I have the Garmin 201, and I love it.
(except my virtual partner tends to give up if I get ahead of him)
I don’t find it big at all.
Ah, yeah, regarding ascent/descent on the Garmin 305. Mine generally shows that I’ve climbed about 10 or 20 feet more than I’ve descended, so I’m presumably entering the attic when I get home, lol.
I have a Garmin 305 with the heart rate monitor. It’s clunky but strapped to my arm is not bad at all (of course, I’m a slow runner and on long runs I often carry a lot of stuff…Camelbak, running pouch, iPod, extra layers of clothing, etc, so if you like to run with minimal equipment you may still find the 305 bulky)
I just got the 405 and I HATE it. They changed everything that made the 305 easy to use, shortened the battery life a whole lot, and the only good feature is the wireless sync which only works half the time. It’s a huge step backward for the product line, IMO.
I preferred to keep things as simple as possible. I got up, put on shorts, shirt, shoes (a hat and gloves if it was below 20) and (maybe) a watch, and I was out the door.
I used Google Earth to learn the mile markers. If you run 5 days a week for a year and have 20 different routes, you’ll still be running each route 13 times. By the 3rd time on each one you’ll know the markers. Even as your runs get longer, you’ll still be running the same early miles so you won’t really need to relearn an entire new route, I’m guessing.
Based strictly on my breathing I could tell you almost to the second my time on any given mile. You’ll likely learn that as well.
Things like a GPS or heart monitor can really help people get motivated and trained. If that is what keeps you running, more power to you. I just think you can sometimes make better progress by simplifying rather than trying to get more precise. You’ll know what a run in which you’ve “pushed” feels like and a fancy heart rate monitor/GPS/strice counter gizmo can only slow you down.
I have the Forerunner 405 and it’s almost too big for my male (but rather small) wrist. I think you may have trouble making it fit right.
The problem is that antennae is build into some of the strap, so the first inch or so, on one side of the strap does not bend.