Polar have really hit it this time with the RCX5. It's aimed at the athlete who wants to know everything- speed, distance, heart rate and even progress in terms of fitness over weeks and months. It's fully functional multisport watch that has the ability to monitor your training easily for swimming, cycling and running.

One of the smartest features in this watch is the ZoneOptimser system. This checks your current physical state at that point and adjusts your heart rate zones accordingly- if you're in good condition it will make things tougher and if you're not in the best condition that day it makes things easier. This is invaluable for making sure you don't overtrain and become injured by giving your body a break when it needs it (this can happen through poor sleep, underlying illness like a cold or just general fatigue).

Sport profiles mode will allow you to switch quickly between different sports and, unlike some brands, Polar heart rate monitors give heart rate information whilst in the water.

There's all the usual features such as

• heart rate specific interval training to make sure you spend the right amount of time training at the right intensity
• pace alerts so you can perform a session, or intervals within a session, according to a target pace
• the Polar fitness test which is comparable to VO₂ measurements. This is surprisingly accurate as one of our staff has a VO₂ max of 60 and the watch says 61!

The upload onto polarpersonaltrainer.com really brings this watch to life. The software allows you to

• upload and analyse, in great detail, the effect of your training so you can properly manage your workouts, spot personal limits and make sure you don't over or undertrain which is crucial, particularly for multisport and endurance athletes
• create training programs based on your goals and your current fitness levels
• store your training information in the form of a diary that you can refer to time and again as you improve over the months and years ahead.

This multisport package includes the G5 GPS sensor that can be used to measure your speed and distance no matter which sport you're doing (though you should take care when using it for swimming as it's not officially waterproof).