An Overview of A Polar GPS Watch – How The S1/S3 GPS Sensors Can Add A New Dimension To Your Training
Certain Polar heart rate monitor watches, can be fitted with the Polar S1 or S3 GPS sensor, to effectively create a Polar GPS watch, that delivers the benefits of GPS, allowing you to view your running speed and distance travelled on your training runs. Polar is regarded as one of the best heart rate monitor sports watch manufacturers and GPS has been a relatively new innovation to their product lines.
A Polar GPS running watch, connects to a special GPS device, that attaches to your upper arm, or clips into your running shorts. By wirelessly communicating with the wrist watch, speed and pace information can be transmitted to the wrist watch and displayed to the user. This is in contrast to one-piece GPS running watches like the Garmin Forerunner. The advantage of two-pieces use by the Polar are that the bulky GPS aerial does not make the watch too bulky and cumbersome, the disadvantages are that it is one more piece of gear to hook up and that it requires you replace the batteries on a regular basis.
Polar have a wide range of fitness watches (the “FS” range), designed to assist you with the job of setting goals and getting fit, as well as a number of performance running watches (the “RS” range) that allow an athlete to tweak their training to improve their performances. A Polar GPS watch can be compatible with the S1 or S3 GPS sensor. The S1 sensor delivers basic speed and pace measuring and is suitable for running and cyclists for speeds of up to 199 kilometers per hour, most entry-level fitness and running watches are compatible only with the S1. The S3 sensor W.I.N.D., provides “3D” GPS including the ability to record your courses which can then later be transferred to a computer and uploaded into the Polar ProTrainer 5 software, where your route can be viewed on a map and shared with like-minded fitness friends.
Unlike the Garmin Forerunner, a Polar GPS watch is not designed as a GPS watch primary, but does support the ability to add-on a GPS tracking device that measures speed and distance and all the benefits that make GPS such a revolutionary new training tool. True 3D GPS, however is only supported by the more expensive Polar sports watches and these might be overkill if all you want is a basic watch, if this is a case, then a Garmin Forerunner might be a better choice, but if you are already a fan of the many advanced Polar watches that are available, then the addition of the Polar S1 or S3 device, can add a new dimension to your personal fitness plan.