My Experiences with the Garmin 305 Forerunner Heart Monitor [Part 1]

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My first encounter with the Garmin 305 Forerunner heart rate monitor watch was way back in early 2009. Previously, I had only heard of the Forerunner 305 from one of my friends, Bill. He is one of those fitness buffs that you would see in the gym everyday working out or on the tracks running laps. He told me that this heart watch had helped him so much in his fitness goals. Bill was going on and on about how it could do this and how it could do that! So one day I thought, “Enough is enough, I got to see what all the fuss is about!”

One night after dinner I decided to hop on the net and check out some reviews on the Garmin Forerunner 305. In no time I found myself deep into forums and blogs searching out all that I could about this heart monitor. I was reading review after review trying to see whether it was worth it. I also found out that on Amazon.com, it carried a high users rating of 4.5 stars out of 5. Wow! The next day at work, I started thinking more and more about the Garmin 305. Did I actually need one? How is it so different from the one that I currently have? What makes it stand out?

After much deliberation and thought, I decided to fork out a couple of bucks (Just under $300 if I can remember) and order one online. So here is my personal review on the Garmin 305 Forerunner heart rate monitor.

The Features that Everyone Raves About (Even you Bill!)

My first impression and feelings of the Garmin 305 was mixed. It looked kind of awkward and bulky. One of the thoughts that crossed my mind was “Did the designers make a blunder?” Don’t get me wrong but the Garmin 305 looks like an over sized wrist watch. However, as I’ll explain later, it is not a design flaw but something that was designed for certain functions.

Right of the bat, you can see that the Garmin 305 Forerunner has a pretty large display screen with large buttons also. That counts as a plus in my books because nothing is more frustrating than fiddling with buttons and settings while also trying to see details on a heart rate monitor in the middle of your run or even worse, when you’re cycling. After a quick read of the manual that accompanied it, the only thing left was to test it on the road.

To Be Continued ….