garmin 405

my garmin 405 + HRM and foot pod came in the mail last week.  this watch is cool.  it pumps out a lot of stats.  i'm a white guy, so i like stats.  the foot pod allows me to run inside, where there are no gps satellites, and still tracks my mileage, so that my indoor runs are not stat-free.  the treadmill has become increasingly important with this latest heat/humidity/stink front.

 

so far, i've used this watch 3 times...first time was outside on a super humid day.  the virtual training partner kicked my ass that day, as it was difficult to breathe...damn it was hot.  but, i calibrated the foot pod for indoor use.

 

2nd time was at spin class last night...just used it for the HRM.  the garmin is overkill for that, but my polar HRM is broken.  this class was more of a richard simmons style spin class rather than a coach troy jacobson spinerval workout.  (i had been using dave a's spinerval dvds every sunday...got a good setup in the gym, where i use the gym's 50" LCD TV and spin bike w/ my speedplay pedals for a 1 1/2 hour workout.  i'm still afraid of the 3hr video...hope to get there by the end of the rotation.)  back to the spin class...instructor's a nice guy, but has a richard simmons type philosophy to working out...lots of dance stuff incorporated into the spinning.  it was a good workout, but i don't know if i can handle too much of it.  

 

since i spun last night, was able to give the watch its 3rd test...the treadmill in the gps-less gym.  the footpod worked well.  over a 6 mile run, the distance on the watch was .08 miles slower than the treadmill.  it seemed like there was more variance as i increased the speed...when i ran at a 8 min/mile pace, variance was negligible.  when i increased to a 6:30 mile, the variance increased substantially. 

 

the watch saves a lot of stats...did a quick review to see my mile pace, HR stats, etc.  i had hoped to upload it to the computer, so i could give you lots of graphs...pie charts, bar graphs, line graphs, scatter plots, etc.  however, the ANT agent is not mac-compatible at this time, and the folks that control the local computer network have draconian security policies that don't allow me to install the garmin training center software.  i'm going to find a work around, most likely using someone else's computer to hold my data until i leave in october (garmin promises compatibility by november).  at that time, i can inundate everyone with unnecessary stats, once again impressing you with my whiteness.