1. Garmin Forerunner 305 - very cool; awesome data analysis possible. A bit ungainly to wear, but what the heck, its for your exercise. The disadvantage was that because it uses GPS to measure distance and speed, indoor use (especially, at my gym) was not possible - I could still use it to measure my heart rate and calories burnt though. Another problem I foresaw was servicing - the battery had to be replaced by a certified Garmin Centre. And, the dealer in Mumbai, Aerial Services (located enroute to terminal 1A in the domestic airport - in the car park of the restaurant) was quite uninspiring. He seemed to know very little about the product - and infact, he did not seem very keen on the sale itself. He quoted a rate of around Rs. 17000 (before tax).
2. Polar s625x - has the standard heart rate monitor. Distance and speed measured through pod technology (unlike Garmin which is GPS). I contacted Chintu at Kushi Exports - located in Lokhandwala. He was extremely helpful and quite knowledgeable about the product. The Polar did seem really good - and its reviews across the board were quite positive. However, again, the battery had to be replaced only by the company. This to me, just meant increased hassles.
3. Suunto t3c Running Pack - I finally decided to go in with the Suunto t3c running pack. It comprised of a watch, a heart rate monitor belt and a footpod. I also purchased a PC pod so that my training data could be downloaded on to my laptop for further analysis. Kushi Exports are the sole distributors for Suunto products in India.
The Suunto t3c has some disadvantages - chiefly, these are it the watch can get scrathes quite easily, and the manual is quite poor. The advantage however is that it is quite feature rich, batteries can be replaced by users, and you can build it with components. For instance, if you need to measure your performance with GPS, you need to just go and buy the GPS pod. Yes - I needed to be careful about the scratches.
What do you get out of this heart rate monitor watch and foot pod?
1. Pretty accurate (98% +) measurement of speed and distance.
2. You can either do an auto-lap or manual - lap of your runs.
3. Calories burnt, average heart rate, max heart rate, and time spent in the three heart rate zones
3. max speed, average speed
4. Training Efficiency - an index of how strenuous your run was
5. A provision to store upto 15 logs - that is, upto 15 days of data can be stored in the watch.
6. Monthly and weekly totals of all the above parameters
...and, the best part is that all of the above data can be wirelessly synced into my laptop using the PC Pod (has to be bought separately). This data can then be analysed using the Suunto Training Manager Lite software. The software, to be honest, is average. But, hey, the good bits is that you can keep syncing and filing your training outputs here - and maybe, I am going to be amazed end of year on the progress!
All in all, seemed to be a very worthwhile purchase. Justified the purchase as being equivalent to my yearly cigarette bill.
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