A Bum

That's what I feel like.  I haven't ridden in the past few days and I've had terrible eating habits.  The next three days I have visitation and a funeral for my mom.  On top of all that I have a really bad cold.  All I want to do is sleep.  I did buy this:

1. This is the Garmin Forerunner 305 Heart Rate Monitor/Cadence/GPS.  I bought it from Amazon because it was only $200 there.  I did add a $45 cadence adapter and a $12 bike/wrist quick release.  Do I really need it?  No.  I currently use a Polar RS2000 which I love because it shows all 5 HR zones.  The Garmin does as well.  So why did I upgrade?  First, it was only $4 for overnight shipping and they have a 30 day return policy.  If I don't like it, I just return it. I'm out $4 plus probable $6 to ship back.  The main selling features for me were these: 

 

1. With GPS, the watch will track your route, then you can upload it to Google maps to see your exact route.  No need to memorize which way you turned on specific streets.  Very useful on those LONG road rides.  Also kind of cool to see what a mountain bike trail looks like since we don't have many maps of those.
2. When it stores your course, you can compete against your old time.  DURING the ride, the unit will track if your going faster or slower than you did before on your previous ride or even previous lap.  It also has a virtual training partner that you can compete against.  I don't have any friends right now that can push me so these features are awesome.
3. Automatically counts laps.  When you get to the start line, press 'lap' and every time you cross that it will automatically count laps.  You can have multiple points too so if you want time certain sections of a trail or route, you can do that.
4. Tracks all 5 HR zones and it scrolls through displays so you can see your data

What I don't like about it is the size.  Kind of big, however I don't think I'd wear this on the wrist. I bought a bike mount so I can use it on my mountain bike or road bike.  It's ALL wireless via GPS so I don't need any magnets to switch to other bike (other than for cadence, but don't care about cadence on a MTB).

It's also information overload.  It tracks elevation, pace, etc.  I may have too much info. 

I'm not sure I'll keep it.  I give it a solid effort for a week or two and then make a decision.  I should be past the learning curve by then.  It is easy to use since you set everything up on your computer and just download to the unit.  Very nice.

Time for my cold medicine.  Good luck to those racing Stoney.