Garmin Forerunner 305 Review

The Garmin Forerunner 305 is a great tool for training. I purchased it last year during my first go at training. This device is far and away my favorite device for training.

In addition to acting as a stopwatch and heart rate monitor, it uses GPS technology to determine speed, distance, pace, and elevation. It has multi-sport modes so you can change between different settings for various sports and you can also program it to track your brick workouts.

The Good  

• Easy to use  
• Very accurate distance and elevation data
• Having pace instantly available during a run is invaluable
• Can import data into standard software as well as many different online programs and third party programs (NOTE: For Mac users, Ascent is probably the best program on the market.  Well worth the $35)

The Bad

• Loading of satellites can be slow on occasion (I tend to just put it outside while I’m doing something like putting on my shoes)
• Stock software is horrible (especially on Mac).  
• Size: It’s like a very oversized watch.  It looks big on my wrist, so I can only imagine what it would look like on a female’s wrist.

Overall Recommendation

If you have the money and are in the market for a heart rate monitor, you might as well pony up the extra dough and get the Forerunner.  I’ve found the distance/pace functions to be invaluable on outdoor runs and the elevation/gradation data has been a great way to evaluate my rides.  Great device, I just wish it was a little smaller.