Thursday, December 25, 2008

Garmin Forerunner 405 Review

Robert got me the Garmin Forerunner 405 running watch/GPS system that provides the ULTIMATE in logging, tracking, charting. This thing has more bells and whistles than I've had a chance to uncover.

Check out the stats from the family walk: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/1603266.

It took some time to get it up and running since the first thing I managed to do was to change the language setting to some kind of Slavic dialect which made it pretty challenging to follow the English directions to change it back! But now it's very cool. I'm using the most basic functions initially. I just press "training" then "start" and eventually "stop". When I get back to the computer, the watch communicates to the computer via a wireless USB stick. The info is downloaded to the resident application or you can chose to upload it to Garmin's site and make it public.

Things work in the other direction, too. I can program in a specific running workout on the computer, upload it to the watch, and go from there.

Now if I could just program it to deliver a small electric shock when I am about to reach for one of the many, MANY holiday distractions like cookies, cakes, muffins, cheesy things, fatty thing, alcoholic things, etc. Next week, back to logging food on Spark People. I'm ready for some needed discipline in the food department.