I just got myself a Garmin Forerunner 50 kit from sulit.com.ph for 8,500PHP (177USD). The kit includes the following:
- Garmin Forerunner 50 watch
- ANT stick
- Foot pod
- Heart Rate Monitor (chest band)
- and Manual.
Garmin ForeRunner 50 box |
Garmin ForeRunner 50 package |
One thing to note is that you need to download the ANT Agent and Training Center from the Garmin site, since the package doesn’t include an installer/driver for the ANT stick. Though my ANT stick was able to find drivers via Windows Update.
I’ve originally wanted to buy the Nike+ sportband or the ipod sport kit which had a pedometer which can be synced with either your ipod nano or the Nike+ sportband. The sportband will set you back around 3,300PHP (68USD) which is a lot cheaper than the Forerunner 50. But after a week or so of reading I found out that the pedometer on the Nike+ sportband and ipod sports kit has only a battery life of 1 year, after that you’ll need to replace it since the batteries aren’t replaceable. This was a big deal breaker for me so I decided to look for alternatives, which eventually led me to the Garmin Forerunner 50.
Based on the reviews I’ve viewed and read, the Garmin Foot pod is much more accurate than your run of the mill pedometer. The Heart Rate Monitor also provides reliable data which is a great tool for gauging your workout intensity. But what really closed the deal for me was the price I got it for, yeah it’s 5,000PHP (100USD) more expensive but you get a watch, a reliable foot pod and hear rate monitor which you can sync wirelessly to your computer!
After playing around with it this afternoon: I found the device easy to understand, the Heart Rate Monitor is pretty accurate, and the footpod was accurate up to 1-2 meters without calibration. I’ll try to calibrate the footpod over the weekend to get more accurate data. Never the less it worked great right out of the box.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
hi. i also have the same garmin as you have but im so confused about how to auto calibrate this thing. when i ran the track (400m) and the watch says .74. what does this mean? do i adjust it .40? i did this a couple of times, however after running and i check it again says .74. sometimes the distance shown is quite off too, like 12k when i joined a 10k event. please help. thanks
well first off make sure you have your unit measurement to Kilometer. You can set it to either Mile (mi) or Kilometer (km). When you calibrate the watch, say 400m, you run the said distance then set it to that.
I didn’t calibrate mine since I haven’t ran in a track my whole life
but the watch is fairly accurate as it is at around a couple of meters.
An alternative way to heck for accuracy is to use google earth and trace the distance of your route then compare it with your garmin results. That’s what I did.
With races I find that my garmin is also about a Kilometer off, but when I check the route on google earth it actually is the same, meaning a typical 10km race isn’t really 10km exactly… Though I could be wrong, I’m just basing my finding on google earth and the foot pod.
thanks for the quick reply and happy running!
cheers! see you at the races!