I’m not really one for gadgets as a rule. As a runner there’s not much in the way of gadgets to get excited about and even though there is in cycling and triathlon I’ve never really fallen into the ‘gadget trap’. I don’t even own a smart phone…
Until now that is. I am now the proud owner of a Garmin Forerunner 110 – the very poor relation (if you believe the running/tri forums) of the Garmin family but personally I think it’s pretty fab! I quite like stats from training and races and have spent many an hour on MapMyRun trying to work out distances and average speeds/paces.
With marathon training in full swing I’ve spent some time working out what training plan to follow and what speeds need to be done at what point and for how long over what distance so I finally came round to the fact that a GPS watch might actually be worth having. My initial thoughts were of the Timex Global Trainer. As an owner of a Timex Ironman watch it seemed the logical progression – until I saw how big it was – It would be like running with a saucer attached to my wrist – not very cool and with prices coming in at £300 I’d be scared to wear it.
So I started to look a bit further down the tree and stumbled across the Garmin 110. It looked simple – average speed, distance and how long – oh and it also tells the time! Due to a timely cracking deal from Sweatshop Mr Chips bought me it as a belated birthday present.
First wear today and although I spent a lot of the run looking at the watch I was pretty impressed. It is useful to see what your actual pace is at any point in time and the GPS meant I could just run a random route knowing that when I reached my 5 mile limit I could just slow down and jog back to work. Sorted!
runwithchips 
You will love it and it will greatly aid your training and assist in obtaining your goals
cheers
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Thanks – two runs in with it and I’m loving it. It is so useful to see how on (or off!) target you are throughout whole run.
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I adore my Garmin Forerunner. It’s the best thing ever. I hope you like yours as much.
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I am certainly growing fond of it. I love the stats it throws out via the connect webpage – keeps me quiet for hours!
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I just got my Garmin for Christmas, and it’s wonderful! I was like you, trying to map everything out on mapmyrun. That gets so hard when you run on trails, etc. Good luck training for your marathon! I look forward to reading more!
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Thanks Kristen. It is really helping with training and I know what you mean about running off road and trying to map where you’ve been. I do a lot of my running along the river and canal – but with the Garmin – no need all done. The only thing I’m struggling with is recording reps and rest, but I think I may be expecting it to do too much!
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Excellent toy! Although I must confess to loving many running toys, including my HRM, iPod Nano, Nike+iPod that I can stick in my shoe if I feel like it. Any toy, really, as long as I can run!
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I’ve had the 410 for a little over a year now. I love the fact that I can track my pace and monitor my heart rate. I’ve come to think of my heart rate as my RPM and keep a close eye on it. If I’m not “feeling it” on a training run, often when I look at my watch my heart rate is higher than normal, or what I would expect for the pace I’m running.
I’ve also found that maintaining your pace during a race is vital to running a good race. Too often we hear about people who go out to fast and then have nothing left for the second half of the race.The GPS function is awesome to monitoring your pace and then you can upload your workout and see it on a map!
The downside of the watch is that it is made of plastic and scratches easily. I’ve also had odd problems. I ran a half-marathon last weekend and at 10:27:53 my watch froze. My race started at 11AM. I reset the watch 3 times and it would only display “Garmin”. I was not happy. I ran the whole race with only “Garmin” on my watch. You may find other strange little things happen also. BTW – I sent a note to Garmin about my problem, and no reply yet. It’s been three days.
Sorry for the long post. I think “pissed” has a different meaning in the UK. But in the US it means I’m not happy.
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I have to agree, it’s revolutionised the way I run. I always used to struggle gettign the right pace, too fast or too slow, but with the Garmin, quick check and you can see what you’re doing. That must be so gutting to have the watch freeze just before a race – not happened to me yet – so fingers crossed it doesn’t next weekend!
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I wanted to give an update on my watch. Garmin did reply in about 3 days, finally. But the reply got buried. So I need to give them credit for responding like they said they would and providing some help.
The watch keeps accumilating your workouts and races. So eventually you need to clear the history. You also should check for software updates occassionally. I did both and I’m hoping I’ll be okay on Monday.
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Glad you got an answer – I should to clear mine out as I’ve not done it since I’ve had it – nothing worse than running out of memory at 22 miles! I’ll also check for software updates. Good luck for Monday, hope you have a good one and your watch behaves!
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The race was tough. The heat was not as bad as predicted but it was still draining. I guzzled Gatorade like a frat boy guzzles beer!
My watch kept scrolling to other screens during the race. I actually walked for a bit to try and straiten it out. Only partially successful. Like a runner, or maybe a nut, I’m looking forward to my next race all ready!
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So glad you got through it ok. I’m not a fan of heat, and luckily I doubt London will have that problem! Sorry the watch still played up – onwards to the next one eh?!
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