Question on usage

Regarding the plans, do not go by mileage for the bike and runs - only time:

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=2142

Mileage is only an approximation for figuring out routes for you workouts.  For the swims, you do want to hit your yardage.

For the Garmin issue, first make sure that you have the latest version of Garmin Communicator.

Also, make sure that you regularly delete old workouts from your devices. Having a large number of workouts stored sloows down the process of Communicator finding the workouts. This is the most common cause of what you're describing.

The 305 data can be deleted on the device itself, I typically recommend setting it to delete anything over 30 days old.

For the 310xt, Garmin Communicator pulls the files from the device and stores them in a folder on your PC. If the number of these files gets too large Communicator stalls. The fix is to reduce the number of files in that directory. If you want to save them, just move them to another folder. Just save the last few workouts.

In Win7 the files are located here:
C:\Users\computer username\AppData\Roaming\GARMIN\Devices\Device Number\History.  

Windows Vista:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\GARMIN\Devices\device number\History

Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\GARMIN\Devices\device number\History  

I'm not sure where they are ona Mac, but the directory names are similar.

Note that the folder names in italics are specific to your computer and Garmin device.