For no particularly good reason, I acquired a Garmin HRM Swim. I find that my heart rate in the pool is much higher than in my normal bike and run training (OK, I am old (62) – I think my HR max is still around 170 – I often hit mid 160s in a swim workout – it starts out lower, but builds over the course of the entire workout). I am a decent swimmer (1:02 non-wet suit IM).
I am a little surprised I can get my heart rate that high swimming – I just didn’t think I could recruit enough big muscles to drive it that high compared to running and biking. I wouldn’t hit that high in running outside of a 10k or sharter race or biking except on a steep hill. Is this a possible artifact of something I am doing wrong (e.g., not getting enough air – I breath every other stroke, but maybe I am not exhaling/inhaling deeply enough)? Is getting my heart rate that high every workout a bad idea for getting the most out of my training? Are there heart rate training plans for swimming that work?
My condolences on acquiring a completely useless piece of technology.
Throw it away, and forget about your heart rate in the pool. It’s a useless metric when you’re trying to swim faster, that will only add unnecessary complication to your progress.
My condolences on acquiring a completely useless piece of technology.
Throw it away, and forget about your heart rate in the pool. It’s a useless metric when you’re trying to swim faster, that will only add unnecessary complication to your progress.
This.
Just swim, the only important heart related metric in the pool is that it’s still beating
My condolences on acquiring a completely useless piece of technology.
Throw it away, and forget about your heart rate in the pool. It’s a useless metric when you’re trying to swim faster, that will only add unnecessary complication to your progress.
This.
Just swim, the only important heart related metric in the pool is that it’s still beating
x3
Plus your heart rate will vary anyway for the identical pace depending on the temp of the pool. So just forget about it and look at the pace clock
My condolences on acquiring a completely useless piece of technology.
Throw it away, and forget about your heart rate in the pool. It’s a useless metric when you’re trying to swim faster, that will only add unnecessary complication to your progress.
This.
Just swim, the only important heart related metric in the pool is that it’s still beating
x3
Plus your heart rate will vary anyway for the identical pace depending on the temp of the pool. So just forget about it and look at the pace clock
So since the same applies to the bike and run, you advocate not using heart rate at all. Good idea.
My condolences on acquiring a completely useless piece of technology.
Throw it away, and forget about your heart rate in the pool. It’s a useless metric when you’re trying to swim faster, that will only add unnecessary complication to your progress.
This.
Just swim, the only important heart related metric in the pool is that it’s still beating
x3
Plus your heart rate will vary anyway for the identical pace depending on the temp of the pool. So just forget about it and look at the pace clock
So since the same applies to the bike and run, you advocate not using heart rate at all. Good idea.
Yes, don’t use heart rate at all for >20 years. Just pace/power + perceived exertion combo. Those two are good enough. Most of the time, just use perceived exertion and no metrics.
LIke others, I don’t see anything right off the bat that seems an obvious use.
But keep in mind that max heart rate is sport specific, so the max heart rate you reach in swimming might be higher than the 170 you have seen in biking or running. YOu’d need to do some testing to gauge not only the max, but what is sustainable, what id your heart rate during a 30 minute swim - and so on.
If you look you will find a fair amount of so called heart rate training of swimmers in the 90s and early 2000s mostly from Australia. But the implementations I have seen were not very advanced, often assigning goal heart rates for an entire workout group and not testing their own heart rate responses at all.
Mostly in this case I think it’s the same answer as if you said “My heart rate is quite high when I run at 10k pace, what do I do about it?” Mostly you do nothing, it’s just your own thing.
If you were a marathon swimmer, then finding the heart rate at which your stomach stops absorbing food might be a good thing, but for a triathlete I am not sure what it does for you.
So since the same applies to the bike and run, you advocate not using heart rate at all. Good idea.
Heart rate is so garbage.
I went for a run yesterday at my normal slow long run pace, heart rate was hitting 175bpm which is mental, went 40s/km faster and HR stayed the same, then pushed my strap onto my chest and it dropped 25bpm. Same thing happens on the bike, sometimes it can seemingly work ok, then sometimes it seems to pick up vibrations from the road or wind.
The best thing you can do for the run is RPE and pace and don’t kid yourself on what your slow conversational pace is.
I don’t use swim HRM, but I will add that after being frustrated with sketchy HRM readings for years with Garmin HRM straps that got old, I went to an optical Scosche Rhythm+, and after taking about 2 weeks to find the best spot on my arm and right range of pressure to cinch it tight, it’s been excellent. Not perfect, but it’s been really solid, day in day out. The main issue with it however, is that I still haven’t found a great way to use it on race day , since I use a sleeveless wetsuit and I’m afraid it’ll get knocked loose. I tried turning it on during the bike, but it actually locked onto someone else’s HRM at the time (!) so I got no data that day.
For no particularly good reason, I acquired a Garmin HRM Swim. I find that my heart rate in the pool is much higher than in my normal bike and run training (OK, I am old (62) – I think my HR max is still around 170 – I often hit mid 160s in a swim workout – it starts out lower, but builds over the course of the entire workout). I am a decent swimmer (1:02 non-wet suit IM).
I am a little surprised I can get my heart rate that high swimming – I just didn’t think I could recruit enough big muscles to drive it that high compared to running and biking. I wouldn’t hit that high in running outside of a 10k or shorter race or biking except on a steep hill. Is this a possible artefact of something I am doing wrong (e.g., not getting enough air – I breath every other stroke, but maybe I am not exhaling/inhaling deeply enough)? Is getting my heart rate that high every workout a bad idea for getting the most out of my training? Are there heart rate training plans for swimming that work?
While I agree with the other posters on no need for HR in the pool, or on the B and R either, I do think you’ve discovered the interesting fact that you can indeed get your HR just as high swimming as you can biking and running. So many tri books say that your max swim HR will be 10 or so bpm lower than your max run HR, but I think this is mainly true for guys/girls who haven’t swum that much. You obv have swum a good bit to still be doing a 1:02 iron swim at age 62.
I bought one a while ago and was surprised how high I was able to get my HR in the pool. I was also surprised how quickly it dropped. I did some sprints and had a minute rest and saw my HR drop about 60 beats in that minute, much more than it would drop biking or running. I was also surprised how much HR drift I got in the pool. Mine started slipping so I haven’t worn it in a long time.
Since you can’t see HR while swimming, you can’t really train by HR but I suppose you could collect the data and see if you’re getting more efficient over time (swimming faster for the same HR). Since the pool is going to be the same conditions every time you could easily compare workouts. You could also look at your swim HR after races and see how it compares to what you’re doing in training and maybe adjust your training to meet the conditions of race day.
I bought one a while ago and was surprised how high I was able to get my HR in the pool.** I was also surprised how quickly it dropped. I did some sprints and had a minute rest and saw my HR drop about 60 beats in that minute, much more than it would drop biking or running.** I was also surprised how much HR drift I got in the pool. Mine started slipping so I haven’t worn it in a long time.
Since you can’t see HR while swimming, you can’t really train by HR but I suppose you could collect the data and see if you’re getting more efficient over time (swimming faster for the same HR). Since the pool is going to be the same conditions every time you could easily compare workouts. You could also look at your swim HR after races and see how it compares to what you’re doing in training and maybe adjust your training to meet the conditions of race day.
But do you stop completely stop biking or running during your “rest” periods??? Most people do not but rather continue an easy spin/jog between the hard efforts, during which obv the HR would not go down as much as in the complete rest hanging on the wall of the pool.
Sometimes doing track workouts I do and I don’t see my HR drops that big. But like you said, not usually. It was interesting to see how quickly my HR would rise and fall in the pool. It was a lot more than I expected.
Sometimes doing track workouts I do and I don’t see my HR drops that big. But like you said, not usually. It was interesting to see how quickly my HR would rise and fall in the pool. It was a lot more than I expected.
Ya, if nothing else, the HRM does give us some interesting data to chew on. It is kind of weird, IMO, that typically swimmers are capable of doing more work than runners, i.e. train more hours, and this has generally been ascribed to the “pounding” the legs take in running. I wonder if the HR coming down faster in the pool might have something to do with it also; I’m thinking that perhaps being horizontal in the water may be connected to the HR going down faster, except that when you’re resting on the wall, you’re typically vertical. So who knows, it just is.
I know HR spikes off the back to breast turn in any IM race or IM race pace set… that and your lungs want to explode.
Oh GD you are fricking so right!!! I’ve been working on my strokes and swimming lots of X x 100 IM sets, and it is just amazing how my lungs are exploding coming off the wall from back into breast. And people think freestyle is painful…
A well-timed post as I just picked up a 920 at an incredible price and it came bundled with the new heart rate monitor.
What it told me: 3800M 50m pool swim; non-stop; 51:20 time (average for me)
Avg HR: 159 The interesting thing about the data was how the rate build fairly slowly until 900m and after that just sat on 161. Almost no variation.
On a one hour tempo run, I can crank about just over 15km, but my HR will climb as I fatigue, ending up aroun 175.
Agree that it has no value for training purposes. But…would it make the TSS more accurate in terms of impact on the body?
So since the same applies to the bike and run, you advocate not using heart rate at all. Good idea.
Heart rate is so garbage.
I went for a run yesterday at my normal slow long run pace, heart rate was hitting 175bpm which is mental, went 40s/km faster and HR stayed the same, then pushed my strap onto my chest and it dropped 25bpm. Same thing happens on the bike, sometimes it can seemingly work ok, then sometimes it seems to pick up vibrations from the road or wind.
The best thing you can do for the run is RPE and pace and don’t kid yourself on what your slow conversational pace is.
Don’t blame Heart rate training success or failure based on malfunctioning equipment.
Like most swim coaches, I experimented with HR training early on, but it has nothing really to add.
The pool is such a controlled environment, that time is all that is required.
I’ve taken blood lactate and HR in the pool for myself and others, but more of a curiosity than any value.
The only thing I have found valuable is showing athletes, who continually go too hard when they should be going easier, is a lactate reading and they can then see that they are way higher than they should be.
HR monitors for pool usage has very little value.
And this is coming from somebody that is a real advocate if informed athletes training using a HR monitor.
The only thing I have found valuable is showing athletes, who continually go too hard when they should be going easier, is a lactate reading and they can then see that they are way higher than they should be.
HR monitors for pool usage has very little value.
And this is coming from somebody that is a real advocate if informed athletes training using a HR monitor.
In the scenario you describe, it seems like lactate and heart rate have similar problems / benefits.
You have a swimmer who drills it every day, you don’t want them to do that but can’t get the point across. After your discussions prove fruitless you have the swimmer wear a monitor or you get blood readings from them - either way.
In either case, to be knowledgeable about what is “too high” for this swimmer you need to do some sort of ramp testing or maybe critical pace testing and through that you can say that X bpm or Y mmol is too high. Then you have the swimmer do their normal swim and show them that what he thought was a moderate pace actually elicits HR at 95% of max or lactate at 95% of max lactate.
Is that kinda the way you have used it? If so I can definitely see the problem but as I said, I am not seeing the advantage of one over the other.
