Satuday's Swim Report - 100 Years Of The Other Duke & Other Swim Bits

Lane 1 - Daily Telegraph posts "Celebrating Duke’s historic visit to Australia 100 years ago. ONE hundred years ago this month, Hawaiian Olympic swimmer Duke Kahanamoku arrived in Australia at the invitation of Australian swimming officials."

Lane 2 - FINA posts "Chad Le Clos: winner of 50m Butterfly CR, Chad Le Clos (RSA) has now won four gold medals in Butterfly events in the history of the World Championships SC. Only one man have won more: James Hickeman (ENG) won five Butterfly golds between 1997 and 2004."

Lane 3 - The Telegraph posts "Jamaican swimmer Alia Atkinson becomes first black woman to win world title. Alia Atkinson, who says she hopes to become a role model, makes history with triumph in world record time in the 100m breaststroke."

Lane 4 - The South African posts "Hottie of the moment: Yummy World-Champion swimmer, Chad le Clos. 22-year-old South African swimmer Chad le Clos are many females reason to watch swimming competitions. That’s if he is swimming of course-no we not only referring to his talent, but his hotness too.

Lane 5 - 9News posts "Swimming champion Grant Hackett back in shape, ready for a comeback. Hackett is training with ironman Ky Hurst and has moved back to the Gold Coast to focus on getting back in shape, News Corp reported. While the 34-year-old has recently overcome an addiction to sleeping tablet Stilnox, he told the Daily Telegraph he is back in the pool six days a week with the help of coach Denis Cotterell."

Lane 6 - SwimSwam posts "TESTING THE PEBBLE WATCH ON SWIM.COM. SwimOutlet.com has launched a new online site called Swim.com that is geared entirely towards using swim data to help athletes improve. The other training sites on the market are built towards multisport and are not efficient at analyzing data from swim watches. It is easy to tally distances, but nothing beyond that."

Lane 7 - FINA posts "Florent Manaudou : winner of 50m Backstroke WR,CR. Florent Manaudou (FRA) wins the 50m backstroke in World record time of 22.22, breaking Peter Marshall's (USA) six year-old record of 22.61. In October 2013 Manaudou finished third in this event at the World Cup meet, also in Doha."

Lane 8 - The Randolph Guide posts "An almost Tarzan retires in Asheboro.  For one Asheboro resident, Gene Kozlow, playing Tarzan on the Silver Screen almost happened in 1948. He was asked to take a screen test for the part of Tarzan by RKO Studios in New York. Although not selected, Kozlow continued to swim and tried out for the 1948 Olympic Swim Team. Kozlow said about the tryout, "I was one-tenth of a second too slow and didn't make the team."

The Swim Off: Garmin Swim vs Pebble + Swim.com

Swim time!  If it's Sunday it's Swimday!  WIth work the only day I can get to the pool in the morning to swim with the gang is Sunday's at 7:30am so I woke up and decided to bring both the Pebble Watch and my old Garmin Swim to have a swim off.  Last week I posted LINK my first swim with the Pebble Watch.  It didn't go so well as the Swim.com software at this time only recognizes Freestyle and Backstroke.  For most lap swimmers or triathletes or just fun swimmers that is more then enough.  But for IM'ers or those who swim workouts with butterfly or breaststroke the Pebble doesn't cut it as of now.  So today I decided to switch watches in between sets to give them a side by side review.

Warm Up - Pebble Watch:

200 Freestyle Swim

100 Freestyle Pull w/o Paddles

200 Freestyle Pull w/ Paddles (500)Lots of information can be found with the Swim.com website.  Bascially you need to install the Swim.com app on the Pebble Watch and then on your iPhone/iPad install the Swim.com Pebble Uploader.  Pretty simple and all FREE.  The Dashboard at Swim.com is very easy to read but offers pretty much everything you need to know about your swim workout.  It is odd that for Stroke Type I get UKNOWN considering it only reads Freestyle and Backstroke.  

Drill Set - Garmin Swim:

4x125's 15 seconds rest w/fins

25 Pull

75 Kick

25 Swim  (500/1000)

Rut oh!  I accidently hit the wrong setting.  I thought I was in Drill Mode on my Garmin when I was in a Custom Mode.  Mind you this doesn't happen with the Pebble since Pebble doesn't have these modes.  I love DRILL Mode on my Garmin to track kicking and dreaded drill sets.  One other thing I noticed later on is sometimes with the Garmin watch I don't set the watch to start the next leg of a set.  The Garmin makes a low long beep to let you know when it's starting again while the Pebble has a short vibration to let you know it's starting again.  Pebble wins on the Vibration but Garmin wins on Drill Mode.

Main Set - Both Garmin & Pebble:

2 Rounds -

200 (50 Free / 100 Stroke / 50 Free) on 3:30

4x50's Stoke Descending on 1:30 maybe.  Somethine super easy

rest 60 seconds

50 Sprint.

First round the stroke was back, second round it was breast! (900/1900)

I started the 200 with the backstroke with the Garmin only to remember I could use the Pebble for the set so switched to Pebble.

 

The first graph/chart is from the Pebble for the 50's Backstroke.  Lots of information in a quick view.  Thne the next chart/graph is the Classic Garmin view of the 200 with breast in the middle.  The final chart/graph is the Modern Garmin view of the 50's breast.  The each offer differnt data points but enough for one to understand a swim set.  More importantly you can upload your Garmin Swims into Swim.com.  I've done it in the past but struggle to do that today.

Drills - Garmin Swim:

4x75's w/ fins IM no free (300/2200)

Sprints - Garmin Swim:

4x25's IM order on 60.  (100/2300)

Then I did 4x50's easy free pulling to play with the Pebble.  (200/2500)

I'm not done with the Pebble yet.  I'm going to swim one more time this week.  Do I like it? YES!  The screen is big the numbers are big!  My old eyes can read it!  It stays Bluetoothed to my phone so I get text, twitter and other alerts right on my wrist.  For swimming I'm mixed as it yet to read strokes only Freestyle and Backstroke.  But I think for lap swimmers who are looking for a watch this is the one to get.  IM'ers or swimmers to do stroke work may want to hold off or get the Garmin.  Either way upload your workouts to Swim.com.

My Progress for Go The Distance 2014

Month Total Distance
Jan 2.76 miles (=4,850 yards, =4,435 meters)
Feb 4.15 miles (=7,300 yards, =6,675 meters)
Mar 5.82 miles (=10,250 yards, =9,373 meters)
Apr 7.41 miles (=13,050 yards, =11,933 meters)
May 13.59 miles (=23,926 yards, =21,878 meters)
Jun 5.60 miles (=9,850 yards, =9,007 meters)
Jul 2.44 miles (=4,300 yards, =3,932 meters)
Aug 4.15 miles (=7,300 yards, =6,675 meters)
Sep 2.22 miles (=3,900 yards, =3,566 meters)
Oct 2.64 miles (=4,650 yards, =4,252 meters)
Nov 2.67 miles (=4,700 yards, =4,298 meters)
Total 53.45 miles (=94,076 yards, =86,023 meters)

At least I swam more this month so far then last.  Got one more swim in to go, hopefully!