http://howlingcommando.fastrunningblog.com

Let us know how the surgery goes, they are nerve racking I know my daughter has had 8 over the years. I hate the waiting game. My prayer are with you and your family. Hope you win a watch I love mine.

Hey Benn, if you hadn't put your minutes there I would have thought it took you a whole movie to run 6.8 miles! Good job getting it done even with the turmoil in your life. Running is such a blessing in times of stress. I hope you get the watch, but if not, you can always buy it the old fashioned way.

So I got outbid big time. I guess it wasn't meant to be. I saw Amazon has them for like 202 $, that's the forerunner 305. Someone said that I should definitely go for the 305 over the 205? I need to know which one is the best to ask for and what people think.

I have the 205 and like it, I think the diferance is the 305 had a heart rate monitor. That is something you have to decide if you want or not. I had a heart rate monitor and found it to be combersome and not very accurate

I know now that I have to care about my heart and what not, which I do by eating sensibly, but as for when I run, I basically just want to know average pace, pace I'm running at, total time and distance. If the 205 does that then I guess I can ask for just the 205 one.

Yes that is what the 205 does. Excersing, eating well, and getting enough rest is the best medicane for you heart. You can allways take your heart rate the old fashion way.

I have the 205 and it works great for me, but I hate heart rate monitors. The 205 has an extra display field because you don't have the heart rate monitor on the screen. You can go to the FRB store or amazon.com and get one for under $160 with shipping, and the 305 is about $50 more.

Yeah I don't really care about the heart rate feature. Thanks for the prayers and all the help!

BTW, I love my gps, if my house was burning it would be in the top 5 things I would grab (not including the three kiddies).

I gave my Garmin 305 to my wife pretty much (and it was free, BTW, I would never have spent money on it to begin with). I run the same set of courses, and I know how long they are. If I moved into a new area, instead of using a Garmin, I would use the Course Tool (see on your left when you log in) until I got a wheel to measure those more precisely.

I really hate it when a runner gets an impression he needs to spend several hundred dollars on a gadget (especially as imprecise as a GPS watch) to be a better runner.

I beg to differ with Sasha. I think my watch has helped me be a better runner. It doesn't change your current pace, but it gives you information. Not all of us can stomach running the same courses all the time.

I agree with Michelle, my watch had helped me as well, it pushes me when I train alone.

Michelle - I think the GPS errors have made you freak out about your pace enough times to disrupt a workout from its natural flow way too many times. Of all the people I know that I would recommending tossing a GPS watch to become a better runner, you would be towards the top of the list. You have become a better runner because you've increased your mileage, not because the GPS made you push the pace. Think about the time you ran for BYU - you did not use a GPS back then, did you?

Geez Sasha, why don't you tell me how you really feel?!? J/K Point well taken. Except in college I trained on the track where splits are easy to get, and I had coaches and assistant coaches to yell splits and 1/2 lap splits at me, and now I don't have that advantage. If only we could tweak the blog so that it was connected to my watch, then my Coach Pachev could yell splits at me through my watch. Shall I put that on the future feature requests?

I think the Garmin is a great tool when you're just starting out, or mixing up the pace. Lately, though, I've confined myself to only looking at my Garmin every 1/2 mile when it beeps, and I've found that my splits are much more even (and a little faster). I'm still glad I have it, though. However, I think the Garmin is very important when trying something new, such as my tempo run tonight. I feel the same way about heart rate monitors.

Benn-hope your dad's surgery goes well.

Michelle - the Course Tool can help with that. Map out 20 courses (is that enough for you). Run them all the time. Or get a wheel, wheel them out, mark every quarter.

Hoiii I was all psyched for it, now I'm not sure whether or not to hit the PURCHASE button for the 205 :-

And thank you. I just got word the initial surgery is a success. He will probably need a valve replacement in the next year though.

Benn - save your money for a more worthy cause, e.g pay off school loans, save for a down payment on the house once you get married, or if those things are taken care of already, donate to charity.

Interesting dialog going on there!!! Sounds like things are going well with your dad, what exactly did they do? Your mom is lucky to have you around to help with the kids!! Good mileage today as always!

I'm not sure how it is in NY but just don't let them see you do it and nobody will know. You can use dots, one for one hundred meter, two for 2 hundred meters and so on to 4 hundred meter and start over. this is done around here.

Sasha,

Don't let those two female teamates of ours gang up on you.

Paul, Logan, and I all have the 205 and it has been very useful. However, I do not wear it every time. If I know the distance I will just wear a watch or no watch on easy runs sometimes. Just don't record your miles to the "T", i.e. 5.966784321 miles. Just round it to 6.00 miles.

One of the reasons I took up running is because I watched Sasha use his at our house, and I thought that it made running seem a lot easier and fun. You can just go out without the hassle of plotting out a big ol' course, even if you are not familiar with the area and still know your distance, time, ave. pace etc.

This Garmin hating side to Sasha is a relatively new thing, I think.

Garmins can be a distraction in a race though, I'll give you that.

Good luck to your dad, Benn.

I am not entirely anti-Garmin. However, I am bothered by the following:

a) Runners believing that spending several hundred dollars on an imprecise distance measuring gadget is some sort of a mandatory acceptance ritual.

b) Runners (vehemently) arguing that something is wrong with a Jones counter or wheel measured course because their Garmin shows a different measurement.

c) Runners changing their pace in response to the feedback from Garmin.

d) Blindly assuming that if Garmin is showing a faster pace your fitness has improved, and if slower pace, then it decreased.

e) Using Garmin for speed work. You are much better off running 10 loops around the block, or pole to pole intervals if precise measurement devices are not available.

f) This one is the absolute winner, and is competitive in entertaining value with the list of things done by dumb criminals. Using Garmin for speed work on the track for distance measurements.

I must agree with Sasha on his last comment. However, he forgot to mention my favorite other than maybe b).

g)Recording mileage to the one millionth or more like: 10.0100123478 or 3.987654321. 10 miles and 4 miles would be a better way of recording such numbers.

Benn -

I've found my 205 to be a useful tool in my training. I tried the 305 of a friend before going with the 205; didn't find the heart rate monitor useful to me.

Many of the pros and cons have been outlined in earlier posts. But for me, I like having the workout history that my Garmin provides. Of course, there other traditional means (e.g., paper and pencil) or contemporary methods (training blog). I know these are effective and serve many of the same purposes. I just like the detailed data the Garmin provides (yes, I understand there's an error rate in the GPS technology).