Accessorizing your Garmin Running Watch

Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 6:05 pm

Garmin Forerunner watches are there to support your training. They are with you as you move about and do different exercises to strengthen your body or improve your physical fitness levels. That’s why it is highly critical that the running watch that you have is fit with the kind of training that you do.

Having a running watch that is not in synch with your type of training would hinder you and make it more difficult for you to reach your desired fitness levels.

However, the fact is that running watches are not exactly catered to your training needs. This is because they try to cover a wide range of users who train. To be able to maximize the use of your running watch, you would need to customize them to ensure that they match how you train.

This is where people can be thankful for the wide range of accessories that are available for their running watches. The Garmin Forerunner running watches for example, provides a variety of accessories that can make your Forerunner 305, 405, 205 or any other model match the kind of training that you do.

Here are some accessories that you may want to look at, to ensure that your training goes as smooth as possible.

One of the most common accessories that people get with the Garmin Forerunner 405 is the speed/cadence sensors. The wireless speed/cadence sensor is self calibrating and would monitor a trainers pedaling cadence. This accessory can transform the Forerunner 405 into a device that can also measure and report pedaling strokes per minute.

The Speed/Cadence sensor is perfect for those who are not only runners but are cyclists as well. When they are in their running phase, they could simply detach the sensor and the Forerunner 405 would function normally. When they are biking, they could simply connect the wireless speed/cadence sensor and they would still be provided feedback while cycling.

Another accessory that people commonly purchase for their running watches is the foot POD sensor. The foot POD sensor is important for people who tend to train in dense areas that suffer from poor satellite reception or are training indoors.

For example, the Garmin Forerunner 305, while sufficient in areas with good signal reception, may suffer from a slight performance drop in dense areas. The foot POD accessory enables it to still count your steps, and measure your speed, even if the GPS device is not performing too well.

Of course, there are also some accessories that would really add a big boost in functionality to a running watch. One such accessory is the wireless heart rate monitor. While the Garmin Forerunner 305 has already built in features for heart rate monitoring, the older models, such as the Garmin Forerunner 205 may not have it.

Purchasing a wireless heart rate monitor would then give your Garmin Forerunner 205 the capability to wirelessly acquire heart rate data. This would help you know more about your training intensity and just how hard you work while running.

Of course, all these accessories come at a cost. However, given that they add and expand to the functionality of your Garmin Forerunner, I would say that they are a good investment.

Rather than purchasing a completely different watch for each of your training needs, simply going for accessories may be the perfect solution for this situation.

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