Ultimate tool to show you how fast and far you've travelled
Gadget: Oregon Scientific's HRM (Heart Rate Monitor) + Speed & Distance (SE300)
What it is
The ultimate tool to show you how fast and far you've travelled (and how many calories you burned off in the process). The SE300 measures your heart rate, fitness, speed, pace, calories burned and how well you are progressing in your fitness routine.
Why you need it
With today's focus being increasingly concentrated on fitness and health, monitoring and measuring your personal fitness level is a good staring point to achieve overall wellbeing - and your new year's resolutions. HRM SE300 can provide the essential motivation to help you get your jogging shoes on and do a lap around the block.
Key features
- Coded HRM with speed and distance
- Smart training program
- Wireless chest band
- Body fat index calculation
- Stopwatch with lap
- Measures real-time calories and fat burned
- Vibration alert
- Analogue and digital data transmission
- Clock, date and alarm
- Low battery indicator
- Hi-glo backlight
- Water resistant up to 50 metres
What's particularly cool about it
The SE300 allows you to set a target distance and view the time it takes you to complete it, as well as your average speed and pace. Plus the Smart Training Programme function means you don't have to be an Olympic-qualified athlete - you can customise your workout by using your personal information such as your age, gender and weight.
What it will cost you
$249.99
Where you can get it
The HRM SE300 is available from Rebel Sport.
For more information about the full HRM range contact Oregon Scientific on 1300 300 155 or visit www.oregonscientific.com.au
What happened when we tested it...
Australian Broker's Agnes Gajewska took the SE300 for a run through the leafy streets of her neighbourhood.
Although I felt a flutter of panic at the size of the instruction booklet, I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized most of it was written in a mix of foreign languages and the English part was easy to follow... and it was smooth running from there (well, at least as far as the HRM300 was concerned).
The chest belt was immediately responsive and the HRM300 itself funky and remarkably simple to operate, considering how many functions it has. It only took 15 minutes to set up my routine and I was off.
Without going into specific details of my journey, the HRM300 was effective at revealing my heart rate, speed, the amount of calories I had burned and let me know whenever I let my pace fall. In turn, I found that it was strangely addictive (and motivating) to be able to measure my athletic efforts. So although I was grateful for the lift at work the following day, it was with a somewhat heavy heart that I sent the HRM300 back to its rightful owners.
As you see fit...
A good way to find motivation is to physically see how your fitness is progressing. Oregon Scientific's data logger +PC link (WM100) allows you to download the information from your HRM SE300 onto your computer and then display it graphically for your viewing pleasure. The WM100 has 30-hour memory storage and retails at $69.
