gadget-tastic
Categories: uncategorized
Date: 21 January 2005 09:42:20
first 301 experience.
only using basic functionality for monitoring, no alerts, autolaps or navigation.
oh and in case you think i've lost it i've christened it theo (ok maybe you still think i've lost it).
theo took about 30seconds as i walked down the front path to find all his satellites (i'd already taken him outside at work during lunc time to make initial contact). i pressed the start button and headed off down the road. having checked the manual for how to turn the backlight on and off theo succesfully showed me a pace that looked about right (pace smoothing set to max by default) & heart rate (i had it set to show HR%max since the actual HR is always shown in the top right although that was a little too small to spot while running).
having made it to the gym i pressed the lap button and went inside to find the running group and we headed back out again. theo picked the satellites up very quickly on leaving, i set another lap and we set off at a gentle pace on the circular route. didnt pay a great deal of attention to theo, safe in the knowledge he was keepoing track of me.
back in the gym he gave me a weak gps signal warning but wasnt too stressed about it. i fixed theo onto the spin bike handlebars and did 25mins spin trying to stay in HR zone2. no problems there although i had to keep changing screens to check my lap-time, i havent set up my custom screens yet, or my 'other' sport setting so they should come in handy for making all the info i want available.
running back home again i confused theo by not waiting for him to lock on before i set off, hence it took a minute or so before he knew where he was.
back home i installed the training centre software and uploaded the data, giving me stats & map for the run & for each lap individually. was able to see a nice correlation between pace and heart rate where i stopped to cross the road and by dragging the dotted line across the plot told me the exact values at any point as well as highlighting the position of that point along the route.
sample plot (click for full size):
so far so good, an encouraging start.
forerunner 301 wish list:
- interval training by heart rate range/zone
- data export function in training centre
(track data for mapping sw, hr & pace data for own analysis)
- shorter backlight time
- average hr/pace lines on plot in training centre