Garmin announced the touchscreen, weather-proof Forerunner 610 sports watch for serious runners seeking an extra advantage. Forerunner 610 can stand up to rain, sweat and splashes, and is responsive enough that it can be operated with running gloves.
Designed for the runner who is constantly seeking improvement, Forerunner 610 is Garmin's new flagship model. Forerunner 610's sleek stylish design complements the highly responsive touch screen and high resolution display.
Forerunner 610 uses a vibration motor for alerts such as heart rate, pace and distance when audible tones cannot be heard (heart monitor included in some bundles or available separately). With the heart rate monitor, Forerunner 610 also allows runners to track their training intensity via the new Training Effect feature. With the right information, it is not necessary to be a coach or sports scientist to help you train effectively. Training Effect measures the impact of exercise on aerobic fitness and lets you know how the workout improves your fitness during the workout.
In a true race against the clock, Forerunner 610 introduces Virtual Racer. With this new feature, Garmin has an answer for every excuse – no more, “I could have beaten that time” – where runners can race themselves over their previous bests or against other users'. These can be taken from runs stored on the watch or downloaded wirelessly from the huge and expanding Garmin Connect running community (http://connect.garmin.com). Here users can quickly and easily log their workouts, track their totals, set goals, share workouts with friends and family and participate in an online fitness community of more than 50 million activities around the world. Garmin Connect displays metrics such as time, distance, pace, elevation and heart rate. This information is shown through charts, illustrations, reports and a variety of map representations including street, photo, topographic, and elevation maps.
With the growing popularity of the run/walk training method in the distance running community (example: a runner runs for five minutes, walks for one minute and repeats for the duration of the course), Garmin has included a new run/walk alert. This alert allows Forerunner 610's other features, such as, Auto Lap and Auto Pause, to remain active during a run/walk session.
Price and Availability
The Garmin Forerunner 610 GPS watch will be available Q2 2011 for $349.99 or $399.99 with premium heart rate monitor.
