Ray’s Weekly Sports Electronics Mailbag
Hello, welcome to the Weekly Mailbag. I'm Ray, from DCRainmaker. com . If you've ever searched for reviews on sports technology – you've probably come across my site. I write about my triathlon/running training in general, along with sports technology and whatever else seems interesting to me. I started the Weekly Mailbag series earlier this spring as an opportunity to share some of the answers of the many e-mailed questions I get each week.
If you enjoy what you find here, then feel free to click the links to find even more in depth information on each topic. And if you have any questions, you can always e-mail me directly. Thanks for reading!
1) Waterproof 'Women's' watch options
2) Footpod on backwards
3) HR monitor for 'petite' women
Question #1: Waterproof 'Women's' watch options
From Alex-
"Hi Ray – I'm hoping you can clarify a Garmin watch question for me. I'm looking at buying the FR60 for the Girl since she needs a new athletic watch. It's good b/c it's small, digital and has run pace built in.
My hesitation is how waterproof it is. Garmin says it's water-resistant to 50m but I'm not sure what that means, can you soak it in 5m of water day & night and it will be fine? How about the impact from wearing it on your wrist when swimming? Also, does it have bike functionality w/o speed/cadence sensor like Forerunner 305 or 310XT?"
The FR60 is fully waterproof, and I've actually dived down to about 90ft (about 30m) with it on multiple dives lasting up to an hour at a time – no issues there at all – and been doing that for nearly a year now with it. I've swam with it for hours at a time while doing laps, day after day (sets of up to 8,000 yards at a shot in some cases). Not a single issue.
And yup, the FR60 has the same speed/cadence sensor compatibility like the FR310XT and the same footpod compatibility like the 310XT. The FR60 is kinda the little underdog when it comes to really cool watches. It gets ignored because it's not GPS, but from a functionality standpoint – it actually rivals the FR310XT in almost every category. There are so many relatively unknown features on the FR60 (like Gym Equipment and Weight Scale support), as well as all the usual training stuff like advanced workouts support and data logging.
Given her needs, it sounds like the perfect fit!
Question #2: Footpod on backwards
From Gene-
"I never thought this would happen (That I might correct you on sports tech related stuff) – I believe your footpod is on backwards. I don't know if it matters, but according to the Garmin instruction booklet, the arrow is suppose to point towards your toes. I noticed on one of your India pictures that its pointed towards your ankles."
Haha… funny – I knew when I posted that photo that someone might comment. Actually, a few people commented. In my case, the foot pod wanders between being put on the right way and the wrong way depending on how I put it on that given day. I take it on/off a fair bit for different experiments, so sometimes it ends up wrong.
Though, in my testing, it makes no difference – and works either way well. But, just for fun – I hit up the friends at Garmin support and asked the same thing. And here was their response:
"Regarding the foot pod, if it is calibrated with the arrow pointing up, then it should be used with the arrow up. If it is calibrated with the arrow down, then it should be used with the arrow down. We ask that users use the pod with the arrow down to maintain consistency. If calibrated one direction, but used another, there are some slight differences that could occur." – Garmin Gods
In short – as long as you can remember which way you put it on, and which way it's then calibrated – it's all good. 🙂
Question #3: HR monitor for 'petite' women
From Briana-
"I figured I'd write you an email about my Garmin HR monitor issue since you seem to know a lot about the device! I'm a petite woman, which gives me to problems: 1) How do women wear HR monitors with sports bras? and 2) If I wear it below my sports bra (not under) how do I prevent it from falling down? It's too big even on the smallest setting.
I'd like to use my heart rate as a measure of my fitness, but I never wear my monitor because it's so annoying! I prefer a chest monitor as I have the Garmin 305."
Now normally, I'd be happy to answer the questions. But instead, I'm actually going to deflect to my fiancée – 'The Girl' – to provide an answer, since she's a competitive athlete who's also a 'petite' women. Plus, she has tons of experience with HR straps.
"Hi Briana! I hope I can help out as much as possible with this email. I personally wear an XS sports bra, so I hear ya with equipment being big sometimes. I also used to teach Phys Ed in a school that required Heart Rate monitors on all students during the gym period; so believe me, I have seen it all!
So regarding the strap, you have the Forerunner 305 plastic strap, which doesn't actually go as small as the newer soft-straps from Garmin – which will size much smaller. Second, with some of my really tiny girl students we used to tie a knot in the elastic strap, or some students preferred to safety pin the strap smaller until they were happy experimenting with different sizes. Polar actually has different HR strap sizes, whereas Garmin is one-size-fits all.
As for wearing the strap, I wear it directly underneath the big elastic of my sports bra. No way around it, being petit does not allow for you to wear the strap below that band. There is nothing to keep it up! We don't have enough padding :). I really hope this helps."
–The Girl
Recent Mailbags:
Weekly Mailbag – November 23rd, 2010
– Recommendation for Mac-friendly Website for managing workout data
– Is the Forerunner 305 being discontinued?
– Which slim GPS watch to get?
– Garmin Training Center or Garmin Connect?
– Garmin Forerunner 210 Molded Band?
Weekly Mailbag – November 16th, 2010
– How to secure Road ID to your Garmin Forerunner 305
– LeMond Revolution Trainer and ANT+ Distance Tracking
– Timex Global Trainer and Cadence-Only Sensor
You can find all past Slowtwitch Mailbags here , and all prior ones here.
[Editor's note: our capable editor-at-large for electronics Ray Maker is the publisher of the online sports tech blog DC Rainmaker, one of the top-ranked sites by Google for extremely in-depth reviews of advanced GPS and Heart Rate Monitors for triathlon, cycling, and running.]
