Product Description

The Forerunner 201 offers athletes an easy-to-read display, ergonomic wristband, and integrated GPS sensor that provides precise speed, distance, and pace data. It is compact, lightweight, waterproof and packed with features for todays serious competitor. The Forerunner 201 is easy to use right out of the box and delivers the benefits of GPS technology at an affordable price. Working out with the Forerunner 201 means you're never alone in your personal training, because the unit provides a Virtual Partner. This unique feature allows you to set your training goal by configuring your Virtual Partners pace and workout distance. You'll get a graphic perspective of your performance by viewing your pace in relation to your Virtual Partners pace, so you can always see at a glance if you're keeping up or falling behind. The buil-in GPS sensor provides precise latitude, longitude, and altitude data to plot your exact location as you run. Specific locations can be marked and navigated to using the electronic map. Retrace your steps to a starting point or reverse your normal route for routine variation. The number of calories burned can be tracked and calculated over the course of a workout. Lap history such as lap time, lap distance, and average pace can be stored for up to two years and performance data can be automatically archived and calculated to provide an accurate record. The intergrated stopwatch provides auto-lap and auto-pause features, while the lap timer indicates when a certain speed is reached or when youve fallen below a pre-set level - a pace whistle sounds alert when you begin traveling slower or faster than your desired pace and a distance whistle sounds when you reach a specified duration or distance in your workout. Software for transfering data from your Forerunner 201 to your PC for storage and analysis can be dowloaded free of charge from the Gramin web site..

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26325 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Garmin
• Model: 010-00375-01
• Released on: 2005-02-24
• Dimensions: .17 pounds
• Display size: 1.5

Manufacturer's Description
The Garmin Forerunner 301 is the next exciting addition to the Forerunner lineup. Take your workouts to the next level with all the great GPS features found in the Forerunner 201, plus the added capability of a continuous heart rate monitor. Knowing your heart rate while exercising lets you measure your exercise intensity and performance, giving you a powerful training tool.

The Forerunner 301 training profiles can be customized for running, cycling, and other sports. For those interested in losing weight, improving fitness, reaching peak athletic performance, or just improving health to reduce heart-related problems, the Forerunner 301 delivers.

The easy-to-use, two-piece system consists of the wrist unit and a digital heart rate transmitter that you wear around your chest. The transmitter is coded that so there is no interference from other heart rate monitor users nearby. The 301 unit continuously monitors heart rate, speed, distance, pace, and calories burned. A heart rate zone chart, included with the manual, helps you target specific heart rate zones for optimal training. The unit's built-in alerts help you maintain those heart rate zones. For those who don't want to fuss with the charts, there's an AutoLearn feature that allows the unit to learn your maximum heart rate and set zones accordingly. Pace, time, distance, interval workout, and advanced custom workout alerts are also included.

Meanwhile, the AutoPause feature pauses and resumes the training timer based on a specified speed. Finally, the AutoLap feature records lap data when you reach a specified distance. Don't worry about running out of room for your lap data; the unit boasts a 5,000-lap memory.

Like the Forerunner 201, the 301 also doubles as a basic navigator. You can mark your starting point as a specific location, see your current position on the plotter display, and follow an electronic breadcrumb trail back to your starting point. The built-in GPS receiver provides highly accurate data, and there's no calibration required. Just turn it on and go.

The unit's USB data port means that connecting the unit to your computer is easier than ever. The USB connection offers fast and reliable data transmission to any USB-equipped PC. And because analyzing workout data is an important tool in reaching one's fitness goals, the 301 comes with Garmin Training Center software, which allows you to download workout data to your PC for detailed analysis. View data for each workout, including your heart rate, time, distance, speed, path traveled, and altitude. You can also track data for multiple sports and multiple users, and you can overlay workout data onto a map. The unit is compatible with MotionBased and TrainingPeaks, which are popular third-party training software packages.

With up to 14 hours of battery life, the 301's rechargeable lithium-ion battery is designed for extended use. It's also rugged and waterproof for up to 1 meter for 30 minutes. The unit ships with a 1-year warranty.

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Customer Reviews

Beyond running
I've had a forerunner 301 for about 4 months now, so i think i've used about every feature. The best thing about it is you can get it to regulate the amount of 'effort' you put into a run. Say you want to do a certain distance in a certain time, it can measure this, but also keep track of your heart rate to stop you overdoing it when under the weather.
Also, as i do quite a bit of hiking, the altitude reading is very useful, as is the gradient.
Overall the unit is very easy to use whilst on the run, and has a great indiglo style backlight for dusk / night running.
A couple of complaints, the map software they supply with the unit is awful. It's about 100-200 metres out in some places which shows you having run down a motorway, or in the sea! You can purchase better maps, but they don't come cheap.
The other drawback it has is when you're running in cities the buildings can block the gps signal, leaving 'gaps in your route when you download it.
My next aim is to try and hook it up to my pocket pc to view my route as i walk or cycle it.

Be aware of the device's GPS Limitations
I bought this device as part of my fitness regime that sees me running 3 marathons a year. I live in the Orkney Islands which has an open, undulating and mostly treeless environment. In Orkney the device works like a dream. On Sunday 2nd October 2005 I ran the Budapest Marathon where I decided to use the device to monitor my pace under race conditions. In the city environment with tall buildings coupled with occassional tree cover, the device was pretty well useless. The signal drop out was so bad that I ignored all the read outs except the timer which I used to manually calculate my kilometer splits and my pace. When I downloaded the telemetry from the device into the computer after the race, the traning centre report indicated that I had only covered 32km instead of 42.1km. In other words for a full quarter of the marathon course it had failed to register a working signal. As a training device in the right environment, it does exactly what it says on the packet. In a city environment it is not really fit for the purpose and should not be relied on by a serious runner as a device that can be under race conditions as anything other than a stopwatch. I have given the device a 3 star rating. This reflects an average score. 5 Stars for use in the open air with few or no buildings or trees present. 1 Star for use in a city or town environment where there are tall buildings, narrow streets or where there is tree cover.

Great Christmas present
I got this for Christmas (2005) and have since used it for 7 runs. In general it's great, and a real thrill to review distance/speed/routes (though sadly I don't run quite as far/fast as I hoped!). I've found being able to track speed/elevation/heart rate really useful.

Like other users I couldn't get it to work with the supplied software, hence the 3 stars. Like the others I downloaded the latest version (from July 05!) and my PC then recognised the watch and I was able to download runs. I'm not overwhelmed with the quality of the software, it doesn't give you much advice, or allow you to compare runs with each other. I'm planning to download google earth plus which apparently allows you to import sessions.

In general I've had a good gps signal, it drops maybe once or twice briefly in the forest where I run (not always in the same place). I didn't get on with one feature called "auto pause" which is supposed to pause the clock when you stop to cross a road or whatever, but also kicked in when I slowed to scramble up and down muddy banks.

Also, strange for a watch, but it's hard to use it to actually see what time it is when you're on a run! Also, the heart rate indicator on the watch is really small and difficult to read when you're running.

Time for Garmin and suppliers (ie Amazon) to supply the right version of the software with the watch don't you think?