It is early days, not least because I’ve lost a month’s training since the computer arrived due to virus. The first feature I am interested initially is the OwnZone function, which can set a training heart-rate ceiling for a particular session based on performance in warm-up. This helps avoid overtraining. That has worked well so far.

Also, and the cadence measuring footpod looks like it is going to be very useful, and Polar assure me is a unique feature. The cadence, or rpm of your legs, indicates if your running technique is good, or not. Over-striding can lead to injury, slows you down, and is common among amateur and novice runners, so it sounds like a very worthwhile parameter to analyse. My early measurements show quite a high RPM, but still some room for improvement. I’m hoping extra miles will generate that as I become more efficient, although there are exercises I’m told that can help turn the legs over more quickly.

The Polar Pro Training software is a big improvement on the software I had been using with the older s625x, providing a lot more information to be represented graphically.

As this is the second Polar product I’ve had, I would not hesitate to recommend it. Suunto may be worth investigating. They have an interesting post-training technology, which again is based on heart-rate variability measurements, and I know some of the elite endurance athletes at Bath Sports Training Village are starting to use them.

Thanks!
Dan.