Five years ago this news would have had me rushing to the expo, never mind collecting my race number, I would want to get my hands on the latest piece of ‘essential’ training equipment – but my excitement at the news of the latest member to the Forerunner family is rather subdued after my experience with the Forerunner 405.

My first experience of Gamin came with the Forerunner 301 and I quickly became obsessed with it. Downloading and analysing all my training and races, sharing my training routes with club mates and also using it when travelling to record where I had been exploring. I think that a clear indication of how much I loved and relied on my Forerunner was when I lost my watch during a weekend away and in spite of being a poor student, I ordered a new one with two days of exhausting all search options.

Fast forward to January 2008 and the news came out that of the launch of the Forerunner 405. Instead of the bulk and size of its predecessor, the 405 looked like a watch, so could be worn all the time without weird looks form colleagues at work and if you don’t have to take it off after running I have less chance of losing it. But for me I had to get it for the ‘HotFix satellite prediction, which means it locks onto satellites quickly so you can be out the door and on with your run in no time. It also has a high-sensitivity GPS receiver to stay locked onto satellites, even near tall buildings or under tree cover.’ As I was living in New York at the time I often lost signal running around Central Park with my 301 so was eager to get hold of the new 405. With delay after delay the 405 was finally release in May 2008 and after playing with it in a few stores I decided to part with my $349 plus tax. It was the worst $349 I have ever spent.

I don’t know where to start with my hatred of this gadget. I don’t think I have ever hated any piece of equipment so much and far from being a method of relaxation my runs with my forerunner 405 leave me frustrated and more wound up than before I left the house. The Forerunner is so unreliable that I wear both my 301 and 405 when training or racing with the 405 purely to record my heart rate.

To summarise the differences I’ll describe my experiences with both. The 305 is charged by plugging into a standard USB cable into the watch which can be attached to your computer or plugged into the wall. The screen tells you when the battery charging process is complete and you can unplug it and leave it in your training bag. One month later when you go back to the watch if you haven’t used it then you will still have 13 hours of battery life. Also if it says you have 2hours charge left then you know you actually do have 2 hours. If you get to work and remember you need to charge your 305 or are away from home for a weekend then you can use any standard USB cable to recharge it. When you go to use it if you are in a new area then it can take a while for the signal to pick up but never more than 10 minutes. The screen is large and the most important feature being the large chunky buttons that can be activated when wearing gloves, in the rain, with sticky gel covered fingers and without accidentally pressing adjacent buttons. Its major flaw is that in built up areas you can lose signal but this flaw is more than acceptable when added to the ease at programming the watch with a virtual partner and audio training alerts for distance or pace. Laps are easily recorded by pressing the large lap button with the large red stop button easy to see, no matter how hard the rain may be blowing into your eyes. Finally to download the data to your computer you simply plug it into your computer using the USB.

The Forerunner 405 requires a provided clip to charge the battery. Again this can be plugged into a wall plug or computer, but if you find you need to charge it up away from your home (believe me that is a lot of the time) and if you haven’t carried around your charger with you then you are stuck. The other aspect is you can’t just plug it into the wall to start the charging you have to press a button to activate the charging process. Sounds like a simple process but it is frustrating when you go to use the watch at a race and realise it never charged overnight. The other annoying aspect is that if you are charging you and you have a power cut or a light bulb blows you presume that when the power comes back on it will restart charging but it doesn’t. Many times I have returned to my watch after a day of charging to find it has a blank screen. Don’t assume that because you have had it charged for 16 hours that it will be fully charged when you go to use it. Often I unplug it with 100% charge to step out the door and be greeted with the low battery notification and a blank screen before I have reached the end of the road.

A further issue with the battery is how quickly it gets used up trying to find the GPS signal. 30 minutes before a race starts I switch on my 301 and try to get my 405 to pick up a signal. By the time the race starts my 405 will still be searching but helpfully telling me the accuracy of the satellites (so much for the Hotfix satellite prediction). For all this effort I find that my battery life is now 87% fine I think 100% is 8 hours so I must still have around 7 hours left, plenty of time to finish the race. But whilst the 301 picked up the signal within 5 minutes at the start line the 405 waits a further 2 miles before I get any data from it. Things then work well scrolling through my predetermined screens of heart rate, pace, virtual partner, distance.  As I approach the next mile marker I try to press the lap button, and again, and again, in the end I give up it’s not too important I can read it off my 301 or I can distract myself with some maths as I run to calculate my pace. 6 miles in everything else is fine. I have locked the bezel so I can’t accidentally catch it with my clothing, a fellow competitor or passing motorist but my screen starts randomly scrolling not with pace/heart rate/time but with the accuracy of the GPS satellite and battery life and compass directions. Great I don’t know how fast I am running but I do know that I have 10% battery life left. 10%?? How did I use 77% of my battery in less than 1 hour. Before I can check the screen again the battery life warning appears on the screen and the bleeping begins.

‘What’s that telling you?’ asks a fellow competitor ‘are we going too fast?’.

‘No, my battery is low’ I reply

‘Ah, forgot to charge it did you?’

Getting back home I want to download the little data my 405 recorded but unlike the 301 the 405 needs a handy ant stick for wireless transfer. That ant stick that you have to remove when carrying your laptop and fell down behind the drawer or you left plugged in your work computer.

One of my major issues with Garmin is that they know that the Forerunner 405 is flawed and have done nothing to rectify the problem with their customers. I am on 405 watch number three. I cannot fault the friendliness of the customer service people at Garmin. After getting to my uncharged watch again as I set out for a 22 mile run I ring up the customer service line ready to rant at them yet the clear English speaking operator is so understanding I can’t shout at them anymore. Although really I should. Every time they ask me if I have the most up to date software, I say it was down loaded last week, they say there was a new update yesterday I should try that to see if it solves the problem. I hang up happy then a week later conclude it isn’t any better. Occasionally the operator tells me what I am experiencing is a known problem and will send me a replacement. The first one was a brand new 405, the second one exactly a year ago was a refurbished model. Refurbished so well that on its first wear the strap fell off and I had to rush to the London marathon expo to get a new strap fitted before the next days race.

As I said Garmin know there are many faults with the 405 that they quickly released the 410. Comparing the specifications they are identical although the improvements to the Forerunner 410 include:

• Added device shutdown feature to the System menu
• Added banner that notifies customer when the device will be entering low power mode
• Added enhanced touch bezel

There is also the option of two additional wrist straps which allow a more comfortable fit for us thin wristed females. I am not the only person who has experienced problems with the 405 as many online forum users have discussed although the 410 appears to still have issues in the wet. I wish Garmin had offered replacement upgrades to those of us who have the flawed Forerunner 405. I would love to train with the Forerunner 610 with its new touch screen and new functions such as the Training Effect which measures the impact of an activity on your aerobic fitness, but I don’t have the money to risk on a product which may have as many problems as the 405 did when its new bezel was launched. My loyalty to Garmin disappears further with every frustrating run I attempt with my Forerunner 405 and with new GPS watches coming on to the market such the Nike+ sportwatch with GPS provided by TomTom at half the price of £179. Maybe it is time for a change.

Everyday we’ll suggest original stocking fillers for the active person in your life.

Today technical essentials for the modern athlete.

In the past we were quite happy to go for a run or a cycle, time ourselves with a stop watch and guesstimate how far we travelled using a road atlas and a ruler. We entertained ourselves on route by admiring the scenery or chatting to our club mates and we were motivated by self satisfaction of our achievement when we got home.

But now going for a simple run or bike ride has got technical. So here are some technical ‘essentials’ for the modern recreational athlete – All perfect gift ideas whatever your budget.

First of all we now need music for entertainment and motivation. Personally I prefer to listen to music at the tempo I’m aiming to run at, whilst others like to listen to music with a running in the title such as Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen. If you can’t decide on your own running playlists then there are enough readymade playlists and podcasts to buy and download from  or iTrain.com giving you motivation whatever the sport.

Next we need the mp3 player. iPods have become the staple accessories for the recreational athlete. You first begin with an iPodto listen to music. Then you think you can’t run without the Nike Plusattachment to measure your pace and how far you have travelled, with the added excitement of Paula Radcliffe congratulating you at the end that was your longest ever run.

But why just measure how far you have cycled or ran, why not map it? Subscriptions to online services such as MapMyRun.com allow you to map your route, measure the elevation, record your training in a log, suggest alternative routes from fellow athletes in your area, and calculate the calories burnt.

Then we have the iTouchwith all the great sporting apps. Measure the distance to the hole in golf, download a free weight program for the gym, monitor your calorie consumption, and use the GPS in the iPhone to go geocaching or use the adidas MiCoach app to record your training run.

Whilst it is not really an essential, I would love to have this piece of sporting technological kit by Oregon Scientific: The world’s first HD All Terrain Action Camera with G Sensor and GPS. The New ATC9K HD  is described as being specifically designed for extreme sports enthusiasts and professionals who want to capture every high action moment, on the slopes, on the waves or on the road.

Not only does the camera capture 1080p professional quality high definition video and takes photos of 5MP, its built-in G-sensor can also measure the force of gravity during acceleration, deceleration and hang time. This makes it perfect for extreme sports enthusiasts, sport trainers, professional sportsmen and those who wish to record and review every detail of their performance. Additionally it’s the only action camera water proof to 20m without external casing making it ideal for scuba divers, the self-contain design is also shock resistant.

A built in LCD screen and laser pointer help you line up the camera , with the LCD screen also allowing you to play back the videos where ever you are. The camera also comes with a full set of mounting accessories that enables users to mount it on any handles, bars, and helmets and use it for a wide variety of extreme activities. Simply mount it onto anything such as you bike, car, helmet or attach it arm, strap or sleeve. Recording straight onto a Micro SD (up to 32GB) the all in one design is the ATC9K is you perfect companion, hands free, shock resistant, water proof tough enough to follow you into the most extreme conditions.

As a special offer to celebrate the beginning of the Ski Season Oregon Scientific are offering a free GPS unit worth £50 with every ATC9K.

I love linking my Garmin Forerunnerdata from my running races to Google Earth and so my favourite part of this bundle is that it comes complete with a unique GPS plug-in that enables you to map your location, speed and distance travelled using Google Maps or Google Earth. While watching the video clip playback on a computer, you will also see your corresponding location, acceleration and altitude on Google Map. Keep track of each trail and race with this useful tool designed for trainers and sports lovers.

The ATC9K including free GPS unit is available for £249.99

Of course the essential piece of equipment to make use of these programs and gadgets is a computer.

If you already have a home computer chances are it’s already overworked with school projects and research, or filled with holiday photos. If you have a laptop for work, your IT department probably won’t allow you to download so many non-work related programs and software. So you may have to invest in your own laptop or notebook and there are lots offers available this Christmas before the VAT increases.

So there you go. My Christmas wish list technical gift suggestions, all essential, I think you would agree, for the modern recreational athlete.

Everyday we’ll suggest original stocking fillers for the active person in your life.

Today Waterproof Action Cameras

Today’s suggestion isn’t a product I own or have reviewed but rather something I want (Hint to Santa). Cameras are getting smaller and cheaper so I have been looking for another camera that is particuarly happy getting wet and knocked about whist filming adventurous activities. I have found two such cameras at different ends of the price bracket, but both with great promotional offers this Christmas.

5MP Underwater Digital Camera

If you are not looking for a special underwater camera for scuba diving but just want one for pool parties, the beach, messing about on boats or even just enjoying the snowy wet weather then the Speedo Aquashot digital underwater camera at £100 is a good budget option.

It has a 4x digital zoom held in a highly resistant and waterproof casing allowing you to take any image in water in depths of up to 3 meters and also has video capabilities.

The crystal clear 2.4” TFT LCD screen displays a preview of the image that you are about to capture meaning that none of your images are taken blindly, allowing you to take the best shot possible. It has all the usual features you would have come to expect in a digital camera including flash, self timer, scene settings and auto exposure.

There is also a 9MP version available for £125.

Christmas Offers

Speedo International has 5 Christmas offers which mean you can get some great deals if you are buying a camera as a present this Christmas.

One offer is that you can get a FREE Black 1GB Speedo® Aquabeat Waterproof MP3 player worth £65 when you buy green 5MP Aquashot by using the promo code XMAS5.

A second offer is that if you spend over £100 you can get a FREE green 5MP Aquashot by entering the promo code XMAS3. Meaning that you can receive two for the price of one. The other option could be to buy a 9MP version for £125 and get the 5MP free.

Of course if you are looking for an MP3 player and camera then better use of the promo codes could be to buy a 2GB MP3 player for £90 and an additional item such as a £15 MP3 player armband or a £10 sports towel to make the basket value up to £100 and then get the 5MP camera free.

Ultimate Action Camera plus GPS

But for the ultimate action camera I would love to get my hands on the latest launched by Oregon Scientific: The world’s first HD All Terrain Action Camera with G Sensor and GPS. The New ATC9K HD  is described as being specifically designed for extreme sports enthusiasts and professionals who want to capture every high action moment, on the slopes, on the waves or on the road.

Not only does the camera capture 1080p professional quality high definition video and takes photos of 5MP, its built-in G-sensor can also measure the force of gravity during acceleration, deceleration and hang time. This makes it perfect for extreme sports enthusiasts, sport trainers, professional sportsmen and those who wish to record and review every detail of their performance. Additionally it’s the only action camera water proof to 20m without external casing making it ideal for scuba divers, the self-contain design is also shock resistant.

A built in LCD screen and laser pointer help you line up the camera , with the LCD screen also allowing you to play back the videos where ever you are. The camera also comes with a full set of mounting accessories that enables users to mount it on any handles, bars, and helmets and use it for a wide variety of extreme activities. Simply mount it onto anything such as you bike, car, helmet or attach it arm, strap or sleeve. Recording straight onto a Micro SD (up to 32GB) the all in one design is the ATC9K is you perfect companion, hands free, shock resistant, water proof tough enough to follow you into the most extreme conditions.

As a special offer to celebrate the beginning of the Ski Season Oregon Scientific are offering a free GPS unit worth £50 with every ATC9K.

I love linking my Garmin Forerunner data from my running races to Google Earth and so my favourite part of this bundle is that it comes complete with a unique GPS plug-in that enables you to map your location, speed and distance travelled using Google Maps or Google Earth. While watching the video clip playback on a computer, you will also see your corresponding location, acceleration and altitude on Google Map. Keep track of each trail and race with this useful tool designed for trainers and sports lovers.

The ATC9K including free GPS unit is available for £249.99

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Geocaching started in 2000, when 24 satellites from around the globe had their selective availability removed allowing the accuracy of GPS technology to improve tenfold. Now anyone could precisely pinpoint their location or the location of items left behind for later. One GPS enthusiast wanted to test the accuracy by hiding a navigational target in the woods and posting the coordinates on the internet for others to find. Within days his stash was found and others began hiding their own containers and posting coordinates with the concept quickly spreading, to be later known as geocaching.

I was surprised to find that there are 166 caches located within 5 miles of my own house. Whilst many special handheld GPS navigator products are available to buy, I actually discovered that through my iPhone, Blackberry and Garmin Forerunner, I already owned 3 GPS devices allowing me to go geocaching.

After putting my postcode into the website I selected which caches to hunt for. The Garmin Connect site had a program to upload the details direct to my Forerunner but after an hour of unsuccessfully trying to export the details to my watch, I decided to just put the coordinates into my Blackberry which provided detailed topographic and street-level maps. The website also had some cryptic clues about where the caches were hidden at the location. The cache can be any type of waterproof container, one I was looking for was an ammunition box and the other a film container.

I decided to go for a walk in my local countryside and chose two locations on my walk. Both were described as easy terrain with a difficulty level of 1. The first coordinates I came across on my walk seemed accurate as the directions said it was opposite a pub and there was a footpath across from the car park, but it was overgrown with nettles and I wasn’t that committed to looking for the hidden treasure. I headed on towards the second location when a thunderstorm started and getting home became my first priority. So my first attempt at geocaching was unsuccessful.

However, today I was walking through my local park when I decided to just check if there were any caches hidden nearby, and there was. Getting to the location wasn’t a problem, although the cache did take some time to find as it was a tiny metal container hidden in a park bench and I’m sure I looked very stupid trying to casually look for a box attached to the bench. But success, my first cache!

Not sure I’m going to explore my local area for the 166 caches hidden near me, but I imagine it can be quite fun with children as they appear to be hidden everywhere from busy streets to secluded footpaths and with current new phones most people already own GPS devices. Also if you are visiting a new area of the country and you don’t know where to go for a scenic walk, it could be worth visiting the geocaching site as many of the cache detail pages lead you to unique views and describe nearby points of interest to look out for.

There seems to be quite a community of world-wide geocachers and if it means that people are encouraged to get active outdoors more, then perhaps the concept should be promoted. A wide range of GPS devices are available in both the UK and the US. For more information of geocaching visit www.geocaching.com.