debcook

  2008-08-24 18:08:02Mobile living is not always about work. Sometimes it is about play. Garmin is a company that can make play even more fun. Imagine hiking in the wilderness and following trails provided by a GPS. Riding a bicycle and being able to track your fitness progress in real time would be great. Fishing or boating can make use of GPS as well.

If you are anything like me I wish that one GPS would work for all of my activities. This reminds me though of people that asks me why I need different shoes to run, walk and do aerobic dancing. The answer is obvious. Each shoe has different support for the different activities. Well, the GPS units are the same. A street map would not be helpful on a wilderness trail. A trail map would not help you navigate across the Great Lakes.

The Garmin GPS that I would like to have (I think) is the Forerunner 305. There is a 405 but from what I’ve read I’ll stick with the 305. I prefer the larger display because it is hard to read much of anything while jogging. I use to jog up to 6 mile per day 5 to 6 days a week. For the last few years I walked more - but I am now returning to jogging. Motivation is easier to come by when I see that I am making progress. It is cool that the Forerunner plugs into a computer and uploads stats of your exercise for the day.

The Forerunner does not provide you with routes but it does record your routes. This would be handy because I am a routine type person. I do not need a lot of variation in my workouts. But, I may travel and my route would absolutely be different. It would be fun to compare the routes and see where I had my best results.

Hopefully I will get one of these gadgets soon. I’ve convinced myself that I really need one.