I received an Edge 305 for Christmas, and I'm loving it so far. There's just one thing I haven't been able to understand, even after RTFM.

When I do a ride, I know the ride is recorded, and can be viewed in the Garmin software. That's great, but I'd like to set up a course, so I can do the same ride and monitor my progress. My understanding is setting up a course begins with riding it first, and then selecting it as a course.

That's where the problem comes in. I have to ride to the park from my apartment. Because that's stuck on my route, I don't understand how to limit the ride (and therefore the "course" that I intend to repeat, with laps) to NOT include my ride to the park. I feel like turning the device on when I arrive at the park seems like a dumb workaround. Surely there's some other way?

Thanks so much for any advice. I swear I've done my best to find the information in the book or in the software Help files.

When you get to the park, hold down the lower LEFT button to "reset" the 305 and start a new ride. Then ride your lap(s) at the park. You can hit the lap button each time if you want to ride more than once, or not. Then reset again before the ride home.

When you get home and download your data, you'll have three separate rides listed. The first and third will be your rides to and from the park. The middle ride will be your lap(s) at the park. Make a course out of that one.

Any time you hold the reset button, it does not erase data and throw it away. It just starts a new ride, zeroing all your time and mileage stats to start the next ride.

Thank you so so much, kk4df. I really appreciate it. I was under the impression that that lower right button erased, but this is great to know.

One more quick thing--I know there is an option to allow the lap to be automatically sorted by the GPS (in the Settings someplace). Does this work? I tried to get that to work, but it didn't seem to happen. But then again, I didn't have a course set up, so that could be the reason, I'd think. I'd love NOT to have to remember to press the lap button for all four laps, if I can help it.

Thanks again.

There is a way to create a waypoint at the proper point, and then have it automatically start the lap for you when you approach that point. It's been a while since I used that feature, but it does work.

I'll mess around with it and see what I can figure out. Again, I really appreciate the help.

Now, if only someone could fix the weather here in NYC.

I believe that you can set laps by distance, time or manually by pressing the lap button during a ride. Unfortuantely it's been a long time since I set any so I don't rememebr how to do it, but ti definitely can be done.

Try www.mapmyride.com. If I understand correctly, you can create a map (with waypoints) and then download it to your GPS. My Garmin Edge 205/305 owner's manual also says that you can use the Garmin Training Center software to create courses and waypoints.

The lower LEFT button is the reset/lap button; the lower RIGHT button is the start/stop timer button.

Thanks. I edited my post above with your correction.

Under the Training menu, select AutoPause/Lap, and change the Auto Lap Trigger setting to By Position, then set the Lap At to Mark and Lap. Now the 305 will lap either when you press the lap button OR when you pass any marked waypoint. See page 23 of the owner's manual.

Many, many thanks. It's finally not raining, so I'm off the trainer and on my way to try all this for real. Again, I really appreciate it.