GPS Watch Query

anoh77

Hi guys, some help would be greatly appreciated. Been running the last few years, varied distances, 5km's, Parkruns, 10km's, 16km's, would get out 3 or 4 times a week. Feel its time to invest in a GPS watch to start tracking the runs, be good to have a record of them to help with pacing and monitor progress etc. Most people I know seem to have a Garmin, budget is probably in the region of €150, but perhaps the basic model is sufficent for my needs? I would do a bit cycling in the summer, but i dont know if i would do enough to go for one that would track the bike stuff too, or are there models out there within my budget that would do this also?

RayCun

if all you want to do is

• know how far you run
• know how fast you are going

the garmin forerunner 10 should be all you need

If you want more features you'll have to go more expensive, but my guess is most people who have the extra features don't use them, they just measure distance and pace

spurscormac

From what you say, it looks like you want to download your runs and look at them after the fact.
Your best options for this I reckon are:-

Garmin FR10 (No HRM support)
Garmin FR15
TomTom Runner
TomTom Multisport (if you want cycling)
Polar M400

Have a look around to see what prices you can get on those, some are cheaper, some a little more expensive than the €150 budget you stated.
I just got a Suunto Ambit 2R which I find great, but I won't include it here as it's €100 above your stated price range.
Best of all, look at dcrainmaker reviews ot help you decide, and the product comparison tool to see the differences between watches.
It can be a bit daunting at first, as he goes into a huge amount of detail, but he really does thorough reviews of the products, warts and all.
He also has a recent post of gadget recommendations which hits the budget to mid range watches I've listed above.

Soarer

From what I can tell, sportsdirect with the 20% code is about the cheapest you'll find.

SwiftJustice

I bought the Aldi GPS watch 2 weeks. It cost €40 and has all the functions of a garmin - measuring heart rate, GPS etc. I'm very happy with it & it has a 3 year warranty. You can also upload your data to strava very easily. I then can further analyse the runs using veloviewer.

Donie75

Hi Soarer, I'm also interested in a Garmin for tracking my 5km runs. I see Sportsdirect have the Garmin 110 and 15 at good prices. Can you share the Sportsdirect 20% discount code?
Thanks!

inigo

Donie75 wrote: »

Hi Soarer, I'm also interested in a Garmin for tracking my 5km runs. I see Sportsdirect have the Garmin 110 and 15 at good prices. Can you share the Sportsdirect 20% discount code?
Thanks!

There's a sticky at the top of this sub-forum

http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2056251173/30/#post93132120

inigo

BTW, I've got the TomTom Runner and am very happy with it. It's DCRainmaker's budget running watch for this winter. It may be more basic than other watches but it can still do a lot more than I'm interested in at the moment. While the TomTom web portal may be VERY scant with detail and analysis (sometimes it's nice too see your workout's basic info in a clear and uncluttered way!), it can upload workouts to many 3rd party sites, such as Strava, Mapmyrun and Runkeeper, as well as save it onto the hard drive in several formats. And it seems to be down to $99 today in here and here! :eek:

anoh77

Thanks for all the replies, all very helpful. Will take the weekend to do a bit of research on the sites mentioned above. In relation to uploading the runs from the various watches, would there be limitations in which ones could be connected to a Samsung Tablet? No laptop at the moment for a USB connection, but I presume an adaptor could be easily got to make the connection.

oldfella

i just bought a garmin fr 10 from fitnessdigital for 109 with free delivery ... cheapest i've seen

anoh77

Thanks for all the advice on here. Decided to leave it until after Christmas, make it a January treat, plumped for the Polar M400 as the reviews were impressive. Bought it last Friday on sportsdirect.ie, went for the one including the heart rate monitor, used the 20% discount code, cost me €136 delivered. It arrived yesterday, even though the €7 delivery charge I opted for said 4-5 working days, so super fast delivery as I only ordered it Friday afternoon.

kildaremum

anoh77 wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice on here. Decided to leave it until after Christmas, make it a January treat, plumped for the Polar M400 as the reviews were impressive. Bought it last Friday on sportsdirect.ie, went for the one including the heart rate monitor, used the 20% discount code, cost me €136 delivered. It arrived yesterday, even though the €7 delivery charge I opted for said 4-5 working days, so super fast delivery as I only ordered it Friday afternoon.

I'm thinking of getting the Polar m400 also - do you still have the 20% discount code by any chance

kildaremum

anoh77 wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice on here. Decided to leave it until after Christmas, make it a January treat, plumped for the Polar M400 as the reviews were impressive. Bought it last Friday on sportsdirect.ie, went for the one including the heart rate monitor, used the 20% discount code, cost me €136 delivered. It arrived yesterday, even though the €7 delivery charge I opted for said 4-5 working days, so super fast delivery as I only ordered it Friday afternoon.

I'm thinking of getting the Polar m400 also - do you still have the 20% discount code by any chance

anoh77

Ya, its IRE20, hopefully it still works for you, just make sure to use the Irish version of the website. Actually i just took a quick look at the website, it seems to back up to €203 with the heart rate monitor, it was reduced to €160 last week, then I applied the 20% discount to this price. Still good value though. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but hopefully get to test it tomorrow morning.