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[RC] Forerunner 301 Review - AprilThis review can also be read online with some accompanying photos at http://tinyurl.com/55g5c Well, I have had my Garmin Forerunner 301 for several weeks now. I've really, really been enjoying it. Recent software upgrades provided by Garmin have been excellent and I'm quite glad I got the unit. It comes with a human chest belt that Roger Rittenhouse's conversion kit works most excellently on. I haven't had much trouble with the heart rate data. Right now with winter hair still a factor, I wet down the electrode area really well and also use electrode gel. There are a lot of good things to say about this unit. I'll try to hit the highlights. Integrated Heart Rate Data - The 301, of course, shows you distance, speed, average speed and all the other good things you want to know when riding your horse. But one of the big upgrades from the 201 is that now you can see the heart rate data, too. No more separate heart rate watch. And the unit stores heart rate data right along with position data so when you download the information to your computer, you can see how speed, elevation, and time out affected your horse's heart rate. Heart Rate and Speed Zones - In the companion PC software, the Garmin Training Center, you can specify custom heart rate zones and speed "zones" which are really just ranges of values. There are 5 heart rate zones. I have specified mine somewhat like: Zone 1: 60-95 Zone 2: 95-125 Zone 3: 125-155 Zone 4: 155-185 Zone 5: 185-225 These zones correspond to my horse's general ranges for low stress work walking or light trotting (Zone 1) to galloping full speed up the steepest hill I can find (Zone 5). There are 10 speed zones that the ranges can be set and the zones can have custom names. I won't list all of mine, but a few of them are Walk (2.5-4 mph), Trot (5.75-7.5 mph), and Canter (12-13 mph). I have 4 different "Trot" zones, 3 "Canter" zones, 2 "Gallop" zones, and the Walk zone. These correspond generally to my horse's gaits. Multiple Sport - The 301 supports different settings for different activities. There is the Running, Cycling, and Other sports and each sport can have its own custom heart rate and speed zones. All of my customization has been done using the "Other" sport, but if you are a biker or a walker/runner, too, you might want to use the unit for you as well as your horse! A second chest strap (because you can't really use the one you alter for your horse) can be had for $80-$110. Advanced Workouts - This is a huge upgrade from the 201 and aside from the integrated heart rate data, this has got to be my favorite feature. I can create any number of custom workouts designed to get the best out of my horse. The workouts are a series of "steps" that I create in the Training Center or right from the watch unit. Each step can be based on time, distance, or heart rate. Here is a sample workout: Step 1: Walk (this is from my speed zones that I set up, or I could choose a custom speed) for 10 minutes. Step 2: Trot (another speed zone) for 2 miles. Step 3: Repeat the following steps 4 times: Step 3a: Canter for 5 minutes. Step 3b: Walk until heart rate is below 80 bpm. Step 4: Gallop until heart rate is above 200 bpm. Step 5: Walk for 5 minutes. Step 6: Keep heart rate in zone 3 for 10 minutes. Step 7: Walk for 10 minutes. This isn't an actual workout, just an example showing the different types of steps I can use. When I get ready to ride my horse, I set the 301 out to get satellites while I saddle up. Then I navigate through the menu system to choose my advanced workout and tell the unit to "Do workout". The unit informs me to press the big red start button when I'm ready to start. So I mount up and press the start button. Immediately, I am told "Walk 10 min" (which is the custom name I've given this step). So I nudge Tanna's sides and we walk for 10 minutes. At 9 minutes 55 seconds, the unit begans to beep at me to warn of a new step coming up. At 10 minutes, it chimes, I glance at the watch and it shows "Trot 2 miles". If I ignore this and continue walking, within a few seconds the unit beeps a reprimand and shows "Speed Up!" on the screen. So I ask for a trot. If I'm going faster than I've specified, the unit will beep again and show "Slow Down!". Near the end of the 2 miles, the unit will again begin beeping to warn of a new step and tell me what to do. It continues this pattern until the end of the workout and then stops. During the entire ride, I am provided with data such as current speed, overall average speed, average speed for this lap (or step), current heart rate, current heart rate zone, time (or distance) left in this step, current instructions, instructions for the next step, summary data for the last step, and several other choices that I can set up on a "Custom page". All of this data is not shown on the same page, of course, but it is all available with a few pushes of the button, or if you are in regular mode, the unit will cycle through the pages for you. Scheduled Workouts - This is a nice feature. When you create custom workouts, you can assign the workouts to be done on a particular day. This is done in the Training Center software. You just drag the name of the workout to the day on the calendar. Then you can "send workouts" to your 301 and it will keep track of which workout to do on what day. So when you go out to ride, you just go to Advanced Workouts then Today's Workouts and choose it. Any workout that is scheduled for any day is available in the 301 to be done anytime. And the unit can hold 25 additional workouts that are not scheduled for any day. Training Center software - The software that ships with the 301 is pretty cool. I have heard that it is nothing compared to some of the Polar software, but not knowing anything else, I'm quite happy with the software so far. For each ride that I do with the 301, the Training Center keeps track of time, overall speed, total distance and average heart rate for each ride overall and for each individual lap (or workout step). A new feature that has just been added also calculates total time and total distance spent in each heart rate zone and each speed zone for every ride and every individual lap (or workout step). There is also a graph where you can see 2 of each of the following on the same graph: Heart Rate (bpm), Heart Rate (% of max), Speed, Elevation, or Pace. The x axis is Distance or Time. The graph is good for an entire ride, or again, just a lap (or workout step). There is an area to write notes about each ride or lap. Your ride is also graphed on Mapsource maps. It comes with a very crude basemap, but if you own better Mapsource maps, you can see your ride on very good maps. Enhanced Trackpoint Management - Trackpoints are the data that the 301 records to allow software to do calculations and graphs. This is the data that is downloaded to the PC. For the 301, the current run (or ride) can hold 5000 trackpoints. With the 201, you had to be sure and download the information to your PC after every single run/ride or you would lose data. Not so with the 301 now. The 301 will hold complete trackpoint data for as many runs as it takes for you to fill up 20,000 trackpoints. This is in addition to the 5,000 trackpoints available for the current run. This is very nice and in practical terms means you can do several training rides before having to download your data to the PC to avoid losing it. Conclusion - All in all, I am thrilled with the Forerunner 301. I paid $278 for the entire setup. $225 for the Forerunner 301 from tvnav.com and $53 for the heart rate transmitter conversion kit from Roger Rittenhouse at vmaxept.com. For contrast, before I had the Forerunner 201 (paid $117 shipped from Amazon.com) and a VMAX Enduro-C that I paid $160 for. So the price of the 301 was only $1 more than the cost of my separate GPS and HRM and the benefits of the 301 far outweigh the functionality provided by the separate units. I highly recommend this setup and I will be happy to provide any help online or offline. April Nashville, TN Email: endurancerider _at_ gmail _dot_ com Replace _at_ with @ and _dot_ with . and remove the spaces to create a working email address. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. 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