity than something I would use to make changes to my form, but it is interesting to play with the information!

First, let’s take some data from a near-PR 5K I ran back in April – below you’ll see the run summary info and GPS track, as well as graphs for cadence, vertical oscillation, and ground contact time (GCT) all estimated by the HRM-Monitor:

For frame of reference, here’s how Garmin breaks down running dynamics across a range of runners ((note: I’m not sure exactly how Garmin determined these groupings):

Looks like my cadence and ground contact time during the race were on the high end (mostly purple – >95 percentile), whereas vertical oscillation was more middle of the road. This suggests to me that I have a short, quick stride with a moderate amount of up and down movement (assuming the HRM-monitor provides an accurate measure of vertical oscillation).

What’s kind of cool in the above graphs is that right after the 10:00 mark we went up, over and down an overpass, then returned over that same overpass just after 13:20. You can see how my cadence, vertical oscillation, and GCT changed going up and down the hill. You can also see that my cadence trended upward, and oscillation trended downward over the course of the race (presumably in part as I sped up at the end).

For an even more interesting view of data from the same race, I pulled the following graph off of the Connect Stats app, which pulls data from Garmin Connect and lets you look at it in different ways:

In the above graph you can see how my cadence changed from the beginning (blue dots) to the end of the race (orange/brown dots). You can also see on the right are two downward loops that probably represent the overpass mentioned above. What I find particularly interesting is that at the end of the race my cadence shot up way higher than it was at the same pace earlier in the race – wondering if this is a way of compensating for fatigue (it was a pretty flat course except for the one overpass so terrain doesn’t seem to explain this)?

You can see a similar pattern with the vertical oscillation data in the graph below – greater oscillation early in the race, less toward the end, even at similar paces run earlier on – perhaps I had to compensate for reduced air time by increasing my turnover?

Here’s one more graph from a different run (also in the Spring) that I found interesting:

This one was from an easy training run, and I was puzzled by the higher vertical oscillation at the beginning of the run (light blue dots). After a bit of thinking over a few runs I realized that my left knee had been bothering me at the time. When it does I often accentuate a forefoot strike and stiffen my leg on that side at the beginning of runs. However, once it warms up I settle into my more typical stride mechanics. My guess is that the early numbers represent modified form until I warmed up. Pretty cool, and suggests that you can get some interesting data from a device like this. I’m still not sure how accurate the numbers are, but I do think they are at least representative of general patterns, and there seem to be plausible explanations for some of the unusual patterns observed.

I’m curious now to try out the HRM-Run monitor for a comparison between a few different shoes – perhaps Hokas versus something more minimal. May just have to do some experimenting!

Have any of you played with the running dynamics data on the Forerunner 620. Any interesting patterns observed?

The main drawbacks of the FR10 for me personally were that it lacked the ability to upload complex workouts to the watch, had limited data screen customization (only 2 fields per screen), had a short battery life in GPS mode (about 5 hours, so frequent charging was necessary), and lacked the ability to sync a heart rate monitor. But for most of my runs the FR10 was more than sufficient.

About a month ago Garmin released the Forerunner 15, which is essentially an evolution of the FR10 (from the outside it looks identical). The FR15 adds in the ability to sync a heart rate monitor, increases battery life to 8 hours in GPS tracking mode, and most impressively it adds in a step counter. The FR15 basically takes the guts of the Garmin Vivofit activity tracker (I posted my Garmin Vivofit review yesterday) and stuffs them into an entry-level GPS watch. The combo makes this a very intriguing device!

Before I start the review, let’s get the disclosure out of the way. The FR15 I review here was sent to me by my affiliate partner Clever Training (you can get 10% off most purchases at Clever Training by using the code RunBlogXJT – purchases support this site and allow me to write in-depth reviews like this one, thanks!). After writing this review I’ll pack it up and send it back to them. I’ll also point out that my day-to-day GPS watch is a Garmin Forerunner 620 (delivered by Santa Claus last Christmas), and I also regularly use a Garmin Vivofit that I bought myself.

On with the review! I’ve now been using the FR15 daily for a few weeks and given the similarity in most respects to the FR10, I’ve been able to gather my thoughts pretty quickly on this one. As is my practice with fitness electronics reviews, I’m going to organize the remainder of this review into a list of likes and dislikes.

Things I Like About the Garmin Forerunner 15

1. Solid GPS Tracking. One of the things that impressed me about the FR10 was how accurately it tracked my distance and pace for an entry-level device. In fact, I wore it in the VT City Marathon last May and it came closer to getting the distance right than the then top-of-the-line Garmin 610. The FR15 seems to do just as well in this regard. It has consistently recorded distances almost spot on with my Garmin 620 and iPhone (iSmoothRun app). And I actually prefer the real-time pace readout on the FR15 – it’s extremely stable, and reports pace in 5 second increments (e.g., 8:00/mile, 8:05/mile, 8:10/mile…) which I think makes things less jumpy. For basic pace and distance tracking on runs, the FR15 is great!

2. Activity/Step Tracking. This is the big draw for the FR15 over the FR10 for me. As a regular user of a Garmin Vivofit and a Garmin Forerunner 620, I find the idea of combining the two into a single device very appealing, if for no other reason than to open up some real estate on my wrists. With the FR15 I can have the watch/tracker on one wrist and the Mio Link on the other for heart rate. All of my bases are covered. With the 620, Vivofit, and Mio I start looking like a cyborg and find myself frequently removing the Mio. Now the 620 does not do activity tracking so I’m not out of the woods, but I wonder if it’s within the capability of the hardware to do so since it can track my cadence (step rate) on runs? The problem for Garmin is that adding in this functionality could prevent some Vivofit sales. Since this is a review of the FR15 though I’ll leave it at that.

In terms of activity tracking, the FR15 displays a step count directly below the time when the watch is not in GPS mode. Using the bottom left button you can switch to viewing your daily step goal, distance covered (a rough estimate based on your steps – more on this in my Vivofit review), calories burned, or the date. Initially I found the FR15 consistently recorded fewer steps over the course of the day compared to my Vivofit, and I had it on my dominant hand (both devices record “steps” while doing things like brushing teeth so step counts are not perfect). The FR15 counts were sometimes several thousand steps short of what the Vivofit recorded:

After a few days of use I connected the FR15 to my computer to upload data and it notified me that a firmware update was available. One of the fixes was apparently a tweak to the tracker algorithms, and since the update the daily step totals between the two devices have been much closer (though the Vivofit tends to usually count slightly more).

My take would be that if you have a FR15, you don’t really need a Vivofit unless you want sleep tracking capability (supposedly sleep tracking is coming to the FR15 in a future firmware update according to DC Rainmaker). If you don’t have either then other considerations come into play (see below).

3. Heart Rate Monitor Sync. This is the other big plus for the FR15 over the FR10. The Forerunner 15 can be purchased with or without a heart rate monitor – if you already have an ANT+ heart rate monitor you can save some cash (MSRP is $199 with the HRM, $169 without). I’ve been using the FR15 with a Mio Link wrist-mounted heart rate monitor and it has worked flawlessly. I initially had some trouble figuring out how to get the watch to communicate with the HRM, but after reading the manual (brilliant!) I realized that during initial pairing you have to put the watch right up against the active monitor (see pairing instructions image below). Once that initial pairing is made the watch will recognize the HRM the moment it is turned on. Heart rate data shows up as a third data screen during your workouts and displays heart rate and heart rate zone.

The FR15 will also sync with a foot pod if you have one, but I have not tested that since I rarely use a foot pod.

4. Size/Form Factor. The Forerunner 15 comes in two sizes – large and small. I have the large version, and compared to other GPS watches I have owned it is still a pretty sleek watch. It could easily be used as an all-day watch, unlike my old Garmin 205 which was like a brick on my wrist.

The FR15 is available in a lot of colors, so there are plenty of options to choose from for both the guys and the gals:

5. Menu Simplicity. I loved the menu system in the FR10, and it’s largely the same in the FR15. The FR15 has 4 buttons, and they are intuitive and super easy to use. On the top left is a backlight button. On the top right is a button that serves to initiate a workout and functions as the “enter key” in menus. Bottom left is a back button which also functions to change the data displayed below the time of day when not in GPS mode (steps, calories, distance, etc.), and bottom right is the button you use to pull up and scroll menus and data screens.

Menus include a History menu that allows you to view your data from each run, your daily step counts for the past week, and your records (fastest mile, 5K, 10K, Half-Marathon, and Marathon distances; also longest run).

There is a Run Options menu that lets you program run-walk intervals (this would be great for my beginner 5K group runners!), set a virtual pacer, and configure heart rate alerts, auto pause and data display screens. You can also choose to set auto-lap each mile or turn the bottom left button into a manual lap button.

The Settings menu lets you set an alarm, configure the activity tracker, set your language and distance unit preferences, and configure your user profile (age, gender, weight, height, max heart rate).

6. Battery Life. This is more something I like relative to the FR10 than something I like in general. The FR15 gets a little boost in battery life from 5 to 8 hours in GPS mode. Both watches will more than handle a marathon for me, and now the FR15 might get me through a 50K. But the bigger issue is that the longer battery life means I can go a few extra workouts between charges. More importantly, for an entry level watch that may see people through 5-hour plus marathons, the FR15 is a safer bet to last the full race than the FR10.

7. Garmin Connect Data Consolidation. I mentioned this in my Vivofit review as well – even though I’m not super crazy about Garmin Connect, it is nice to be able to upload and store all of my run data and daily step data in one place. Cuts down on the clutter in my digital life!

Things I Don’t Like About the FR15

1. Limited Data Fields. The FR15 limits you to two data screens, each of which displays two data fields (a third data screen appears when a heart rate monitor is synced). On the plus side, because there are only two fields, the text is large and easy to read.

There are 6 data field combos that can be shown on each screen: Time/Distance, Time/Pace, Time/Calories, Pace/Distance, Pace/Calories, Distance/Calories. You get to choose two of these via the Run Options—>Data Fields menu on the watch.

There is an additional level of customization for the Pace field. In the Run Options—>Pace/Speed menu you can configure the Pace field to show any of the following: Current Pace, Lap Pace, Average Pace, Speed, Lap Speed, Average Speed. You only get to choose one, so you can’t have one data screen show Current Pace and another show Average Pace. I mainly use Current Pace, and I have auto-lap enabled so after each mile it spits out my lap time. All of this is the same between the FR10 and FR15.

For the vast majority of my runs the lack of added fields isn’t a big deal. Most of the time pace and distance are sufficient. It’s only on runs where I’m doing something like an interval workout on the track where I like to have a lap screen that shows lap time, lap pace, lap distance, etc. That’s where a higher-end watch like the Garmin 620 with up to 4 configurable data fields per screen shines.

2. Can’t Create Workouts. Really the only two features that keep me from going to a basic watch like the FR15 are the limited data field options and the inability to create custom workouts. I understand that added features come with a higher-end watch, so this isn’t really a complaint. A lot of the other features of a watch like the FR620 are fun, but aren’t really essential to my daily needs (e.g., running dynamics, VO2max estimate, etc.).

3. Satellite Sync Speed. It’s not as fast as my 620 at locking satellites, but seems faster than my old 205. Not really a big deal.

Things About Which I Am Indifferent

1. No Wireless Sync. To upload data from the FR15 to your computer you must do so via a USB cord. I’d like to say that one of the things I like best about my Garmin 620 is the wireless data upload. In reality, my 620 has had intermittent luck at best with uploading run data via wifi. More often than not the watch can’t seem to recognize my home wifi network.

On the other hand, my Garmin Vivofit has no trouble uploading data wirelessly via ANT+ to my computer or Bluetooth to my phone. It’s very handy, especially for a device that has a battery that is supposed to last a year. The reality with devices like the FR15 and FR620 is that they have to be charged at regular intervals anyway, so uploading via USB cord really isn’t a big deal – I just do it whenever they need a charge.

So Which Device Should I Buy?

The big question with a device like the Garmin FR15 is whether you should choose it over a basic activity tracker like the Vivofit, or over a more expensive watch like the Garmin 220 or 620. Here’s my take.

If you only want activity tracking and have no interest in GPS…

Get the Garmin Vivofit. It does a great job tracking steps and the incredible battery life is a huge plus over any current GPS watch on the market. Plus, it does sleep tracking if you care about that (I personally do not, though sleep tracking is supposedly coming soon to the FR15).

You can read my Garmin Vivofit review here.

If you want basic GPS functionality and don’t care about activity tracking or heart rate monitoring…

Get a Garmin FR10. It does almost everything the FR15 does minus activity tracking and heart rate monitoring. However, it has a slightly shorter battery life, so if you are planning to run a marathon and it may take longer than 5 hours, the FR15 is a safer bet to get you through the race.

You can read my Garmin Forerunner 10 review here.

If you want activity tracking and might someday want GPS…

Get the Garmin FR15. It tracks steps as well as the Vivofit, and the GPS will fill the needs of the majority of runners. Plus, for $40 more than the FR10 you gain the possibility of heart rate monitor integration and a built in activity tracker ($70 more if you want the HRM included). Unless you really need lots of screen customization options and the ability to create complex workouts that can be uploaded to the watch you won’t need much more than what the FR15 can do. You will have to charge the device far more often than a Vivofit, but how often will depend on how frequently you use the GPS (the FR15 is spec’d at 5 weeks or so of battery life in non-GPS mode).

If you want extensively customizable data screens, workout configurations, and other bells and whistles…

Get the Garmin 220 or 620. I have the latter and probably don’t need the vast majority of features that it offers. I got it mainly so I could play with the running dynamics features, and though they are interesting they’re probably not going to benefit most people (not sure I know what to do with a lot of the data it provides!). Though I haven’t used it myself, I’d say the 220 is probably the better choice if your budget is tight and a basic GPS watch like the FR15 isn’t enough for you. I should have a review of the Garmin 620 written soon.

Purchasing Options

The Garmin Forerunner 15 is available for purchase at my affiliate partner Clever Training (as are the other devices mentioned above). Clever Training specializes in fitness electronics, and has agreed to provide a 10% off discount to Runblogger readers on most products that they carry – just enter the code RunBlogXJT at checkout. Purchases support this site and help me to write reviews like this one. Your support is very much appreciated!

I’ve had the FR 620 since Christmas, but have not spent much time using it yet since I fell in love with the Magellan Echo + iSmoothRun App combo. Now that my Echo review is done, I’ve transitioned to using the 620 again (with the Echo on the opposite wrist) and thought I’d take a peek at my recorded runs to see if any GPS track anomalies might be found. Furthermore, I also wanted to hear if anyone else who reads this blog has had issues with accuracy on their device.

In looking at my run maps on Garmin Connect, I will say that most of the time the 620 seems to record my tracks accurately. However, there are times when I have noted that it seems to lose track of itself for a bit and the tracks look a bit funny. For example, a look at the track below would suggest that I took a detour up a hill through the woods to the right, then crossed back over the road for a dip in (frozen) Snow Pond, and then drunkenly made my way back to the road near the intersection of Shaker Road and Snow Pond Road:

The entire stretch of road here is tree lined on both sides, though the part where the track deviates from the road is at a lower elevation and is bordered by a large forested hill to the right. Perhaps being stuck between a pond and a big hill has some effect?

In fairness, I ran the same route the next day with the 620 and it recorded accurately, so maybe it was just having a bad Wednesday:

Below are two iSmoothRun (iPhone app) track recordings for the same stretch (on different days) – both are rock solid:

Below are two maps from a run I did last weekend where I had both the 620 and iSmoothRun recording at the same time. The 620 recording is on the left, the iPhone recording is on the right.

Note that shortly after the 1-mile mark the track recorded by the 620 deviates from the road until about the 2 mile mark. Interestingly, the track appears to be the right shape, but it’s as if that entire segment was shifted south a bit. The rest of the recording is solid. Once again, the track recorded by the iPhone is dead-on the entire time. This particular route is a flat neighborhood, not a lot of thick forest or tall buildings or anything like that. The only thing in common with the Snow Pond run above is that the area just above the mile 4 marker is a wetland with a stream. I read somewhere that water bodies can mess with GPS tracks, can’t recall where that was, and no idea if that might have anything to do with the anomaly.

Here’s a blow-up of the 620 track showing me running through backyards and detouring through living rooms:

Again, in fairness, I should point out that I have run this neighborhood on other occasions with the 620 and the recording has been accurate:

And here’s another where there was a more moderate southward shift of the track in the same spot:

So what can I conclude from this? I’d say not much yet given the small sample of runs that I have to work with so far. The 620 seems to be accurate most of the time, but it also has moments where it seems to hiccup a bit. This is probably something that happens with most GPS devices on occasion depending on satellite connections, environmental interference, etc. The occasional lapse does not concern me too much since I expect that a watch on my wrist talking to a satellite orbiting the planet in outer space (just think about that for a second!) will occasionally have issues (as my Garmin 205 did during the Hartford Marathon, really bad timing there…). The question ultimately be how frequently these issues occur and how bad they are.

Given that Garmin has acknowledged an issue with the 620 and has pushed a software update (I just updated my unit yesterday) there is some reason for concern given that this watch costs $399. I’d say it’s worth keeping an eye on your 620 if you have one, and report accuracy issues to Garmin if you feel they are happening too frequently. I plan to keep an eye on my tracks going forward as I put the 620 to everyday usage, and will report if I frequently see issues like the ones posted above (I’m especially curious if the update makes a difference, off to run that same neighborhood right now!).

How about you – if you have a Garmin 620 have you noticed any accuracy issues?

My only real issue with the 205 was that it was big. Too big to wear as an all-day watch. The nuisance of having to swap watches for runs prompted me to buy the smaller Garmin 610 a bit over a year ago (I’ve since sold the 610 and now have a Garmin 620).

Over the past few years Garmin has released out a few successors to the 205/305. First came the 310XT (still available, under $200 at Clever Training). The 310XT was marketed as a triathlon/multisport watch – it boasted ~20 hrs of battery life, easy swapping between wrist and bike mount, and a waterproof housing that could be worn while swimming. The 310XT was followed by the Garmin Forerunner 910XT, which maintains the big battery life (also ~20 hours) and waterproof housing, but adds additional bike and swim tracking features.

Clever Training sent me a sample of the Garmin Forerunner 910XT to try out (it was a loaner and will be returned to them after this is published). I’m going to keep this review short because I’m not a triathlete – I have not used any of the bike or swim oriented features (check out DC Rainmaker’s 910 XT review for more on these aspects of the device). My comments below are geared toward the runner who might be interested in this watch.

After spending some time with the 910XT I’ve concluded that for a runner, this watch is pretty similar to the old 205/305. It’s a bit bulky – slimmer than the 205/305, but still not an all-day watch. It has a big, easy to read screen that allows up to 4 data fields and a ton of field customization options. And it’s rock-solid when it comes to recording accuracy. All are things I loved about the 205.

I loaned the 910XT to my buddy Brett to use in the VT50K last Fall, and as an example of recording accuracy here was the result:

Only one-third of a mile short over 31 trail miles is pretty darned solid (~99% accurate).

Where the 910XT improves on the 205/305 (I never tried the 310XT) is with its multisport/triathlon features (again, read DC Rainmaker’s review for more on these, he evaluates them far better than I could) and the fact that it doubles the battery life. It also connects to satellites a bit faster, which is nice.

The big question for a runner is: “Do I really need a bulky, $399 GPS watch?”

My answer would be maybe. It really depends on what your needs are.

Battery life is the major (only?) reason why some runners might need a watch like the 910XT. For example, ultrarunners would benefit from a battery that lasts well over 10 hours. The 910XT should cover most people up to 50 miles, and might even work for particularly fast 100 mile racers like my buddy Nate who ran sub 20:00 at Vermont 100 last year. There aren’t a lot of other options for GPS watches with big battery life – others that I’m aware of that run 20+ hrs are the $500 Suunto Ambit2 and the Garmin Fenix (which DC Rainmaker did not review glowingly for runners; the Fenix 2 is coming later this month, but don’t know much about it). The other potentially appealing feature of the 910XT for ultrarunners is the barometric altimeter, which should record elevation data more accurately than other watches.

The other two situations I could see where this watch would be a good fit would be for a runner who also does a lot of hiking and wants to track that as well, or for a runner who might want to keep a door open for triathlons in the future. In most other cases a cheaper, smaller watch should suffice.

Conclusion

The Garmin Forerunner 910XT is a power-packed watch targeted at multisport athletes. It’s probably more watch than is necessary for most runners, however, super long battery life sets it apart from most other GPS running watches. If you need a big battery, the 910XT would be an excellent choice.

Garmin Forerunner 910XT Purchasing Options

The Garmin Forerunner 910XT is available for purchase at Clever Training. Clever Training specializes in fitness electronics, and has agreed to provide a 10% off discount to Runblogger readers on most products that they carry – just enter the code RunBlogXJT at checkout.

Purchases made at Clever Training support this site and help me to write reviews like this one. Your support is very much appreciated!

A Twitter friend suggested I try the optional velcro strap, so I went ahead and ordered one from Amazon. In reading the Amazon reviews, there was some concern about the pins that hold the strap on, and it was suggested that buying a set of 19mm spring pins would make things more secure. I bought a pair of those as well.

All relevant pieces have now arrived, and last night I attached the new watch band. At first I thought I had the wrong band because I didn’t realize you had to pull a little plastic anchor off before installing the new ones that came with the velcro strap (anchors are the little black plastic things in the photo below). After a bit of cursing and a quick trip to YouTube I figured out my error and got back to work.

The first step is to attach the new anchors, which is pretty easy once you push/pull out the pins and get all of the parts of the old band removed (a handy tool is included with the velcro strap). I should note that the tool in the image below (taken from the Amazon page for the 610 strap) is not the same as the one that actually comes with the velcro strap, nor are the pins. The velcro strap comes with 4 straight pins that don’t have spring tips, and the tool only has a single tapered point at the tip for pushing the straight pins through the holes.

This is what comes with the velcro strap – straight pins (4 total) and a different tool:

My impression of the anchors that come with the velcro strap is that they are made of a harder plastic material and seem more durable than those at the end of the original wristband, which almost seem rubbery and pliable. It took a bit of effort to get the pins through to anchor them, and I can’t imagine them coming loose.

The second set of pins included with the velcro strap are threaded through a second set of holes in the anchors and through a fabric loop on the strap to hold it in place. These pins did not fit as snugly, and I was concerned that they would slide out over time. This is where the set of spring pins that I bought separately come in. They fit perfectly and popped into place with what feels like a nice, secure fit (note, I initially thought the spring pins were to be used to attach the anchors, but they do not fit through that set of holes – this led to another bout of cursing until I figured it out).

Now that everything is assembled the band seems quite secure, and it fits comfortably. I used to use velcro straps with my old Timex stopwatches, so the fabric band is not a problem for me, though they do tend to take a bit of time to dry after being wet. The kit comes with both a long and a shorter band, I chose the longer band and it is almost too big for my wrist, so I suspect it will accommodate most people.

Here’s hoping this band holds up better than the original!

I got tired of having to cart around two watches, one for all day wear and another for workouts, so I decided late last year to upgrade to the Garmin 610. I asked Santa to bring one to me for Christmas (meaning my wife, meaning me ordering it and giving it to her to wrap up…). Sure enough, the 610 was under the tree on Xmas morning, and I’ve been using it almost non-stop over the past 10 months.

I have mixed feelings about this watch. I mostly love it, but there are a few things that I find rather frustrating, which I’ll get to below.

Rather than going into exceptional detail about what the watch can do (which would simply involve me regurgitating the feature list on the FR610 info page on the Garmin website), I’ll simply say that as one of Garmin’s top tier watches it does almost everything a runner would need. Lots of data screens, lots of customization possibilities for data fields, easily readable screen, HR monitor and foot pod integration, and so on. I have not found the watch features lacking in any way when it comes to my needs as a runner. (For a crazy detailed review of watch features, you can also check out DC Rainmaker’s FR610 review)

The approach I’ll take to this review is to keep things simple and discuss what I really like about the watch, and what I don’t like. Here goes:

Likes

1. Small Size. The Forerunner 610 is much, much smaller than my old FR205. It’s small enough that I can actually use it comfortably as an all day watch without looking like a total running geek with a giant GPS device on my wrist. The 610 was on my wrist 24/7 until recently, when the wristband suddenly broke (more on this below).

Garmin FR610 (left) and FR205 (right) – note the missing wristband on the bottom of the 610, waiting on a replacement!

2. Fast Satellite Acquisition. The FR610 acquires satellites very quickly, particularly if you tend to start each run from the same location. It’s faster than my 205, and this means less time standing in the road with my dog barking at me because he’s ready to run and I’m staring at the sky searching for satellites (I don’t know why I do this, it’s not like I can actually see them).

3. Solid Tracking. I have found both real-time pace and distance tracking to be rock-solid. This is criterion number one for me in a GPS watch, and I trust that data coming from the 610 without hesitation (recognizing the inherent limitations of GPS data).

4. Wireless Upload. I love the fact that the watch shoots data to Garmin Connect wirelessly via a USB ANT+ sensor. Since I’m not always great about downloading workouts, this makes my life just tiny bit easier.

5. SportTracks Sync. Garmin watches play nicely with SportTracks, which is the software I use to log all of my runs. I don’t like having to take extra steps as required with Timex watches and some other brands, and this is one of those other small things that makes me happy and saves a few seconds of my time.

6. Screen Customization Options. You can customize up to 4 data screens, each of which can hold up to 4 data fields. Data field options include everything I could want, and this watch gives me the ability to replicate the screens I used for years on the 205. The screen is smaller than that of the 205, so when you use 4 fields the text is a bit small, but I have not had issues reading the data on the run.

All of the above make for a nearly ideal GPS watch that does everything I need it to do and a whole lot more that I didn’t cover here, since I mostly don’t use the other stuff (things like back-to-start navigation, virtual pacer, etc.). However, there are two biggish issues that make the watch fall short of perfection. Neither is a deal-breaker in my opinion, but they are things that should be mentioned.

Dislikes

1. The Touch Screen. I’ll take a good set of navigation buttons (like those on the Timex Run Trainer 2.0) over the touch screen of the FR610 any day. The main problem with the touch screen on the 610 is that it is not particularly responsive. I typically have to drag my finger across the screen with a dramatic flourish to get it to do what I want. And, most of the time, this results in me pressing the wrong menu item unless I get the pressure just right. This is probably one of the reasons why I’ve resisted really getting into some of the more advanced features of the watch. I have it set to do what I need, and I avoid navigating the menus as much as possible.

On the plus side, the low sensitivity of the touch screen means that it does not often switch screens accidentally (once in awhile it’ll switch data screens if I brush it against a sweaty shirt, but that’s pretty rare). It also does not experience issues when wet – I ran the Vermont City Marathon in May with the 610 in a pretty steady rain and had no issues. Also no issue showering with the watch on (though I generally don’t use the GPS functions in the shower…). The sequel to the 610 (the soon-to-arrive Garmin Forerunner 620) supposedly has an improved touch screen so hopefully that will remedy the issue.

2. The Wristband. I was standing in the lobby of my office the other day chatting with our office manager and heard a thud. I looked at the ground, and there was my 610 sitting on the floor with the wristband broken off from the body of the watch on one side. I picked it up and it was clear that there was no way it was going to be re-attached – the connecting piece is made of softish plastic and had loosened to the point where the pins no longer secured it. I posted a photo on FB and Twitter and got many, many responses from other 610 owners who had experienced the exact same issue. It appears to be a design flaw with the watch. I proceeded to contact Garmin customer service, and they responded promptly that they would send out a replacement band (still waiting to receive it).

My Sad, Broken FR610 Awaiting a New Wristband

I have heard from several people that they have gone through multiple bands on their 610, so I’m not confident the replacement will be a long-term fix. I was given another tip that Garmin has an optional velcro wristband for the 610 that works much better, but that to get it to work you need to buy a set of 19mm spring pins since the ones that come with the velcro band don’t work too well. What a mess! Anyway, I just ordered the velcro band from Amazon for $18.75, and a set of 19mm spring pins for $4.50. Sucks that I have to pay extra to make the watch work, but better than giving up on a $300+ piece of technology. I will report back on how the new band works (Update 10/16/2013 – I now have the velcro strap and have installed it, you can read about it here).

Velcro Band for the Garmin FR610

Conclusion

So there you have it. The FR610 is a mostly great GPS watch that can be worn all day, but has a few flaws that hold it back from perfection. I can mostly live with the touch screen, but the watch band is an issue that just should not happen for an item at this price point. Should the velcro band solve the problem, I’ll be content, and with the 620 coming I’m guessing we will soon see a price drop on the 610 so buying the watch plus the velcro band will likely cost less than the original MSRP (the price has dropped to $309.99 at Clever Training.

Garmin Forerunner 610 Purchasing Options

The Garmin Forerunner 610 is currently on sale for $219.99 at my affiliate partner Clever Training.

Clever Training specializes in fitness electronics, and has agreed to provide a 10% off discount to Runblogger readers on most products that they carry – just enter the code RunBlogXJT at checkout.

The Garmin FR610 is also available at Amazon.com.

Purchases support this site and help me to write reviews like this one. Your support is very much appreciated!

Update 7/8/2014  –I have now posted a review of the Garmin Forerunner FR15. The FR15 is basically an update to the FR10 that adds step counting, heart rate monitor sync, and longer battery life.

One of the first reviews I wrote here on Runblogger was of the Garmin Forerunner 205 GPS watch. That was way back in April of 2009! I loved the 205, and it was a mainstay on my wrist for a long time. It tracked distance and pace accurately, provided a ton of customization options on its large screen, and the battery seemed to last forever. On the downside, the 205 was huge! It was not a watch that you’d wear around all day.

Last Christmas I finally upgraded to the Garmin Forerunner 610. From a functional standpoint, the 610 does pretty much everything the 205 does (with the exception of crazy long battery life), but does so in a smaller form factor that can stay on my wrist all day (no more swapping watches for workouts!).

I’ll have a review of the 610 coming soon, but I started this review with mentions of the 205 and 610 to make a point. When it comes to GPS watches, I’m a Garmin fan. I’ve tried watches from other brands, but none of them have yet satisfied my needs as well as Garmin watches do. A big part of that is that I can easily import Garmin data into Dailymile.com and Sporttracks, which are the two places I sync my running data. That fact alone has kept me loyal to Garmin.

A few weeks ago I entered a affiliate partnership with Clever Training whereby they’d occasionally provide me review samples of products that they carry (you can get 10% off most purchases at Clever Training by using the code RunBlogXJT – purchases support this site and allow me to write in-depth reviews like this one!). Here’s how it works – they send me a product, I try it out, write a review, then send it back to them. Their suggestion for a first review was the Garmin Forerunner 10 (FR10) GPS watch. I agreed to try it out, and have been using it for the last several weeks.

The FR10 is essentially the “entry-level” GPS watch in the Garmin lineup. I was initially skeptical about it as my experience with other more basic GPS watches has not been great (e.g., Soleus 1.0, Timex Run Trainer 1). They tend to lack the functionality that I look for, current pace tracking has been iffy, and easy export of data to my preferred sites/programs was lacking.

I’d read a few reviews of the FR10 which discussed its limitations, and I wasn’t sure I was going to like it. At $129.99 MSRP it’s the cheapest GPS enabled watch in Garmin’s lineup, and it lacks the customizability of siblings like the 205, 610, and so on. However, I’ve come to realize that the simplicity of the FR10 is its biggest strength, and I’ve actually been blown away by this little device. It pains me that I have to send it back!

Let’s dig into the review.

Size/Form Factor

First and foremost, compared to other GPS watches the Forerunner 10 is small. In fact, it’s not a whole lot bigger than a standard stopwatch that has no GPS. If you saw it on somebody’s wrist, you’d be hard-pressed to identify it as a GPS-enabled device.

 From left to right: Garmin Forerunner 610, FR10, and FR205. My cat Mokey seems to like the FR10 best, and the 610 still thinks it’s in Oregon.

Not only is its form-factor compact, the FR10 is also very light. My Garmin 205 and 610 weigh 2.8oz each, and the FR10 is only 1.5oz, and the difference is noticeable when wearing it on your wrist. It’s a super comfortable watch for all-day wear – hand’s down the best option I have tried for a GPS watch that stays out of the way. The FR10 also comes in a slightly smaller form factor for women with black, pink, green, and violet as color options (see photo at left).

Menus/Options

In terms of menu navigation, the FR10 is as simple as it gets, and this is a huge plus. I like my FR610, but the touch screen isn’t very user friendly and there are a ton of menus to sift through. The FR10 has only 4 buttons, and they are intuitive and super easy to use. On the top left is a backlight button. On the top right is a button that serves to initiate a workout and functions as the “enter key” in menus. Bottom left is a back button, and bottom right is the button you use to pull up and scroll menus. Simple!

I was most worried with how the FR10 would handle my data needs on the run. I loved the 205 because it had a big screen and I could configure the 4 data fields to show just about anything I wanted. I could also toggle between three separate screens, so that allowed 12 fields total! More than anyone really needs on the run, but I’m a data junkie. The FR10 limits you to only two data screens, each of which displays only two data fields. But, because there are only two fields, the text is large and easy to read.

There are 6 data field combos that can be shown on each screen: Time/Distance, Time/Pace, Time/Calories, Pace/Distance, Pace/Calories, Distance/Calories. You get to choose two of these via the Run Options—>Data Fields menu on the watch.

Sampling of data field display options

There is an additional level of customization for the Pace field. In the Run Options—>Pace/Speed menu you can configure the Pace field to show any of the following: Current Pace, Lap Pace, Average Pace, Speed, Lap Speed, Average Speed. You only get to choose one, so you can’t have one data screen show Current Pace and another show Average Pace. I mainly use Current Pace, and I have auto-lap enabled so after each mile it spits out my lap time, so it gives me what I need.

Other menus include a nice History menu that allows you to view your data from each run (see photo below), and a Records menu that records your fasted time at the mile, 5K, 10K, Half-Marathon, and Marathon distances (also longest run). In the Run Options menu there is a Virtual Pacer that allows you to set a target pace and get alerted if you deviate, and a Run-Walk/Interval option where you can set run times and walk/recovery times. You can also turn on/off a manual lap button (lower left button during a workout).

Summary data from yesterday’s 10 mile run

Performance

I’ve used the Garmin Forerunner 10 on almost every run for the past several weeks. I even wore it when I ran the Vermont City Marathon a few weeks ago, with the FR610 on the other wrist for comparative purposes. I did another 10 mile run with both watches yesterday for a final test.

I have to say that I’ve fallen in love with this watch – when wearing both the FR10 and FR610 I often find myself looking at the FR10 more often than I look at the FR610. If it weren’t for just a few missing features (e.g., wireless data transfer, better interval workout capability, foot-pod sync) I’d consider selling my 610 on Ebay and buying FR10’s for myself and my wife.

As I mentioned above, my main data screen on the FR10 while I run displays current pace and distance. I have Time/Pace on the second screen. For the majority of runners that’s all that’s really necessary. Most of the time that’s all that I need as well.

What I love most about the FR10 is that the current pace readout is rock-solid. It reports pace in 5 second increments, so 8:00/mile, 8:05/mile, 8:10/mile etc. At first I didn’t think I’d like this, but what it accomplishes is a lot less fluctuation in current pace readout (and let’s be serious, current pace readouts on GPS watches probably aren’t accurate to the second). When running my marathon, I relied on the FR10 almost exclusively for real-time pacing and used the FR610 for it’s lap display (the main reason why I’ll keep it – being able to display lap time, lap distance, current pace, and lap pace all on one screen).

I have found tracking accuracy in the FR10 to be right in line with the much more expensive FR610. In fact, the FR10 measured the Vermont City Marathon course more closely than the 610 (26.37 miles for the FR10 vs. 26.48 miles for the 610 – need to work on running those tangents!). On my 10 miler yesterday, the FR10 measured 10.13 miles at an average pace of 8:22/mile, the 610 measured 10.12 miles at an average pace of 8:23. Pretty solid agreement! The Forerunner 10 has earned my complete confidence in its ability to track pace and distance.

The FR10 is rated at 5 hours of battery life with the GPS on, and it made it through my marathon no problem. It’s not the life that my old 205 had (I swear that thing had a Prius battery in it and recharged while I ran), but it’s sufficient for my needs up to now.

My only performance complaint about the FR10 is that it tends to not track that well under dense tree-cover (few watches that I have used do this well). If ultras are your thing, the combo of 5-hour battery life while recording and sub-par forest performance mean you should look elsewhere.

One other thing to note – as an entry-level watch the FR10 does not include a heart rate monitor. I don’t generally use a heart rate monitor, so no big deal for me.

Data Export

As mentioned above I use Dailymile.com and Sporttracks to store my run data. The FR10 syncs with Sporttracks without issue, but dailymile import does not seem to be supported at this time (note – I initially reported that it does sync with dailymile – this was an error on my part as it was uploading the data from my 610, not the 10 – I was wearing them both on the same runs for comparison). I’ve also started using Garmin Connect a bit and really like it. If I hadn’t been using Sporttracks for years I might even consider using Garmin Connect as my main run storage location. Below is a sample screen from Garmin Connect showing the FR10 recording of my run at the Vermont City Marathon:

As an entry-level watch, the FR10 does not upload wirelessly (I like this feature of the 610). It connects via a USB cable that snaps securely into place on the back of the watch.

Garmin FR10 – Sync Cable and Back of Watch

Garmin FR10 – Sync Cable

The only data I typically look at that is not recorded on-board the FR10 is elevation (e.g., you can’t get elevation in SportTracks). However, when you upload the data from the watch to Garmin Connect you can view an elevation profile that is based on your GPS track (I suppose similar to how a site like MapMyRun or GMap Pedometer computes elevation profiles when you create a route manually on a map). Otherwise the data I get in Sporttracks is essentially the same as the data I get from the 610.

Summary

Given the fact that the Garmin Forerunner 10 is positioned as an entry-level GPS watch, I wasn’t expecting to love it as much as I do. Everything that it does, it does well, and for the majority of my runs it’s really all that I need. The only place it falls behind a bit is when I need more detailed lap data for an interval workout. Other than that, I could easily see using this is my full-time GPS watch, and given how much smaller and lighter it is than the FR610, I’m half-tempted to buy one for myself as an all-day watch and save the FR610 for more complex workouts (though I’d have a hard time justifying that purchase to my wife!).

The FR10 is an ideal GPS watch for a beginning runner, and for the experienced runner who doesn’t much care about anything besides how fast and far they ran, it is an equally good choice. At $129.99 MSRP the price is right as well.

Big thumbs up for the Garmin Forerunner 10!

Update 7/8/2014  –I have now posted a review of the Garmin Forerunner FR15. The FR15 is basically an update to the FR10 that adds step counting, heart rate monitor sync, and longer battery life.

The Garmin Forerunner 10 is available for purchase at Clever Training in the colors seen below. Clever Training specializes in fitness electronics, and has agreed to provide a 10% off discount to Runblogger readers on most products that they carry – just enter the code RunBlogXJT at checkout. Purchases support this site and help me to write reviews like this one. Your support is very much appreciated!

The folks at Clever Training contacted me several weeks ago about developing a relationship, and after talking with them we were able to work out an agreement whereby Runblogger readers can get 10% off any item that they carry in their on-line store (with some exceptions for current sale items – for example, they have a current sale running with some great prices on several popular GPS watches). I get a small commission for each sale, so purchases help to support the work that I do here on Runblogger. This discount works on regularly priced GPS devices and other electronic gadgets, so it can provide a significant savings on an expensive purchase should you be in the market for a new toy!

To take advantage of the 10% discount, simply visit Clever Training and enter the code RunBlogXJT in the coupon field of the Shopping Cart. You can also click through the banners in my right sidebar or at the bottom of each post and use the code to take advantage of the discount. As always, your support is very much appreciated and helps me to keep the site going (especially now that writing this blog is my full-time job – I need all the help I can get!).

One attractive part of the offer that Clever Training presented me, and one which makes it a bit different than some of the other discounts I advertise, was that they agreed to host periodic giveaways for Runblogger readers. As part of the kickoff of our partnership, they offered up a Garmin Forerunner 10 GPS watch for a giveaway. Expect more to come!

To enter the Clever Training Garmin FR10 giveaway, use the Rafflecopter form below:

I’m a big fan of my Garmin Forerunner 205 GPS watch – it’s the one gadget that I consider to be an essential on every run (view my review of the Forerunner 205), and the accurate pacing and distance data that it provides has now carried me through five marathons. In the interim since I first started using my 205 about 2 years ago, Garmin has added several additional models to the Forerunner line, including the waterproof Forerunner 310XT, and the more watch-like Forerunner 405CX. Yesterday, Garmin announced the release of the newest member of the Forerunner line – the Garmin Forerunner 110, a simplified version for those interested only in basic data like pace, distance, and heart rate. Here’s how Garmin describes the Forerunner 110 in their press release:

“Forerunner 110 fills the needs of runners of all levels by focusing on simplicity without sacrificing accuracy,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales. “Within seconds of stepping outside, you simply press start and instantly know your distance, pace and time – all without any complicated setup or excessive accessories.”
…
“In addition to displaying time and distance, Forerunner 110 shows pace in one of two ways, averaged out either over the current lap/mile (if auto-lap is enabled) or over the duration of the run. Runners wearing a Garmin heart rate monitor (included in some bundles or available separately) can monitor how hard they’re working while they exercise as Forerunner 110 displays current heart rate data and features heart rate-based calorie computation.“

Based on the availble pictures on the Garmin website, it appears that the Forerunner 110 is a smaller profile model, more along the lines of the 405 than the 205/305 or 310XT – this means it’s probably suitable to wear as an everyday watch.  Garmin claims that the re-chargeable battery lasts “up to 8 hours in GPS/training mode and up to three weeks in power-save mode.” The Forerunner 110 syncs to a computer via USB, which is useful for uploading workout data to Garmin Connect or third-party training websites like my personal favorite, dailymile.com (you can read more about Garmin integration on dailymile here).

Although I like the sleek profile of the Forerunner 110, I question the suggested $250.00 pricetag for this supposedly entry-level model ($199.99 without heart rate monitoring) when the perfectly functional Forerunner 305 apparently provides more functionality (including heart rate) for almost $100 less. Granted, people aren’t going to be wearing the bulky Forerunner 305 as an everyday watch, but the need to recharge the 110 means it’s going to have to come off the wrist reasonably frequently anyway. I have no plans of running out to buy a Forerunner 110 (I’m perfectly happy using my 205 until it kicks the bucket), but it will be interesting to hear feedback once it starts to filter out into the market. To read more about the Forerunner 110, check out the official Garmin Forerunner 110 page here. They also have a nice flash-based overview page for the Forerunner 110 here.

Below are links to some of the other Forerunner models on Amazon (they’ve had consistently good prices for these devices).

I am both a longtime user of a Garmin Forerunner 205 GPS watch (2+ years) as well as an active member of the social training community on dailymile. Together, I’d count my Garmin and the dailymile community as two of the most essential parts of my running toolkit, and when I first joined dailymile about a year ago I was disappointed that the site didn’t support syncing/uploading of data from the Garmin devices. I’ve gotten along just fine entering data manually (I actually kind of enjoyed doing it that way), but after a lot of hard work on the part of the developers (thanks Kelly and Ben!!!), Garmin Sync on dailymile has finally arrived!

If you’re not familiar with the Garmin Forerunner line of watches or the dailymile website, here’s a quick overview:

Garmin Forerunner Fitness Watches

The Garmin Forerunners are a line of fitness watches that operate by tracking GPS signals while you run. They have highly customizable data screens, and allow you to track things like distance, pace, elevation, grade, your GPS route track, etc. in real-time and with great accuracy (far better than the Nike+ – you can read my Nike+ review here). You can use them to create workouts (for example, I’ve used mine to do interval workouts on the roads instead of a track since it measures distance), and the best part is that they store your data for later upload onto a computer. I’ve been using the free PC-based program SportTracks for uploading and storing my Garmin data, and it’s a program that I highly recommend (I’ve posted a detailed review of SportTracks, and a SportTracks plugin for dailymile is in the works!).

My Garmin has played a huge role in helping me to improve as a runner, and the accurate pacing data that it provides has now helped me survive through 5 marathons and numerous shorter races. In fact, my Garmin is probably the only thing that rises above the shoes on my feet in terms of its importance to my running, and if you know me, that’s saying a lot. There are a number of Garmin models out there, ranging from the top of the line Forerunner 310XT, to the more watch-like Forerunner 405CX, to my trusty Forerunner 205 (check out my review of the Garmin Forerunner 205/305) – I’ve heard good things about all of them, but if I had to make a choice right now I’d probably buy the Forerunner 305 – it has the perfect combination of features at a fairly reasonable price (it’s like the 205, but with the added ability to track heart rate and sync with a footpod for use indoors on a treadmill). Below are links to the Forerunner watches on Amazon.com (Amazon has consistently had among the best prices on these devices):

dailymile: Social Training Website for Logging Your Miles

dailymile is a social training site for posting workout data, and has an interface that is kind of similar to Facebook, except that it’s geared directly toward active people who value exercise as a part of their lives (runners, swimmers, cyclists, walkers, etc.). I can’t begin to explain how much this site has meant to me and my training, and through dailymile I’ve met some truly inspirational people, many of whom have become good friends. To get a feel for what dailymile is all about check out this post that I recently wrote on the dailymile Community Blog (in the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I’m now part of the dailymile Team and the editor of the dailymile Community Blog).

At its heart, dailymile is a place to post your workouts and share that data with a group of on-line (and often real-world) friends. The site is filled with a great group of very positive people who are always there to cheer you on when you when you run a great race, or give you a kick in the pants when you’re in need of a bit of extra motivation to hit the road/trail for a run. Now, with the ability to sync your Garmin, posting of data has gotten even easier. After a relatively painless setup process, uploading data from your Garmin is a snap, and dailymile currently pulls your distance, time, calories burned, and optionally can include a GPS map of your running route (this can be turned off if you have privacy concerns). With a simple syncing process, you simply click a button, fill in a journal entry on the workout and add a few other details if you’d like, and then publish your workout. Friends can then comment on what you’ve done, and you can do the same on their workouts, which appear in a news-stream similar to what you’d find on a Facebook home page. It’s a slick interface, and a beautifully designed site. Having gotten to know the developers a bit over the past few months, all I can say is that the site is in great hands, and there are lots more goodies to come!

So, if you have a Garmin and are looking for a site to log your workouts and meet some great people, I urge you to give dailymile a try – you won’t regret it. Sign-up is free, and you can click the banner below to head over to dailymile and start logging your miles!

So why do I like SportTracks so much? Quite simply, I’m an absolute data junkie, both in my personal and professional life. There’s nothing I like more than sitting in front of a table of numbers, and being able to sift through those numbers for meaningful patterns. What SportTracks offers is a user-friendly interface and the ability to suck about as much data out of your Garmin as you could possibly want. If you want to look at mile splits, SportTracks will do it (or any other distance split from quarter mile to 10K, or even custom splits). If you want to look at an elevation profile for your recent run and see how your pace changed with elevation, SportTracks will do it. If you want to look at your run mapped out on a satellite, street, or hybrid map, SportTracks will do it. If you want to export your GPS track to Google Earth, SportTracks will do it. If you want to record mileage on each pair of shoes you wear, SportTracks will do that too. I think you get the picture – SportTracks will spit out just about any kind of data that you can mine from your GPS waypoints – pretty amazing stuff!

So lets take a look at the interface. The screen capture below shows that basic interface using data from a 4-mile race that I ran yesterday. On the top you have the “Daily Activity” panel, which shows your daily mileage totals, as well as totals for the current week, previous week, current month, and previous month. For each workout, you can set the category (i.e., treadmill run, race, cycle, etc.), location, distance, time, avg. pace, calories burned, elevation change, weather, and so on (lots of options to customize here).

 

On the lower left section, you can customize what you view in a number of ways. In the screenshot above I’ve it set to show my pace vs. elevation profile, and you can see very clearly how my pace in yesterday’s race tracked the wicked changes in elevation. I find this kind of data to be immensely interesting. Images like this can be saved in a variety of standard image formats (e.g., .png, .jpg, .tif) and shared on blogs, dailymile, (a free, on-line, social training site that’s like Facebook for active people), Twitter, etc. In addition to pace and elevation, you can also set this window to show your split times (more on this below), heart rate zones (if you use a Heart Rate monitor like you can with the Garmin 305, 405, or 310XT), cadence and power (if you are a cyclist), and more. I have the Foreruner 205 and thus can’t use the HR functions, but would love to be able to plot my heart rate along with pace and elevation – I suspect this can probably be done as well.

One of the features I use frequently in SportTracks (as mentioned above) is the ability to view my split times (again, these can be set to any distance that you’d like). As an example, the image above shows my split times for the Disney Marathon, which I ran in January of this year. You get lots of data about each split, and the display is nice and clean. Splits can alos be viewed in a graphical format if that’s what you prefer. Like many things with SportTracks, the interface is highly customizable.

In both of the above images, you can see another SportTracks feature in the bottom right window – the ability to view your runs/rides on a map. While this is not unique to SportTracks, the interface works well and there are a number of different types of maps to choose from (satellite, street, topo, hybrid, and a number of others). Like the graphs that SportTracks produces, the maps can be exported as image files and shared on-line. You can even blow up the image within the program and get data on run segments by selecting parts of your track on the map (e..g, see the red dots on the image above). For an example of a familiar blown up image, check out the picture below (Epcot Center from the Disney Marathon):

If you switch from the “Daily Activity” screen, you can also look at an “Activity Reports” section that summarizes your accumulated workouts. For example, below is a picture of my Monthly Mileage since I started using SportTracks in November of 2007 (just six months after I started running!).

On the “Activity Reports” screen you can view stats like mileage by month (as above), week, year and so forth. In addition to mileage, you can also view avg. pace by week/month, fastest pace, avg. HR, and about 20 other options – lots to play with.

That about summarizes the major features that I use in SportTracks, but there are lots of other things you can do with it as well. The users of SportTracks have developed a number of useful plug-ins that are available via the SportTracks website, several of which I use (e.g., the elevation correction plugin). There are also plug-ins that allow you to upload your data to a variety of on-line training logs (e.g., Strands and Buckeye Outdoors) which is handy if, like me, you use both a desktop and on-line training site (my prefered training website, dailymile, is also working on a plug-in for SportTracks so that we can upload our Garmin data).

So, if you’re looking for a great application for downloading data from your Gamin Forerunner, I highly recommend SportTracks. Given the huge number of ways to analyze and view your data, and the user-friendly interface, I find it hard to beat, and have no intentions of switching to anything else anytime soon!  Given that it’s completely free, there’s no harm in downloading the program and giving it a try.

I’ll finish by reiterating that SportTracks is developed for a PC platform, and as a PC user this is great for me. If you’re a Mac user and know of similar applications, feel free to leave a comment so I can point those users in the right direction – a big thanks to anyone who can help in that area!

Here’s the link to the SportTracks website: http://www.zonefivesoftware.com/sporttracks

And here again is the link to my review of the Garmin Forerunner 205/305 GPS watches: https://runblogger.com/2009/04/running-gear-review-garmin-forerunner.html