I can't comment on the HR stuff, but you can set a threshold pace in TrainingPeaks, although the workout level charting is still pretty useless.

I've been testing out different heart rate options as part of my job (I work for FORM smart swim goggles) and I haven't seemed to have much luck using the optical sensor on my 945.... it seems to work for parts of my swim before randomly adding 30 or so BPM to my heart rate (and just staying inflated). So I'll do an aerobic swim starting with a consistent reading around 130bpm before it randomly jumps to 160-170 and stays there.

By far the best option I've experienced for heart rate while swimming is with the polar OH1 pod measured off your temple (it can be attached to your goggle strap). This was as accurate as a heart rate strap (although I've only ever worn those under wetsuits in open water and couldn't imagine swimming in a pool with one). This is DC rainmakers review of the OH1:
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/...in-depth-review.html

(And a bit of a shameless plug, the polar works especially well when paired to our smart goggles;)... you can see your heart rate in real time in the display!)

sTSS is based off pace not hr.

---

blog

Hmm. Don't understand that. ALL of my swims have the pace of each interval recorded by simply hitting the interval key as I'm working through the set. Yet the TSS for every swim in TP is always listed as 1. I was told it was because of the absence of HR.

Do you have a swim threshold pace setup in TP? It’s likely you don’t have it setup hence why you get 1 sTSS for the swim.

HR has zero to do with sTSS.

https://help.trainingpeaks.com/...r-Heart-Rate-or-Pace

---

blog

OK. So you actually need to swim off of an uploaded workout in TP, with threshold times for the various interval distances? That will then produce a usable TSS? Or do you even need a workout? How about just the threshold times?

I use the hrTSS for swimming with the 945. Works great for me, no insane numbers like I get with the sTSS. I just make sure the strap is nice and tight before starting.

---

Strava

You don’t need a workout.

For sTSS, you need to setup a threshold pace in your TP settings. Then you can go back to recalculate TSS through the PMC for past workouts.

---

blog

While mine is set for sTSS, from the summery I can choose sTSS or hrTSS for swimming

I do have my swim threshold pace set in TP and it calculates consistently.

I would typically agree with you on this, but I think the tech has now caught up with a few devices (mentioned above) actually having hrTSS as an option for Swimming these days. Where as before, you are 100% correct it was purely based of threshold swim pace.

To the OP: I've defaulted to using 1TSS=1min IN the pool. That's just what I've done over the last ~8 years and just kept it consistent. To ensure less manual labor I've just slightly tweaked my threshold pace accordingly so that it's getting it within a few TSS for the workouts. If it's way off (~10TSS), I then will manually update it.

---

-Brad Williams
Website | Twitter: @BW_Tri |Instagram: @BW_Tri | Strava | Co-Founder & Coach at: KIS Coaching
Partnered with: Zoot Sports | Precision Fuel &Hydration | ISM

Yes as others have said you don't need to use HR to get a TSS score from swimming, just as long as you have a CSS/threshold pace loaded into TP it will track it,
I would urge a degree of caution though in putting too much weight behind the current algorithms for working out TSS in TP for swimming. Personally it tends to over-estimate the TSS relative to TSS for running or riding, in part I think as you tend to swim a lot closer to threshold pace often in swimming, coupled with the use of fins, drills or paddles etc. It is obviously still a good way to track your swim fitness but just be careful about it potentially over-contributing to your CTL relative to your running and riding TSS/CTL.