Garmin FR60 Men’s Black Fitness Watch Bundle
This FR60 bundle (in men’s black) includes a foot pod, a USB ANT stick, and a heart rate monitor.
Log every mile and every minute with FR60, a sleek fitness watch plus workout tool that tracks your time, heart rate and calories burned. When bundled with the wireless foot pod (included), FR60 also tracks speed and distance, indoors or out. Use FR60’s training tools to get the most out of your workout. Then, FR60 wirelessly sends your workout data to your computer for later analysis. Garmin FR60 Fitness Watch Bundle (Men’s Black)–includes footpod.
Once you’ve logged the miles, FR60 automatically… More >>
Garmin FR60 Men’s Black Fitness Watch Bundle
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Excited for my Garmin FR60 HR monitor, but it quickly ended on my first use. I was able to set up most of it without referring to the manual (typical male) which was nice. Nice features for the money. Liked the idea of being able to change the batteries myself without having to send to the manufacturer. During my first workout in the morning, I spent my workout trying to figure out the HR indicator for being below my set zones. Did see warning for being below my zones, but then it disappeared and never came back & I know I was still below my zones. By the afternoon I was working out again but this time with a Polar. I really wanted the garmin to work because I liked the ability to download my workouts to the computer (at this price point).
I called the Garmin store in Chicago because my owners manual got destroyed by my dog. I was told that it would cost $25 to get a new one ($12 to run it off & $10 to mail). Person said to go online; I did, but I still did not find it helpful.
Maybe I gave up too quickly on the Garmin, but I was able to workout with the Polar with no problems.
Rating: 2 / 5
This is a nice basic HR Trainer which includes the virtual training partner feature, but you can only train against a fixed pace, not against a previous workout or time/distance “course”.
There is benefit in sometimes training at a fixed pace over a varied course, but I think Garmin missed an opportunity to make this an outright winner by not including the ability to train against a previously saved workout or “course”, like they have in the 305 and 405.
Rating: 3 / 5
I Purchased the Garmin FR60 Bundle W/ Foot pod to Help me learn run pacing and for Triathlon Training. My old HRM just gave up but the chest strap works still works with most of the equipment at the gym without the watch. But there is no need since I have the FR60 but there are some “Issues” to deal with first. The Look and function is very good. However since I’m new to Garmin the menu’s took a little getting used to and programing was a little bit difficult, but from what I’ve heard this is typical. Once you do get the menus down it’s very intuitive and similar to other models they offer. The other reason I picked the Garmin unit is the Manufactures of other HRM’s in this price range had non replaceable batteries. IE you had to send them back to the factory to be replaced. This is something I really wasn’t fond of since I use mine daily. This unit fits nicely on the wrist and can be used as a “Sport Watch” and no-one would know you a Workoutaholic if they didn’t know you.
Packaged in the box were the Owners manual and Watch, Foot-pod, HRM-Strap, USB Ant+ stick. There is no software to speak of since it’s self loading on the Ant+ Stick. You also need to set up an account with Garmin to download your data and analyze it. BEWARE: Firmware Updates will erase your data and settings on the watch and they need to be set back up!!! There is no Off-line option to review your data
. This means you upload your data to Garmin then re-download it in Excel or TCX format then upload it into a training website like Training Peaks(Online) or Sport Tracs(Stand Alone Runs Offline). Granted it takes only a few minutes to do but is a little bit of a pain. Also when uploading you have the option to leave the data on your watch for you to review or when the download is completed the workout date is erased. It takes a little bit of faith to let your data go. When setting up your account you can set up your Heart Rate zones based on age and resting Heart Rate. You can add as many zones as you see fit. For Simplicity I just use 5, now when you look at your data though the amount of time in each zone is not displayed on the website on your HR Graph. The graph look really good but the only data given is Avg HR, Max HR. It would be nice if the time in each Zone was given as well. My old HRM(Which was $40) displayed these with times and % in zones on the watch and didn’t need to upload the data. Other data that is Give is Workout Time, Avg Speed/Pace, Max Speed/Pace, Avg Cadence, Max Cadence. All good Data that is essential for training/racing purposes.
For Running the Foot Pod Sensor tracks steps, pacing and speed very accurately out of the box. Pick a spot on your shoes to mount the sensor and pair the device with your FR60, I did a test run at the track and it was spot on after a 1 mile test run. You can either adjust the stride length automatically or manual adjust. There are supposed to be shoe on the market that the Foot-pod will mound directly into the sole under the shoe insert. I believe Nike makes one. Mounting in the laces are just fine for me. The advantage the FR60 has is It can be used indoors without a GPS signal. The combination of the Foot-Pod and HRM gives you very accurate Calorie data when running of a treadmill. I have found that most treadmills are off speed wise to the FR60, for example I warm-up at 10:00 indicated pace on the treadmill and my FR60 shows anywhere from a 9:20-9:35. No a big deal since I’m logging the information for later retrieval.
Since I Cycle I use the GSC-10 Speed and Cadence Sensor for my Bicycle. Same setup as the Foot-Pod with regard to pairing. This can be used indoors as well during winter months on Stationary Fluid Trainer or Rollers to track speed and distance. The downside is NO FREAKING Odometer!!!!!!! what was Garmin Thinking. You get everything else, Distance, Current Speed, Calories, Avg/Max Speed, Avg/Max Cadence, Time, Lap/Distance/Time/AvgSpeed/MaxSpeed/LapCalories, blah blah blah… I had to add my old Speed sensor back to the front wheel to capture Overall ODO distance.
Functionality: The FR60 is pretty easy to set up once you figure out the page layout and logic. You get your data input(AGE, HEIGHT, WEIGHT, ACTIVITY Class(read the manual for this one) into the devise under SETTINGS/USER. After pairing your footpod and Speed/Cadence sensor, You can then set up your “TRAINING PAGES” This is where the FR60 really shines. You can take all the data collected from either your Run/Bike/Other and display up to 3 pieces of data on the screen and have 5 pages to display the data. You can have one screen for Time only and another for Distance and Pace then another for Heart Rate, HR Zone, Calories and so one. If only One line of info is displayed it fits almost the entire screen and gets smaller from there. the Dot Matrix LCD Screen is fairly easy to read at a glace either running or biking.
The FR60, HR Chest Sensor, Foot-pod are all waterproof to 3 Meters so they can be worn during the swim portion of Triathlons or during off road runs that cross creeks or during Steeplechase events. I’ve worn mine during the swim of a sprint Triathlon. For Triathlon the F60 is not Tri Friendly meaning you cannot change sports easy. I just set it up in Other and Just Press Lap during transitions in and out. Since I’m only concerned with overall time and HR. The FR60 can be set up to scan for Pods so it will pick up either sensor when you press the lap button during T1 or T2. If your set on sport specific Timing press and hold the MODE button and you can then change sports.
Rating: 4 / 5