Garmin 610 review

A few weeks ago I treated myself to an upgrade of my GPS training watch. There was nothing really wrong with my old watch, just that the new model is shiny and has a few rather cool new features. As with my last watch, the new watch is a Garmin. There are several manufacturers selling these type of watches, but Garmin are kings when it comes to GPS. It's their core expertise and if you're buying a GPS watch then you want the GPS to be good. Otherwise you only need a stopwatch.

 

My new model is the Garmin Forerunner 610. One of the obvious physical differences compared to my old Forerunner 305 model, is that the 610 looks and feels exactly like a normal wristwatch. You can also use it as a normal wristwatch with a screen which shows, time, date, etc. That's pretty cool. It runs off a rechargeable battery so you will have to remember to charge it up like your cellphone if you intend to use it as a daily watch, probably one to 2 times a week.

 

The 610 is the first of the Forerunners to use a touch screen, with earlier models using buttons to display or edit the various functions. The touch screen is a little tricky to master at first. My model is quite sensitive to finger pressure needed to scroll through the screens or to select items. I think I probably prefer the button system but I suspect that touch screen will become the normal for all future models.

 

When you first start the watch you are asked to enter in certain personal information, such as age, height and weight. The watch uses that information to calculate energy burnt during training. It's not a function I have ever used so I don't know how accurate it is. Once that's done, you're good to go. I found the 610 to be faster when it came to locking onto satellites when compared to my 305. It found the satellites in my area in under a minute with the first attempt. The Garmins are clever in that they remember those satellites and so future startups times get faster. I usually set my watch outside while I'm tying up my shoelaces so it's all locked on and ready to go when I pick it up.

 

The watch allows you to view a wide range of information while you are out training. Things such as time, distance, current speed, average speed, and so forth. On the 610, these are shown on Training Pages. The 305 did the exact same thing only then they were called Data Fields. You can have up to 4 Training Pages which you can customise to your personal tastes. I usually have one screen which for Time/Distance, another for Average Pace/Current Pace, and a third giving Time/Distance/Average Pace. You flip through the various screens by simply swiping horizontally across the face of the 610 watch with your finger.

 

If you are going for a simple walk or jog, then that's pretty much all that you need. Hit the Start/Stop button on the side of the 610 when you head out and come home, and then press and hold the LAP button to save your training session data. If you want to do something more specific, then you have a few choices in front of you. With the Garmin watches, you can choose to select from a list of Workouts. A Workout is a training session that you have designed for yourself. Maybe you want to walk one kilometer, jog one kilometer, walk one kilometer, etc, for an hour. No problem. You can enter the desired information directly into the watch or, as I would do, use a computer programme to write your session and then download it to your watch. I never used the Workout option very often with the 305 as it didn't give you a lot of feedback about how well you were following the schedule. It simply flashed up "Speed Up" or "Slow Down" on the screen, but you never knew by how much. An improvement with the 610 is that it shows you in both Time and Distance if you are ahead of , or behind, your desired tempo. It incorporates the Virtual Runner screen which I'll go into in more detail late. That's a big improvement and enough for me to use the Workout function more often.

 

The 305 had a Workout option which, for some reason, has been severely diluted in the 610. A shame because it's one I used almost constantly. Called a Quick Workout, you key in a desired Time and a desired Pace. When you hit the Start button, you get an instant comparison as to how far you are ahead of, or behind, your desired Pace. You are essentially racing against your watch which is running at a fixed tempo. With the old 305 you had more options than just Time/Pace, you could also choose to select Distance/Pace or Time/Distance, with a number of preprogrammed selctions to choose from if you wanted. Often I would just hit Marathon/5:00 which meant I wanted to run a Marathon distance at 5:00 minutes per kilometer tempo. Two clicks and I was done. Of course I wasn't running a marathon but it meant that the watch would keep counting up to 42 kilometers. The 610 has lost some of those functions and I think it's a little worse for that. Instead of hitting "10k" and "47 minutes", I now have to calculate what pace that would be. Not something I'm keen on doing every time.

 

If you want something a little more realistic, then there is the "Courses" training option. With Courses, you can retrace a previous training session which you or someone else has completed. Following the extact same route as before, the watch will "Race" by using the exact same tempo that you ran previously. If you sped up or slowed down in certain places, then the watch timer will also do that. That is different from the Workout function where the watch races at a fixed tempo the entire way. With Courses you are challenging your current self with your former self.

 

Virtual Partner is a cool function on Garmin watches. With Virtual Partner you get an extra screen to view which shows you how far in front, or behind, of your goal. That's the function I was talking about earlier. The VP screen is split into 3 rows. One row shows the distance between you and the watch, one shows the same information in time, while a little graphic in the middle shows 2 stick figures racing each other. If you are ahead of yourself, then the screen will be white with black lettering, if you are behind then the screen will be black with white lettering. A simple glance will tell you if you need to speed up or slow down. A black screen means you need to step it up a bit. In addition to the VP screen, you still get to see all your normal data screens. With the 305, the VP option could be used when running a Quick Workout (fixed tempo the whole time), or when running a Course. With the 610 they have improved VP by allowing it to read a normal Workout. No more annoying and unhelpful "Speed Up" flashing as was the case with the 305.

 

A brand new feature with the 610 is the Virtual Racer option. It's a little bit of a gimick but I can see some merits to it. With Virtual Partner, you can race against a previous session, travelling on the exact same course. The watch uses the GPS information from your previous session to race against you. Virtual Racer does the same thing, but it ignores the GPS information and uses only your previous speed and distance. It speeds up when you sped up, slows down you you slowed down, and will stop when you stopped. So why would you want this ? Not often, admitedly. But lets say that you live in Stockholm and have a friend who lives in Sydney. Your friend runs a 5km race in Sydney. He then sends his race data to you and you can "race" against him, following his exact tempo, in Stockholm. That's kind of cool. You couldn't do that with Virtual Partner as VP requires you to travel the exact same route as your friend in Sydney. For a more practical application, you could take a half hour walk around the park and then try to beat your earlier time when walking around a different park. To be fair to yourself you would have to choose parks of a similar terrain otherwise you might be giving yourself an unfair advantage.

 

I have decided to give the Virtual Racer a practical test. I want to run a 10k race in Stockholm with specific speeds for each kilometer, not running at a fixed pace the whole way. And I want the watch to help me keep to the pace schedule. What I did was a write up a race split schedule and head dwn to my local gym. I have a Garmin Foot Pod which is a small button you simply attach to your shoe. When the Foot Pod is active, the watch will calcuate data using the Foot Pod instead of GPS positioning. This means that you can record a workout whilst indoors. Anyway, I ran my 10k "race" on the treadmill, increasing or decreasing the treadmill speed to follow my race plan. Actually running allowed me to feel the different tempo changes and get a direct indication of if they were reasonable or not. Treadmills are not terribly accurate so I followed my progress on the 610 and adjusted the treadmill speed as needed. The Food Pod was surprisingly accurate when measured on our local athletics track. Anyway, now I have an actual race to compete against which I can use in Stockholm without me having to first travel to Stockholm.

 

A change with the 610 over the 305 is the iploading and downloading of training data onto your computer for storage and viewing. The 305 requires a USB cable connection, whereas the 610 can work wireless. An advantage ? Not for me, but other people might think it worth it. Uploading is automatic, direct to the Garmin Connect website. With the 610, Garmin have moved away from the Garmin Training Centre software which came with the 305. TC is still compatible with the 610 however. Now Garmin want you to use their Garmin Connect, which is web based. Garmin Connect allows for you to share your training sessions with other users as well as storing and analysing your sessions. I find myself still using the Training Centre as my prime resource. It can do a few things which I haven't yet been able to do with Garmin Connect. With TC I was able to save my treadmill race as a Course, which Virtual Racer needs. Garmin Connect didn't allow me to convert the treadmill session to a Course as it looked immediately for GPS information which was lacking.

 

The verdict. If you're buying a watch for the first time, go for the 610. For the nicer look and feel, and for futureproofing. If you have a 305 or similar, it's not a huge upgrade with the 610 and you could do just as well in holding on to your current watch. I like the new watch, or I will once I properly master the screen swiping process. It has dropped down in price from the initial launch price, which makes it good value when you consider the extra bells and whistles. Garmin make great GPS training watches and they obviously put a lot of thought into what the End User wants. That sets them apart from some of the other manufacturers who rely on product brand flooding to push their product to the front. It takes a bit more than a flash swoosh to impress me.