Garmin 310XT

For those that don't keep up to date.
There is a new software update that now includes an option for 1 second updates.

No more intervals with only three readings and long paddles that show no detail.

This now fixes the single biggest failing of this unit and lets it live up to it's true potential.

With that sort of detail it can now truly be used for testing and race analysis.
No more wearing my Polar at the same time to get real info.

Other Garmins have had this, I don't know why it took so long, and so many, complaints/requests on the Garmin forums for this to happen, but finally they have listened.

So all you people out there that have never updated, now is the time. I see so many that are still running the original software with it's time lag to reach speed, it amazes me.

The new one is version 3.0 and will wipe your memory and settings, so back it up and unleash the power that this unit always promised but never quite delivered.

Happy Fathers Day to me.
A new garmin 310xt is just what I wanted... Does anyone know if I can get Angry Birds uploaded to th Garmin?

Now to do wade through all the updates, there seems to one every month.

You should just be able to load the latest update.
They are all complete new firmware.

Just a note: If you really know your stuff and want to look at better more detailed graphs that you can magnify, load the training software on your computer and use that. (Available free on Garmin website)
Not as slick as using the online way, but the data is much more detailed.
You will notice that when you are paddling you may look down and see a brief 17km/h or something, but when viewed in the online way, the data has been smoothed and these little details get lost.
The training software shows it all.

You can use both, I do, online for a quick look see, on the computer for testing etc.

Make sure you turn on the 1 second update option for best results, unless you intend to do really long workouts that push the memory.

What the hell is angry birds?

Angry Birds is one of the best Apple Game Apps you can get from the App Store. It's rated the 3rd most popular App. Its a series of increasingly harder games whereby you have to catapault a number of birds into a different structure and score points. You need to score a certain minimum per game in order to advance. A great addictive time waster!

Rightarmbad wrote:
What the hell is angry birds?

Geez Right i thought you knew everything

Have been using Sporttracks for yrs will have another look at the Garmin software

Also try SportsTracks software. Its free to download and is much better than the one garmin supply IMO. There are plenty of plugins for sportstracks such as garmin workouts, training overlays etc etc.....

RAB off to google sportstracks

With having so many options as what to display on the garmin and very little experience with training "watches" it's difficult to know what information to display.
For the short races elapsed time would be very important but for the 111km hawkesbury classic i dare say average speed and average heart rate would be more important. Does anyone have any thoughts about useful/useless information to display?

I've also managed to layout the course for the Classic on a website called www.gpsies.com including all the check points. From there you can export the track to Garmin training center and then onto the 310xt. Although it seems to have loaded I wont know for certain until I give it a few test runs and then there's the question of how does this help me? My aim is to have a 'distance to next checkpoint" displaying on the handset.
I'll be testing the theory out on the weekend with a mini track around middle harbour.

Then there's always the question of how to make the unit useful in the middlle of the night. As much as the battery is meant to last for 'upto' 20 hours I'm sure that's without the back light turned on the entire time. So how would you set it so the backlight would come on for 30secs every so often and still have enough power for a 13 hour plus race?

Shady, the garmin is only as powerful as your own knowledge.

For me, I have two screens of four displays rotating, with current speed and current Heart rate always in the two top screens so that they are always visible.

The other two spots on one screen show split distance and split average speed.
The other spots on the second screen show total distance and total average speed.

These are what work for me personally as that is the information I am interested in.

I now know my heart rates very well so HR is the major guide for my paddling.
Speed also lets you hunt out any currents or shallow bottom that effect your speed.

So for me, if I am to head out for an hour and a half race type effort, I already know from training and testing, that I can hold a HR of 162/3 beats for that distance.

This helps guide me to not go out too hard and keep up when I slack off.
Also if there are a lot of runs and I am getting rests, the average HR will show me how hard I am working overall and give me an idea of how much I can go over 162 knowing that there are times to recover between those efforts.

If the distance was 10km or so, then I can run my HR at 168 all the way and still know there is juice left in the tank for a last few km blast to the finish.

If I'm headed out for a two hour plus event, then my HR should be around 157+, with the rate finally dependent on how much sugar I can get into me during the event.

What you choose to display will depend on what you personally need to know.

What ever you display doesn't matter now as you will soon work that out.
But the main thing is that all your paddles are recorded, and from that, your critical heart rates can be gleaned by someone with experience, especially if you have a number of races recorded.

For now, I would suggest just putting up current speed and HR.
Maybe a real time clock if you have time constraints on your workout.

By displaying your HR, you will start to get a feel for it, even if you do not have the depth of knowledge to fully exploit it.

Something I like to use, is to mark a set course for repeats with the lap function.
Then whenever you pass through those same points again, the lap automatically starts and stops again so you don't have to keep reaching down while paddling when you are doing intervals.

Make sure you do the firmware upgrade, it is much better in it's final version.
Be sure to turn on one second updates unless you really need super long recording times.

If you want to send me a link to your workouts in a couple of months time, I'd happily chat with you about trying to glean those HR's.

Happy paddling.

I've run my backlight on low for a couple of hours in the morning and it didn't seem to change the run time too much.
You really need to just try it and see how long it runs.

The only way I can think off the top of my head to turn it on automatically every now and again, would be to turn on the auto lap and have it lap every KM.
Then you would be able to check your readings fairly often without stopping to reach down.

And now after a bit more thinking;

You can also set alarms for distance and HR and time etc.
So maybe just set a time alarm every whatever minutes you want it to light up.
Once you know your HR you can also set a quite narrow zone you need to be in and it will light up and whinge when you go outside of that.

There is not too much you can't make it do with a bit of sideways thinking.

Thanks for the advice RAB.

I like the idea of having the same two spots always showing the same infromation. It makes a lot of sense especially at night when you dont have too much time to get the important information before the backilight turns off again.

I'll try setting the alarm for every 10 minutes and play around with how long the back light stays on for.

I'm off for a 3 hour paddle on saturday morning doing laps around middle harbour so it will give me a good chance to test everything out.

Is there a trick to mounting the 310xt to the footstraps? It seems as though it it may be quite loose and the screen flopping down all the time.

add a piece of foam between the strap and the garmin.

I cut a 3-4cm wide piece of black spongy foam pipe insulation (you can buy it at any hardware store), put it around the center of my footstrap and wrapped a piece of duct tape around it to secure it. It makes a perfect mount and costs next to nothing.

i think the garmin has three of 4 back light settings, 45 seconds is the longest , its found in settings mode.
i agree to displaying several fields i use four; current time, times elasped current speed and distance travelled, however you have to stop/ start to get the distance, i wish it would refresh and show current distance travelled. i was wondering does the new software upgrade allow for this to happen. in all its a great training tool i love it.
to help with the lighting issue play with the contrase too , i found it helps also.
andy

I used the 305 for years and loved the 4 panel screen with all the info shown. It died on me recently and REI took it back. Picked up a 210, but I am going to return it tonight. If you are used to the 205/305, I wouldn't recommend the 210 for kayak training. Menu system is more difficult, less info can be calculated and shown on the screen, etc. I just ordered a replacement 305 online for a bit over $100. For kayak training/intervals, etc there's no comparison.

Though for running or maybe biking, the 210 would be great as it's much smaller and lighter.

As a new user of a 310XT, I'm not having too many issues with the default display settings as I'm not yet using the HRM for training purposes. I find setting the alarm for 1 km distance is useful for short distances - I'll see how useful (or annoying!) that gets for a 47 km race next weekend.

Just logged a 3hr stint on an Epic V8 with the Garmin 310xt for the first time. I'd used it on a bike ride once but this was the first time on ski.

I was quite surprised (disapointed) with the results.
Two main things was the average herat rate was 164bpm with a peak of 189bpm. I've read that you subtract your age from 220 to get your theoritical max heart rate. At 38 that makes my max HR 182bpm.
I was surprised my heart rate was so high, although I'm not exactly ultra fit person.

Secondly I was thinking my average speed would be 10km/h and hoping it may even be in the mid 10s. Unfortunately it was only 8.8km/h. I managed to get up to 11.1km/h on a downwind section.

There was quite a blowy westerly which made things quite difficult. I was glad I was on a stable V8 but still had a few hairy moments with the wind a chop hitting side on.

Link to Garmin Connect track info.
connect.garmin.com/activity/113114799

I will be changing the fields around a bit as I was much more interested in current speed/heart rate than I expected and I didnt have elapsed time shown at all which when you have hired aboat for 3 hours comes in handy.

Ignore all stupid formula based estimations for heart rate, there is not one that will work.
They give a rough guide for a percentage of the population, but are wildly out for others.

Just keep logging the miles and get a few races in and I will tell you all you need to know about your heart rate.

Don't forget to write a little description of your perceptions of your effort and note anything like extreme heat or cold and if you are well or not.

If you are willing, we could post up your workouts and my conclusions for all to see as a bit of learning for anyone here that wants to gain a little knowledge.

Just make sure you have the one second recording enabled.
It makes analysis far easier.

You will also have to enable public viewing if you want anybody else to see your data.

I have recently updated the firmware to 3.90 and now I am not picking up satellites! any advice on how to rectify the problem?