Do I need a Garmin?

[sloutre]

I plan to train for a half marathon and maybe a marathon next year. Should I ask Santa for a Forerunner 305 or something like that?

I like to think that it's better to listen to my body than to focus on numbers but I have no experience training for longer distances. For my races next year I just want to finish, with no specific targeted time. Just finish and not get injured during training or during a race.

On one hand I'm attracted to gadgets, but on the other hand I need to be sure I'll get a lot of use out of something before I let that thing enter my house. I have enough clutter as it is.

Right now I have a heart rate monitor watch (http://www.amazon.com/Omron-HR-100C-Heart-Rate-Monitor/dp/B000A5CEUO), but I use only the watch so I can know how long I run, I don't wear the hrm anymore.



Can the wise and experienced barefoot runners of the BRS guide me?

If I don't ask for a Garmin I can always ask for a pair of minimal running shoes...but I hate shoes :-(

 

[Blind Boy]

While I don't have any

While I don't have any experience with a Garmin watch, I regularly use the gps feature in my phone to track distances, I carry my phone anyway for safety. I think it's useful if I'm somewhere I haven't been before but when I'm running from home I don't need to track anything but time anymore, I already know how long my usual routes are. All in all, it's a nice gadget to have but it's far from crucial. For a half marathon, I'd just make sure I could run for two hours straight and get comfortable with running that long. If you can do that you'll do fine even if it takes a little longer than that to finish.

 

[miker]

Sloutre, I used to have one

Sloutre, I used to have one of the original Garmin forerunners. What I loved about it was that no matter where I ran (or how far), it was all tracked. I currently use an iphone with RunKeeper. It's working pretty well. If I didn't have a phone that I used, I would probably have a Garmin (or some tracking device). I just wished mine worked better in the woods. :-

 

[Matt]

I love my Garmin 205. 

I love my Garmin 205. However, using it comes with a price. I think by its very nature, it encourages me to pay more attention to it and less attention to the feedback I'm getting from my body. I think ultimately, the very best feedback you can get is that you get from your own body. When you learn to listen to your body well, your training can go far.

 

[LorenaG]

If you dont want to shell out

If you dont want to shell out for a Garmin and just want to see what its liek to train with a tracker, you can do what I do; I downloaded a free tracker on my smart phone (it HAS to be a smartphone) called miCoach, it´s form Adidas. It uses GPS to track you, and you can make a trainig plan and manage your schedule with your account online, a voice tells you your pace and how long you have left for the day´s session (lots of settings for that),...

but no heart monitor, of course. just the smart phone that paces you if you like and tracks your run with GPS. if you´re looking just to see what it´s like, i think it´s a good idea. http://www.adidas.com/com/micoach/

i dont use a garmin, im not familiar witht them but i know what feautres they have. its nicer to have watch that tracks you rather than a smartphone on an armband, but hey, its free.

 

[The Ramzev]

 A Garmin is definitely a

A Garmin is definitely a better tool than a pair of shoes, especially if you're in a training program. It helps see your pace and improvements over time.

 

[stomper]

sloutre wrote:I like to think

I like to think that it's better to listen to my body than to focus on numbers...

sloutre, i'm a gadget & data guy, but I have to say one of the things I love most about BFR is it is my everyday dose of being totally off line and just listening to my body. The garmin would be especially distracting to me because it's so big and it's right there on the wrist, and it can provide SO MUCH data.

I guess it could add to your confidence to know the info that GPS tracking could provide, but you don't need to know it while you're running, only after. Personally what I do is just put my run into gmap-pedometer to figure out the distance I did.

If I had the money for a Garmin, I'd rather spend it on a special running trip, or the very best pair of minimalist shoes, whatever that is. Even though BFR is great, at some point in the winter they may be necessary.

Just an alternative view. )

 

[sloutre]

If I had a smartphone I would

If I had a smartphone I would try MiCoach to see how much I like having all these numbers and statistics...but I have a very basic prepaid phone. I'm not a big phone user.



Ram (and others), how do you use the pace feature? Do you decide on a target pace and push yourself when you see that you're slowing down? Or do you use it only after the run to see if your average pace improved?

In general, how do you use the computer during the run and how does it affect your run?



To track my distance I use mapmyrun.com or google maps. It's not super precise because sometimes I miss a turn but it's probably enough.

 

[Barefoot Mary]

I'm old school and map my

I'm old school and map my route before I leave the house on mapmyrun.com. Especially as the distances get greater I just elaborate on running routes I've done many times before and build on them. I connect one route to another, make goals to get to certain places like a certain awesome hill, or freaky-cool bridge, or around a particularly pretty park, etc.

I love gadgets (I subscribe to WIRED for petes sake!) but I find when I wear a GPS I just keep looking at it and feeling miserable. *look down* "Oh, I'm at 8 miles"....*run some more* ...*look down* "Oh, I've only gone .3 more miles?"...*run some more*...*look down* "DANG when am I gonna hit 9!?!?!"

But if it works for you go for it!

I envy those who don't obsess over their miles wearing a GPS

I've always considered myself kind of zen-like when I run though. No time goals. It would be pretty hard to figure out a P.R. without the help of a GPS methinks.

 

[Abide]

That's true Mary, I think

That's true Mary, I think about running way more when I wear my Garmin than when I don't.

Good thing I lost my a while back...

 

[C. Beth Run.]

I use mapmyrun.com too.I was

I use mapmyrun.com too.

I was totally enamored with the idea of getting a Garmin for awhile, but I've decided to hold off. I'll probably get one eventually, for the convenience factor (not having to pre-map for certain distances) but I'm waiting until they are small enough, with the features I want (specifically NOT a touch-screen since the Garmin touch-screen model has a lot of bad reviews on Amazon), and with the price I want (maybe $150?). I'm willing to wait!

I tried my dad's big Garmin (305, or something like that?) and it just felt so huge on my skinny wrist. Some small-framed women don't mind that, but it bugged me. The newer models that are smaller are still out of my price range.

While I'll probably get one eventually, sometimes it's kind of nice not being obsessive about how far I've gone and what my pace is...a little concerned that the overly-analytical side of me may take it to far!

 

[ajb422]

 I just got a garmin

I just got a garmin forerunner 305 and so far I really like it. But I don't think I "need" it. On my long runs I don't really even like it on my wrist, I just stick it in my pack and look at it around the area that I need to turn around and then look at my paces when I get home. I don't use it to "train" just to give me information about if I'm getting better.

On shorter runs I'll actually wear it on my wrist and pay attention to the pace. Not to go faster or slower but just to create an awareness about what different speeds feel like. I don't wear it all the time either. Some days I really don't feel like having something on my wrist.

I thought I'd like the heart rate monitor but I really don't. Its sort of uncomfortable especially if I have my hydration pack on so I don't wear it much. All the splits and such are fun and interesting and I suppose if I was a more dedicated runner I would like it for training but I subscribe to the "just go out and run" philosophy. I don't care enough about speed to let myself become obsessive with it. Plus there is a fairly long delay with the paces. It takes a long time to figure out that you've sped up or slowed down. Maybe if you switch to the faster data point collector this gets better, I'm not sure.

 

[adamslm]

I never leave home without my

I never leave home without my Garmin 305. I love it.. it's a great tool to truly monitor your training progress. I use MapMyRun online with my Garmin and track every run I do, comparing prior days, prior weeks/months, and feel it has helped me make a measurable/noticable difference in training... I also like to know where I am (mileagewise) on those long runs, and what my current pace is. As I progressed from 1/2s to Fulls, to Ultras I've used the Garmin to set and stay on my splits, and also to help me make sure I wasn't expending more at a given time throughout a race. But remember it's a tool, and like any tool you gotta know why you're wanting/needing one, and then be dedicated to getting the value out of it. If you don't it's just another fancy gadget, and you might as well not spend the $$'s



Larry -

 

[C. Beth Run.]

Great review & advice, Larry!

Great review & advice, Larry!

 

[Jimmy Hart]

i'm rocking the garmin 110

i'm rocking the garmin 110 and i love it. i do however have the ability to not stare at it all the time and worry about my numbers. what i like the most about it is that it's there when i want to see how things are going. i'm an old school runner and back in the day if coach said go run a mile at a 5 pace i could nail a 5 flat within a couple of seconds without anything monitoring me. i don't quite have that ability anymore and truth is it's hard to have on a 10 mile run. my watch is handy for just checking in to see how i'm doing.

for those of you that would go crazy looking all the time it has a feature where you can swith the screen to just see the time of day while youre recording the data from your run. then when you get done you can download it and see all the things you did like where you slowed down, sped up, changed elevations, heart rate, etc. i don't obsess over it but it has taught me a lot about some of my mileage tendencies and when i should incorporate nutrition and hydtraion on a run just by being able to see similarities in my run data.

from an old school guy who never used anything other than my body to tell me how my runs went i have to say the garmin gets a big two thumbs up and i don't run without it anymore.

 

[txtenderfoot]

I'm an old

I'm an old school runner and back in the day if coach said go run a mile at a 5 pace i could nail a 5 flat within a couple of seconds without anything monitoring me.

I'm an old school shot putter and when my coach told me to run at 5 min/mile pace, I knew he was talking about 100 meters .