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| Brand: Garmin
Category: CE
Buy New: £135.99
New (12) Used (2) Refurbished (1) from £129.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  32 reviews
Sales Rank: 183
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Fragile: No
Number Of Items: 1
Batteries Included: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0
Dimensions (in): 0 x 0 x 0
MPN: Forerunner 305 (With
Model: Forerunner 305 (With
UPC: 753759051945
EAN: 0753759051952
ASIN: B000FMQ296
Release Date: May 5, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: UK Spec, Brand New!
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| Customer Reviews:
 Seriously good gadget for serious athletes April 21, 2008
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
OK, first looks - you are thinking to yourself "But what if someone tries to land a helicopter on it's enormous surface while I am out running?!"
Well, don't worry about it. Yes it looks bulky but when you are out running you never notice the size and it's easy to appreciate the highly configurable and easy to read display. This device is all about options. I choose to run with the four following items all simultaneously displayed:
Heart Rate, Elapsed running time, Average pace in km/h and Total Distance
I can of course choose to see other bits of information and have the screens changing at intervals I determine but part of the joy of running is getting away from it all and looking where you are going! The device just works, capturing all that lovely information about your heart, what kinds of slopes you are running on, how far you are travelling.
I once got lost in some big woods near where I live, then I simply turned the watch into navigation mode and was able to trace my way back through the forest to where I started from - absolutely brilliant gadget.
The real fun with the Forerunner comes when you get to analyze the data. The software provided with the watch is very basic. Most people I know download the excellent Sport Tracks software which is freeware from Zone 5 Software. To use this software you also need to have installed on your Windows PC a version of .NET from Microsoft (this is just some extra software for the Operating System to allow programs written in a certain way to run - again, it's a free download from Microsoft).
Now you can amaze your friends and family about how far you run, how fast you go, how big the hills are you are running up, amaze them with how many calories you've burnt off. All in lovely printed graphical format. But whatever you do, don't wear your watch out when you go down to the pub - for one, the battery (rechargeable from your PC) only lasts for 10 hours, but you might just have someone trying to land a helicopter on it!! This watch is cool for running, but nothing else.
These sorts of gadgets used to sell in Europe for about 400 but now that Garmin have brought out a new model with a fancy iPod wannabee interface (who cares - I never really touch the thing when I am out running, apart from the start/stop button), the price has dropped dramatically. For those of you like me who live in mainland Europe, the power supply has got switchable components so you can use the plug in different sockets. These days, I consider it to be essential training eqpt and I never run or cycle without it.
What an amazing piece of kit! April 10, 2008
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
I have had my 305 for 2 weeks and what can I write that hasn't already been written? It is my first GPS, and the only one I have tried, but it has already changed the way I plan my training, and how I plan to run races.
I received it for my Birthday two days before a 10k race, and was desperate to try it out on the day. I thought that I would need to train with it first, but the 305 was so easy to set up that I just went for it. I easily configured it up to 'autolap' at every Kilometer, I knew the race I was running wouldn't have markers, and I already had a pace in my mind. It beeped at every k, and I was able to see exactly how I was doing, and how I would most likely finish - just the motivation I needed to up my game for the second half!
Plug it in to your PC/Mac when you get home, and make sure you have the latest Garmin Training Centre software downloaded from their site (the version I got in the box had quite a few bugs). There is also other great free software available to overlay the route you took onto Google maps, so you can marvel at the distance you travelled, at what point you were fastest/slowest, was it on the hill, or on the flat. Basically every single fact about your run is recorded on the 305. The accuracy was just about spot on.
It has really inspired me to vary my training, and push myself harder. The heart rate monitor is also proving to be a useful tool, and the pre-set advanced workouts are great fun (sometimes painful)to try.
I am always showing off to my running mates when I work out something else it can do or tell me, (which is probably a bit annoying) because there is so many different features for use in training and racing. Basically, I can't recommend this highly enough.
awesome device April 10, 2008
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
I use this device for all my runs. It finds the satellites very quickly and never loses reception.
The description of the item on Amazon says that it is not MAC compatible, which is not true. You can download the Training Center software for MAC - their latest release is currently March 2008. I also have Training Center on my PC and I can't really tell the difference between the two!
The Garmin is fully compatible with my MAC and I've never had a problem with it!
The training center software is great - you can create your own workouts and load them onto your Garmin. You can specify goals, e.g. run 2km and keep heartrate in Zone 2. When that stage of the workout is finished, the device beeps and you go on to the next stage of your workout (whatever you specified after that).
The Garmin measures everything I can imagine being measured during a run - even elevation, which is quite interesting when you do hill training.
This device really keeps you motivated - you can load up your own training schedules and keep a history of all your runs! I can really recommend it!!
Oh, and your run is mapped against a map in the training center software, so you know where you have been running.... you can even take one of your old routes and then run against yourself... so much fun!!
Higher level of training April 4, 2008
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
I've only just started using my forerunner, and am already finding it to be brilliant! im just learning how to create workouts, and can't wait to get pushed by the watch! It helps you reach your training goals at a pace that suits you! altogether it's like a higher level/standard of training!
 Great Gadget March 31, 2008
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is a good gadget, one that is getting plenty of use. It has certainly made me change the way I run and encouraged me to find out more about different methods of training. The first time I used it I set it to alert me whenever I dropped below a certain pace and I ran my best time for that course. The heart monitor works well but I recommend that you set your own heart rate zones as they were too low initially. There are plenty of links on Runners World to help you do this. I used the formula 214-(0.8*age) to get my estimated maximum heart rate which seems to work well enough for me. Working out the zones was not immediately obvious so take bit of time to understand how they are calculated. You have to apply the percentages to the Working Heart Rate then make sure you add your resting heart rate otherwise you find your zones are much too low.
The Training Center software is reasonable for looking at the recorded data on your PC. The map is only useful to identify whereabouts you were, e.g. I can see that my maximum heart rate was near the top of a hill that I decided to run up quickly. The map is just a dotted line and the elevation is not all that accurate. From Training Center you can also view the route in Google Earth.
I also load the data into MapMyRun which gives a proper map with satellite pictures (similar to Google Earth but without the fancy stuff like 3D) which makes it easy to see off road routes. It also shows the elevation profile which seems a lot more accurate. The best feature of MapMyRun is for inputting new courses you are considering. It makes it easy to design a route that will be the distance you require. You can load these back into your Garmin and use them as routes. I am not sure how practical it is to switch between the normal data screen and the navigation screen while you are running. Probably too difficult. I have used it for navigating for a fell walk which worked well and it alerted me when I went off course. It can show you an elevation profile but I forgot how to find that mode while on this walk. I would be nice to be able to show the direction you should be taking as one of the 4 data fields while you are running. I got lost when trying a new course through areas I didn't know and being able to navigate and monitor pace, heart rate and time at the same time without having to change modes would be a great feature.
This is my first GPS sports watch so I don't know how it compares to others. I like it a lot but also see that it will probably seem very dated in 5 years time. To be honest if I use this for two years without problems it will have been well worth the money.
[Addendum]
I've been using this for three months now. I've found that my maximum heart rate is well above that suggested by the age formula. I wasn't aware of the power of Sport Tracks software when I first tried it. There is a lot more to it than meets the eye on first look. Having used MapMyRun and Training Centre I was wishing for software which combined the mapping features of the former with the statistical features of the latter. I have found that Sport Tracks does all this and more and it is a free download. My final wish was accuracy of elevation from maps instead of the inaccurate elevation data from GPS. My latest discovery is that there is a plug-in for Sport Tracks that does this too. There are numerous other plug-ins that expand the functionality too. All this can be accessed from within the "online" view in Sport Tracks. Now I only use MapMyRun for planning new routes and I hardly use Training Centre.
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