ZackJones

Wear them when you swim? Especially when it comes to races? I've been debating with the idea of wearing mine this year. I was thinking about wearing a short sleeve bodyarmor type of shirt which should help keep the chest strap in place. I'm going to try this out at the pool tomorrow and see how things go.

hoodlum

I've never worn one for performance/monitering reasons in the water, I'm not sure how well the transmission signals would travel. My HRM has an analog signal, so if you have a digital signal it may work better for you than me. I am considering wearing my HRM strap under my skinsuit for my half coming up on May 7, but only to prevent me from having to take the time to put it on in T1.

bac

I've worn my Polar swimming. I had no problems with signals, and the strap was all I needed to keep it in place. Try it!

cjbruin

The instructions for my polar suggest that you will get an erratic signal while in the h2o but if you're looking to use it on the bike and run and not have to worry about putting it on in T1, I think it's a good idea.

Guest

I don't swim, but while I was at a coaching clinic, they suggested to not worry about the hrm in the swim portion of triathlons. What, are you going to stop and check your heart rate during a race? That's what they told us, at least.

Koffee

audiojan

The HRM (Polar at least) works satisfactory during the swim, as long as you're wearing a wetsuit. The small amount of water doesn't disturb the signal, but if you're just wearing a trisuit... well, you will keep loosing the signal... All based on my experience, but take that with a grain of salt as I do Du's and only recently started to train for the tri....

ZackJones

Nope, I don't plan to stop and look at it during the race. My purpose for wearing it is two fold:

1 - To record HR info to review after the event.
2 - To use the HRM stopwatch for timing purposes instead of my regular watch.

jennings780

So, you guys wear your HRM for the bike and run?
That seems to make sense so you know how to pace yourself.
Do you usually wear a top? I have seen advertised these tri tops that reduce drag in the water.

Guest

I understand the timing for non-race training, but you still lose time if you have to stop and check how your time is while you're swimming.

The point of the HR stuff is that they were saying that you'll never be able to view your HR during the race. When I am out riding, I know what my heart rate ranges are, since I've been tested for my parameters. So when I know what my heart rate goals are for that particular training ride, I can ride and keep an eye on it. Swimmers don't have that luxury, unless they're training with a coach. The coach can work with the swimmer and know when to push vs. telling them to hold back, etc. and make adjustments to their training off the results from the swims when the swimmer used the HRM.

If I had a triathlete to train, I would just tell them to go hard and long, and work on keeping a steady pace, but I wouldn't really emphasize the heart rate monitor until they got out of the water and onto the bike.

That's just me, though.

Koffee

MHR

I used mine in training a few times in the pool - but for the most part I have it over my bars on top of my bike jersey, putting it on in T1.