Pool Running anf Garmin

SwtHedgehog

I have a Garmin Vivoactive 3. If anyone does pool running, what activity do you use? I've been using the swim pool activity, but feel it doesn't work quite well, plus TP gets confused about what is my pool swim and what is the pool run for that day. I do my pool run (new activity) right afterward my pool swim. If I use cardio, is that okay because the swim pool shuts off heart rate monitoring.

Jthanmyfitnesspal

I hear it's great for you! But, it is not popular enough these days to have a Garmin widget for it. If it's a sustained effort of 15 minutes or longer, it might be worth logging in MFP as something of about the same intensity.

Your HR can be a guide as to what activity it's most similar to. The Garmin HR is probably not accurate in the water (it's turned off for swimming), but you can check your HR by counting your pulse in your neck (the old fashioned way). Compare to other activities on your Garmin feed. If your HR is in your "walking" range, you could log it as such, whereas if it's in your "running" range, go there. (My suspicion is that it's closer to walking.)

Don't let the lack of a Garmin widget reduce your enjoyment of the activity!

SwtHedgehog

Thanks. I don't mind if the heart rate is accurate or not, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to do something wrong with the watch. I know the popular thing to do is keep track of heart rate, but it'd be nice if Garmin would give you the option to turn it off for a chosen activity.

AnnPT77

SwtHedgehog wrote: »

Thanks. I don't mind if the heart rate is accurate or not, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to do something wrong with the watch. I know the popular thing to do is keep track of heart rate, but it'd be nice if Garmin would give you the option to turn it off for a chosen activity.

Roughly speaking, the "strength-y-er" or "interval-y-er" an activity is, the more likely that HR will be a poor proxy for calorie burn, IMU. Closer to moderate steady state cardio, HR probably more appropriate proxy. (Note that Garmin may use other things besides HR to estimate calories for an activity, depending on the activity type.)

HRM isn't gospel across the board, for sure. Pretty bad, for some activities.

Personally, I'd use "cardio" for water running for a month or so, and see how it goes. Main thing to consider, in evaluating that, IMO: If your calorie estimate for the exercise is (making up numbers) 200 calories, and your maintenance TDEE 2000, but you lose way faster/slower than being +/- 100% on that exercise (so 200 over, 200 under, a little less than half a pound a week), then the reason isn't entirely that exercise estimate. If you deeply care, stop the water running for a month, compare results with/without, and you'll have a better (but still imperfect) idea of variance attributable to estimating error for the water running.

Workable approximation is close enough. All of this is just estimates, y'know? 😉