I think I need a Garmin 310XT - have a couple questions???
Now that I am going to train with power on the bike, I think I need to retire my polar 625 (it's due for servicing anyway this year which will probably mean about $75 - it always does) and get a garmin 310xt. A couple of questions. I'm not sure which heart rate strap it comes with - but which one to people like? I know once polar went to the soft strap, I never liked the old style. I've heard that the screen is delicate. Is it a problem? One thing that I really like about the polar is that I can see my heart rate during the swim. I'm not a very good swimmer, and I find it very useful in races to be able to gauge my effort by HR. I know garmin says that you can't get HR in the water, but is that really true? I don't know why it should work fine with my polar, but not a garmin. I guess I could wear both during the swim if I think I really need it and take off the second HR strap and watch in T1. Thanks
Comments
I like my 310xt a lot and I would recommend it to someone that wants to keep an eye on power, pace and elapsed time on a long course tri.
The strap that comes with the 310xt is very nice. It is cloth. It has snaps. I like it -- when I use it.
I haven't used it in the water. I love the lap function so much on my good, old Timex Ironman Triathlon HR monitor, that I keep using that one. That heart rate monitor, btw, works perfectly in water.
I haven't scratched the 310xt yet. Taking a tip from Nemo, I bought it at REI, so when it breaks, they will replace it.
Call me a cynic, but with all the challenges that Garmin had working with WKO 3.0 when it first came out - and the fact that Timex & WKO have never worked together- well, ANT compatible or not, I'm gonna bet there will be lots of "early adopter" problems as folks try to get the two tools to work together. So the Timex comes out May- just when your season is really starting- is that when you want to be fussing around with getting it to play nice with WKO? If your going to wait for the Timex- wait until next season.
The Garmin strap is very nice- actually a little nicer than the Polar's strap. But, they are correct, it doesn't pic up the HRM signal very well in the water.
The garmin does not do HR under water. Strap is soft and I like it as much as that new polar one. IIRC it is an ant plus thing. You should not be looking at your wrist when swimming anyhow. I have had very few issues with my 310 [had to do a hard reset twice] but other than that it has worked great. It is a nice upgrade over the 205 I had. I have read a couple accounts of people breaking them but do nto really see how.
Polar seems to be far and away the best at the HR game. Garmin is far and away the leader when it comes to GPS. While I love timex watches and am currently wearing a timex hrm it is not even close to the Polar I used to train with. The only thing timex has going for it is that my wife finds it acceptable for me to wear in public, the polar, no so much. I hope that the new timex gps thing is awesome and I will likely have one but am not convinced that they can leap frog all the other companies in one step. Right now timex is selling this watch I have on with a separate [huge] gps pod and another data recording pod none of which plays nice with wko plus. Time will tell.
Just say no to the current Timex gps pod. If you don't want to say no, I will send you my betrayal unit so you can witness the flaky betrayal without spending dollars.
Nemo is right about the size of the 310xt. It is quite a bit lighter than it looks. And it is the only sports watch I've had where I did have to punch extra holes into the band.
thanks for the feedback. I guess I'll go ahead and order one. I'm tempted to get one from WB (I can get if for less from them), but maybe I should go ahead and get it at REI - I know they have great customer service, and I'll get 10% back at the end of the year. I know I'm not supposed to look at my watch during the swim, but I do. I tend to get really winded sometimes during the swim, and seeing HR helps me figure out if I'm going too hard, or just nervous, or in the worst case having an afib episode. It'll only take me a couple of seconds to get the extra watch and HR strap off after the swim - I don't think that the extra strap will be much of an issue under a wtsuit - as long as two devices don't interfere with each other.
Bob, I can't comment on the afib episode, but I used to feel the same way when I raced with a Polar S-150. Liked being able to see my HR when I stopped for a couple of seconds. I hemmed and hawed over going with a Garmin 305 because I really didn't like that you couldn't get HR while in the water. Finally went with it, and have never regretted it.
The big key for me was that I realized that every time I looked at my pulse while swimming, it was sky high. So, I had to ask "is the # there a comfort binky, or is it actually giving me info that I'm reacting to". For me, the conclusion was that it was a binky, so I let it go. If you've found that you get valuable info from HR during the swim, then 2 straps might be a solution, or switching over from one to the other.
Or, you could wear the Polar for the entire race, to get total time, use a LYC for the bike, and use a garmin 305 (much cheaper) only for the run. That way, you'd have everything you wanted, and have spent a lot less money. Just a thought.
Mike
Matt - not a bad idea really. As you suggest, I could just use the polar for the whole race. I have a garmin 500 (just couldn't wait any longer for the Joule), not a lyc, so I'd still get some of the extra information. I just wouldn't have heart rate on the bike unless I looked at my watch. That's probably OK since I'm worried about power numbers anyway. I have the polar footpod for pace, so I don't really need anything else for the run. The only think I wouldn't have is power and heart rate in the same data file. Since I haven't had power before, or really used WKO+, I don't know if that would make it difficult for me to analyze my data. I'll wait and see - my Polar is due for servicing this season, and that always seems to cost me a bundle.
Bob,
I've used WKO for a season now, feel very comfortable with it, and I've yet to really find HR all that useful. Checking it in real time, yes, useful. But I haven't gone back to a bike file where I had power and said "let me see what was going on with my HR there", or used some of the trending charts for HR changes. Of course, with the Polar, you could always download it anyways, just have to figure out where it lines up by time. Not sure if you can link up the data from that with the power file (beyond my WKO-fu).
If the Polar has been working well for you, I'd say give it a shot. I always loved using my Polar, but it wasn't foot-pod compatible, so I had to upgrade to something, and ended up with the 305. If you're still liking the 625, then there's really no harm in trying it out. You could always make the switch later on.
Mike
I also own a 310XT which I use as a head unit for my PM, a Quarq Cinqo. I use it with the quick release system and mount it on my stem as my primary bike computer. Overall I've been pretty pleased with it, although it did completely die on me after about 2 months of use but Garmin did replace the unit free of cost.
All of that being said, it still has some shortcomings as a head unit until Garmin gets a few more kinks worked out, notably the lack of 3s, 5s, or 30s power windows that are available on most comparable devices. Beyond that, I usually defer to this excellent review:
http://dcrainmaker.blogspot.com/2009/09/garmin-forerunner-310xt-in-depth-review.html
Moral of the story: If you ever remove the strap make sure the pin is correctly seated when you put it back on.
Nice resource! I haven't had the time to read through it all, but it looks pretty thorough!
One more good read for those considering a 310XT is the write up our own Craig Harris did here: http://sites.google.com/site/garminpower/
When the 310XT and WKO 3.0 first came out there were lots of bugs the early adopters had to sort through and Craig's write up does a good job of sorting through some of the myths that were created as a result.
Cary, I've actually heard a few reports of the pins popping out of the wrist band as you've described. I think it's technically a minor defect that the pins are not quite as long and therefore as secure as they should be. If you write Garmin, they will send you longer pins to make this less likely to occur. Or of course as you said, the pin may not have been seated correctly.
During my run session today I was thinking of replacing the orange strap with a velcro one - thinking that during a race it may be easier to fasten up in T2, could leave a loop just big enough to slip over the hand and then tighten later on. The original strap is a bit fiddly, or is it me?
My issue with my 310XT which I need to sort out is that I have to manually change the speed zones on the watch even though a workout has transferred OK from the PC, i.e. the custom workout is there but the zones are completely different numbers.
Also, even when I've manually changed the zones on the watch, when I start training the zone alarm keeps telling me to slow-down even tho' I'm spot-on in zone - its a though the watch is pre-programmed and auto-resets itself to these pre-prog'd zones.
I could be missing something - anyone had similar issues?
Dave
Have the same issue myself, I reported this bug to Garmin months ago but it's yet to be fixed. Their 'workaround' is to create the workout on the watch completely, which isn't bad if you don't mind the million button clicks it takes.
Dave,
Why wouldn't you wear it for the whole race? it's waterproof and has a long battery life.
I haven't rehearsed/tried any of this however...
Hi Jorge - even when I do the 'workaround' you mention the zone alarm is still not correct, I've just turned off the audio alarm but still a pain considering the price of the 310!
Anyone have any experience with using other ANT + accessories with garmin? I honestly don't know enough about how the technology works to figure it out without purchasing and trying it. (trying to avoid that obviously, rather ask the wicked smart peeps here!) For example I already have a HR strap that I love and would try to avoid buying another garmin one when purchasing the garmin.
If you have a Garmin HR strap already, it will work with the 310xt. as will a Garmin FootPod and Speed Cadence Sensor.
If your existing HR strap is Ant+ it will work with the 310XT, regardless of whether it was made by Garmin. I was having problems with my 310 once and de-paired my HR strap, when I scanned to pair it again it paired with my buddy's Cyclops Ant+ HR strap and I had to leave the room and re-pair again, but moral of the story is it will work. The 310XT also supports ANT+ Speed/Cadence sensors regardless of manufacturer and footpods for running cadence and indoor pace.
A cautionary side note though, I'd be tempted to say that any ANT+ device should support all ANT+ accessories, but this is not the case with some of Garmin's other devices like the 405. It is ANT+ but does nut support the ANT+ power profile so it can't be used with power meters.