Replace Ironman (watch)/ with GPS and Heart Rate Monitor

Triathlon Forum
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Tri’ers-

My Timex Ironman watch somehow let water leak in during my last swim. It was 6 years old and had gone through 1 band already.

I am interested in another sports watch that might incorporate gps and possibly Heart monitor. I have heard that the straps work best as opposed to one that detects through the watchband. I was interested in the 910 garmin bc it could track your swim but the price tag is too high. I typically don’t go for Nike shoes but noticed the Nike+ watch looked nice and works with a strap and can upload the data. Anyone have any anecdotal experience with this watch or any other brands/models they would recommend?
I would like to track my data for my next triathlon which is in 2 weeks.

God Bless.

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i have the nike but admittedly do not use the HR. the nike watch is idiot proof. so simple. i love that. you can’t directly export data to strava, but there are 3rd party softwares that let you do it. so it’s not seamless, but still pretty eaesy. can’t believe I’m saying this, but the nike support group has also been A+. they totally support the product

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Thanks Camel! I see that there is a nike website to load the data to called Nikeplus.com I can’t figure out if that is free. Also it seems I have to buy a polar heart strap on to use the heart monitor.
from Nike: “It also shows your mapped route, with pace data and changes in elevation, on Nikeplus.com. And, when you add the Polar Wearlink+ Transmitter (sold separately), you can track your heart-rate information.”

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The Garmin 910XT is dramatically better then any thing else that’s out there right now. Garmin should put me on their pay roll for all the good things I say about their products on this forum (I pay retail for all my stuff). Tim

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Get the 310. All it lacks from the 910 is some swimming metrics and the barometric altimeter. You can still wear it in your swim cap during open water. It comes with the HR strap for <$200.

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x2 on the Garmin 310xt, that’s what I have and it works well. True, not as nice as the 910 but ALOT cheaper. I bet you could get for as low as $150 if you look around and be patient. I’ve been using mine for over two years now without any issue’s. You also get their cloud to store all your data, it’s pretty nice.

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Great information people. Anyone else say something is better bang for the buck than the 310XT? I saw other models of garmin pgs watches at academy. You all have me pretty sold. I have wanted the 910 for a year but can’t bring myself to spend the 400…

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Garmin prices have a history of being high when a model first comes out and then they drop like a rock when the next one comes out. The 910xt should start to drop in cost very soon. The 310XTs have bad wrist bands and a lot of them got lost in open water swims. Hold out for the 910XT. Tim

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I’d have to agree with the previous post, hold out for the 910, several of the features are nicer, plus I’ve found as Garmin watches get older the software updates tend to be a bit difficult to keep installing.

Also, I have known REI and others to allow use of their coupons on Garmin products, despite the disclaimers, and I feel like they run a 20% coupon fairly regularly.

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I have Timex Global Trainer, Timex run trainer, Garmin 305, 310XT and 910XT. (I am a little OCD ) all have HR and GPS… I now use only 910XT. All work well, but for multisport it is the 910 swim, bike, run it also works with my speed and cadence sensor.
Mind you when I was using the 310XT I didn’t know what I was missing.
P.S.
I also have Garmin 500 …
.