Garmin 910XT and the Swim

Coach Rich

A few month ago I pinched Joanne's 910 when my 305 died . I recently found the swim function. I swim outdoors, in a pool, both LCM and SCY and know how to toggle between the two. But is there an auto start/stop feature I'm missing somewhere? The timer continues to spin when I'm on the wall between intervals. I try to get some motivation by glancing at the pace/100m but it's bugging me that is seems to include the rest interval. 

Any help?

Al Truscott

? Hit the lap button as your hand touches the wall to start the rest interval, then hit lap button again as you push off to start the next interval?

Mike Roberts

Coach, If you hit Lap at the end of the interval, then hit Lap again as you start, you'll capture all your intervals, but it will include your rest in the pace/100 (i.e., you can avg 1:17/100 swimming over the WKO, but you'll see 1:58/100 in the summary because it lumps in wall time). Hard to track progress when it includes rest. If that's your concern, I think there was enough feedback that the new 920 addresses rest intervals, drills, kick sets, etc. (don't have one, so can't confirm, but that's the word). My imperfect solution? Press Stop, then Lap when you hit the wall. The watch won't tell you the rest interval (the imperfection, so I default to the pool clock), then hit Start for the next interval, then Stop/Lap when you finish. That will give you the accurate swim pace/100 for the WKO.

If someone has a better solution, I'm game. But because the new watch appears to address this, I suspect this is just a shortcoming to accept and work around.

Mike Roberts

Oh, and if you're only interested in the last interval pace for motivation, I'm pretty sure you can set a field to Last Lap Pace (or something like that), so when you hit the Lap button on the wall, you can see the 1:04 pace for the last interval, then hit Lap again when it's time for the next one. The summary, however, will include wall time overall unless you stop and start between laps.

John Bayone

I just hit the stop when I hit the wall. during the rest interval hit the lap button, and just hit start again when I push off for the start of the next interval. Just to avoid recording the resting time.

ezellrh

I'm with the lap every stop crowd. My fields are total distance, lap distance, last lap pace and current interval time. My pool does not have a wall clock/timer, so I use current interval time to show me how long I'm wall hanging/rest intervals. Not perfect, but the best solution I've found.

Coach Rich

Thanks all for the input. 

I'm RainMan with a pace clock so no need for me to record intervals, formally, for vanilla swim workouts. RR's are the only sessions where I'd like to record intervals and pace. When I did my RR on Friday I tried to remember to hit lap at the 400s but forgot the 3rd one, I think.

But for regular workouts, I'm just not going to hit the buttons at the wall. Glancing up at the clock is enough for me. Too bad the 910 doesn't have auto stop/start for pool swimming.  

Dino Sarti

The $99 Garmin swim really does the best job here. It has a rest interval feature. Hit start, then swim, after the first interval hit lap. It then goes into rest mode and shows a rest timer as well as an interval timer. Hit lap again as you push off and will start a new activity interval. It works so well. When the workout is over it gives you all sorts of metrics including swim time and rest time which sum to the total time. Slick.

Nemo Brauch

I just hit the stop when I hit the wall. during the rest interval hit the lap button, and just hit start again when I push off for the start of the next interval. Just to avoid recording the resting time.

Yup- that's what I do. Works fine for me. I use the wall clock for the rest intervals.

MattAaronson

Posted By Dino Sarti on 31 Mar 2015 12:19 AM



The $99 Garmin swim really does the best job here..

Totally agree. That's what I use...in the odd time that I actually swim...

Stephanie Hartmann

I usually just let the thing run. I'll stop and save data between the warm up and the main set. The only time it really makes a difference is when I'm testing. Then I do a save data and use a fresh start after the warm-up. It's a great watch and since i have 75 meter pool the ability to program that in is great.

Scott Alexander

I have overall time on my 910 showing.
I hit the interval button for my intervals/sets.

When I upload to WKO+, it shows both the total time and also the "time while moving" in parenthesis.

I'm nowhere near an OCD swimmer guy (shown both in my personality as well as my swim times. hahaha).

William Jenks

The 910 is problematic for precise swim timing. It's certainly no better than glancing at the clock...but of course it does record it for posterity. That's the reason I use it...mainly for accountability...not because I can't remember more or less how fast I was going.

Two other problems with the Garmin timing are the imprecision of the length click-over, which means it's probably ok for the middle lengths of an interval, but the first and last are probably wrong.... and the fact that you can't stop the "last lap" display for 10 seconds. If you're only taking a 10 second interval rest (or even 15), that makes it a bit hard to glance at the watch for whatever interval.

Despite these problems, I do like having it, for a variety of reasons, including having "current interval distance" on display in case I lose count. :-)

Amulya Parthasarathy

Coach,
If you are hitting the lap button after every interval, the rest time should not be calculated. If your Garmin is still including the rest time for the total swim, then you may need to upgrade the Firmware.

Changes made from version 2.40 to 2.50:
?Rest times are no longer included in the average pace calculation for pool swim.

The latest Firmware for the 910 is version 3.0. If you upgrade to the latest, I'm guessing you should be good.

Coach Rich

Posted By Amulya Parthasarathy on 31 Mar 2015 11:57 PM


Coach,

If you are hitting the lap button after every interval, the rest time should not be calculated. If your Garmin is still including the rest time for the total swim, then you may need to upgrade the Firmware.



Changes made from version 2.40 to 2.50:

?Rest times are no longer included in the average pace calculation for pool swim.



The latest Firmware for the 910 is version 3.0. If you upgrade to the latest, I'm guessing you should be good.

Ah...thanks, I'll do that. Yesterday I did 400s so not a PITA to hit the start/stop button on the wall between 400s, but hitting one button once (split) would be better. 

Amulya Parthasarathy

I'm assuming that you also have the "Pace - Last Interval" data field on one of your swim screens.