Review on 🏃 Garmin Forerunner 205 GPS Receiver and Sports Watch: Discontinued Model for Active Users by Michael Syph

This item is amazing. I've had the 205 for a few days now and have done a few runs with it, although I plan to use it for cycling as well. Obviously there are a lot of cool things you can do with it, create maps of your runs, then complete those runs, turn them into routes and later compete against yourself. However, the main reason I wanted it was: - to estimate mileage - to get speed/pitch feedback. First Mileage Estimates - I never knew how far I ran and just assumed. Now I'm training for a marathon and that's not enough. I tried using a mapping website where I digitized my routes with a PC mouse. It turned out that if I planned to run 3-4 times I would get a mile difference for a 15 mile run. Not good enough. So this thing accurately recognizes the mileage, and now I don't train too far or too short. lots of useful information to assess how fast I'm running - how long I've been running. When I tried speed workouts or slow recovery runs of 10+ minutes per mile, I never knew if I was moving slowly enough to really recover. Now I know how fast I drive. Instant pace feedback isn't that great, but lap pace is very good. Now I understand that I have a hard time running slower than 10 minutes per mile, so disciplining myself helps. I haven't trained for speed yet but it will be great to see how my training is going and if I'm hitting my goals to reach my pace goals to run a half marathon in 1:45. Also calories burned. Some reviews mention that it's far. There's a firmware update that fixes this and it's pretty much accurate now. I've compared what the predecessor said to some online rating tools and I'm happy with the 205 calorie estimate. Reason for only giving 4 stars: - Garmin's training software is pretty basic. I chose the free version of the software called Sporttracks from zonefivesoftware.com. Excellent mapping and reporting capabilities, analysis tools are better. Not as intuitive to use, but for a free package it's better than what Garmin offers. Also, some of Garmin's advanced features are useless. Things like the % score are very inaccurate and the amount is questionable. Bottom line: if you need a tool to improve your workouts and don't want to be tied to a system that uses a pedometer and/or create maps from your runs, this is a winner. TO UPDATE. I rarely go back and update reviews, but I was about to post this sometime in mid-2010 when Garmin pissed me off. So he lived about 3.5 years. First, about a year ago it became difficult to sync it. I had to constantly clean the contacts with an eraser. Then, a few months ago, I started getting "lost satellite lock" in the middle of a clear-sky run. This became more and more frequent until this thing could barely hold the satellite for more than 5 minutes at a time. I stopped using it. Sometimes I miss it, but now I also like to run "just to run” without worrying too much about pace and distance. At a current price of around $120 I would still recommend it, especially if you are preparing for any type of race. I've probably driven about 1500 miles in the 3.5 years I've been using it.