Thankfully I got a Swimovate Poolmate as a Christmas gift. It’s been great. It automatically tracks my lengths, times them, keeps a history as well as counting strokes per length and giving a ‘efficiency’ score.

I have the ‘regular’ version rather than the ‘pro’. From what I can tell, this just means that it doesn’t do an automatic data transfer to a PC. I work on a Linux machine most of the time anyway, and I suspect there probably isn’t an app I could use for the pro version anyway. Plus I’m quite happy to hit the buttons and go through it’s training log and transfer the details into SportTracks manually anyway.

What I like is the faultless way it keeps track of my distance and times, as simply as pressing the start button. You then just hit start again if you’re doing any kind of training to introduce a recovery period, then start when you begin the next set. Hold down start to complete the activity.

Swimovate Poolmate

Pros,

• Nice and small. Looks like a regular ‘petrol station’ digitial watch. i.e. not massive like my 310XT
• Simple to use. Basically, designed for pool swimming – so no myriad of settings etc.
• Effective. Does exactly what it’s supposed to. No errors so far!

Minor niggles,

• I’d like the lap counter to be bigger – it’s the number I’m usually looking out for – but it uses the small digits on the display rather than the larger ones that are reserved for time
• Some of the button presses are a little unintuitive. When viewing an activity it’s quite easy to get a scary “Erase?” prompt up. I hold down start when I see that to back out quickly.
• The history log doesn’t include the individual rest periods, but does include their time in the overall time. So if you do the 5 reps of 400m @ 8 mins, with 30 second rests you only see 5 sets in the log, but a total time of 44 minutes. You’d then have to do the maths to work out your reset time looking at the log.

Overall though, I’d say it’s a great bit of kit…. I’d still rather be in the lake though.

OW Swim @ Broggie
Open Water Swimming for 00:45:40
1.10 mi @ 1.4 mph

I’ve also got the cadence sensor, which is now fitted to my Cayo. I’ll see how well that works out tomorrow. So far though I think it’s pretty good – not sure I’d race with it though as it’s quite big and will certainly make getting out of the w/suit harder.

The early morning Saturday OW swims at Brogborough are good as they mean I get something done on Saturdays before I have to look after Jodie, this week I was great as I had ample time to get a mile done and still be back home by 8.30. Since Jodie had a Tennis taster at the gym I also got time to put a 45 minute run in on the treadmill and make sure my heel was okay from the walking.

I finished off the weekend with an Olympic Distance brick session (40k Ride, 10k Run). This was good and bad. I tried out a couple of things. Firstly some SiS gels (The Smart1 caffine / carb gel at about 12mi on the bike, then an Isotonic Carb Go gel at around 22mi ready for the run). I think I prefer the Smart1 although the other was okay too. In a OD Tri I think I’d probably pack a couple more. I also took 500ml of SiS PSP22 on the ride, again this was pretty good.

The other thing I tried was not wearing socks. I think I should have researched this a bit more as this didn’t go wholly to plan. On the ride I had no problems at all even though my dhb R1 bike shoes aren’t Tri specific. The run started off okay except for a tiny bit of grit in my left shoe that kept me distracted, but it was my right that got worse. The first 5k was okay, but after that something started to rub on the inside edge of my foot, then toward my end – possibly because I was changing my gait the heel back to rub too. Probably talc in the shoes would help, I might see if I can identify the seam that was rubbing and coat it in something too. Anyway, I’m sat here typing with two blister plasters on – so a painful lesson learned.

Brogborough Lake

We swam about 400m out to a platform by which time I’d warmed up nicely and was getting more accustomed to the sensation, it was a little off putting to see plant life below me though as we approached the platform! The swim back to the shore was much more pleasant. I’d adapted to the wetsuit which encourages a more gliding style of swimming and easily built up a rhythm. In total we probably only did about 800m but that’s by far the longest I’ve swum without touching the bottom / side etc.

All in all a really good first OW swim – I think Saturday mornings at Broggie will become a fixture, and hopefully another morning during the week too.

Tomorrow I hope to get another long ride in and a quick run afterwards.

The good thing about this week is that none of these activities required a massive change to my usual day. I’m hoping this can work as a basis for a routine week and then I can look to increase the distance (take the long way home) or fit an extra run or ride in where possible.

Having never worn a wetsuit before I’m hoping it’s the right size. I struggled into it and it’s certainly tight – but not uncomfortably so. I’m yet to swim in it but the arms and legs seem flexible enough. Taking it off took an age too! Once I’d put it on and take it off in the comfort of my own home I tried again, this time a bit quicker – so I think it’s all down to technique. Perhaps it’ll be easier when it’s gotten wet too.

After I’d expended several gazillion calories getting in and out of the S2 I headed down the gym for a bit of a swim (without the suit) and some core / stretching work. My swimming has suffered a bit as I’ve been focussed on my bike / running recently with the Duathlon, it showed in the pool as I never really clicked into a rhythm. I need to work more swimming back into my schedule, and hopefully get some open water swims in with the TeamMK folk, probably early mornings so it doesn’t come as a complete shock to the system when I get to a race.

Getting there - slightly longer again
Running for 01:02:50
6.57 mi @ 09:34 min/mi

I’m thinking I need to start looking for a new pair of running shoes – these ones have done a shade over 400 miles. I could have got some today, but then I remembered I still haven’t signed up with TeamMK and I’ll get a 10% discount from Sweatshop when I do. Also I’ll be able to start bothering them on their forum with dumb questions.

It’s good to read a bit more about bi-lateral breathing as it’s an area I’ve been trying to focus on in the pool. It initially felt like a step back from my ‘breath on 2′ approach I used in the Sprint Tri, but after a few sessions I can definitely feel the benefits.

Anyway, www.d3multisport.com has some useful training articles.