I think you are missing part of the point. While largely HR in swimming would be used for post workout analysis; some instances above list methods to display real time HR in the pool. While ANT+ does not transmit far in water; it will transmit a few inches and more and more watches now have optical HR built in.
Having been a swimmer for just over 50 years now - I’ve never really had any HR data at all. Sure, we’ve put our fingers up to our throat and tried to count beats over 6 or 10 seconds on the pace clock while heaving from a hard set or interval; while recovery is already happening. But to see an actual HR instantaneously at the end of the set or interval is a great improvement.
To see how HR changes throughout a set or interval can give great insight into what is actually happening in the pool.
I’m just beginning to use some of this to design sets and workouts.
I’ll tell you someone who would have loved to have a HR monitor in the pool, Pauli Kirru. His whole career was based on HR training, and I swam with him and couldnt believe how he trained. He would swim a 200 very hard, hang on the wall with a finger to his pulse, and when it returned to a certain number he would push off and do another one, over and over. that was how he worked out, 4k of 200’s, all send offs based on recovering HR. I could not think of a more boring way to swim, maybe with a rubber band strapped to my feet in a backyard pool…
Monty - that’s a good example of what I’m trying to do. Start intervals once the HR is back in the decided zone (whatever that is)
As a distance swimmer, 20 x 200 is not all that bad. I’d likely do it as 5 sets of descending 1-4.
HR in the pool gives one an option to do things like this.
I wear a Scosche Rhythm 24 arm band paired to a Suunto Ambit 3 watch. It picks up HR whenever my arm is out of the water. I have instant readings at the end of a set, and it does a good enough job capturing the whole workout to analyze after.
What is the value of the HR data when swimming? That’s what I just don’t understand.
For me it’s about taking advantage of the built in recovery metrics and overall work load. Without HR on my 935 (unless I’m doing something wrong), there’s no training adviser for swimming. It’s a first world problem as for many years I just had to “listen to my body†but I’d like the graph to look at.
Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, I see the appeal for sure. Do you use the HRM swim? Or have you found a reliable, more elegant solution? The HRM swim kind of drove me nuts as I just could never get the tightness right (it would either slip when got long and skinny for my flip turn streamline or just be too tight when I fully inhaled) and I just felt it looked ridiculous.
I don’t use anything right now as I don’t want to drop a bunch of cash on something that doesn’t work.
The optical sensors don’t work reliably in pool.
You are probably thinking of wrist optical. The Rhythm24 works great in water. (Just not at all in a pool yet, only OWS.)
Have you gotten it to work in the pool yet and do you know what the problem was? What device were you syncing it to?
As an update- I have had a few swims with the oh1 now, and it works really well. It just sits there and afterwards gives a good measure of the effort I put in to my swimming. I had found that just using my watch didn’t show as much effort, even though I was trying hard, as I am not very fast!
I struggled with leaky goggles to begin with, as with the oh1 too near the front it pushed the goggles off my eye. Once I got a good position further back it has been fine.
I am now choosing it in preference to a chest strap for running too, as it gets the correct hr straight away, with no need to build up a sweat.
What device are you syncing this to? Does it have the same post-workout data upload that the HRM Swim has? That is, does it store your HR data and merge with your garmin swim data? Thanks.
I use the OH-1 in offline caching mode. When I have finished it syncs to Polar Flow. I use SportTracks so it shows with my other activities from my Suunto. It just gives HR data.
Have you gotten it to work in the pool yet and do you know what the problem was? What device were you syncing it to?
No, Scosche still has not solved the pool swim HR sync. I have used mine successfully in open water with both a 935XT and 945. Neither has worked in a pool, however.
Like the phlex edge…