Which Watch?!

CharlieBook

i am looking for some advice. i currently dont have a watch and am considering what to buy for training and at events, which will help improve my pace and times - mainly for the run.

A colleague suggested getting a Garmin GPS watch (which are pretty expensive and not sure they are fully waterproof?!), but give you a step by step guide on how you are doing - mins per mile etc. and the data can be transferred onto your computer, which sounds pretty techy and cool.

However, i am wondering if just a normal sports watch will do the trick just as well, and plotting my routes and knowing where i should be at what time etc - and save me a hundred pounds or so...

any advice/suggestions would be very much appreciated

Bman

I love my Timex 50 lap "triathlon sleek" watch, solid performance, big face for glances at your time, scratch resistant glass (its taken many knocks) and I reckon the strap design is the shizzel. Big gaps in it to let some air get in, so no more sweaty watch strap marks. In the £50 price range for a basic all rounder watch with some decent lap memory, I would really recommend them.

Zacnici

A chap wot I know uses a £10 ebay one with an infrared bit for taking pulse, something like this one
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Pulse-Heart-Rate- ... 35a97dbfd1

I think the GPS ones are great for pacing and if you know how to download and interpret data but I agree with Bman a basic watch is good enough as the best indicator of performance is your body IMHO

Silverback

Heresy. Recommendations that don't cost at least three figures?!!! Hang your heads…

Gotta love the Suunto’s-they work bloody well and look soooo sexy…

PS is the forum now sponsored by Nuun Citrus Fruits?

shadowone1

Well I got a Garmin Forerunner 305 so that I can programme it with HR Zones and to allow me to pace myself better. In fact the thing has helped me brilliantly. however, its always good not to use it as well and to go by feel as I did at the Dambuster triathlon and manage to pace myself fairly well, espec on the run.

My only gripe is that its not waterproof but the 301xt is waterproof and has a much better battery life.

Last year I bougt a basic watch with stop watch and HR monitor and to be honest its shit and not worth it. I'll take my Garmin any day.

Trisurfer

Hello,
I'll jump in with my 2 pence worth!

I've got the 310xt
works very well with heart rate monitor and cadence sensor on bike.
it is water proof but the heart rate monitor doesn't wrk too well while swimming(open water, not tested in pool), plus you need to put it in your swim cap for gps to wrk while swimming.
The garmin connect web site stores all your work outs and plot routes out on google maps/earth.
it really is an awesome piece of kit.
shows other info on graphs and displays mile/km splits

At 300 squid your well on your way to a set of carbon rims though! justifications need to be made!

I used to use a timex ironman watch and took splits manually after plotting on mapmyrun. this worked fine, but way easier with the garmin!

good luck with what ever you decide to go for

P.S one thing though the 310 is massive!!

dhcm

For a cheap no frills option go for a Casio digital watch (the ones with the black resin straps that used to be around in the 1980s - they are still selling e.g. on Amazon etc). They cost about £6, are waterproof, have a stopwatch, and are very light. Wont do much, but what it does do it does fine. And it doesn't matter if you lose it.

largeade

My basic Polar RS100 works fine for timing/laps/heart rate (hr intermittent in the swim)

CharlieBook

Thanks everyone i have been doing some scouting on the internet and found a timex ironman (for girls), which i think may do the trick?! i am new to this triathlon malarkey and think this will be enough to what i am looking for... at least until i start getting really obsessed

thanks again

fred

I bought a Timex IM branded 50 lap one for 50 quid, and I'm very happy with it. I'm guessing it's the same watch inside as Bman's. After a not very detailed search, it was the cheapest one to have: stopwatch with laps, interval timer (for run intervals, pool repeats if there's no clock, etc), waterproof and also look nice enough to wear generally.

I didn't get a Garmin on the basis that my phone has GPS, but having said that it's such a faff digging it out and unlocking the screen when running that it isn't really practical for doing "2 minutes at 6:30" or whatever. Now that the guys I run with have Garmins I don't even bother at all with the phone, so, urm, I guess that's an indirect +1 for the Garmins too...