Looking after your Heart Rate Monitor Top Ten

TOP TEN TIPS

To preserve the life span and get the best use out of your Heart Rate Monitor (HRM)

Garmin Edge 800

One of the most common questions we get asked around here is “when is Garmin bringing out something new”.

Especially from cyclists who are always keen on new tech..

Well Finally I can give you the answer of late October, (well at least before Christmas 2010)

Garmin are bringing out the upgrade to the Edge 705 – with the Edge 800.

I am not going to provide a full review for the following reasons,

1) We haven’t got our hands on it just yet.
2) After DC rainmaker has done a review there is not much more I can add.

Swimovate pool mate

Can you relate to this.
You have your swimming training programme.
You do your warm up, a few drill, then Its time for the 10 x 100 on 2 mins.
Now your up to your 6th 100 or is it my 7th how many have I done again? Well that can now be a thing of the past.

With the Swimovate Pool Mate you can forget about counting laps and just concentrate on form and technique.
Finally an invotation in swimming I whish was around years ago.

The pool mate has many functions that if used properly will definatly improve your swimming, It can count laps so you don't have to, advise average strokes per length so you can monitor if you stroke is becomming more effiecent.
Total session time, measure distance and many others.

It has all the standard watch functions so can also be used as a day to day watch.

With a accuracty rate of 99.78% you can do away with some of those costly swimming coaches.

The pool mate will be avaiable from Highly Tuned Athletes from Monday 19/08/2010

Suunto M Series

To go hand in hand with the moves count website Suunto has just release the M series.
We will be getting them in stock shortly. I must say they look good, but today I wanted to look at the M series test on the Suunto web site.

http://www.suunto.com/mseriesforme
This is a great way to decide what heart rate monitor is going to suit your needs the best and also give you some basic training guidance.

Once again Suunto have outdone themselves with the flash programming and useability, if the m-series flash tool is anything to go by, the watch will be awesome.

After advising your preferred language and gender you then proceed to choose a few categories to find out some really useful personal information.

Why exercise with a HRM, Which HRM is best for me, how intensive should I exercise and how many calories do I need daily.

I recommend that you have a look at all the sections, I personally like the how intensive should I exercise. A very quick and easy way to look at your heart rate zones and the range you should be training in depending on what you want to achieve in that session.

So if you are new to exercising or just getting back into it. I urge you to consider having a look at the Suunto M series and the Suunto website for the Heart rate monitor test. Once the range is available I will complete some product testing and complete review on the new range.

Suunto Elementum

It’s finally here. After a long wait and a lot of work from both The Outdoor Watch Company and Amer Sports the Suunto Elementum is available in Australia.

With a range that comes in 3 models Terra (land), Aqua (diving), Ventus (Sailing).

All are fantastic looking and top quality precision watches that will stand out at any social event you may attend or provide you with necessary information you require when engaging in a range of outdoor activities.

All models have all the standard watch functions you would expect, Time, Date, Alarm, Stopwatch and all are available with a range of band choices, Rubber, Leather, or Steel.

Terra

The Terra is a beautiful ABC (Altimeter, Barometer, Compass) watch. Capable of indicating changes in barometric pressure, has a electronic compass and can record changes in altitude.

Aqua

This is the chunkiest of the 3 model and in my opinion the best looking, (Personally I have gone for the Terra as it is the most suitable for the activities I enjoy) The Aqua can measure and record current depth and changes in depth. It also has an auto sensor so it know when it is submerged in water and automatically display the depth gage screen.

Ventus

A great tool for any keen sailor, As with the Terra the Ventus has an electronic compass to assist with navigation, A count timer which beeps every ten seconds to help get your timing right at the start of the race. It is also about to display the current barometric pressure and changes in barometric pressure.

As I said early I have personally gone for the Terra and apart from a night out at the casio I have not completed any field testing. I will provide another entry once I have completed some further testing.

Timex Global Trainer Review

Timex Global Trainer review

We received a Timex Global trainer at work as a Demo model and I was given the task of learning how to use the watch and to write a review.

It arrived without a manual so firstly I had to learn my way around the menus with no instruction.

Once I figured out that I had to hold the back/ pwr button down for a few seconds to unlock the menu it was very straight forward to navigate, the main two screens I was interested in were the Performance and the Configuration menus.

Entering my personal information in the configuration screen was very straight forward; To begin with I had to enter my details in imperial measurements as that is how it was currently set up. Eg, being a demo model, it had been started by the time it got to me and most likely had Imperial selected as its default.

The performance menu was pre-set with the information that I was interested in (Current Speed / Time / Heart rate and Distance) so I didn’t need to make any changes however that is just as easy as pressing the enter button while in performance page. You can customise the display between 1 – 4 pieces of data over 5 pages, so this should provide more information than needed.

Now for the road test, I ran 9km with a Garmin 405cx on one Wrist and the Timex Global Trainer on the other to compare the data provided by both.

Firstly I used the Timex heart rate strap is ant + so this is compatible with the Garmin and the whole time the heart rate readings were exactly the same as each other, so this was the first plus.

In the time I was waiting for the green man to change to cross the road I was able to acquire the GPS satellites and was ready to go (approx 1 minute).

Throughout the run I kept a close eye on the speed and distance between the Garmin and the Timex Global trainer. The readings were very close with the speed .1 - .2 of a km/ph difference at any given time. After I had completed the 9km there was a 250m difference between the Garmin and the Timex, Garmin showing the further distance.

The Global trainer connects to training peaks to download its history, This was a very straight forward process after downloading some software from training peaks You are able to see a comprehensive break down of your training session. I have had a brief look at Training peaks, it is a very in-depth training site, which will be well worth getting to know better when I have time.

If you want all the specification they can be found here - Global Trainer Specs
For a more detail review of the timex Global Trainer see DC rain makers review

Final verdict, Large watch face, however very comfortable to wear, (I found it more comfortable than the 405cx). Accurate information and display easy to see at night using the indiglo light, I would give it 4 out of 5 with the only downfall being the size of the watch face itself.

Who is Highly Tuned Athletes

Highly Tuned Athletes (HTA), prides it's self on being Australia's only dedicated Heart Rate Monitor Store. http://www.highlytunedathletes.com.au/

With over 15 years of retail experience we will guarantee to you an excellent customer experience.

Our customer service consultants are here to offer unbiased information on all Heart rate Monitors.

Based in Hampton, Melbourne Highly Tuned Athletes started as a small ebay business founded by Rob Grinter and has grown steadily over the last three years.

Our Main focus is to provide top quality products at the best price we can manage, with our focus being on heart rate monitors, to assist people monitor their fitness and exercise, our customers range from elite athletes through to beginners looking at starting their journey to better health.

The products lines we stock are, Suunto, Polar, Timex, Garmin, Cateye and Bryton heart rate watches and cycles computers. We also have a small amount of complementary products including 2XU and Skins compression garments and GU and Endura energy products.

As a part of Business growth we have now opened up HTA’s, sister shop and web site The Outdoor Watch Company (OWC), http://www.outdoorwatches.com.au/. something that we are very proud of at OWC is we have manage to gain the exclusive dealer rights to Suunto Elementum. A great looking, fully functional outdoor watch range.

As part of this blog we want to give our customers the ability to provide honest feedback of our services and also to review the latest cycling computers, latest running watches and any developments in the heart rate monitor field as they become available in the Australian market. Please feel free to make any comments - The good the bad and the Ulgy.

On my next blogs entries I will be reviewing the below new products.

The Timex Global Trainer

Suunto Elementum Range

The Bryton Rider

Thanks for reading and please feel free to provide any feedback and contact us for advice on any of the product we stock.