Hi, Can anyone give me some advice on what heart rate monitor to get? I'm a bit concerned about the chest strap being annoying, does it fall down? or can you get one without the strap? Also I've noticed there's a big range in prices, do you get what you pay for or do you just pay for a brand name? Any help greatly appreciated, thanks

Thanks very much for the advice everyone. I think I'll probably go with the polar as it's a bit more in my price range than the Garmin, unless of course Santa brings me a garmin.

I have a similiar problem.  I have a Garmin 305.  Is it possible to set it so it beeps when I drop below or above my set hearts rates.  I get the message alert but no beeping to warn me.

Thanks for the help Lisa!  It worked, but for some reason the beep omitted from my watch is very faint and I would have had no chance hearing it out running.  My Garmin 305 is a refurbed watch I got from Garmin when the battery on my old one gave up.  So I reckon there may be a problem with my watch unless you know of a way of turning the sound up for the beeping?  Apart from this my Garmin does everything I want it to.

Is it only Garmin watches that you can use on this site to download  a run to your training log or can you use other watches e.g Polar brands?  Thinking about treating myself to a new watch maybe, which I can use on this site, any suggestions!

I have tested my Garmin whilst off my wrist  and the beeping is barely audilble, so it will appear I may have a faulty speaker.  Thanks for all of your help and advice both of you.

I am not sure if I am allowed to recommend companies on the Forum, but I want to recommend a company that sells HRM/GPS online. The website address for the comapny is:  http://www.heartratemonitor.co.uk/   I have purchased all my running watches/accessories from them using there online site on many occassions over the last 8 years or so with no problems at all.  I have found there prices very competative. They are a UK company, based up in Norfolk and if you order before 1300hrs on a  working week day they deliver by special delivery by 1300hrs the following day.  The staff are very helpful and a guy called Tristain that works there is very knowledgeable on just about every brand of HRM that is about on the market. Well worth checking out if you are looking to buy or upgrade!

I have also posted this on the GPS page on the Forum.

I have also purchased a couple of HRM watches from them and when i had a problem with one watch, they replaced with an upgraded one no problem

I'm considering purchasing a Garmin 305 to replace my Timex HRM, the one thing I use every time is the one touch Heart Recovery Rate (HRR) calculator. Does the 305 have this? if not how are you able to do this calculation using the 305 data?

Thanks Lisa I thought as much, I assume you use the lap function to record the minute straight after recording the run time.

I didn't know that I could set the 305 to scroll the display for some boxes. Thanks!

For heart rate monitoring I look on the Garmin software graphs. You can click on the heart rate at its peak and then find the heart rate a minute later. If I don't want my race times with an extra rest minute added, I stop the timer, reset it, and restart for just under a minute to see the heart rate separately from the run.