It’s not every day I get to combine two of my interests (technology and fitness); although more and more options present themselves every day. Back in November I purchased the Polar FT80 for my wife and I to help us maintain our fitness levels during the up coming holiday season. I will not say the watch is glitch free, just go to the forums and you’ll see that does have it’s share of issues, but as far as I’m concerned the watch’s benefits far out weigh it’s negative attributes. The FT80 allows you to upload it’s data to a special polar training site where you can review your workouts graphically and numerically; you can also track your progress towards various goals. Both the watch and the website can develop plans for you based on your goals and fitness level, the watch will track your weekly progress towards these goals and award you visually if you attain a certain percentage of the goals requirements (a little cheesy, but fun none the less). The watch can run various tests on your heart including rest tests and own index tests with the results of these tests it will further hone your program. The own index calculation is Polar’s estimate of your VO2 max, and like other data points it will be stored each time you run the test so that you can track improvements. The FT80 also comes standard with the Polar WearLink transmitter belt, which is much more comfortable than the standard hard plastic chest straps their older models used to come with. All in all this is a solid watch and training companion.
