Well, it’s Fitness Friday and I have a pretty spectacular gadget to talk about today (Polar RC3GPS). So hold on tight, this might be long one, but at least it’s THOROUGH.
Before I start, I just wanted to preface that I am not training for any certain event. In fact, I am just now starting to track my HR and Miles because of my new polar. I hadn’t in over 2 years. Why? Because I didn’t need to (although i wanted to). And part of that reason was because I wasn’t really working out (due to healing my gut) and I was focusing on gaining health back. A slow and steady progress, but so worth it! Today I am easing back into road and trail running as well as teaching strength and spin classes.
The following post is sponsored by FitFluential LLC on behalf of Polar. My thoughts and opinions are completely my own, I promise that! 
The polar is helping me train SMARTER, not HARDER. I’ve used the Polar RC3 GPS in 4 different settings over a 2 week period. Trail runs, beach run (on vacation), road running, and in the gym (cycling, strength, etc.) Here’s what what you need to know.
Once unboxed you have you watch, heart rate monitor and your USB charger.
One cool thing I noticed on the the heart rate strap was some rubber around the connector/snap downs. Curious as to what this I was I did some research. The rubber is to prevent any spikes in HR. I run in an area with lots of electricity poles and would get some random HR values in the high 200s. SO far everything has stayed in normal range. Pretty cool little feature as I can’t stand when my HR reads wrong due to interference.
Polar is well known for being a leader in HR monitors and it lives up the reputation in the the RC3. You can pick between two ways to train. Zone optimizer and standard. I like to use standard the majority of the time, because I’m not really training for anything specific right now. But my husband uses the zone optimizer the day after very tough session. Here’s why—–> The watch and HR monitor will actually take you through a small test/warm and based on their formula and variability in HR will change your zones. If you are fatigued from the hard session the day before, the watch will lower your HR zone so you don’t overdo anything. If you have recovered your zone stays the same. Such a GREAT feature for those looking to train SMART!
The GPS works very well. First time turning it on it can always take a minute or two to get a signal, but after the first time using it, the watch picks up a signal pretty quickly.
A tip if you don’t like waiting for signals. I always turn my watch on a few minutes before run. If driving to my run spot, I stick it on my dash. If running from my house, I stick it on my porch while I put my shoes on. Then my watch is always ready to go when I am. Another very nice feature is how stable the GPS pacing is on the Polar RC3. I noticed straight away how stable this was and wasn’t jumping around by more then :10 seconds during steady state runs.
Screen selection is great! Several pages that to scroll through and you can add want you like to see on each page. Each page will range from 2-3 data fields you would like to see. This came in very handy while strength training and teaching at the gym. Going from one type of workout to another (i.e spin then strength).
Overall the Polar is pretty easy to use and set up. Even a non gadget guru like figured it out quite quickly
Here’s a brief summary of the features just in case you missed something above.
Interested in seeing how the POLAR RC3 GPS actually works yourself? Check out the video below.
Also, if you’d like to buy this great running GPS click ::here:: and use code: “fitfluential” during checkout for a 25% discount! This discount is valid only on the RC3 GPS and will expire on 8/10.
So.. let me here it. What’s your fitness Friday? Have you tried any polar gadgets?
Cheers to Friday and Cheers to a new month!
LC
