I received this HRM for my birthday.

I've been running for about three years.  A year ago, I started using Runkeeper and my phone to track my runs.  I found that having more data about myself helped me to stay motivated about running.  Recently Runkeeper added the ability to pair with a certain HRM.  I didn't really understand what the benefits of a HRM were, so I started looking into them.  Two things stuck out at me, it helps you to determine the right heart rate to train in, based on your goals, and it will give you a more accurate picture of your calories burned during a workout.

I also train martial arts, so I thought that having a HRM which would work for those classes would be a good thing.  The Runkeeper solution wouldn't work (no where for the phone) so I started looking at watches.

This one is a good deal.  Garmin is a good brand.  They have a site which tracks your activities.  This bundle comes with the watch, a heart rate monitor strap, and a USB receiver for downloading your activities from your watch.  The watch itself does ANT+, so there are other sensors you can use with it (such as a shoe pod, or a bike computer.)  One of the big things for me is that the USB receiver also works on a Mac (which I have.)

The software and website interaction is a little weird.  I kept running the website, and trying to get it to upload the activities.  It said it detected my watch, but there were no new activities.  What it really meant was that I hadn't downloaded any activities from the watch to my computer.  I finally figured out that you don't necessarily have to go into the website at all.  There's an option to automatically download activities from the watch and upload them to the website, so that's how I have it working.

All it all, this is a great bundle for a great price.  I'm sure if you're looking at $400 Polar devices that this seems bare bones, but if you're looking for a starter kit, this one is hard to beat.

I'm still using Runkeeper, because without the foot pod, this watch can't track distance.  There is no GPS receiver in this model.