Here's my new friend Minnie, she arrived yesterday. I wish I'd bought one ages ago, I'm so impressed so far! Some of you might remember I was worried about being allergic to the metal parts of the back, but that's not going to be a problem as they are all recessed. I'm not sure about the buckle as yet, but I think I could tuck a tissue or a bit of cotton wool under it if makes me itch. I will only wear her when I'm running anyway, so it might take a while to cause a reaction. I was also concerned about reading something so small, well that's OK too in the sunlight, and she even has a back light although I doubt I'll ever run after dark.
I've done one run so far, and she found the satellite straight away. I enjoyed seeing the KMs tick up as I went, much nicer than RK yelling in my ear every so often. I can see from the upload she is far far more accurate than RK, no cutting corners here! I do know though from reading posts here that that might not always be the case! Once I've really got the hang of it I will leave RK far behind.....don't get me wrong RK is brilliant for a free app, but I've done an awful lot of fiddling with it recently.
It feels really sturdy and proper and reliable. I had a watch for pool swimming, obviously it didn't work on GPS but a bit like a pedometer, and that was rubbish frankly. That was another reason I dithered for so long before I bought Minnie. Oh, and she's pretty too!
I did have one problem though - I managed to set the alarm for midnight and being a bit deaf didn't hear a thing - Baldy did though lol!
Two questions I need help with please - what do I do if I want to start her after my warm up walk? I've read sometimes it can take a while to find the satellite so I wouldn't want to wait until I'm ready to run before I switch on. Should I find the satellite and hope she will keep hold of it, then press run when I'm ready?
Second question - I recorded my run in KMs but it has uploaded in miles, any suggestions on how to change that please?
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Curlygurly2
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I lock on to the satellites whilst I'm at home, do my five minute warm up walk and then start my watch and haven't had an issue with it losing connection. I walk through some quite tree covered sections and it's still fine (tall buildings can be an issue I believe but I think you're quite safe where you are?).
Under Settings in Garmin Connect (on the left hand side, the image of the person) there is an option to switch distance measurement to metric.
I wear my Garmin on top of a wristband, mainly because I stole it from my husband and it's a bit big, but it may be an option for you if you start to react to the metal.
Have fun and don't forget to come over to the dark side of Garmin Connect and join us all there
Thanks Frocky, that's what I thought, that I could find the satellite then press go when I'm ready to run. It's pretty clear around here, although Cambridge might be different - i'll find out when I go home!
I found the settings button and changed units to metric but can't find a save button... perhaps my next run will be in KMs?
What is this dark side lol? It sounds like somewhere I want to be....
On the first question. Yes, switch on as soon as you go outside. Once Minnie finds a satellite lock, she won't lose it (unless you are in a forest or similar).
On the second thing. I assume you are talking about uploading to Garmin Connect. If so you will need to change your Garmin Connect settings. On the left side of the page, you need the fourth icon (looks like a head and shoulders), select "Settings" and then change "Display Preferences" to Metric.
As you probably know, there are a bunch of us on Garmin Connect and there is a NHS c25k group too.
Thanks Dunder, I've done that to change the display settings but can't find a save button...I'll crack it eventually though I'm sure! So far I'm delighted that I've logged a run AND uploaded it !!
Congratulations with your first Princess Charmin'. You'll be hooked very soon!
Q1: In the settings on the watch, you can adjust how long it takes before she goes back into sleep mode. Set that to as long as it can be. Then when you go out, switch her into run mode, but don't press the start button. This lets her acquire the signal and keeps her ready to go, so to speak.
I'd like to adjust the powersave setting, but it doesn't seem to be an option on my Forerunner 10. Tomas - do you know how to do it? As it takes differing amounts of times to lock on to GPS I usually start searching at the beginning of my warm up. If it locks on instantly then it's gone into powersave by the time I want to start running, and then I have to go through the whole process again. This doesn't happen often, but it has a couple of times and was annoying!
I've been playing with it ... It gives a beep and a warning on the screen that it's about to go into power save mode and you just have to cancel it. The beep is so quiet you can't hear it outside though so you just have to be on the ball and keep looking at the watch to stop it switching off.
Do you have various displays on the forerunner 10 you can cycle between? (e.g. a "totals for the run" / "totals for the lap" / "time") If you do, you can also just cycle between the displays every couple of minutes as that resets the timeout timer.
I used my Garmin on Sunday for the first time in a couple of months. Of course it needed a good charge and in the process of trying to set the time on it, I ended up with the whole thing in German! Got it sorted in the end though lol
Just lock on to the satellites straight away - before it goes to power save it tells you so you can press the top right button again, but even if it goes back to power save because you have found satellites it usually then finds it again really quickly.
Had a look at my 10 and do not think you need to save the units just switch between the two and that is all you need to do. Enjoy Minnie
I have Minnie's twin push bottom right button 3 times = Settings, press Purple top right button once then use White bottom right to scroll through, Alarm, Activity ..., Tones, User profile, to Setup then press Purple button = scroll through Time, Language, Units using bottom right to select Units, bottom right again to hilight Miles or Kilometers then Purple to confirm choice, bottom left at last to go back to home phew!
(scrub that) but at least I can tell you the gadget saves the last settings lol & I am using the gps for now start to finish with very little time delay
I'm getting the hang of it, it's quite user friendly isn't it? It took me months to get to this stage with RK. I was brave enough to leave RK off today, Minnie didn't let me down. She really is a great little friend to run with, I wish I'd got her months ago.
It's quite annoying too though, wearing mine 24/7 & it keeps telling me to move! Been gardening just now & it still tells me to move!! 2/3rds of goal achieved in 1/3rd of day so think I'm moving enough personally ... oh & sleep records are a right laugh, got up and I'd done 1/2 a mile in the night - uhm now there's a Post to work on
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Trail Running - I love it :) 
Think I might be getting addicted
Tell Laura, I LOVE HER!!
I think it's finally clicked!
Wow I'm loving it :-)))
