Tools of the Trade
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I've thought about the Garmin Swim. My wife got me the Frontrunner 225. But that doesn't work for swimming. Tried it anyway and sent it back.
I know some say they find the tracking useful for pushing themselves. I'm just not convinced it will do me any good. Most of the fit trackers like fitbit, to me anyway, are marketing gimmicks. I have a basic Polar HRM that I seem to only use in a spinning class. Can't wear it swimming because the transmitter keeps flipping over. And I don't want to tape it down.
Who knows, maybe I'll put the Garmin Swim on the Christmas list and give it a try. But I'll have to stop doing kick board laps because it does not track those. Or just fill in the blank or use my finger counter with the Garmin.0 -
The Garmin Swim can track your kickboard drills as well. It's just a few extra steps to put it in drill mode, and once you've completed the drill, you enter the distance. Here's the info it collected from last night as displayed in the Swim.com app:
The weird 2nd drill data is from turning around in the middle of the pool and limping back to the edge and stretching to de-cramp. The mixed stroke (#10) is when I did some breaststroke and free combined. It does a pretty good job at detecting strokes, though I've not attempted butterfly.
I swear I don't get a commission or work for Garmin. I really like the watch. It's only for swimming and useless for steps or any other activity including open water swimming. But it does the data collection thing for lap swimming pretty well, in my opinion. The battery is user-changeable and the watch turns off its display when it doesn't detect movement for a minute or so. I used to keep it in my swim bag and switch watches at the pool but lately I've been wearing it full time.0 -
So I finally added a kick board and snorkel when I realised just how weak my kick is!
Use them at every opportunity now - trying to get kick sets in as often as I can!0 -
Snorkel - that sounds like a good idea. Is it one of those funny looking front snorkels?1
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In my swim bag:
Cap, Swede Goggles (LOVE) spare pair of standard speedo goggles for those days where me and the swedes just can't get along, standard fins, paddles, pull buoy, and kickboard.
I just started swimming with this pace watch (not my arm in the photo) The aquatics center I swim at doesn't have a large digital clock and the standard clocks are small and far away. I love it! I set it to start at the top so I can easily know what my pace and splits are.
I swim 3-4k MWF and shorter 1500-2k swims TuTh. Since I'm swimming sets I so far haven't seen a need for a fancier watch that actually counts stroke, pace, etc.
I've debated about getting the waterproof mp3 player, but like being able to chat sometimes with fellow swimmers and fear appearing anti social.
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My Speedo backpack. My husband and swim-buddy-daughter got it for me for my b-day and I love it. I look like an aging high school swim kid, but it's so nice to have a place for everything and everything has a place...0
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Today I added prescription goggles and what a difference that makes.
My old goggles broke and walked into the local sports shop to replace them. Looked at some in a pile and they had "-3" on them and I asked the guy in the store and he says yes they have a prescription!
And very cheap too - like they were trying to get rid I them.
For the first time, I'm not half blind when I'm swimming.
If they look like they can last for a decent time period, I may just pop back in and buy a second pair, while they still have them!
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AQ, I swear by my prescription goggles. I pay around $US 7.50 a pair and they last several months. I LOVE them. I was wearing contacts and regular goggles, but this is so much better. I buy them online two pair at a time
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So I came across this in a swim smooth email and checked out the site.
I definitely see one of these in my future! It talks to you as you swim analyzing stroke rate, etc, giving real time feedback and offering tips as you swim!
Wow! How amazing is that? Woah!
http://platysens.com/marlin/
Platysens Marlin is a Swim Meter designed to tell you your swim performance through voicefeedback using a bone conduction headset. Your pace is reported to you as you swim with no disruption to your swim stroke. In open water swims, your swim performance is captured with GPS. In the pool, motion sensors are used when there is no GPS reception. After your swim, you can connect Marlin to your phone with Bluetooth to review your data and update configurations.0 -
Had not seen this thread before, cool information and now I must check out the Tempo magic pro, as I have just been playing what makes me happy. Should be interesting to see what happens.
Swim gear includes: speedo vanquisher goggles which I love, speedo silicon cap (even with short hair I am used to wearing one), Audioflood iPod, speedo hand paddles (the old fashioned rectangular ones that are red/medium sized) with the back strap taken out, speedo pull bouy, sporti training fins (cause kicking sucks and these make it more fun), speedo swim suit and I borrow a kick board from the place I work out. Yes, I tend to lean towards speedo brand. I know.
As for digital clocks, it is funny because until that was mentioned about the pie chart, I translate the digital to pie charts. I rather liked the look of @sjbuescher watch. Very cool.
Thanks all for sharing...interesting stuff!0 -
@Montepulciano I started wearing a cap when I noticed my arms and legs losing hair.
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Yup, protect the hair.
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Having found the Roka Jammer to far exceed the competition is gave their goggles a try. Let's just say they are about as anti fog as San Francisco or London.
Just ordered a couple more Aquasphere on Amazon. Those I just wipe with leg of my jammer and they stay fog free for my entire swim.1 -
Apple Watch for lap times and counting. Waterproof MP3 with audiobooks for boredom busting.2
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Definitely a Finis snorkel with the flow restrictor in place. Great for warm-ups, warm-downs and active recovery.
Apple Watch 2 for tracking my activity. It currently does not count laps (or calories) when you are kicking, but that is a software update. When I mix in kick sets with my swimming I use "Other Fitness" and it uses heart rate to calculate active calories and total time, but it does not count laps.1 -
Update on the goggles. I read on line that baby shampoo can be used for preventing fogging up. So I tried it.
Turns out it actually does work. But it takes a couple times to get a film that keeps fog away for my full swim.1 -
Added a pair of finger paddles to help feel the catch and they are fun on back stroke too. 1
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Does anyone here use Myswimpro? It is an app kind of like myfitnesspal for swimming.
It allows you to log your workouts, they have videos and suggested workouts.
There is also a social aspect where you can follow your friends and see their workouts and comment.
If you have an apple watch you can use it directly in the water to do your workouts.
I have been using it for about a month, for now just for logging. It's pretty cool.1 -
Like a few of you, I love my underwater iPod. For after the pool, it's not a gadget, but I love Korean sheet masks to rehydrate my skin before I get dressed. Also, I love my plastic/rubber (not soft silicone) Mack' s earplugs and get really distracted if water keeps getting in my ear under my cap.0
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@theowlbox Aren't those masks for face only?0
