1000m again (at last)

A month back in the water and I've gradually reached 1000m. Ok, so the session was slow and included some very restful breaststroke but at least I was in the water for half an hour. I also included a fair few bilateral breathing lengths although none were consecutive.

On the tech side, I also retuned to my Garmin Swim as I'm nervous of damaging the pressure/temperature sensor on my 935 again. However a year ago the Swim seemed to become unpredictable, which is very irritating especially if you've just done a long session! Anyway, today it behaved fine and I've almost relearnt the button layout. It's on probation...

Garmin Swim Battery change

My V1 swim watch has been very unreliable for my last few swims. Stopping, data loss, time reseting itself etc but no 'low battery' indicator! Also the display has been crisp and contrast-rich which made me think the battery was fine.

Anyway, today I'd got the box of CR2032 in my hands so swapped it over.

Looks like it has been 11 months since the last replacement so perhaps not unsurprising. Let's hope the fault is resolved...

Data loss

I'm not sure how well today's swim went. I thought the first 200m warm-up went well at 62SPM but no data. It seems that the failing watch battery led to a corrupt file. I then did some sets at 63SPM with bilateral breathing but found that I was running out of breath by 6 lengths. I tried faster and slower cadence and much the same. It did feel successful to do a sort of 2-3-1 system to keep some symmetry and reduce the time between breaths but perhaps more complex than needed.

Just before stopping I tired a 'powerful' set with RHS only breathing but trying to push with my arms as much as possible. Don't know how the pace was!

Oh well, at least I was in the water for half an hour or so.

Back home I changed the battery but couldn't retrieve the file...

Wow!

I"m fed up with my watch but on trying to return it for a paid repair I have discovered that they think it's in warranty.

The T&C say one year so I'll bet they soon change their mind...

September 2016 Week 13 Session 2 (incomplete)

It was back to the cold water of the Goodwin pool this weekend to carry on with my September routine. The 'long' Session 2 is my least favourite and today I ran out of energy before completing it. I suspected that the Garmin Swim would fail (I wasn't disappointed) and therefore tried to work well with the TempoTrainer. I managed sets of 45, 44, and 43 seconds per length for 400m but couldn't achieve the 42s pace. I tried breaking it into shorter sections but I don't have the data for how well that worked. I set out to do a second super set of just slow and fast 400m sets. The first at 47s was manageable but I failed to keep to 45s for the second. That was a bit feeble!

I went along with only a little breakfast and after Saturday DIY and a run so perhaps I wasn't at my best. I noted that I had a little tingling in my arms for the first few warm-up lengths but it faded.

September 2016 Week 12 Session 3 (or thereabouts)

Once again Heeley Baths seemed attractive and I was there at 07:30. It wasn't all that busy and I managed to work well with the warm up in the medium lane and then my fast/slow sets in the fast lane.

I'd set the Garmin Swim to 23m rather than 25 yards so that I recorded metric data throughout (really should be 22.86m). I set the TempoTrainer to 28s but gradually reduced it. I'd forgotten the precise system for Week 12 so started off with alternating 100 yard slow/fast sets. I gradually reduced the length indicator to 25s and was able to maintain that, which seems to be 1:49min/100m. Later in the session I tried to carry on over 200 yards as a single set and struggled to keep up with 26s, or 1:54min/100m.  This is all fine as 1:54min/100m is the target pace for a 25m pool so I'm not far off. Having been to Heeley a few times now it is pretty clear that I'm faster in a short warm pool than a long cool one. The length element is well known, the heat is perhaps surprising.

Rather annoyingly despite making an effort to keep my laps in order the watch did not record the data properly once again. I'm sure I selected SAVE at the end of the swim and my weekly total incremented. However the session does not appear in the list and cannot be downloaded. So the observations above are the extent of my analysis.

This screenshot confirms that there really is a session in there but it can't be accessed. I've emailed Garmin Support UK and wonder what the outcome will be. Unfortunately I'm not committed to any of the new multi-sport watches as they are too large and too costly. There are some Suunto Vertical watches on special offer and although I'm tempted, they are large and are reported to have less than ideal GPS reception.

September 2016 Week 10 Session 3

Today I went to Pond's Forge in the city as the University pool is closed. It was good to return to the 50m pool that had frightened me a few years ago. Now it posed no concerns and it was pleasant to be able to swim without thinking about the end of the lane.

I set the TempoTrainer for my 'fast lengths' and for the first set and perhaps the second, I managed to do 3x100m at a sub 2:00min/100m pace. I suspect that for sets 3 and 4 I didn't achieve this. Unfortunately I couldn't transfer the data when I came home.

Moreover today's swim didn't appear in the history. That's a little irritating but I know that I put in the training effort and ultimately that's more important than the data. The ANT+ only interface on the Garmin Swim seems to make it hard to do transfers manually, at least I couldn't find anything about it online. Having accepted that today's swim was lost I've done a hard reset on the watch in case something was 'confused', better to start afresh than risk the loss of new data.

New battery

I'd hoped to swim today but work was too much work. On the walk home the Garmin Swim flashed up 'Low Battery'. Although this has been the first warning I don't want to lose data so swapped the battery this evening. I had spare CR2032 cells in stock as they are one of those sizes that fit a multitude of gadgets nowadays.

The swap was easy as per the instruction manual.

The estimated battery life is 1 year, my first use is recorded as 14th July 2015 so that's a pretty reasonable prediction. I've barely used the light which I'd assume is a substantial drain.

I hope the seal is OK, the O-ring is slender!

April 2016 Week 13 Session 1

I'm into extratime beyond my 12 week block now as I couldn't arrange a session with Julian for a few weeks. That gives me an opportunity to consolidate my progress.

Today's long swim started very leisurely, I suspect that I am still tired from last weekend's run and the activities since then. I made an effort in the third and final set and pulled the pace up a little so the net result was fairly consistent pacing. A little slower than some weeks but within my current variability.

I think my lethargy passed onto my Garmin Swim watch as it missed counting many laps. The worst ever! I spotted the error after the  first set and ensured that I did a good push-off at each length thereafter. That didn't seem to make the slightest difference. On previous occasions when lengths have been missed I've been going with long slow strokes and I suppose that was the case today too.

Must try harder!

Swim session 13

Today was my second swimming session with my new Garmin Swim that I bought to replace the counter I lost in Kirkcaldy. Yesterday the date stamp on the file transferred from Garmin Connect to Strava was incorrect and this is a known error which I could have avoided had I known about it but it's now synchronised correctly. I also struggled with 'pause' initially but on rereading the manual I used the feature effectively today. Importantly 'pause' also breaks the swim into recognisable intervals.

It seems to work pretty well although today I might have lost 1 length in a total of 62. Of course the watch doesn't record leg drills as its controlled by an accelerometer on your wrist. More significantly the rest data aren't transferred to Strava so the pace average is only on moving time which isn't my convention.

The collection of length by length data is a little better than I achieved with the lap counter and definitely needs less typing in. Importantly the watch will keep data for around 30 swims so doesn't need to be copied off after every swim - unlike the counter. I've set the custom display to show the interval distance so that helps me keep track of each set.

Technique-wise I struggled with a sinking lead arm which is probably due to tiredness from consecutive swim days.