Oregon Scientific offers a bargain-priced heart rate monitor that includes calorie tracking, which is probably a good fit for somebody who’s new to the whole business of keeping track of beats per minute. As with the other models I’ve written about here, this one comes with a chest belt that sends your heart rate data to the wrist device. You set lower and upper thresholds and the monitor will beep and flash when you’re above or below your targets.

The gadget includes a stopwatch function, though if you take classes where you’re using this device, you’ll hardly need a stopwatch to tell you when it’s time to collapse — you’ll have an instructor bellowing at you to do so.

If you’ve signed up for one of those 24-hour agony walks/runs/bike rides, this monitor includes an alarm function, so that you won’t oversleep during your brief breaks. And it includes a backlight for looking at the numbers in the dark. Also, it’s water resistant up to 164 feet, which means you can keep it on during the water event portion of that next triathlon you’re entering.

Regarding its calorie counting functionality, be prepared to enter data to receive an accurate count. There’s no monitor in the world that can help you with this if it doesn’t know your age and your weight. The instructions, which come on a big fold-out sheet, are pretty informative about how to do this.

Finally, I’m partial to red. This one’s definitely a keeper.