Garmin Forerunner 305

In the month that I have owed the FR 305 I have taken to leaving it at home because it is so hard to get a signal; I don’t even consider it on a cloudy day! This morning, under a cloudless sky with minimal trees (108th in Riverside Park in New York City), I stood there for 10 minutes while it was trying to locate a signal only to be rewarded with the unit asking if I was in doors. Giving up I turned it off and on (so it would look again) and then ran three miles south along the Hudson River – about as “big sky” as you are going to get in New York City. Same question.

The one time I got it to work, in Central Park of all places, it seemed to work fine though the “pace” on two different screens did not agree with each other. Since the unit is collecting dust in my drawer, I have not spent the time trying to figure out if they are telling me two different things. No comment on the HR monitor for the same reason, I never use the thing.

I am no scientist but it does seem like Garmin is asking for trouble by putting contacts for the recharger underneath the unit where it will spend a good portion of its life on a sweaty wrist. Isn’t warm, salt, moisture, and metal a recipe for corrosion?

Too bad, I had high hopes for this unit. I’ll try again a couple more times but suspect will soon give up as it is very distracting constantly looking at my watch to see if it is working. Seems to me I should drop this all together, map out my distances with Google Earth and just use a $5 stopwatch! Anyone want to but an almost new FR 305??

I started using the forerunner 305 in January to track my training. Its the first GPS watch I have owned and it was little intimidating when I took it out of the box for the first time. I flipped through the owners manuel and figured out the basic functions. The screen is big and displays multiple data fields, which you can customize (Time, Heart rate, Speed, Pace, Cal.. etc). This model also has a chest strap included so heart rate can be tracked. I have read that a lot of people have trouble with the GPS signal, but I have not had any trouble in the city or country. I could not use the softwhere included due to having a Mac, but I found a compatible training program and there is a garmin website (http://connect.garmin.com/?s=1) that you can upload activities. I feel like everyday I learn some new function that the watch can do. I love this watch and would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a GPS watch and does not mind it being a little bulky.