Monday, May 23, 2011

Last Run With My First Garmin 610

OK, the Garmin 610 is currently sitting in a box waiting to get shipped back to Garmin. We'll find out if the problem was my early batch watch or the software or something else.

No runs this weekend as I was off camping and finding out that the outdoors and myself do not mix. Let's just say it was a tiring, smelly, wet, dirty weekend that made me realize that I prefer hotels over tents.

So since my running has basically dropped of a proverbial cliff the past 2-3 weeks, I decided to head back to the tried and true HADD training methodology I've always used when things go to the crapper....

So, this mornings run was 60 minutes with a HR limit of 140. Wore both the 305 and 610v1 this morning with the 610v1 HR strap. I set the upper limit to 140 on both watches. General notes before I get into the bulk of the data....

1. My 305 doesn't vibrate like the 610 so the only way to know an alert is hit is either by hearing its beep (which it doesn't do anymore)
2. having the screen light up when an alert is hit (I ran when it was light out, so didn't have the light out)
3. Looking at the screen and seeing "Heart Rate Too High...."

So basically my 305 is useless is this manner...

For the 610, since it vibrates and I can still here it beep, I will say for HR alerts it works great. However, there was a HR blip at about 0.3-0.4 miles where the HR went off on the 610 and not on the 305 (though the blip is not the 305 graph). It did not go off until I was going up a hill 2+ miles later.

It also appears that the HR alerts bug has been fixed with v2.20 of the firmware. I also think the HR alert limits might be slightly different between the 305 and 610 (though I am not completely sure). The 305 alerts when your HR is over 140, but I think the 610 might alter you when your HR is 140. Nothing to complain about, but just a note..

Ran with Smart Recording again also. The start problem did not occur again, but it did come up with some laps during the middle of the run. 610 ccuracy when compared to the 305 was rather good today, though the mile where the GPS bug occured was off a bit.

OK today's run stats:

305: 6.84 miles @ 8:46/mi. AHR 134 MaxHR 143. Fastest pace: 6:21
610: 6.82 miles @ 8:47/mi. AHR 134 MaxHR 143. Fastest pace: 5:47.

The start glitch did not show up today. I had an increase in GPS accuracy after mile 3 and 4. My running still has gone down the tubes.

Below is the start of this run (Green is 610, Red is 305). There is a slight jog in the 610 data, but nothing too noticeable.


A slight jog in the data (Green/610) around 0.8 miles.


Too perfectly honest, there weren't really anything glaringly different between the 305/610 on this run. I think Smart Recording doesn't emphasize the GPS bug as much as the 1 sec recording. I do remember that after miles 3/4 seeing the GPS accuracy go up, but maybe smart recording smooths the effect out.

Measuring the GPX paths. The 305 came in at 6.85 miles (versus 6.84 Garmin distance). The 610 came in at 6.83 (versus 6.82 Garmin distance). So there were little to no errors in the GPX data.

Lap times for the 610 were: 9:27, 8:48, 8:53, 8:39, 8:50, 8:28, 6:54 (8:21)
Lap times for the 305 were: 9:21, 8:50, 8:53, 8:35, 8:41, 8:35, 7:04 (8:22)


Here is the pace graph for the 610...


Here is the pace graph for the 305...


Slight differences, but the GPS spikes seem to be bigger in the 610 graph than the 305. However, if every run with the 610 was like this I probably wouldn't have sent it back....

4 comments:

  1. While I wish your 610 works like a charm and as expected gps wise I hope hardware isn't the cause of your issues. I have exactly the same issues and can replicate the problems. Still hoping Garmin provides us with some good news or a quick fix/firmware update.

    Keep us posted and thanks for al the effort so far!

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  2. madrunning, thanks for the positive feedback. I don't think its a hardware issue either, since others have the same issue. My watch was the 74th off the production line (I am basing that on my serial number), so maybe it was an early batch.

    This watch would be awesome if it could fix the GPS problem, but it just gets frustrating to see the pace be off by 20-40 sec/mile after one of these glitches occurs.

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  3. Yeah, today the watch got stuck while transferring data ... then it rebooted and whole 1 hour 20 minutes hills reps the hardest workout of the week was gone! Not on the watch and not on the ant agents device dir. Guess your the last person I need to explain how that is ...

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  4. madrunning - there might be a setting somewhere. (On the ANT stick or on the watch) where you either delete or don't delete the data off your watch when uploading. I'm assuming I had don't delete. The only time I've had a problem uploading was when I was trying to upload my file from the Boston Marathon. Garmin Connect never did upload it. Also, I had noticed my watch reboot itself twice when I got back from runs.

    You might want to try a 3rd party log site to store your data. I used RunningAhead.com, no problems uploading there.

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