Structured Swim Workouts

General Feature Requests
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Hey guys, I’ve got a few tips for your structured swim workouts - specifically the way that they transfer to Garmin devices. My background is swimming, and I’ve been looking into Athletica as a possible tool for my coached triathletes.

The way that Garmin devices handle swim workouts, there is no automatic break between sets like there would be in a normal swim workout written on a whiteboard by a coach.

What this means in practice: during a “normal” swim workout, i.e. one written up on the board for the athletes, there are gaps between each set. So let’s say they do 10x50 drill/swim r:15. They take 15sec rest between each 50. At the end of the set of ten, there’s a stop so the coach can explain what comes next and the swimmers can get whatever equipment they need ect.

When a Garmin device is going through a structured workout, this stop period doesn’t exist. If there is a set of 10x50, after the last 50, the device advances to the next step regardless of what that step is. Maybe equipment is required, or maybe it’s an all-out sprint. The athlete then has to pause the watch, figure out what the heck they are supposed to be doing, and restart.

With TrainingPeaks I’ve gotten around this by building rest blocks with a “press lap button to advance” into my workouts. This way the device will give my athletes a chance to see what the next step is, get their equipment on, ect. Athletica workouts don’t do this, but if they did it would make following the structured swim workouts on a device so much simpler and more natural!

My other tip for swim workouts is to have the workout notes (p/p, strokes, ect) be exported to Garmin as well. Garmin’s swim workouts can have notes for steps, and the info is truly vital to completing a workout as intended. Currently, all steps of an Athletica workout show up on my Garmin device as “Free”, with a given pace but no notes. Pull set? “Free”. SKPS? Also “Free”! I’m sure there is a way to get the notes into Garmin, because the notes I add to steps in TrainingPeaks transfer over.

Keep up the good work guys. Hopefully this helps!

Coach Ryan

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Thank you @rctaylor157 Coach Ryan. Request has been added to our dev list.

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Had some quick work attempted here from our dev team.

We actually made a change a few months ago we thought that changed from auto-advancing to manual-advancing via lap? Is that not working?

We’ve just now added any ‘suffix’ text to the notes/description of each interval. This will be preceded by the desired pace of the interval.

Please check for us those that use this feature. Thank you!

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It’s not auto vs manual advancing - it’s about having a gap at the end of one set before the beginning of the next set. Stopping the watch isn’t a good solution because athletes may need the notes for the step (i.e. paddles, DPS, breathe control, whatever is required) and if the watch is stopped they can’t view any step notes.

On TrainingPeaks I simply insert a rest interval set to advance on lap button at the end of each set. This way they get a chance to view whatever is coming next.

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Went to swim yesterday and I see the suffixes now! It seems the pace is bugged, though. It wanted me to do everything at a 0:28/100yd. World record pace there haha!

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Just a few questions for clarity please @rctaylor157. Are you recommending we insert a rest interval of some period after every set? And how long would that rest interval be (or does it matter)? If we do this, how can you still see the next step (or notes) before advancing to it? Thanks for the help!

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I think you just need to set the duration of between set rests to “Lap Button Press”. I would then just press the lap button at the start of the next set to continue.

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Basically what Jeremey said. And on a Garmin watch, the next step in a structured workout is visible as a data screen. If it would help, I could post a picture of what this would look like in a workout made with TP or Garmin’s builders.

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@rctaylor157 that would be fantastic… the more info we can get to make this happen for all the better :pray:

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image
Here is an example of this in a TP workout. The important part is after the set of 4x50s, there is another rest interval. I’ve arbitrarily made it 1:30 just for the purposes of it being added to the total workout time, but it’s set for “press lap button to advance”. This basically creates a pause in the workout where the athlete can look at what comes next, get any gear (put on paddles, for example) that is needed, and start the set when they are ready.

It’s not ideal for every single set. If this was an intense threshold set, I might not insert the a pause like this because I don’t want them sitting around for very long and losing the training stimulus of the workout. It’s most useful for the transition between workout phases (moving from warm-up to the main set) or for long sets that involve equipment changes, pacing changes, or drills.

Does that help?

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The plans call for rest - 10 seconds, 20, 30, etc. If it can bake those in it would be fantastic, either on lap button or automatically.

As a side impact, when importing my completed swims, Athletica is taking only my moving time and saying I didn’t complete the workout time (granted, my rest ends up being longer than planned with my coach talking at length between sets…). While in reality, the workout PLANS for rest, but doesn’t reflect it.

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Super helpful @rctaylor157 @Jeremy … we’ve made some updates. Please test and report back when you can thanks.

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Side note, this is exactly how Form goggles does it as well, a pause between sets to give you an idea on what’s coming, and what gear you need to get, or take off (you press the front button then to continue). So if Athletica ever get Form goggle integration, it is what those users would expect as well.

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Excellent update!
I saw this thread earlier and wanted to come back and say how much I appreciated the change. As a swimmer, having the added rest period after each main set makes the entire workout much smoother (as well as using the lap button to advance). I didn’t have to think about hitting either the lap button or start/stop between sets. Thank you!

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Great work! Works exactly like I had hoped it would. Garmin also shows what is coming next while in the rest period, which is really useful.

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@Prof I’ve done a couple workouts now and the new gaps are awesome! Exactly what I was hoping for. Thank you!!

I have picked up on two bugs:

  1. The workout on the watch doesn’t match what the website says. Both workouts will be towards the same aim (threshold, technique, ect), but the structure of the sets will be different.
  2. The paces don’t seem to be translating properly. On my watch, I get this:
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Hi @rctaylor157 - great, but please provide more detail please. What swims exactly are you referring to so we can track these issue down.

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I’ve seen the pace bug on every swim workout, so I don’t think it’s isolated. As for the workouts not matching, I’ve seen it on the three workouts I’ve done so far which include 2 strength endurance workouts and one threshold workout.

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We’ve applied a fix @rctaylor157 … can you please check again when you get a chance?

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I’ve done two swim workouts so far and everything seems to be working great!

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