New Garmin 920xt which has proved despite all attempts horrendously inaccurate in pool swims. Read garmin advice and forum advice but still really no better. 3.2 k swim today recorded at 3.97 !!. All done in freestyle but for some reason recorded breastwork for one 50m lap . I do use paddles and pull buoy for a lot of the swim set.I don’t tumble turn but spin and double foot push off underwater at the end of each 50m length.
Is there any way I can manually download session ( overall time ,less rest , Perceived effort ?) to garmin connect that will sync to training peaks to give me an accurate swim TSS.
How good is your stroke technically? IME, the 910 and 920 are spot on if your stroke is good, and terribly inaccurate if your stroke needs significant work.
You can manually enter corrected numbers in TP.
ETA: I almost forgot…If you’re shaking your arms out and doing a lot of dynamic stretching between sets, it’ll add extra distance, because it’ll think you’re swimming.
How good is your stroke technically? IME, the 910 and 920 are spot on if your stroke is good, and terribly inaccurate if your stroke needs significant work.
You can manually enter corrected numbers in TP.
ETA: I almost forgot…If you’re shaking your arms out and doing a lot of dynamic stretching between sets, it’ll add extra distance, because it’ll think you’re swimming.
The 910 will think you are swimming but the 920 always goes into rest mode between sets and knows not to record distance.
I am doing Ironmans and use pull buoys and paddles for swim sets. Stroke is not great but swim at 1.45 per 100 consistently and don’t even move between lengths as this 920t seems to just add on distance ! Look s like its manual entry
Is there any way I can manually download session ( overall time ,less rest , Perceived effort ?) to garmin connect that will sync to training peaks **to give me an accurate swim TSS. **
Thank you
If you are using paddles/pull buoy swim TSS is unlikely to ever be accurate (unless of course you set your threshold swim speed using paddles and pull buoy). Because it’s based on speed, as soon as you do anything that changes your speed compared to effort (different stroke, drills, use toys) it will become an inaccurate metric. Whether sTSS is actually ever accurate is another discussion.
To your original question though, I find that the 920xt is extremely accurate at counting distance in the pool. I have stroke identifier or whatever its called turned off, and I open turn with a good push off, and 9 session out of 10 (at least) the distance recorded will be accurate.
ETA - I’ve just re-read your post. The 920 should be recording distance in multiples of 50 so 3.97 isn’t possible? Something funky appears to be going on there.
Is there any way I can manually download session ( overall time ,less rest , Perceived effort ?) to garmin connect that will sync to training peaks **to give me an accurate swim TSS. **
Thank you
If you are using paddles/pull buoy swim TSS is unlikely to ever be accurate (unless of course you set your threshold swim speed using paddles and pull buoy). Because it’s based on speed, as soon as you do anything that changes your speed compared to effort (different stroke, drills, use toys) it will become an inaccurate metric. Whether sTSS is actually ever accurate is another discussion.
To your original question though, I find that the 920xt is extremely accurate at counting distance in the pool. I have stroke identifier or whatever its called turned off, and I open turn with a good push off, and 9 session out of 10 (at least) the distance recorded will be accurate.
ETA - I’ve just re-read your post. The 920 should be recording distance in multiples of 50 so 3.97 isn’t possible? Something funky appears to be going on there.
Well said re: TSS calculations.
Regarding getting an odd distance, that should only be possible if the watch thinks you’re outside, and you have the GPS turned on.
How good is your stroke technically? IME, the 910 and 920 are spot on if your stroke is good, and terribly inaccurate if your stroke needs significant work.
You can manually enter corrected numbers in TP.
ETA: I almost forgot…If you’re shaking your arms out and doing a lot of dynamic stretching between sets, it’ll add extra distance, because it’ll think you’re swimming.
The 910 will think you are swimming but the 920 always goes into rest mode between sets and knows not to record distance.
No, the 920XT does not necessarily go into rest mode. Mine doesn’t always (actually, it ever rarely goes into rest mode), and adds up laps if I stop at the side and put hand paddles (usually adding 1 or two laps).
I now use the lap button to manually put it into rest mode when putting paddles, fins, fulcrums, etc.
How good is your stroke technically? IME, the 910 and 920 are spot on if your stroke is good, and terribly inaccurate if your stroke needs significant work.
You can manually enter corrected numbers in TP.
ETA: I almost forgot…If you’re shaking your arms out and doing a lot of dynamic stretching between sets, it’ll add extra distance, because it’ll think you’re swimming.
The 910 will think you are swimming but the 920 always goes into rest mode between sets and knows not to record distance.
No, the 920XT does not necessarily go into rest mode. Mine doesn’t always (actually, it ever rarely goes into rest mode), and adds up laps if I stop at the side and put hand paddles (usually adding 1 or two laps).
I now use the lap button to manually put it into rest mode when putting paddles, fins, fulcrums, etc.
That’s how it is supposed to work. You are supposed to hit the lap button at the end of an interval. Otherwise it certainly won’t go into rest mode.
How good is your stroke technically? IME, the 910 and 920 are spot on if your stroke is good, and terribly inaccurate if your stroke needs significant work.
You can manually enter corrected numbers in TP.
ETA: I almost forgot…If you’re shaking your arms out and doing a lot of dynamic stretching between sets, it’ll add extra distance, because it’ll think you’re swimming.
The 910 will think you are swimming but the 920 always goes into rest mode between sets and knows not to record distance.
No, the 920XT does not necessarily go into rest mode. Mine doesn’t always (actually, it ever rarely goes into rest mode), and adds up laps if I stop at the side and put hand paddles (usually adding 1 or two laps).
I now use the lap button to manually put it into rest mode when putting paddles, fins, fulcrums, etc.
That’s how it is supposed to work. You are supposed to hit the lap button at the end of an interval. Otherwise it certainly won’t go into rest mode.
Ok, I thought I had missed something. Coming from Suunto, Ambit did go into rest mode automagically, without button presses…
START/STOP BUTTON - Only used when you first get into the pool and then again when you get out. Any other use of this button is WRONG for swim training.
INTERVAL/LAP BUTTON - The vast MAJORITY of lengths in the pool is an interval or lap. It’s a Swim interval, a Rest interval or a Drill interval. This is the button you use for everything beside the very first length (which you use START/STOP) and the very last length. Drills require you to hit the up/down button to use that specific mode. This allows you to enter the distance in manually which keeps the total distance of a workout accurate.
Either something funky going on with your watch, or your swim. Are you hitting the lap button at the end of each interval?
I find mine very accurate. Actually never recorded wrong distance for me and swam a ton with the watch. If I switch my stroke, it will know which stroke I am doing and record it as such.
Interesting comment. I have a 910 and my lane mate has a 920. Mine will get 8 out of 10 masters workouts perfect, with the only few errors being a missed (or added) 25m or two when we do some odd drills. He never has a perfect workout recorded, like 0 out of 10, and can have big gaps of distance. I think his stroke is decent so it’s interesting you are having the same problem. The fact you are 50m pool is even more odd. Half as many turns as our 25m pool.
I’ve had mine for a year now. I always swim in the same pool - 4 masters swims a week. 2 days the pool is split into 25M 2 days it’s 50M.
In the 25M pool it’s usually spot on or within 25M over 3-3500M. But the same session in the 50M pool it’s MILES off !! Can be almost 50% out. The pool length is correct and I’ve tried all the different settings. Weird !
I just take the total distance off the set sheet and use that on Training Peaks.
I’ve swum with a Garmin 910 and 920, no problems aside from when I upload the data from garmin connect to strava. Strava deducts 100m EVERY time from the total recorded by the 920 (Which is accurate.) Fenix 2…no issues, ever. period. spot on every single time in what I’d estimate to be coming close to 100 sessions. 50m pool, outdoor, pool mode, not open water swimming mode.
Hi Thanks for comments and advice. The total for swim was actually 2950 , not 2957 or what i put in first post.
I use pool mode , all settings are correct, 50m outdoor pool. I used again this morning , swam 4 lengths ( 200m) for start of warm up set with no toys and it recorded 300m not 200m . Unbelievable. Completely inaccurate again for rest of session.
Yes I also just imput distance and speed into TP, garmin data is useless !