The Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS Receiver is a wearable GPS device in the form of an oversized wristwatch. It comes bundled together with a cradle to sync/charge with, a second wrist strap for those who have smaller wrists, a charger, a USB charger, manuals and the accompanying software.

The cradle uses a small mini-USB connector, which connects to the PC through standard USB. The cable is the standard digital camera USB cable so you don’t have to carry multiple cables on trips. The Garmin Forerunner 305 is a bit big to put on your wrist but its functions and features more than make up for the slightly extra weight on your arm.

Using the Garmin Forerunner 305 is simplicity itself as all you need to input in the very beginning are three questions followed with not extra setup or calibration required. The device is extremely responsive, easily picking up satellites even from indoors. The buttons are a little clearer in comparison to other GPS devices. The buttons control Lap, Start/Stop, changing the view or data displayed, turning the backlight On/Off, as well as the Mode button for navigating the menu system.

Like most running watches the Garmin Forerunner 305 will give you pace as you go along. If you’re in ‘run’ mode, the device will show you in minutes/mile and if you’re in bike mode the device will display in MPH. When in operation, the watch gets divided in up to four quadrants to display information.

The pace is quite accurate, though you’ll see some minor variations sometimes if close to taller buildings it will temporarily drop the connection. But if it does temporarily ‘lose you’, the Garmin Forerunner 305 will recalculate the pace or distance based on the data of the last known location and interpolates for you leaving you to concentrate on the running or activity.

One other feature is the ability to race against the ‘little man’ function at a given pace. This is a software feature on the watch that shows you how far ahead/behind you are compared to the little man (like racing a real person) as it is a neat way to motivate yourself if you’re training solo. The Garmin Forerunner 305 can be used for running, cycling and even swimming, automatically tracking your vital information and then uploading everything intelligently via the bundled software. The device is compatible with many extra accessories for this purpose including a foot-pad for tracking while running indoors and a heart rate strap that transmits data to the device.

The Garmin Forerunner 305 can tell you exactly where you visited with plenty of other useful info like pace changes, hills, HR history and many more. All of this information comes out in an intelligent manner for you to analyze in the software. In addition, the Garmin Forerunner 305 can also be used by a number of other free software including Google Earth for a bird’s eye view of your training route. The battery lasts for about 10 hours, more than enough for you to do most training. All in all, the Garmin Forerunner 305 is an excellent wearable GPS receiver that does all the tracking for you automatically. It is very customizable and fully compatible with many other accessories and third-party software. When used in combination with the bundled software or other software of your choice the device becomes extremely useful and helps you gauge progress much more efficiently and effectively.

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