Heart Rate Monitors & GPS Smart Phones

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Kieren Jan 2012 8:43pm, 12 Jan 2012 3,299 posts	0 Kieren After almost 5 years with my 1st generation iPhone, I have upgraded to a newer Android phone with GPS. I never thought anything could replace my trusty Garmin 301 but looking at the app store, it looks like there are a bunch of fitness / running apps that will log your run and pair with a polar or garmin heart rate strap so you can get all that data too. Does anyone have any experience with these apps or recommendations?
whiskey Jan 2012 8:45am, 13 Jan 2012 187 posts	0 whiskey a lot of the apps will depend on having the right hrm, i used to use cardiotrainer which you were supposed to be able to pair up with a polar hrm, it didn't work with my ft4 i assume because it wasn't blue tooth, but i'm not sure
Kieren Jan 2012 12:39pm, 14 Jan 2012 3,300 posts	0 Kieren Thanks Whisky. I have the Garmin and m having a play around with some now. I also have a polar MRM around somewhere that might work. I just downloaded Runkeeper & MapMyRun - I was looking at another one that starts with a G the other day and some sort of lizard face icon but I can't remember what it was called so can't find it again
Noanie Jan 2012 1:59pm, 14 Jan 2012 First-time poster!!	0 Noanie Was it a gecko maybe?
Kieren Jan 2012 11:33pm, 14 Jan 2012 3,301 posts	0 Kieren Yes - I found it - doesn't work with my garmin heart rate strap so I will have to find the polar one It's called endomondo endomondo.com
Jambomo Jan 2012 7:54am, 15 Jan 2012 3,101 posts	0 Jambomo The only thing I find (thought it is an iPhone I have) is that constant running of an app drains the battery so if you want to use your phone in case of emergencies you might take that into consideration. I don't know what it would be like on an android phone though tbf.
Kieren Jan 2012 3:35pm, 15 Jan 2012 3,302 posts	0 Kieren It did okay - today - about half a battery on a 2 hour run with music playing. I used run keeper on the drive down which seemed okay but opted for endomondo for the actual run in addition to my garmin. I'll post some screenshots later after I shower & eat....
Alun Jan 2012 11:22am, 18 Jan 2012 112 posts	0 Alun Hi Kieren, You could also try Sports-tracker from the Android store, you can buy a rechargeable heart rate monitor from their shop and upload it to their website for further analysis and sharing (to Facebok and Twitter if required) I've been using the Symbian version since it was a Nokia research project in 2007, recording almost every run since September 2007, love it!
Kieren Jan 2012 10:12pm, 18 Jan 2012 3,304 posts	0 Kieren Thanks for the update Alun. I quite liked the endomondo and as a package it's really good with the website too but to be honest I'm really happy with the Garmin 301 and fetch everyone. smartphone apps were good but I can't seem to find a way to get them to poll more frequently. I think they update every 3 seconds or so like the Garmin but on that you can set it to update every second (at the expense of battery). I did turn on Facebook sharing for fetch but loads of people moaned about the spam so I have removed that :/
Kieren Jan 2012 9:24am, 21 Jan 2012 3,309 posts	0 Kieren Some pics from last weeks run