My wonderful husband bought me a Garmin 405 for Christmas, and in addition to being completely surprised, I was thrilled, and couldn't wait to try it out! I've had a 305 for a long time now, and have put many miles on it.
The 305 is a fabulous GPS watch, and if Scott hadn't decided to splurge on me, I probably wouldn't have been upgrading anytime soon. My only real complaint with the 305 was how big and clunky it sometimes felt - but I had gotten used to that, so it wasn't even that much of an issue.
The 405 has a little bit of a learning curve to it - particularly getting used to the touch bezel, which is a little sensitive and temperamental at times - but now that I've been using it for a few weeks, I'm feeling more comfortable with it, and am mostly really happy with the upgrade. I've read some reviews that detail complaints with the bezel going haywire in wet/humid conditions, but I've yet to encounter anything like that, so I'll just have to wait and see if that's an issue (and hope that it's not).
The best feature, by far, is how simple it is to upload my workouts to my computer. I was able to upload them with the 305, but the Garmin software you had to use to view it once uploaded was horrendous, and mostly useless to me, so I never really bothered with it.
The 405 has a great wireless connection, and the data is uploaded pretty quickly into Garmin Connect and the Garmin Training Center software. I'm still figuring out what the differences are between the two, but so far, the Garmin Connect has been great for reviewing my runs, comparing them (love that feature!), and checking out elevations and different routes - good to be able to go back and see exactly what that awesome 8-mile route was (you'd think I'd remember, but sometimes the exact details get a little foggy).
The Garmin Training Center, as I learned earlier this week, is where you can input specific workouts, then send those workout specs to your Garmin, and simply call up the workout and press "start" when you're ready to go. This was EXACTLY what I needed for my track workout this week, which, once again would have to be done off the track.
It took a few minutes to enter the workout on my computer - 400, 800, 1200, 800, 400 (400 RI) x 3 - but once it was in there, I sent it to the Garmin, and presto - there it was, ready to go! And when I got to my recently discovered 'track substitute' neighborhood, I just pressed the button, started running, and waited for the beeps.
It was so, so nice to not have to think about how many repeats I had done - was it time for an 800, or a 400? When you're really pushing yourself like that, it's tough to keep track of what lap you're on. Honestly, I think even if I had been at the track, I might have programmed this one in, so that I wouldn't have to worry about tallying up the repeats in my head.
And can I add in here that this was a particularly INSANE track workout? When I first read it in my training plan, I thought it was a typo. That is by far the longest track workout I've ever done, and wow, did I feel it!
Some of the repeats flew by - 400s feel so easy after you've done several 800s and 1200s - but others seemed to take forever. I was really hitting my targets, though - the 400s were coming in around a 6:30 pace, and the 800s and 1200s were all in the range of 6:44 to 6:53. Talk about feeling accomplished!
I was thinking a lot about the marathon while I was circling around and around, but I was also thinking about the 5K I'm doing next weekend, and wondering just how much I can shave off my current PR of 21:57. It's going to be really fun to test out how much speed these 4 or 5 weeks of interval training has afforded me.
First up, though, is my first 20-miler tomorrow. Luckily, the weather is going to cooperate. It'll be chilly when I start - mid-30s - but right around 40 by the time I finish. I may even wear shorts and just put up with being a little cold at the beginning, because I know as I get through the first 5 or 10 miles, I'll be warmed right up.
I'm looking forward to getting this done. I know I still have two more to go after this, but getting that first one out of the way will feel good. Hopefully actually running it will feel good, too - well, as good as running 20 miles can feel, anyway.
you can create your workouts on Garmin Connect now, too. I don't even use Garmin Training Center anymore. I love the workout feature too. Someday, my workouts will get complicated enough for me to want to use them again :-)
That workout was a killa too! Nice work!!
Posted by: Wes | January 27, 2012 at 02:05 PM