Fast Running Blog

ok...I'm caving in. Thought I'd never own a garmin.  I'd love to hear advice on the best garmin product to purchase.  I'm not looking for anything fancy.  Something that gives pace/distance/holds up without paying an arm and a leg.  Thanks in advance for your input!

I own the 205 and it works great.  I think you can get it for $140 these days online.  The 305 is essentially the same, I believe, but with HR monitor.

I have a 205 as well.  My husband got it on ebay, used(but works great I have never had a problem) for 100 bucks.  If all you want is pace, time, distance, and some splits then it works great.

I like my 305 and they're pretty affordable now that the 310xt and 405 are out.
There's also a free program called sporttracks that adds a lot of value if you like maps and charts and reports and stuff :)

http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-Forerunner-Receiver-Heart-Monitor/dp/B000CSWCQA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1259885798&sr=8-1

I've had the 101 an 205, but I recommend the 310XT.  It is water proof which will prevent the electronics from dying due to sweat seeping into the electronics.  Also, buy it at REI since they have a full refund/return policy...because it will stop working one day-guaranteed!

True, the 310xt is submersible, but the 205 and 305 are splash proof and intended to be used out in the weather. I run in the rain with my 305 all the time and even leave it on in the shower sometimes after my run.
The 310xt is great for triathletes, or ultra marathoners because it has a longer battery life, but in my opinion it's not worth the extra cost otherwise.

I have had the 205 for almost 3 years now - still works just fine, although the sound is intermittent.  Personally, I don't reallly care about that as long as everything else still works.

My 201 and 205 both showed sweat corrosion in the "speaker" holes which caused an electronic failure.  The 310XT does not have any area where the sweat and salt can enter into the electronics. 

thanks for input...I'll probably go with the 205 and make sure to have a warrantee.

For the small difference in price I'd recommend the 305 over the 205 because of the HRM that comes with it. I don't pay much attention to the HRM while I run, but it's nice to have that data when I review my history in sporttracks. Just knowing my pace for a given day/week/month isn't near as good as knowing how hard I was working to achieve it.
Whatever you get I'm sure you will be glad. Just having the freedom to run whatever direction you feel like and still knowing the distance without having to drive it is well worth the investment.

I saw the 305 in the advertisements for $139 at Best Buy...a pretty smokin' price!

At ecost.com you can get one for $115.00 (that is the 305).

I like my $305. However, the HRM has caused me problems. For whatever reason the battery door has allowed sweat to seep in on numerous occasions leading to battery corrosion and reports of HRs over 220! In each of the three cases over the last three years I've contacted Garmin and they have sent me a replacement though.

My 305 is dead. When it was alive it started driving me nuts because I could never trust the distance.

I think Garmin is a good gadget, but it worth only $30, with $20 credit given for its navigational capacity. It would be worth $150 or more if the distance was accurate within 0.1% consistently (100 times out of 100). Otherwise, there is not a whole lot of purpose to those distance measurements. They are not precise enough for speed work. For easy runs you do not care that much anyway. Some coaches do not even bother counting  the miles and have their runners train by time when Garmin precision for the distance is OK.

If you are doing speed work in absence of truly accurate measurement, just pick a stretch from bush A to manhole B and run that stretch frequently enough to the point that your performance on that segment can predict your races. One of the lamest experience I've seen reported on the blog repeatedly is "My Garmin said I ran a great interval!" followed by a race performance that was not anywhere near the Garmin miracle speed. That will never happen to you if you rely on landmarks.

I like my 205.  For short speedwork, I agree it is not accurate enough to be 100% reliable.  For 10 mile tempos, it's good enough for me.  And it's awfully nice when I am running on random routes when travelling or want to meander around town without paying attention to distance.  That being said, I only wear mine 3 times per week or so, out of 10 runs.

As you know I'm a number slave, but not for the accuracy. I like to know the distance to make sure, one I'm not over-training and two for the mental boost of knowing more or less what I put in. I agree with Jon that it is a life saver for when I travel. I like to head out of the hotel and go wherever and have a good idea of what distance. As far as accuracy I would never do a track workout with it (what's the point?). But on straight stretches of road it is more than accurate enough. I run the same courses a lot and the Garmin always beeps the miles within ~5ft of where it did the day, week, or month before... I also run a number of marked race courses and the Garmin also typically beeps withing  ~5ft of the marks and often is more accurate by the time elapsed than the marks on the ground. As far as why to wear it on the same course/easy days I like to see how easy those days actually are, could I just look at the total time? Yes. But as Jon can point out I run a huge range of speeds and I like to compare those easy/hard and just easy/feeling bad days in both pace and HR.

My 205 was totally worth the investment, even for a grad student with little extra $$. I have also found it to be very consistent for the same routes, which helps me monitor how I do from run to run. I have used it on a track, too (to record my splits), and it has been surprisingly accurate. Just because I'm obsessive, I usually run an extra 0.03-0.05 to make sure I ran the complete distance. But I do that on the treadmill, too. Maybe that obsessiveness will pay off someday. :)