Has anyone tried any of the suunto heart rate monitors? I'm thinking of getting a new one but I'm not sure about the 'Training Effect' feature on them so any feedback from someone in the know would be appreciated.
Basically, apart from the usual features the monitors claim to measure the 'training effect' of any particular session on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being little or no effect and 5 basically being 'overtraining'. What I cant get my head round is whether or not this is a genuine measurement of the value of a session or simply a counting of beats over time - for example a long low intensity session might eventually add up to a five simply because a moderately low to medium beat over four or five hours adds up to a lot of heartbeats and the monitor thinks this is a hard session - but its clearly not the same as 30 minutes of hill reps (and what if it reaches the level half way round - I suppose I should walk back!). Also what if I want to train for a specific time at a specific level? Can I use the Training effect function for this or I do I simply revert to trying to keep within a zone for however long I want to train for, in which case I might as well buy another make.
I suppose what I'm asking is whether or not anyone has used the training effect function on one of these, and if so is it any good or is it just a gimmick? Sorry to be so long winded!