Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS Receiver With Heart Rate Monitor

• High-Sensitivity, Watch-Like GPS Receiver This Offers Unprecedented Signal Reception
• 1 Piece Training Assistant This Offers Athletes Together with Precise Speed, Distance & Pace Data
• Consists of Training Center Software, Which Lets Users To Download Workout Data For A Detailed Analysis
• Used For Multiple Sports Such As Cycling, Cross- Country Skiing & Windsurfing
• Data Acquired May In addition Be Analyzed Together with Motionbased, Which Offers Online Mapping & Route Sharing

The Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS System combines shape and function. This combination running associate and personal trainer is intended for athletes of all levels. It features a high-sensitivity GPS receiver, new courses aspect, and robust ANT wireless heart rate monitor for best performance. The super-sensitive GPS tracks your each move, even working on tree-covered trails and near tall buildings. The heart device monitors your heart rate, speed, distance, pace and calories burned so you can train smarter, extra effectively. These taskmasters will continually push you to do your personal excellent. Courses aspect lets you download recorded courses and compete against previous workouts Auto Pause pauses and resumes training timer GPS features - GPS together with high-Sensitivity SiRFstarIII architecture Wireless communication between system devices via ANT protocol Display Size(WxH) - 1.3 x 0.8 (33 x 20.3 mm) Lap Memory - 1,000 laps Rechargeable internal lithium ion battery - lasts 10 hours (typical use) Waterproof - Submersible in one meter of water for up to 30 mins. Alerts - Time, distance, pace and heart rate Physical Size(WxHxD) - 2.1 x. 7 x 2.7 (53.3 x 17.8 x 68.6 mm) Weight - 2.72 oz. (77 g)

Heart rate monitor features - Transmission Range - approximately 3m (9.8ft) 3V CR2032 battery - lasts 3 years (1 hour per day) Physical size(WxHxD) - 13.7 x 1.4 x 0.5 (348 x 35.6 x 12.7 mm) Weight -. 74 oz (21 grams)

View Garmin's Forerunner demonstration video.

Select from 12 data fields to display on the 305's screen. View big.

The design cleverly integrates the GPS antenna and aims it towards the sky when you're running or walking. View big.

The Virtual Associate function makes your workouts extra competitive. View big.

Select from three workout modes this help you target your training goals. View big.

The 305 features rudimentary mapping and setting marking functions. View big.

Not so together with the 305. Garmin's engineers obviously burned the midnight oil and have come up together with a waterproof design this, while certainly not as small as a sports watch, feels just as comfortable. The curved casing lets the unit's antenna to face the sky when you're running, while the widescreen display is completely located for viewing when you want it. And the display certainly deserves a few kudos. While it's smaller than the display found on previous Forerunners, its resolution is far higher, offering incredible clarity and crispness.

Garmin has smartly given the 305 a neat button layout and the buttons have a nice tactile feel together with good pressure response. The right side houses the menu selection and enter buttons, while the left houses a power/backlight button and a mode button. This neat and elegant answer is a big innovation over the sometimes confusing button functionality of previous Forerunners. View button layout.

The underside of the 305 is pretty nondescript, except for a row of contacts this interface together with the integrated charging and data cradle. The cradle is small and unobtrusive and its single mini-USB port connects to either an integrated AC adapter, or a USB cable this connects to your PC. In addition to data transport together with the USB cable, you can in addition charge the 305's embedded lithium-ion battery via a powered USB connection from your computer.

GPS Performance
The big news concerning the Forerunner 305 is this it features an included, high-sensitivity SiRFstar III GPS receiver. What does this indicate? It means this the 305's capability to together track, and preserve a lock on, your position is better than anything before it. Afterwards an intial battery charge, the tester had the 305 on his wrist and was tracking speed and distance together with GPS satellites inside 3 minutes. The next time we used the 305, satellite acquisition was nearly instantaneous. A run throughout dense trees didn't faze the unit either; tracking remained true and steady. Performance on a bike was equally spectacular. Whatever witchcraft has been cooked up by the designers of the SiRF technology, we like it!

The neat docking cradle makes charging and data connectivity a snap.

Training Functions
The 305 is first and foremost a training tool, and its capability to categorize a ton of data types into a customer experience this is intuitive and neat is no small feat. Whiz-bang technology aside, if you can't use it and do it a natural part of your exercise routine, it's worthless. When it comes to these factors -- and here's the get home message on the 305 -- this device is successful where many other devices fail.

The heart and soul of the 305 can be found on the data screens, which provide you real-time information concerning all aspects of your workout. In fact, the 305 can display a dizzying array of data, such as calories burned, distance, elevation, grade, and heading, as well as multiple lap and pace modes. The 305 adds the capability to track heartrate, lap heartrate, average heartrate, and heartrate zones via the integrated coded heartrate chest strap. Together with the buy of a separate wireless cadence and speed meter, you can in addition track bike performance data.

Thankfully, the device makes it simple to define how much or how little data you would like to view during a workout. You can arrange the data this's much important to you and then do this data be visible front and center on the device. Indeed, inside a few minutes of skimming the manual and fiddling together with the device configuration, you'll have your much important data displaying just the way you like it. The capability to display heartrate is a big in addition, too, as it's a fairly good indicator of excercise output, fatigue, and fitness altitude. The 305 has all the heartrate functions you'd expect from a full-function monitor, counting the capability to set target zones and alerts to maximize the effectiveness of your workouts.

Garmin's Virtual Associate function was cool aspect of previous Forerunners and they've decided to keep a good thing going together with the 305. If you're the type this performs excellent when you've got a competitor egging you on, you'll love this function, as it lets you to set up virtual running or biking companions this compete against you.

If you're looking for an complicated workout together with a diversity of intervals and intensity levels, or just a fast three-mile jog against your excellent time last week, the 305 has you covered. Navigating to the Workouts menu on the device yields three options: Fast Workouts, Interval, and Complex Workout. A fast workout is just this; set the distance and time, distance and pace, or time and pace of your planned workout and off you go. Interval workouts are just the same, but they agree to you to add repetitions and rest between them. When you really would like to get fancy together with your exercise, you can step up to complex workouts, which contain goals for every workout step, as well as varied distances, times, and rest periods. You can use the Garmin Training Center software to set up these workouts and then upload them to the device.

Computer Connectivity and Software
Garmin has been outfitting their devices together with USB connectivity for some time now -- a welcome move for those who struggled together with serial port connections in the days of yore. Thanks to USB, the 305 integrates flawlessly together with the Training Center software and we shortly had workout history uploaded and stored on the computer. Not only does Training Center--which is compatible together with together PC and Mac--do it simple to track your performance, you can graph data such as heartrate alongside your speed and distance. Over time, this is a excellent way to view your fitness levels enhance, and it in addition helps you see what types of workouts are essential to strengthen your weaknesses. For instance, if you see your heartrate initiate to spike afterwards a certain distance, you recognize you want to enhance your endurance workouts to train this region of fitness.

In a first for the Forerunner series, the Training Center software in addition lets you define courses on your computer this you can upload to the device. When course information is combined together with uploaded workout information, the Forerunner becomes a complete guide, telling you where to go, when to do a turn, and what kind of workout to do when you're on the road or path. Back on the computer, the software's capability to overlay workout data on maps of the course makes it simple to see where the course proposes up the tough hills and the simple recovery spots. In addition, the capability to track historical performance on a given course is a excellent way to measure your innovation.

The 305 is in addition fully compatible together with Garmin's MotionBased service, which takes your training to another altitude by connecting your data together with the Internet. While we weren't effective to use the service, the promise of sharing courses, maps, workouts, and performance data together with other users is intriguing. And if you're a serious endurance athlete, you'll be glad to recognize this the 305 is in addition compatible together with TrainingPeaks.com, an simple-to-use web based training system intended to help athletes train for any event.

Pros

• Radically new design is better in each way
• Amazing accuracy and quick satellite acquisition time
• So neat to set up and use, you will actually use it

• Okay, it's bigger than a sport's watch -- but so much extra great

The Forerunner 305 features the great new SiRF GPS navigation chip for supreme accuracy, even under tree cover and between tall buildings. A coded chest strap heart-rate monitor prevents unwanted interference from other devices. View big.

The unit's GPS receiver is intended to face towards the sky when you're running.

A extra watch-like design makes it far easier to use and wear.

The 305's digitally coded heart-rate monitor--which is worn as a chest strap--sends heart-rate data to the device so you can see whether you're training too hard or not hard enough. Alerts for pace, distance, time, and heart rate are in addition available. In addition, the unit tracks speed, distance, pace, and calories burned. Meanwhile, a course aspect lets you race against previous runs in order to advance your time or just evaluate heart rate and pace data at each point of the way.

The 305's simple-to-read, 1.3-inch display has been included into a sleek and trendy shape factor this is definitely a step up from the big and extra cumbersome Forerunner 301 model. Indeed, the 305 looks and wears like a trendy sports watch, and it's extra carefully intended to meet the needs of athletes. The design in addition positions the antenna together with an best view of the sky. As an added aspect, the case is water resistant to IEC 60529 IPX7 standards (can be submerged in one meter of water for 30 minutes).

Accuracy is the name of the strategy together with the 305. The vastly extra accurate GPS antenna and receiver, which uses an complex SiRF chip, propose much faster satellite acquisition times. In addition, the unit can hold a fix in places never before possible. Gone are the days of losing a fix under tree cover or when running between tall buildings. All of these features add up to far extra accuracy in recording and tracking your exercise data. And for the reason that the 305 uses GPS to track how far and how quick you're going, you never have to calibrate it. The unit in addition doubles as a basic navigator. Mark your starting point as a specific setting, see your existing position on the plotter display, and follow an electronic breadcrumb trail back to your starting point.

The 305 features a USB data connection and docking cradle for downloading your speed, lap, exercise time, and heart-rate data into Garmin's Training Center PC software. The unit stores up to 1,000 lap histories, which you can download to your PC for a detailed post-workout analysis. In addition, you can make and schedule workouts utilizing the integrated software and download them to the unit. A rechargeable internal lithium-ion battery proposes up to ten hours of battery life.

For additional post-workout analysis, the 305 is compatible together with MotionBased software. MotionBased adds a new dimension to training and outdoor fitness this makes the analytical aspects of a sport extra compelling and a lot extra fun. You can upload data to MotionBased, a Web-based application this has partnered together with Garmin. MotionBased offers in-depth analysis of your workouts, as well as online mapping and route sharing this will get your training to the next altitude. MotionBased automatically calculates time, distance, speed, elevation, and heart rate, and it displays this information throughout meaningful charts, illustrations, reports, and maps. Together with MotionBased, you can in addition race multiple instances of the same route to see how you are improving or to race other members of MotionBased. You can "virtually race" someone you don't even recognize.

If you like the features of the Forerunner 305 but don't want heart-rate monitoring, be sure to check out the Forerunner 205.

What's in the Box
Forerunner 305 unit, digital coded heart rate monitor, Training Center CD-ROM, A/C charger, PC/USB interface cable, owner's manual, and fast-begin guide.