What value would heart rate based training and monitoring bring during swimming?
So we are using heart rate either as a primary or secondary tool to help us with our training, both during training as a guiding tool or afterwards for various types of analysis related to our workout or recovery for running and biking.
For swimming, we don't use heart rate because there just aren't (m)any tools allowing monitoring of heart rate and recording the data, plus it is rather difficult to read the data from a watch anyway.
So, as coaches or experienced athletes, what do you think the value would be if heart rate monitoring would be available during and after swim training? Would it change the way swim training is done today (intervals where one 'guesses' his pace / intensity)?
I'm asking this primarily from a professional standpoint (I have access to such a device, though not yet commercially available) and my first thoughts would be it could be a great asset especially for longer distance swimmers and HIM / IM triathletes. But curious to get others points of view.
Ben
Comments
"modern" swim training, using pace, distance, and rest interval, is at least 60+ years old. It's hard to see how HR as a metric could get as nuanced as what's been learned over 6+ decades in anything less than, say, 8-10 years minimum. Certainly, at our speeds/distances, HR is NOT the limiter to improvements. I kmow for myself, when I was using HR during my open water swims (May-Sept annually), I found little correlation between improvements in time and my HR. If anything, my HR during repeats was going DOWN as my speed improved. Technique is such a big factor, that I didn't see the value of using HR as a metric anymore when my swimming watch died, I didn't replace it.