Was just reading DC Rainmaker’s post about the Fenix 6 and he mentioned that the Garmin 945 recently got a beta update that enables wrist based swim HR for both pool and open water. Has anybody tried this yet? I don’t even know how to get beta updates or if anybody here does. I just get the regular updates to 945.
I don’t have a reason to update from 935 to 945, but this might just convince me.
Change HistoryChanges made from version 2.70 to 2.72:
Added ability to enable wrist-based heart rate for swimming (pool and open water). This feature is enabled by default. To enable/disable this feature: 1. Open Menu 2. Scroll to ‘Wrist Heart Rate’ and enter menu 3. Scroll to ‘While Swimming’ and toggle to 'On’Fix swimming cadence/stroke rateImprovements to PulseOx settingsVarious fixes for ConnectIQChanges made from version 2.50 to 2.64:
Added ability to enable wrist-based heart rate for swimming (pool and open water). To enable this feature: 1. Open Menu 2. Scroll to ‘Wrist Heart Rate’ and enter menu 3. Scroll to ‘While Swimming’ and toggle to 'On’Added Connect IQ 3.1 functionality.
Even though the current stable version is 2.70, it does not seem to have Swim Wrist HR available yet.
Just curious if anybody has tested it?
What would you do after you looked at your HR after a swim set?
I would say it’s more about looking at it over time.
A less experienced swimmer might note that the same splits on a test set of 10x100 being at a lower HR would be indicative of technical progress.
More experienced swimmers can use it as a guide to maximize their efforts on high intensity work, sometimes the correlation between percieved exertion and HR are a bit off and you need to work harder to get to that point of failure.
Maybe an aftermarket app. Honestly I don’t use my watch to swim (735xt) the actual swimming data is garbage, in the sense that it doesn’t auto start /stop when doing intervals. I tried using it and all the manual button pushing creates bad habits in the pool from a pure swim perspective.
I have a Phelx Edge on order and should be getting it very soon (finally). I think the HR data coming in off that will be valuable for my previously stated reasons and additionally may be informative of overtraining/fatigue in more experienced swimmers. It also will give vibration feedback in real time for HR zones.
Just noticed the heart rate from my swim when it uploaded to Strava today. Seemed extremely high! Shows an average of 163 and a high of 189 with a “Strava relative effort†of 190. This was 3200m swim in about an hour. Did 8-400’s at a tempo effort with about 1 minute rest between sets. Clearly not a great swimmer!
My 945 updated the other day on its own to sw version 2.8. I didn’t even know this was a feature till today.
Anyone get any useful swim heart rate data? My previous 935 and my current 945 have always produced pretty good optical wrist heart rate data but this seems pretty useless.
probably not i’m afraid. garmin seem to have a policy of not pushing out functionality updates to anything other than the latest models.
i’m sure they expect this to drive people to upgrade but for me it has the opposite effect as its reinforcing that you can’t keep up so give in and stick with what you’ve got. i can’t see why the 935 hardware couldn’t do this so it seems to me having bought capable hardware i should get the functionality
Just noticed the heart rate from my swim when it uploaded to Strava today. Seemed extremely high! Shows an average of 163 and a high of 189 with a “Strava relative effort†of 190. This was 3200m swim in about an hour. Did 8-400’s at a tempo effort with about 1 minute rest between sets. Clearly not a great swimmer!
My 945 updated the other day on its own to sw version 2.8. I didn’t even know this was a feature till today.
Anyone get any useful swim heart rate data? My previous 935 and my current 945 have always produced pretty good optical wrist heart rate data but this seems pretty useless.
Slightly off piste- but I’ve swim HR on my Polar Vantage. Earlier this year it repeatedly (over several weeks / multiple swims, and consistently) in open water, showed my HR was through the roof when starting swimming in cold water. I think I’m a relaxed OW swimmer, and don’t feel stressed or in any way get anxious in cold OW, and wasn’t going hard. Yet the HR was very very high and had no relationship to perceived effort.
It was a real eye opener, and for me illustrated the need for proper aclimatisation in cold OW before races… it really is why people can have heart attacks in cold OW races.
This was a pool swim and the 945 recorded the temp as 28c. I raced a sprint tri on Saturday with the Garmin hrm-tri. The temperature measured from the watch was 22c and the max heart rate during that swim was 169 at a much higher perceived effort so temperature was not a factor.
189 is currently right around my max heart rate which clearly wasn’t reached during a moderate effort level swim. I will track the data over next few swims to see if it improves but at this point it is completely useless.
Slightly off piste- but I’ve swim HR on my Polar Vantage. Earlier this year it repeatedly (over several weeks / multiple swims, and consistently) in open water, showed my HR was through the roof when starting swimming in cold water. I think I’m a relaxed OW swimmer, and don’t feel stressed or in any way get anxious in cold OW, and wasn’t going hard. Yet the HR was very very high and had no relationship to perceived effort.
It was a real eye opener, and for me illustrated the need for proper aclimatisation in cold OW before races… it really is why people can have heart attacks in cold OW races.
But did you take a manual post to compare/confirm the watch reading?
I’ve been using the wrist OHR since the first beta and have been very happy with it. Others have had issues with it reading high or getting no reading at all. The trend seems to be people who have issues with OHR outside of water will also have issues in the water. If it’s accurate for you out of the water, you’re more likely to have good readings in the water, but no guarantees My OHR tends to track my chest HR quite well on the trainer, and gives me realistic run and swim numbers (I don’t wear a chest HR on the run any more). At the same time, I don’t have any other way to record HR in the water, so I can’t verify the accuracy. The numbers seem to reflect my effort and manual HR measurements I sometimes take during breaks in sets.
I’m happy to have this as an option, but I haven’t had the issues others have had. The best part is if you use your Garmin Training Status (Firstbeat metrics), you now get credit for swim training. Some people are happy to get ANY credit for swims in their metrics, even if the accuracy is not perfect. Others argue that if it’s not perfect, then it’s worthless. It ends up being more a personal decision than anything. Luckily it’s easily disabled for those that don’t like it.
First swim today with my new 945. Had a 920xt that worked with the swim chest strap. The 945 worked fine and gave me similar numbers for a similar workout. I should try and figure out how to use both for a good comparison. 3000 yds with 2300 easy bilateral pull and some 100’s/50’s with a 113 avg and a 152 max. I don’t use the numbers during the swim anyway as I am currently not using it to determine my rest intervals. It’s nice afterwards as it gives a TSS for training peaks.
After a couple of sessions i did compare ‘manually’ (once I’d realised the pattern).
I didn’t get a perfect 1:1 comparison (by the time I stopped and measured manually the HR would reduce) but yep the heart was going very fast - a reasonable correlation tonthe numbers.
So whilst I’d take the absolute numbers with a pinch of salt, the pattern held up as correct.
(Also the recorded HR did rise and fall in sync with swim pace too).
The water has obvs warmed a fair bit since then so can’t repeat until maybe October when the temp is back down
My OHR tends to track my chest HR quite well on the trainer, and gives me realistic run and swim numbers (I don’t wear a chest HR on the run any more). At the same time, I don’t have any other way to record HR in the water, so I can’t verify the accuracy. The numbers seem to reflect my effort and manual HR measurements I sometimes take during breaks in sets.