Holiday training - II : swim tracking issues

A man who has a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure. (Segal's law)

For the first time ever, I own a gps watch that can be used for swimming! I was very happy with my previous watch (until its light stopped working a few months ago) but it could not be used during swimming activities. All these years, for tracking my open water swimming time during summer, I used simple cheap digital watches that are usually waterproof up to 50 m. Although these poor watches eventually get destroyed by salt and the sun, they work perfectly well for timing both intervals and whole swimming sessions for at least two or three summers. For checking my distance, I used Google maps to measure the distance between the endpoints of my swimming rounds. Of course since it is not possible to swim straight lines in open water, this was never accurate, but it gave a pretty good idea of my total swimming distance.

This year, I was excited and eager to test my new watch which is a Garmin Forerunner 920XT. It is a triathlon watch, which can be used for swimming, running, and biking, as well as combination of all three. I have had it for already a couple of months, but I never found the time to start using it before the summer holidays. When I finally hit the beach on the first day and took out my watch to set it up, I was happily surprised to see that its colors matched perfectly the colors of my goggles, my beach slippers, and my swimming equipment purse. I was so enthusiastic (you know by now how easily this happens) that I simply had to post the following picture on Instagram.

Nobody believed that the matching colors were a coincidence... But Frank, who bought the watch, can assure you that it was. Unfortunately it turned out that I was expecting a bit too much from my new watch. The heart rate belt is not to be used during swimming. There is no way the watch can get the information from the belt while in water, so the swimming functions do not at all contain a view of the heart rate. This was the first disappointment, as I was really looking forward to register the heart rate and to see how it changes between the different styles of swimming and between faster and slower swimming (the heart rate tends always to be quite a bit lower in water than when running, even during strenuous swimming). The second disappointment took me a couple days to figure out: the breaststroke rounds are not distance registered at all! It turns out that the gps signal is lost when under water. While forward crawl swimming, the distance is registered quite accurately, since the arm with the watch goes above the surface every second stroke, and just a second outside of water is enough to catch the gps signal and recap the distance. However, during breaststroke the arms are under the water all the time, and nothing gets registered. Since the watch has built-in movement control other than gps (as it can register things like distance and cadence while indoor running on treadmill) I was thinking that it could perhaps register the strokes due to the arm movements, but unfortunately not. When I do four rounds, alternating forward crawl and breaststroke, this is how it looks at the end:

Only two rounds registered. I simply have to add the missing two rounds manually. It is not so easy to see the watch while swimming, so to swim intervals while watching the time is not convenient. I think you can set it up so that it tells you when to start swimming fast and when to slow down (it has a very nice buzz which is pleasantly but clearly noticeable), but I haven't taken the time to read and learn all that. Instead, this is how I do my intervals: 120 strokes fast/60 strokes moderate for forward crawl, and 60 strokes fast/30 strokes moderate for breaststroke.

If you are interested, somebody has done a really thorough review of this watch, and he recommends it to wear it on your head (under your swim cap) for most accurate registration of distance. As I really prefer to avoid the swim cap, this is not an option for me. Don't think that I am not happy with my new watch, though; it has many nice features outside of swimming that I have already tested a bit and am looking forward to test more. When it comes to swimming, I have checked that there are devices that can register heart rate via your ear, and speak to you your heart rate while in water. Great idea, but this is a separate device from your watch. I have another idea: goggles that register heart rate and display it on the top part of the glasses! Attach a tiny antenna that sticks out of the water to keep in touch with the gps signal at all times, and you have the best swim tracker ever. Am I giving away an ultimate business idea too easily? In any case, here is another detailed review and comparison of several swim watches.

Holidays and swimming are great, but I really do miss my mountains! The first thing I am planning to do as soon as I am back in Bergen is to visit Stoltzekleiven. With Skåla Opp coming up in just four weeks, I will probably be alternating between Stotlzekleiven and Gullfjellet every second day after the holidays. Thanks to HSR training, I think I have kept my leg strength, but I am a bit worried that my uphill shape has declined during the past three weeks.

We will see on Wednesday...