The Polar RS200SD heart rate monitor is an intermediate heart rate monitor for runners. It is actually just the Polar RS200 heart rate monitor plus the Polar S1 Foot Pod. You attach the Foot Pod to one of your running shoes. The Foot Pod then measures speed and distance while you are running and sends the information to the wrist watch.
To save space, I will not repeat the common features that the Polar RS200 and the Polar RS200SD share on this page. You can read about those common features on the RS200 page.
I will however concentrate on the additional functionalities of the Polar RS200SD heart rate monitor. Here they are:
Polar S1 Foot Pod: You attach it to your running shoe to measure speed and distance.
You can choose to set training limits on your speed/pace. When you run too fast or too slow, you get to hear a beep to remind you to slow down or speed up, respectively.
On Polar RS200, you can set a timer to beep (after an elapsed period of time) if you need to change into another target zone. On Polar RS200SD, you can set a distance to beep (after a distance traversed) when you want to change zone. You can now do a speed/pace based zoned exercise. See the next bullet point.
You can define (up to) three speed/pace zones in a single session. You can, if you wish, use three distances to define how far you are going to train in each speed/pace zone and to remind you to change zone.
While running, you can have various views of your progress including your current speed/pace and distance.
When running laps, you will be able to see not just time for the last lap, but also the distance and the average speed/pace for the lap
AutoLap function: You can get the Polar RS200SD to record laps automatically, for example, every mile. Remember: It is a distance sensor so it knows when to record laps.
You can choose how you display how fast you are running on your wrist watch: You can choose speed which dispalys mph (miles per hour) or km/h. You can choose pace which displays min/mi (minute per mile) or min/km. Most runners think intuitively in terms of pace. They say: I am going to do 6 minute mile for the 10K. I plan to do 7 minute mile for the marathon etc. So this is perfect for you as a runner.
Additional short summary info: Max pace/speed, average pace/speed, distance covered
Additional full summary (File) info: Limits of pace/speed zone(s), max pace/speed, average pace/speed, distance covered. For each lap, you can now view the average pace/speed of the lap, the end pace/speed of the lap, the lap distance and the distance from the start to the end of the lap.
Additional Weekly File info: Total distance you have run for the week
Additional cumulative statistic: Total distance run since last reset
The simple additional of a Polar S1 Foot Pod introduces really quite a lot of additional functionalities to the feature set of the Polar RS200. Remember that:
Polar RS200SD = Polar RS200 + Pod S1 Foot Pod
Distance runners are often interested to know what their pace is (was) at various stages of their race. The Polar RS200SD heart rate monitor gives them just that information. And if the AutoLap feature is switched on, this is done automatically.
The Polar RS200SD heart rate monitor is specifically designed for the needs of runners. If you are interested in having the RS200 and want the additional speed and distance measurements brought about by the S1 Foot Pod, then you should consider the Polar RS200SD heart rate monitor system. The RS200SD retails for around $239.95.