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One device for all occasions?

threekneesthreeknees Posts: 19
in General Chat
Hi all,



Am dipping my toes into the murky waters of triathlons and am wondering whether people use a heart rate monitor strapped to the bike or whether they have a separate cycling computer and wristwatch heart rate monitor? Am keen to keep within my target training zone (when I discover what THAT is) and am also keen to know distance traveled on the bike and average speed etc...



So what do you lot reckon..is there one device that suits all three disciplines or am I better buying two that share a compatible chest strap?



Cheers



F

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    BritspinBritspin Posts: 1,655
    Whaat? Call yourself a triathlete? It is perfectly clear..as many gadgets as you fit on you, your kit, anything really, so thats a run HRM, with a separate bike HRM..if you are lucky they will share a chest strap beacause one of them will always be broken/flat battery etc, you could get by with a shared run/swim HRM..no need to wash the smelly strap then.

    Then we get into GPS..systems...here we go again.

    Joking apart..if you are not sure of your investment in this sport, get a basic HRM & a basic bike computer, they will tell you as much as you want to know for now..now how basic your HRM is depends on what you want to know..write a list & check it against the feature lists for your chosen make, match it up & see if you want to spend that much. Good luck & welcome aboard.

    As for training zones, most HRMs will have chart included but beware of 220-age, testing is much more (painful) accurate.
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    jon_gjon_g Posts: 318
    i asked a similar question a while ago and someone pointed me at this website



    http://www.heartratemonitor.co.uk



    have a look, it's got a section where you tell it what features you want on your HRM and shows you which models have it. really good site
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    BoycieBoycie Posts: 189
    Best solution here I think is to buy a heart rate monitor that fits your needs, i.e. whatever functions you feel you need for training. Anything from the cheapest up to the most expensive may be what you need. You can leave this on throughout the swim, bike and run. Then buy a computer for your bike. If you're interested in distance and ave speed then a basic one will sufice (mine cost about £35).

    There is the option of going down the GPS route but that becomes expensive, and not owning one myself will leave to someone else to advise you on.



    David.
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    learnerlearner Posts: 100
    all good advice, however I used to use a heart rate monitor and a bike computer with cadance etc, then transfer the data into a note book (if i remembered) and tried to work out how i was improving, then took up running and omly used the hrm but got frustrated with not knowing distances, in the end i bit the bullet and got a garmin forerunner 301, that was back in 2004 and i haven't looked back since. it has all the basic features, no cadence, and downloads onto your pc. draws cool graphs and if you link it to "sporttracks" downloadable from tinternet it even plots your route onto google earth. As far as i can see that's a great gadget and you get to nerd around on the computer.

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