Hi Martin, I'd be more concerned in coughing my lung up at that heart rate :-) at nearly 51 resting is around 46bpm and my max is 185bpm usually when I approach gazelle like to the finishing line.

Yeah you've raised some good issues there Martin.

Personally, I'm not getting the whole 'heart rate monitoring' thingy.  I'm no class dunce, but it's all a bit beyond me how a digital readout can indicate your fitness....

For instance:  Joe Bloggs runs a 5k road race in 22 mins on Wednesday with a consistent heart rate of whatever.
Then on the following Friday night he ventures into town for a night out and drinks 6 pints of stella and then eats a big fat juicy kebab before heading off home to fall a sleep in the armchair...leaving the telly on, and the lights on, and the front door unlocked....and the dog curled up on the sofa....(sound familiar ???)
Then on Saturday afternoon...having earlier gulped gallons of water and done all the usual hangover recovery stuff, he decides to do the 5k route again. This time because he's feeling a bit rough, he's a little slower and does it in 24 mins.

Wouldn't his heart be working harder even though he's running at a slower pace ???

Or am I seriously missing summat ???

Andy and Andy,

Thanks for the responses - it seems to have settled down and I think with the hotter weather the strap is sealing to the skin better.

K

Hi Killian,

mine works fine...once its selled down after a couple of minutes. Did you wet the chest monitor? Or the manual suggests trying wearing it on your back!!!???

Andy

Has anyone found erroneous readings with their 305 on heart rate?  I had stopped using the HRM function because it seemingly told me the same story every run - 182.  I realise that this isn't where I want to be, so in true denial stopped measuring.  I've got interested again so started manually measuring HR while measuring with the 305 - for example, manual measure of 58, 305 gave me 82.  Is there a calibration function or might I have a technical fault (assume I can measure my HR manually and accurately)?  Gizmo is still under guarantee.  Feedback would be very welcome.  K

I've recently bought the Garmin FR60 bundle (heart rate, foot pod, usb stick) & am very pleased with it. I subsequently found this reviewer, who has an indepth look at the FR60 & a number of other Garmin models. http://dcrainmaker.blogspot.com/2010/02/garmin-fr60-review-in-depth.html

Interestingly, he compared the distance accuracy of the FR60 foot pod & GPS Forerunner 310XT & found them to be almost identical.

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.

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

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?

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