Electronics

Share Wirelessly
With Forerunner 405 you can share your locations, advanced workouts and courses wirelessly with other Forerunner 405 users. Now you can send your favorite workout to your buddy to try, or compete against a friend’s recorded course. Sharing data is easy. Just select “transfer” to send your information to nearby units.

Cross-Train
Take your training inside with the versatile Forerunner 405. Pair it with an optional foot pod to track your speed, distance and running cadence indoors when a GPS signal is unavailable. This new design clips onto your laces for easy removal and automatically turns on when you start moving. You can also add a speed/cadence bike sensor to track the speed and distance of your cycling workouts.

Be Part of A Community
In 2007, Garmin acquired Motion-based, the largest shared repository of customer-generated gps-based routes, courses and maps. This was a significant move for Garmin to support the gps user community and bring a wealth of route options to gps users. With a simple connection to your computer, you can join a worldwide network of cyclists and outdoor enthusiasts through Garmin Connect our new, one-stop site for data analysis an sharing.

You can also upload to optional Garmin Training Center software for further analysis. Garmin Training Center stores large quanities of workout and ride data. Some of the things you can do are

• Review your workout data, including pace/speed, distance, time, calories burned; and if available, heart rate, cadence and detailed elevation.
• View a detailed graph of your workout data, plotted over time or distance.
• View a map of your workout that shows the exact path you traveled.
• Categorize your workout history according to type of activity.
• Review previous workouts, which are saved by day and week.
• Create customized workouts with specific goals and rest intervals. Then send them to your fitness device.*
• Schedule workouts for a specific day with calendar.
• Get custom workout templates designed by the experts at TrainingPeaks.com

What’s In The Box
Forerunner 405, USB ANT stick, AC adapter, Charging clip, Owner’s manual, Quick reference guide

Customer Review: Garmin great hardware poor softwar
Great hardware: I’ve owned this device for two days now, and I love it! The watch itself, while taking a bit of getting used to, works fantastic. The bezel and side buttons work great and the interface on the unit is easy to understand and work through. The unit is well constructed, finds satellites in under a minute, and once adjusted for contrast, the unit is easy to read while at a full run on a sunny day. I especially love the training partner, as long as I remember he runs at a constant pace making no adjustments for ascents and descents on hilly terrain.

Poor software: At the time of this product release, Garmin has chosen to phase in a “new online” community, moving [...] users to GarminConnect. First, there is NO MAC support for the unit, and according to Garmin, support will not be coming until late 2008. Knowing how development cycles get pushed, I would not expect it until at least Q1 2009. With that said, it is totally unacceptable to have this type of a high end product on the market without support for Mac users, the largest growing market segment.

I was able to still run the unit in Windows. The ant sync worked well through the wireless connection and sent data to both the application and garminconnect site. As of May, 2008 I would call Garmin Connect an alpha stage production.

IF YOU WERE A MOTIONBASED USER YOU MUST USE GARMINCONNECT WITH THE 405.

The website is notoriously slow. The site also says many features are coming, but few exist. The most annoying example being that your mileage is only displayed in mph, as opposed to a pace such as 10:02/mile.

Additionally, graphs are all but useless. On my most recent run, I had a total ascent of 856ft and decline of 659ft. with many hills in between the elevation graph starts at 0 and ends at 6,000 ft., making the line pretty much a straight line from front to end. A better thing would be to have the high and low points be the peak and start of the graph, creating a much more useful tool. Similar results can be seen in the other graphs as well.

The reports section of the site is not very customizable and even lacks a print button that would properly format a report for a printer.

For the time being I am syncing my data then copying it to runnerplus. While they fully support the Nikeplus for automatic syncing they will be soon adding Garmin support as well. Regardless, the site is far more robust and active than Garminconnect. I’ll continue to monitor GC for improvements and mac support but will be be taking deep breaths in between visits.
Customer Review: Great Real-Time Data Displays
I picked up the 405 at REI, set it up and have taken 2 runs on the huntington beach path. (FYI, I’ve been using the 305 with HR monitor for the last year.) After the 405’s initial charge it took about half an hour to set up all the functions. Based on my first 2 tests it has all the functionality of the 305 and some great new features. Yes, it’s smaller and better looking (but not as small as it looks online, and not a fashion accessory). The “touch bezel” is a cool feature and comes with 3 levels of sensitively (I put it on “high”). After using it for a while it’s now very easy. The wireless “ANT” technology is a nice feature, but the 305’s wired USB connection has always worked fine for me. My first downloads showed an error, but the data transferred anyway.

The 405 satellite locator seems equal to the 305, and I’ve never had any issues finding satellites outdoors (no buildings around) - but it takes several minutes. The 405 displays a rating of its satellite accuracy, and mine showed14 to 18 feet. The 405 and 305 both allow you to set up advanced workouts, and allow auto-laps (such as every every half-mile) for easy data analysis on the computer.

For me, the HR monitor and the pace info are the critical features. I love the 305 but the HR readout is so small it’s nearly impossible to read while running (you have to wait until you download the data). This big frustration is offset with the 305’s good “alert” system which communicates if you’re above or below your pre-set HR or pace targets.
But the 405 fixes the problem of the tiny HR display! The 405 allows up to 4 personalized data displays to view while running (with up to 3 data fields per screen selected from over 20 data fields: distance, time, pace, speed, HR, elevation, calories, and then averages per lap, etc.) You change the screens by tapping the bezel. Fantastic! I typically train with a target HR zone (recommend reading “Total Heart Rate Training” by Joe Friel) and customized HR on 3 screens: #1- HR, pace, ave pace; #2- Time, distance, HR; #3- Pace, HR, distance. Bottom Line: The 405 is great for runners who thrive on real-time data, and have a little extra cash. If I could change one thing it would be to allow input of my Lactate Threshold HR. Then have the option to display while running my HR/LT% (much more useful than HR/max%). Some readings would exceed 100%.

I’m completely hooked on running with a combined GPS with HR monitor, and will never go back. REI and others have dropped the price on the 305 dramatically and it’s now a great deal. I’ll continue to test the 405, but will keep it unless something stops working- the newly added features are too good! The battery doesn’t seem to have any issues (the 305 never did). However, when the 405 isn’t active it goes into “watch” mode and simply tells time 24/365. This appears to have some drain on the battery between charges and between workouts, but I’m not sure how much yet.

(Note to 305 owners- the 405 will immediately connect to your existing HR band. No need to pay the extra $50 for the 405 with a HR band. I was able to combine past 305 workout data and new 405 data on the computer. I recommend saving old data before trying it.)