Rest Day

Normally Sunday is the start of the working week, but this is the last of my few days off, so no work for me. It is a planned rest day, however, so no running either. Instead, Jasper and I enjoyed a little walk around Ennerdale. Haven't been out there for a while - petrol is too dear at the mo :(



It was also a good opportunity to take the 305 for a proper test, so that I am a bit more familiar with it when I go running (it will be dark, so it's helpful if I know what I'm doing beforehand!)

Skinny-Chick's 305

A few people have remarked that the wrist-strap on the 305 is a bit rubbish and the unit sits wonky on their wrists, but I have pretty substantial wrists and so it didn't look quite as bulky on me as it might on some more slightly built folk, and it 'sat' perfectly' - wasn't running though so I might change my mind yet on that point. It's bigger than the 405, of course, but that's why I have switched, for the bigger display.

Was it a good move - oh yeah. The screen can display up to four data items and each of these is shown the same size. The size that I can read. Hurrah. If you go for less information at a time on screen the display is bigger still. I normally have elapsed time, distance and heart rate (or hr%) on show, and to have all of these easy to read is a definite advantage for me.

I can't find any feature that I have lost by 'downgrading' other than the wireless comms. The 405 'connects' to the PC or Mac wirelessly and can also communicate with other 405's. I'm not sure what they talk about - how much their bezels have been touched lately I suppose, but that is a feature I never have used.

As for the connection to the PC or the Mac, I found that you had to get pretty close for it to work anyway, and so placed the charging clip on the computer desk. Post run routine then was to come in and connect the 405 up to it's charger on the desk. The wireless gizmo would then do it's stuff and my run would upload itself. With the 305, there is no wireless capability, so my post run routine is now to come in and connect the 305 up to it's charger, and click a button on screen which says 'upload' to upload my run. Not a great hardship!

I found the 405 to be very easy to operate once you had got a fair idea of which menu to go into for whatever you wanted, and the 305 seems similar. A lot of settings and functions and it takes a bit of getting used to, but the functionality seems a bit better on this one I think. More logical somehow. It looks a lot easier for switching between sports too, ie biking or running, but that's not particularly relevant to me.

Back again to the display - customising the display screens is a straight forward task, but with the addition of buttons it is much easier to navigate through them than on the 405. I now have an up and down feature to go back and forth through the various screens whereas I used to tap-tap-tap to go through them to find the one I wanted (don't think I ever managed to stop on the right one first time!)

So, I haven't actually been running with the new toy, I mean, kit - yet, that's tomorrow, but I am pleased with what I have found so far. Wish they made em in other colours, really. I have never been a fan of red....

Oh, and just to prove that I really am bored, and should not be allowed too many Sundays off work (except for race days), here are some charts from Daily Mile, which I'm not sure if I find useful or not really, but thought that I needed some piccies to brighten up this page.