I’ve been thinking hard about getting fit. One can’t just rush into these things. I could just throw on some shoes and start running, but where would all the data go? Speed, distance, heart rate: all this information being pumped out with every step, going to waste.

I tried and failed with a few approaches. Manual exercise recording with fatsecret.com isn’t granular enough. I did have some success with Runkeeper on the iPhone, but battled with GPS sensitivity, and ironically (if you’ve been following me on Twitter), lack of multitasking – not to mention the inability to track heart rate information. Carrying some bulky GPS device in addition to my iPhone isn’t an option.

Not a giant wrist computer

Chris, quite the unreasonably fit geek, suggested a Garmin Forerunner. I remembered these as bulky wrist-computers that even the most unabashed geek would have trouble living down. Imagine my surprise when the Garmin Forerunner 405 arrived on my doorstep.

The 405 looks nothing like a GPS device. I’d be quite happy wearing it as a regular sports watch, if it weren’t for constant recharging required due to the 2-week standby time. Kick it into full GPS training mode, and the battery will be chewed up in 10 hours. It does seem quite power hungry, but I guess this is fine for all but the most advanced endurance athletes.

When you consider what Garmin have packed into the 405, you can understand why it needs so much power. At its heart the 405 is a 1000-lap stopwatch with a sensitive GPS receiver that will track your speed and distance. The watch supports the ANT+ protocol, so any compatible devices can be paired with the device to add their own data. It comes with a heart monitor as standard, and you can purchase add a cadence meter if you’re a cyclist.

Using the touch-sensitive bezel, you can pull up any information during training in the form of customisable screens. Pretty much any combination of speed, pace, distance and heart rate are available. There’s also a “virtual partner” mode that tells you if you are behind or ahead of a set pace or previous recording.

Online Magic

When you get back to your PC, the real magic happens. After pairing (yes, Bluetooth users will find the process familiar) with the ANT+ USB stick, the Garmin 405 will send its information up to the Garmin Connect service.

This is more like it. There’s all that data I was talking about, laid out in gorgeous infographics. You can see a track of your run, along with speed, elevation, and heart rate. You can even play back your training event and see how these measurements correlate.

Regardless of your measure, I am not an athlete. I have heard that these bizarre humans do in fact use this information to improve their ability to inflict pain on themselves. You may have felt like you were going to die running up that hill, but if the stats show you that you had 10 more bpm in your heart muscle, then you’d better go out there again and punish yourself.

Get one

You can get the Garmin Forerunner 405 for around NZ$450 from a number of different places, including here and here.

Thinking about fitness

Oooh. Tempted. Did you ever find out if the podcast app remembers the position of podcasts you were listening to?

And have you got 2.0 on your Magic?

I'm looking into buying a handheld GPS so i can try some geocaching.

Looking for something middle of the road with decent bang-for-buck.

The only ones i've seen around tend to be $500+ which is a little out of my price range at the moment.

Apologies for the web server issues earlier. The wonderful guys at SiteHost have solved my problem and everything should be swimming along now. If you had any trouble entering, try again just in case – I’ll manually remove duplicates.

You saw the reviews on TVNZ Breakfast, now you can have the products. Each of these devices will let you use your Bluetooth phone hands-free in your car, saving you from breaking the law come November.

You can enter once for the entire draw, and three separate winners will be drawn.

• First drawn wins a Navman MY500XT worth $700
• Second wins a Bury CV9040 Bluetooth Car Kit worth $430
• Third draw wins an LG HFB-500 Bluetooth handsfree worth $199

Yep, that’s almost $1,500 worth of prizes. Don’t say I don’t love you guys.

Entries are now closed. Here are the results. If you’re a winner, you should have an email now.

Conditions:

• One entry per person.
• Entries only valid using the entry form above.
• Entries limited to New Zealand residents only (sorry guys, the postage will kill me).
• The items are brand new, but may have been opened and reviewed for this website and TVNZ.
• Entries close Sunday 20 September 2009 at 8:00pm (NZ time).
• Winners will be contacted by email.

WIN: Navman, Bluetooth Hands Free Giveaway