How long have you been married? Depending on that I would either give her the S720 or the S150 ;-)

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"Yeah, no one likes a smartass, but we all like stars" - Thom Yorke


smartasscoach.tri-oeiras.com

been married a long time. that is why it better be expensive.

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I'll be what I am
A solitary man

What model do you have?

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"Yeah, no one likes a smartass, but we all like stars" - Thom Yorke


smartasscoach.tri-oeiras.com

I dont use one. I looked up the 720 and it uses a chest strap. She wont do that.

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I'll be what I am
A solitary man

Now for the serious answer ;-)



MOST women get annoyed by too many functions and by the size of most Polar units. SO maybe you should check the Timex line, they're more slick. Get her the GPS thing, that should bring the price up :-)

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"Yeah, no one likes a smartass, but we all like stars" - Thom Yorke


smartasscoach.tri-oeiras.com

for a young buck, you understand women.

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I'll be what I am
A solitary man

Yeah, the problem is that they don't understand me ;-)

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"Yeah, no one likes a smartass, but we all like stars" - Thom Yorke


smartasscoach.tri-oeiras.com

I just got the wife the Polar RD-100. Still a little big, but simple features and easy to use.

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Shawn
TORRE Consulting Services, LLC
http://www.TORREcs.com

to be completely honest, I hardly use the watch functions on the watch itself - aside from turning it on and off / changing readouts while on the bike. Too many functions too few buttons. ir/usb link and polar software on the peecee, I'm never going back...

The ones that work off the wrist are Pulse Meters. Pulse Meters do not give instant readings but need two fingers from the opposite hand to touch two sensors on the watch, usually two silver buttons. Not knowing what your wife does, this can interfere with mechanics. This must be considered. What sports does your wife do, health club and/or races??

what the last guy wvarta said about the wrist models. There are basically three types:

-the chest strap which is most typical
-the fingur cuff with uses IR light and probably isn't all that practical for most tris although for running it isn't too bad
-those "strapless" models like the Myo models which

the strapless models don't give real time constat heart rate readings and you have to stop and put your fingers on the sensor for a short period of time to get a reading, so be aware of that

As far as the strap models, for a female I'd go Polar or Nike with Polar probably being the better watch. True they used to only have large bulky ugly monitors but thier new watches this year are a lot better. The SD100 that Shawn picked up is a great watch, small, light, easy to use, big display, tons of features (more than she'll ever need) and Polar's nice chest strap which is a LOT smaller than the Timex. Even smaller is the Polar F3 but it's missing a lot of features and has a pretty small display. If you can find a SD200 without the foot speed pod that's a nice watch too, same size as the SD100 but with a better display and more importantly the much more comfy wearlink soft strap. The Nikes are pretty nice too and I haven't heard of too many problems. Small chest strap and they fit smaller wrists well, especially the Imara models.

Last year I'd say Timex would be a top bet for smaller wrists, but with the new Polars out I'm switching my vote:)

Sounds like I need to sell her on the chest strap type

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I'll be what I am
A solitary man

Yup, and then you need to look at the Nike Imara model. Very "ladylike" - slender with a stainless bezel and comes in black, pink, ice blue, etc. Looks WAY better than my hunky Polar.

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Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical.
- Andrew Coggan, PhD

Did you mean the RS-100?

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I'll be what I am
A solitary man

yeah, good luck, that's actually one of the best reasons to consider Polar over Nike. Polar's Wearlink is probably the most comfy strap out there. Pretty much all of my female friends have Polar RD100s or SD200s right now and a lot of them are smaller asian women with tiny wrists.

That being said if I was a chick I'd also check out those Imara models as they are pretty cute. only bummer is the digits are way tiny...

Tai, you know your electronic gizmos.

Do you mean RS-100 and 200. There is no RD

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I'll be what I am
A solitary man

Pink, point in Nike's favor.

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I'll be what I am
A solitary man

oh yeah, RS100 and RS200, I always get the two letters confused. The RS100 is probably all you'll ever need and comes with Polars standard uncoded chest strap. THe RS200 adds some more features, but mainly has run speed/distanc/pace features via a small foot pod you wear and has Polar's newer soft chest strap. If you don't like the price of the RS200 $200+ they sell it without the foot pod setup for around $139MSRP and you still get the nice soft strap upgrade. The soft strap is coded btw so that's another nice upgrade if she runs with other people.

What does the foot pod do?

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I'll be what I am
A solitary man

The foot pod (differentiates the 100 from the 200) gives you speed and distance. Similar to the Nike Tailwind. I currently have a Polar RS-200SD. Just got it back from Polar after it flooded and malfunctioned during IMFL this year - I was quite pissed to say the least.

Yup, you found the pink Nike Imara. Pretty cool looking up close too. I got one for my babysitter this year: she got a full scholarship to a div 1A school for X-country. It fits her too (she is only 5-0 and 95 lbs.)

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Fatigue is biochemical, not biomechanical.
- Andrew Coggan, PhD

same thing rroof said, it snaps on your foot, measured the distance your foot travels and transmits the info to your watch. Tells you how fast you are running, distance etc. Same technology Nike uses in thier run speed watch, they both license it from someone else. It's the most noticeable difference btwn the RS100 and RS200 but there are many others. As rroof noted there have been some quality control issues on the early RS200s. I've mainly seen freezing displays which are reset by holding down all 5 buttons at once. For some reason all heart rate monitors seem to sustain water damage more than regular watches, or maybe we just make a big deal out of it because they cost more, don't know on that one. The Imara is really cool too.