My Triathlon Adventure

I need to buy a new heart rate monitor.  My current one works well but it is dead basic.  It doesn’t track average heart rate or really do anything other than just tell you your current heart rate.  Here is the criteria I’m looking for (I’ll build the list as I go on):

• Stop watch with laps
• Track heart rate and average heart rate at each lap and overall
• a programmable timer that I can set to beep and remind me when I should do something, like eat during a long run/ride
• I’d like to be able to extract the data easily to a computer
• I don’t want to spend a ton of money on it
• Needs to work for swimming

Optional:

• Warning beep if my heart rate moves above a set threshold

I’ll update this as my research progresses.

UPDATE (1/13/2010): I chose the Timex T5J031 it seems to have all the features I was looking for at the right price point.  It does need an additional component to record data, but I’ll wait to get that at a later date.  I’ll post a review once I get a chance to use it a little.

I ordered some polypropylene pants for running in the cold weather from Campmor.com.  Like an idiot, I mistyped the house number on the order.  I only noticed it when I saw the tracking information on the UPS site indicating that I was an idiot.

Understandably, when I called UPS they told me that my only option was for them to hold the item and pick it up in person.  I could also call the shipper and have them update the address.  I called Campmor and spoke to Shawn.  He called UPS while I was on hold and said that the only option they gave him would require them charging campmor $11 to adjust the address.  It was off by one digit!  $11 is just silly, I mean the delivery person was right there!!!  Needless to say, Campmor shouldn’t eat the cost for my mistake, and I’m not spending another $11 to change the digit, so I think it is time for a short drive. Update: I’m not sure what happened exactly, but when I got home the package was here.  I wonder if the driver was contacted with the corrected address?  The tracking site says it was delivered about 20 minutes after my call.  Looks like today was a good day for customer service.

The reason I think Campmor is cool, is that first off he took care of the issue immediately.  Secondly, when I told him about a bad number and email address in the shipping confirmation email that I received from them, he took the initiative to fix it.  Most customer service people would shrug it off.  He actually cared enough about the company to want to fix it.  Any company that hires employees like that is great in my book.  I will certainly shop there again, though this time I’ll try to remember where it is that I live!

I’ll post what I think of the pants once I give them a try.  Update: The fit is nice, and they feel great.  I still have to give them a run to see how they are in action.  I just assumed that polypropylene was going to be kind of like Styrofoam,  they actually wear like cloth and seem pretty durable.