Hi all, I have had a Polar HRM (610) for ~5 years and it finally died on me - a few weeks before the 6FT. It was a great unit. I am looking at upgrading to a Garmin (405) to take advantage of the ability to measure distance, etc. (I would say speed ... but speed and my running don't seem to have much in common!)

My problem is that I have ~5 years of running history on the Polar supplied software ... and I regularly use this as my running log. (I back this up by keeping it on both my home and work PC.)

Hence my questions - Is there any good software for keeping a running log from which I can upload both from the old Polar data and also take data from the Garmin. [I did a quick google and found one called "runners studio" (http://www.runnersstudio.com/index.html) which would upload the Garmin.

Thanks, David

David,

I can't answer your question sorry, but instead had a follow up question to you. You have been a Polar user, why are you moving away from Polar? Were you not happy with it?

The reason for my question is that we sell Polar and I have found the RS800 to be the best unit I have ever used for running. I understand that people like garmin as they are small GPS unit, but interested in your reason for change.

Thanks

Ben

Hi Ben - thanks for the reply. I had really liked my Polar and the software that comes with Polar to log and review my running history. Compared to friends who have a Garmin, I liked the speed and distance features of the Garmin; but disliked (i) the limited recording time (eg, under 12 hours ... meaning the unit doesn't last for a rogain, trailwalker or extended events); and (ii) the bulkier size of the Garmin.

When I sent my Polar in for a service, I was advised that it was effectively uneconomic to repair the watch ... so I bought a 625x from the distributor (which I used yesterday).

My problems with the unit were (i) the bulkier size of the unit. (ii) The watch is calling to use the measuring distance as well as heart rate features. Put simply, I don't trust the foot pod system (in part as a significant part of my runs can be off road). They claim to have an accuracy of 90-95% ... which means an error of 5-10% ... which is about the same error rate as my simple guess work.

I hadn't looked at the RS800 ... but I will have a quick look at this also.

Cheers, David

Thanks for your response David,

I had the S625x too many years ago. A bulky unit yes. The RS800 is definitely much slimmer and the foot pod is tiny. The foot pod is about 96% accurate out of the box and more accurate with calibration. So accuracy between a foot pod and GPS are similar. The foot pods are not pedometers, they have an internal accelerometer and can thus be quite accurate.

When comparing the GPS and foot pod, both have pros and cons with accuracy. Different people prefer different options.

In regards to the software for Polar & Garmin, there is third party training applications available but I haven't used them. I am sure others will be able to provide more details. The only concern would be you have to pay for them and they probably don't have a lot of the features of the software you are used to.

Good luck

Ben