So, in June, Polar releases their backordered-for-months S-610 heartrate monitor to thousands of anxiously awaiting athletes--myself included--and sports shops. The ongoing delay has something to do with the microchip industry's pecking order and it seems that HRMs take a back seat to cell phones. Go figure.

Expect to wait until September, '01 for easy availability. It looks like October of '01 before the S-710 and S-810 are to emerge.

The good news is the S-610 doesn't give much ground to the S-810, except that it's finished with a recreational bright blue versus a sophisticated looking black color scheme. The S-710, when it comes out sounds pretty incredible with it's bike features, altitude and temperature sensors, etc. but I'm experientially leary of all-inclusive units insofar as ease of use--but, that's another article. And, you already have a bike computer.

The S-610 replaces the Accurex Plus, which is what I've been using, and I've noticed significant improvements. I'll also reference the S-410, which is nearly the same as the S-610 save for color, computer downloading procedure, some detail in the heartrate files and a more limited file storage capacity, in case you cannot wait until September.

Well, in the last HRM review, the Sports Instruments ECG5 (same as the Freestyle ECG 5--sort of like Ford and Mercury and their Taurus and Sable auto offerings) won a quick thumbs up from my style consultant, Olivia, but she was less enthusiastic about the appearance of the S-610--too cutesy. Toy-like. Like a VW Bug. Understandable from a girl who drives a '71 Vette.

My General impression:

Polar's new S-series, aesthetically--although it's no iMac--is a step forward from their drab, Volvo-esque, institutional gray watches of the past, where form followed function at a distance. Each of the S-Series monitors is quickly identifiable by hue. I suppose at Polar, one likes a little color. (Ever see "The Birdcage"? ) For my taste neutral graphite, monochromaticism, instead of the 1960s-ish metallic blue vinyl wristband insert, for instance, better suits the advanced electronics of and serious training intended for this unit. Even Polar's A-Series--their entry level HRMs--appear, well, relatively dignified. The red spot (IR port) above the display, I suppose an attempt at symmetry as it closely matches the Lap button to its South, wouldn't be missed if it weren't so obviously there. The S-410 is pearlescent gray and doesn't have a red IR port "button". Yeah, consider the S-610 a VW Bug...with Porsche 911 engine and suspension.

In the showroom:

Polar's packaging for the S-610 and the S-410 are composed beautifully. Each comes with the watch, chest strap, a very well organized and clearly written owner's manual and software. The S-610 uses infrared download and a sonic uplink to communicate with the PPP 3.0 application. The S-410 uses Sonic Link to interface with PC Coach Lite. You'll have to download the latest version (3.0.8) of PC Coach Lite to make it work, though.

I was sent an S-610 to test drive that had already been around the block a few times. There were a few snags but the unit I have is a beta version. The monitor you buy shouldn't have any bugs. The funniest "bug" is the chest strap. Perhaps it was Friday afternoon, just before quittin' time when the worker in Finland was assembling this item because the strap, when snapped properly becomes a Moebius band. No amount of twisting of the elastic strap or flipping of the snap could rectify this.

The S-610 fits nicely, and securely. It's buttons are easy to reach, depress and respond instantly. The big, red LAP button beeps as you release it. If you're used to the Accurex, for instance, which beeps and registers your lap time on depression you might think that your lap wasn't recorded...until you remove your finger from the button. My Accurex requires that I reach over with my right hand, 10 to 15 yards before, say, a mile marker, and squeeze the watch between my thumb and forefinger to ensure it beeps, and stores that lap time. See, the button is recessed and unless hit dead on, doesn't record the lap. The S-610's face and LAP button are contoured to guide your finger to the bullseye.

The four other buttons are large and easy to activate, calling forth a multitude of function to a bright, highly readbale dispaly. I find that it's easier still to reach and see my watch by wearing it on the underside of my wrist while running and riding. The downside is you're more likely to falsely record a lap or scratch the face on a desk or pool edge. The functions and owner's manual are remarkably clear and nearly intuitive. This is another departure from previous Polar products. But, this is an advanced HRM and still has lots of features crammed into a small unit, so you'll want to spend some time reading the instruction booklet to make full use of your training tool.

The many functions of the S-610 are layered, much like my new 8260 Nokia cell phone, which for those who've been using the latest in cellular technology will make navigation a snap. For the rest of us, exploring the watch's features will just be easy.

On the right of the S-610 reside two large, black, eye-like buttons. Just above them, two, not quite eyebrow-like arrows indicate forward and backward. The top button allows for scrolling from TIME OF DAY, forward to FILE, to OPTIONS, to FIT TEST, to CONNECT back to the watch function. You'll recognize this as a loop. The bottom right button reverses.

The big, red LAP button, depressed once begins reading heartrate. Pressed twice, it engages the stopwatch. You can also press and hold until the stopwatch and heartrate readings are simultaneously activated. This red button also takes you down, level by level into your recorded training FILES or OPTIONS settings. There are five levels, total, the current designated by blinking one of five, small, vertically aligned squares at right-center of the display. The aforementioned buttons on the right scroll through two to six parameters of each level. Parameters are to modified or chosen by pressing the red, LAP button. If you get lost the large, eye-like button on the lower left of your watch--the STOP button--like a trail of bread crumbs, will return you step by step to your starting point. Or, just hold it down and be taken immediately back to the TIME OF DAY screen--home, if you will. Press and holing is a shortcut.

From there, press and hold the eye-like button, top left and you're delivered to your HRM's alarm function. Notice the middle square blinking. Press the LAP button to activate--ON or OFF flashes. Notice the fourth square down is blinking. Now, press either scroll button to toggle, ON or OFF. Hit the LAP button to lock in your selection. Notice either AM or PM is flashing just right of the alarm time. Scroll buttons select and LAP button records change. Uh, oh, now the hour is flashing: scroll up with top right button, down with bottom right button. Confirm with LAP button. Obviously, minutes flash next. Choose, accept and you're done. Press the bottom left button to walk back through the specific levels bypassed earlier with the press and hold shortcut. Easy, eh?

So, what happens if you press and hold other buttons? From the TIME OF DAY display, the top right button scrolls between today's day and date, the watch's model number, the USER #, and the Polar logo. The bottom left button scrolls between one of two TIME OF DAY settings, TIME 1 and TIME 2 (East coast and West coast, for me).

Again, pressing and holding the LAP button takes you right into FILE recording. Then, pressing and holding the top right button swaps the heartrate limits you've previously loaded in your interval training EXERCISE SET...oops, we're not there yet. OK, press the STOP button once to pause the exercise session. Press and hold the bottom right button--RESET T1? flashes--and continue holding, to reset the TIMER 1. On the sixth flash, you're brought to the beginning of the current EXE SET phase, perhaps the WARM UP. Release. Press and hold again and RESET EXE? flashes. In another six flashes the FILE is erased, but you're still in the exercise recording, or MEASURE mode should you want to start over. Press the LAP button to do that or the STOP button to return to TIME OF DAY. POLAR S-610 HRM, $279.99 (if available)

You've likely already installed your PPP 3.0 software, but if not, after lifting the floor of your monitor's sleek, clear storage case remove the Polar S-Series Precision Toolkit CD ROM, and start it up. You're greeted by a stunning Flash intro screen. From there assorted Polar booklets on heartrate training are included as .pdf files, quick Flash demos bring you up to speed on the various monitor features, and you're able to load the software from this screen. The demos and booklets play on PCs and Macs, but the software works only on Windows 95, or later. Install at your leisure.

After clicking on the heart shaped icon, just deposited on my on my desktop, the Hellochristopher ! window is front and center. My starting choices are: Open Training Calendar, Open Training Diary for Current Day, Connect to HR monitor for downloading exercises and updating settings or Open the latest exercises for analysis. You can also choose not to see this screen at startup. Close out of this screen and proceed to Options>Person Properties and the Edit Person Informationchristopher drozd window appears. Let's see if I can amend this... yes, I can. So, put a space before and capitalize the first letter of your first name so the window caption reads correctly: Edit Person Information Christopher Drozd.

PERSON PROPERTIES

You have five tabs to edit: General, Test Values, Sports, HR Zones, and Measurement Units. Sports and HR Zones are addressed in my article on Polar's Training Advisor software, here on slowtwitch, for instance. They're the same as they were, only now easier to edit. If you've had your LT (lactate threshold), VO2 and HR maximum measured then fill in Test Values. If not, your monitor will help you with these parameters later in this article. Measurement Units options are Imperial or Metric. General is just name, rank and serial number, er, password--in case you want to keep your workout info out of sight of your training partner. >From this tab you also select the monitor to be used for sonic link connection if an infrared sensor is not available. Close out of this window and proceed to Tools>HR Monitor Connection...

OTHER IMPORTANT SETTINGS

This screen offers six tabs: General, User, Watch, Reminders, Exercises, Logo. Soon you'll see why it makes sense to perform all adjustments here.

If you have vanity plates on your car then the Logo tab is for you. Reminders offers seven wake up calls. Well before I ever saw the S-610 I spoke to Polar about the differences between the S-410 and the S-610. They said the S-610 has exercise reminders. Big deal, right? Well, get this: you can arrange to have your HRM prod you to do your AeInt*4 (explained later) on Saturday, August 11th, 2018 at 10am, if you want! The Watch tab lets you set two times, day, date and your alarm, just as you probably accomplished from the watch itself, earlier.

I really must commend Polar on the ease of use improvements to their software and monitors. The User tab is a great example of this progress. Within the Personal Info box is your Person Properties info: Name, Date of Birth, Sex, Height, Weight, Activity level, Max HR and VO2 Max. At the top right of this box is a square icon containing three figures--green, red, blue, in linear perspective. Click and a small window, Select Person appears. Inside, a hierarchical list is unfolded with my "team" sportfit.com at the top and my athletes attached vertically, below. A quick double click and Lucy's Personal Info replaces mine. Another three clicks and Steve's info replaces Lucy's. A coach or a family man (woman) can certainly appreciate this convenience.

In the box next to Personal Info find Monitor Features: User ID, Measurement Units, Heart Touch, Recording Rate plus other features aside checkboxes in a scrolling menu below. Your User ID is a number that corresponds to your name. This may or may not bother you. It does me: I remember The Prisoner I am not a number...I am a free man! Ah, you're too young. Anyway, you'll want to select Switch Display for the Heart Touch function (bringing the monitor close to the chest BEEP strap) so you can perhaps check the time of day while you're out running a race with Total Time and Lap Time showing on your display. Setting your S-610's recording time (S-410 and S-510 are preset to record a maximum of 120 data points at 15, 30, 60 and 120 seconds, depending on length of file) to 15 seconds provides ample heartrate samples unless you're involved in a Maximum heartrate test, in which case set it to record every 5 seconds.

The remaining features to be turned on / off include Activity / Button Sound, Energy Expenditure, Help, Options Lock, Polar Fitness Test, and Predicted HR Max. I deactivated Help and Options Lock. Later we'll go over the fitness test and maximum heartrate functions.

Now, select the Exercises tab. You have five Exercise Settings, all of which can be edited to your specifications, right here in the software or within your watch. From each point of departure we're going to create two different interval workouts.

EXERCISE SETS FROM YOUR MONITOR

Our workout is to be: Mile Repeats in your LT Zone by Time. Use this SET to develop your fitness and your sense of pacing. Note: although quite simple and easy, there are still a lot of individual steps when entering your EXERCISE SET into the watch itself. Grab your monitor and let's get started!

From: TIME OF DAY. Press: UP twice, to... OPTIONS on level 1.

Press: LAP. (Polar calls it the OK button). EXERCISE SET appears on level 2.

Press: LAP. Basic Use appears, with a flashing "0" on level 3. Press: UP once, to... EXESET, with a flashing "1".

Press: LAP. Interval appears, with a flashing "On" or "OFF" on level 4. If "OFF" appears... Press: UP once to toggle to "On". You can also press the DOWN button and do the same thing. If "On" had appeared, you wouldn't need to choose with the UP or DOWN buttons.

Press: LAP. WarmUp / Timer 1 alternately flash at the top of the display on level 5. Press: LAP. "On" or "OFF" flashes. Select "On" using the UP or DOWN buttons. Then, to lock in... Press: LAP. The Minutes counter begins flashing. Scroll UP to "15". Then, to lock in... Press: LAP. The Seconds counter begins flashing. Leave alone. Then, to lock in... Press: LAP. WarmUp / Timer 1 alternately flash at the top of the display. You've just completed a loop. Remember, you'll see this pattern again.

Press: UP. WarmUp / Limits 1 alternately flash at the top of the display, still on level 5. Press: LAP. Lim1High appears at the top of display, and the topmost of the two vertically arranged values flashes. To change... Press: UP or DOWN. Set to 65% of HR Max, or to the upper end of your Recovery Zone. Then, to lock in... Press: LAP. Lim1Low appears at the top of display, and the topmost of the two vertically arranged values flashes. To change... Press: UP or DOWN. Set to 55% of HR Max, perhaps lower, or to the lower end of your Recovery Zone. Then, to lock in... Press: LAP. WarmUp / Limits 1 at the top of display, still on level 5.

Press: UP. Interval TIMER appears, full screen. Press: LAP. Then use the UP or DOWN buttons to scroll through the measurement choices--TIMER, HR or MANUAL. Select TIMER. Press: LAP. IntTimer appears with the Minutes flashing. To set interval time... Press: UP or DOWN until you arrive at your approximate mile pace for running, say, a 10K: I set mine to 7. To lock it in... Press: LAP. Seconds flashes. Press: UP or DOWN to set your timer to your average 10K, mile pace. Then, to lock in... Press: LAP. Interval TIMER appears, full screen, still on level 5.

Press: UP. Interval / Repeat appears at top of display and a value appears just below. To adjust the value, or interval repeats... Press: LAP. The value flashes. Press: Up or DOWN to adjust. I entered 6. Then, to lock in... Press: LAP. Interval / Repeat appears at top of display, still on level 5.

Press: UP. Interval / Limits 2 flashes at top of display. Press: LAP. Lim2High appears at the top of display, and the topmost of the two vertically arranged values flashes. To change... Press: UP or DOWN. Set to 5 beats above your LT or about 90% of HR Max. Then, to lock in... Press: LAP. Lim2Low appears at the top of display, and the topmost of the two vertically arranged values flashes. To change... Press: UP or DOWN. Set to 5 beats below your LT or 10 beats below the upper limit. Then, to lock in... Press: LAP. Interval / Limits 2 flashes at top of display, still on level 5.

Press: UP. Recovery TIMER appears. Press: LAP. "On" or "OFF" flashes. To activate, select "On" and... Press: LAP to lock in. TIMER flashes. Press: UP or DOWN to switch between Hr (heartrate-based recovery notice) and time-based recovery intervals. To lock in... Press: LAP. RecoTime appears in top of display. Minutes flashes. Press: UP or DOWN to choose recovery time. Use about 50% of your mile time. To lock in Minutes... Press: LAP. Seconds flashes. Set to exactly 50% of your mile time. To lock in... Press: LAP. Recovery TIMER appears, still on level 5.

Press: LAP. CoolDown / Timer 3 alternately flash at the top of the display on level 5. Press: LAP. "On" or "OFF" flashes. Select "On" using the UP or DOWN buttons. Then, to lock in... Press: LAP. The Minutes counter begins flashing. Scroll UP to "15". Then, to lock in... Press: LAP. The Seconds counter begins flashing. Leave alone. Then, to lock in... Press: LAP. WarmUp / Timer 3 alternately flash at the top of the display. You've just completed a loop. Remember, you'll see this pattern again.

Press: UP. CoolDown / Limits 1 alternately flash at the top of the display, still on level 5. Press: LAP. Lim3High appears at the top of display, and the topmost of the two vertically arranged values flashes. To change... Press: UP or DOWN. Set to 65% of HR Max, or to the upper end of your Recovery Zone. Then, to lock in... Press: LAP. Lim3Low appears at the top of display, and the topmost of the two vertically arranged values flashes. To change... Press: UP or DOWN. Set to maybe 100 beats. Then, to lock in... Press: LAP. CoolDown / Limits 3 at the top of display, still on level 5.

Press: UP. WarmUp / Timer 1 alternately flash at the top of the display, still on level 5. Press: STOP, and hold. You are returned to TIME OF DAY.

Whew! That was one big, tedious loop, eh?

Now, here's how it should be done. This time we're programming aerobic intervals as per PC Coach software. (I'm not above pinching an occasional workout!)

Open your Polar Performance 3.0 software and from the FILE Menu, pull down Tools>HR Monitor Connection (Alt-S, H). Select SKIP in the dialog box. Up pops a window that allows access to your monitor's settings via your PC. Choose the EXERCISES tab. You're presented with a list of 5 EXESET files to be modified.

Double click the 2nd EXESET and a small window appears giving you a choice between Basic Training and Interval Training. Choose Interval Training and press OK. Your next window, EXESET2 gives you 4 tabs with which to work.

Go into the WarmUp tab and select TIME from the pulldown menu. Assign a time--15 minutes-- in the text boxes to the right. Activate HR Limits with the checkbox and entering the appropriate high and low values.

Select the CoolDown tab and enter the same info, exactly.

Select the Interval tab. Choose from the pulldown menu, TIME, (instead of MANUAL or ENDING HEARTRATE) and assign 12 minutes. Activate and define HR limits. We'll be doing aerobic intervals, here, as per Phil Maffetone and Mike Pigg, so your upper limit is 180 - your age. Your lower limit is 10 beats less. Choose and interval count. Let's do 4. Now, near the bottom of the window define your recovery interval. It can be TIME or ENDING HEARTRATE. Enter 2 minutes. Click on the General tab. There in front of you is a graphical synopsis of your interval session. In the highlighted text box name this AeInt*4, which stands for Four Aerobic Intervals. Click OK.

You're now back at the HR Connection Window, and the just modified EXESET is highlighted, awaiting transfer to your HRM. Sandwiched between the EDIT and TRANSFER buttons is a Transfer to HR Monitor pulldown menu. >From here, choose Selected Exercise.

Grab your watch, press the DOWN button once--CONNECT appears at the top of the display--and, place it in front of your PC's speaker(s), then click on the TRANSFER button. You'll hear something that sounds like a cross between White Noise and Morse Code. That's your EXESET being sent to your watch. Data transfer status is shown on the watch: 25%...50%...75%...100%.

There, you're done. Pretty slick, I'd say!

OK, enough for this week.

BREAKING NEWS

The S-810 is evidently available as I just looked at one at Triathlete Zombies, in Santa Monica. Some triathletes might consider spending the extra C-note for this watch, maybe because the gray and black color scheme better matches their carbon wheels, or possibly because of two additional functions.

Polar's R-R function provides you a baseline relaxation zone, which is determined with a two minute test where you notate your heartbeats every fifteen seconds, then divide by eight to get an average. You then, manually, enter that value (and update it monthly, if needed). Your watch will then be able to tell you whether your relaxed state is, well, relaxed as compared to your baseline. The S-810 measures the milliseconds between heartbeats and is very accurate (versus the ECG accuracy of their other monitors?), unless you're using another function on your watch--the light, maybe--which can skew the readings. Also, it's advised that some sort of sonic gel is used with your monitor to ensure accuracy. Can you say, for lab use only ?