I might break down and buy a HR monitor/GPS unit

[Wahine]

I have the Garmin 305. It took me a year to figure out how to use it with some proficiency, but now I'm in looooooovvvvve.

It is very techie, with a novel for a manual, but check this out...

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/user/h2odiva

This is the data you can get from the garmin about your workouts. Waaayyyy cooooolll.

[Offthegrid]

I have the Polar (cs-300 I think) and I like it although the wrist watch is big. I wanted one unit I could use for the bike and the run, and I didn't have a cadence sensor so this seemed like a logical option. Although now that I can actually run, I do wish I had GPS, but I can pretty well estimate the distance based on time.

The HR has been a big help to me. It lets me know I'm jogging too hard. On the bike it's horribly slow (and frustrating sometimes) to keep my HR low, but I know it's what I need to do right now. I don't wear it to swim.

As for the strap, I don't mind the regular HR strap -- I don't even know it's there. (I'm too big to wear one of Polar's bras.)

[MINIskirt]

I have the Garmin Forerunner 205, which is similar to the Garmin Forerunner 305, but doesn't have a HRM. I absolutely LOVE my Forerunner.

You can even set it to beep when you start running too quickly.

[HillSlugger]

I think that Polar's sports bra will pretty much take any heart rate monitor unit. Basically it's a sports bra that has slots that the monitor and straps thread through.

[LBTC]

DH and I both have the Garmin 301. It has some cool features - set up for running, biking or other, but you have to change the settings for each sport. You can set different max HR for each sport, also, not that I know how to do that!

We have sometime seen spikey HR's being reported - we doubt that DH hit 240 in his last mild road ride, so we think there is some disturbance from an outside source....I am hoping that all HRM's do this from time to time.

I like that I can have custom screens - so I can view time, HR and elevation or whatever combination of stats that I want.

Here's one of my rides:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2423139

No cadence meter on this one, though.

Have fun deciding!

H&B
~T~

[KSH]

I have the Garmin 305. It took me a year to figure out how to use it with some proficiency,

Hhhhhuuummm... not a good sign... a year? Wow.

Sounds hard.

Maybe I'll go really simple and just go for a basic HR monitor/watch combo only.

[VeloVT]

I have the Timex Bodylink system. I really like it actually. Very easy to use --took me about 15 minutes to get it set up and figure out how to use it. The only issue I can see for tri's is that it takes a few minutes to lock onto the GPS signal at the beginning of your run -- but I guess you could just turn it on when you're setting up your transition stuff before the race and leave it there, on, and put it on either in T1 or T2 (you don't really need the GPS on your bike b/c of the computer, and since the unit is separate from the watch, it might be easier just to use it for the run).

I've found that the real-time pacing is pretty accurate.

The newest version does measure altitude/ascent & descent rates, so while you don't get the fancy readout on the watch itself that you seem to get with a Garmin, if you get the data recorder, that is recorded and can be uploaded and graphed, etc.

I have tiny wrists and while the Garmin seems really cool, I don't think I could wear it.