I have been running with a Polar RS 100 heart rate monitor for over three years now. It has been threatening to die for about a year. The screen would occasionally go blank, it would loose whole days, and sometimes it would say I was dead. I really did like it, but to fix it was going to be a minimum of $50. It retails for $100 new so I just couldn't see putting the money into it. Not to mention that I wanted a Garmin Forerunner 305.
All of the Forerunners have been extremely expensive since they came out, and by the time the model was old enough that I could afford one it would be outdated. The 305 has all of the features that the new 405 has without the glitchy bells and whistles. The 305 is well tested, and the best part is that I was able to find one for a third of retail. It is just a little clunky looking compared to the 405.
I spent several hours this past weekend reading the manual........ twice. I have a fair handle on it now. It has some functions that I probably won't use, but I may change my mind in the future. I mainly wanted it for the GPS function. It will help me keep my training log more complete with exact mileage and pace.
So far it does exactly what I want it to do, it is easy to use, and after a few minutes I forgot about wearing a VCR on my wrist. It really is big. As I get better at using it I will post a full review.
