Ha!  Yes, I’m writing about my heart rate monitor.  Why?  Cuz I have a blog.  Might as well write something.  It’s a Suunto X3HR.

First impressions:
A very nice piece of equipment.  Well built, easy to read the display, seems to have a lot of neat functions.  This is my first heart rate monitor of any kind, but I’ve had a number of “sports” watches, usually of the Timex Ironman variety in various guises.  I don’t do so well with non-waterproof type watches, so I’ve never really kept any that long.

Features:  I’m not going to detail all the features, just list what it does.  There are better places (I’d suggest Suunto’s web site, for starters) to read details about the watch.

• Heart Rate minimum, maximum, average
• Time (has a single alarm, too)
• Date
• Temperature
• Barometric Pressure
• Altitude (based on pressure, you set the altitude)
• HR alarm for minimum and maximum
• Stopwatch, stores ten laps
• Water resistant to 30 meters (you can swim with it)
• Memory function remembers ten workouts

I think that about covers that.

Things I’ve noticed using it (remember, I am a true Noob, a beginner)

It really isn’t very friendly to night-time users.  Perhaps I’m spoiled by Timex (never thought I’d write something like that) but on this watch the only way to activate the light is to hold the upper right hand button (that normally changes modes) for about three seconds.  I’m used to watches that you press the button, they light up.  It also doesn’t stay lit very long unless you keep pushing buttons.  Normally?  Not a big deal.  But to a beginner who is just starting to figure out how different heart rates feel, it’s kinda inconvenient if you exercise in the dark.   Now, I happen to live in Texas, so during the summer (which is about 10 months of the year) I either go out at 5:30 AM or after the kids are in bed (9:30 or 10:00 at night) and so having a light is handy.

The beep isn’t terribly loud.  I know, it’s because if you are running a race with 500 other people there are tons of beeps and you have to tune into your own, but again (for a beginner) it’s hard to hear.  Especially over my heavy breathing.

It has a target range (minimum and maximum heart rates) and you can set an alarm if it goes above or below (in my case, both) the range.  This is cool.  If you’d rather not hear constant beeping, you can turn off the audible beep and the display just blinks (not light up blinks, but flashing the numbers).  This is pretty cool.  But be warned (if you are a statistics junkie) that at the end of your workout you will not get any kind of information about how long you were in or out of your target range or anything like that.  You get max, min, and average heart rate, and if you count laps, you get the heart rate you were at the moment you pushed the “lap” button (not the average for the lap).  So it’s fairly basic information, but still useful (to me at least).  If you need more bells and whistles look for something fancier.

It took me about two workouts to figure out how all the functions / buttons fit together.  But once you get it, it’s easy, pretty much.

Nifty thing – you can set two interval times.  Like fast / recover, or whatever you are doing.  Again, you gotta listen for the beep (although it’s very possible that I’ve spent enough time at rock concerts that I just can’t hear this particular beep)

When the stopwatch is running, you get a little graph that shows where your heart rate is in relation to the range you have set, so you can tell at a glance how you are doing.  Or you can set it to show total time at the top, heart rate in the middle, and lap time (or interval time) at the bottom.

It may sound like I’m nit-picking, but overall – I love the thing.  It does just what it promised (track my heart rate) and for me it is a good fit.  If I was some kind of good athlete training for something and using heart rate zones on a regular basis (you know, trying for 88% for 12 minutes or whatever) then perhaps there is a different HRM out there that would work better.  But for a beginning runner who also rides a bike at times and might swim laps (if I can find a place and time to do it) this seems like a good deal.  Just over $100 if you shop around, I used Amazon.  I think the Polar watch for the same price may have more features, not sure.