It's Polar Time

Remember my sad tale about my Polar F4 watch?

Quick refresher: Mrs. LB had given me a Polar F4 watch, equipped with a heart rate monitor, for a Father's Day present in 2008, and it helped tremendously in terms of taking the next step in my fitness evolution. I'd had the watch for more than one year when sadly, it flew off my wrist during the Camp Pendleton Mud Run last June, and a hole had been in my heart ever since. I tried replacing it by buying one off e-Bay, but the watch was a woman's watch and felt strange on my wrist, so I didn't wear it. I blogged about that here.

Well, apparently a Polar employee read that post and made an unbelievable offer. He said he'd be willing to swap the F4 for an F4, the woman's watch for the model that I'd had on my wrist before.

About five or six weeks ago, I sent the old watch away and waited and wondered if a new watch would come. On Monday, I got a package.

Check out my new watch:

What time is it? Polar time!

Are you effing serious?!?!? I got my old watch back!! I still can't stop smiling about it!!

Of course, it's not the same exact watch as I had before - that one was probably smashed to bits by the soles of the hundreds of Mud Run participants who unknowingly trampled it last June. I seriously have to do double-takes at my wrist to make sure it's really there.

I didn't really know a whole lot about Polar before I got my watch back in '08, but I grew to really like the company once I had the watch on my wrist and saw the benefits of it first-hand. I got a book that helped with heart rates and what to look for in terms of statistics with your heart rates and things like that and I became a big advocate of using heart rate statistics to train with (now that I got my watch back, expect to see plenty of such HR posts here in the future). Plus the treadmills at my gym are equipped with Polar technology so it picks up on my heart rate monitor strap and beams my HR constantly during my runs.

But the respect and adoration I have for Polar is now at a new high. I'm flattered a company would take time to do this, to keep a customer happy years after the product was first purchased.

I had thought about upgrading from my Garmin 101 to the 305 because that one comes with a heart rate monitor but now those plans are done. I'll keep my 101 and use my Polar F4 for my heart rates once more.

And if I ever upgrade to a watch that can give me both my HR and distance stats and perhaps other useful information, I'm starting with Polar. This one, for instance, looks fantastic.

So a big thanks to Chris at Polar. Actually, thanks doesn't do my feelings justice. I'll just try and spread the Polar love, and try and take this watch on some great journeys in the coming years.

Except no more Mud Runs. Sorry, new Polar but you'll have to sit out Mud Runs from now on.