Greetings All:
I assume everyone got the email from membership about the new USMS-Swim.com partnership for workout tracking. The FLOG here will connect with a new account at Swim.com and provide a lot of new features especially for people who wear fitness trackers.
Anyone signed up over there yet? What do you think of the changes?
USMS has received feedback over the years about modernizing the FLOGs/swim workout tracking. This integration with Swim.com provides a way to link your FLOG/My USMS account to a more modern platform. What was released is phase 1. There are new features planned over the next year in phase 2. We would also like to hear your feedback on what features you would like to see or issues you are having. Please send them to marketing@usmastersswimming.org. Linking the accounts is not a requirement and you can disconnect your accounts at any time.
I put myself in the old school category also. I don't have a tracking device and have trouble justifying the expense of purchasing one. I just work off the pace clock during practice and manually log everything later. I also include notes to myself critiquing my workouts that I like to refer back to later.
As far as technology goes, I find video feedback much more valuable than just raw numerical data. I ask one of my coaches to shoot some video of my stroke every few weeks, especially if I've been working on some specific stroke improvement or correction.
As swymtoms indicated above, the FLOG is still there, so you can continue to log your work outs the normal way and don't have to link to Swim.com. I also assume that one can enter data into the usms FLOG even if/when you do create the link and that the the two will sync.
I received the email but had completely forgotten about it until now. So I just downloaded the swim.com app, and it looks like it synched to my Apple Watch.
I see 2 issues:
* Kicking: my watch doesn't record it. This typically isn't very much, 3-500 per workout.
* Over-estimates of some o/w: when I swim at Barton Springs, my watch can record distances far exceeding what I actually swim. After the swim sometimes I'll look at the map that it produces and it could have me 100+ yards outside of the water, with paces of :40-:50 per 100 yard pace! For o/w, when I do point-to-point swims, it is usually fairly accurate, but not so much for loops/laps.
For best results, I've found it easiest to just keep track of the distance I swim myself. I've seen someone at Deep Eddy (an odd distance of 100 feet long) who has some sort of Abacus he keeps on deck while he swims. For Barton Springs, the laps are about 1/4 mile, so 20 of them are 5 miles, pretty easy.
In general the Apple Watch will (sometimes greatly) underestimate swims where there is kicking or a significant amount of time underwater, no matter what app is used.
I use the MySwimPro app, which is a competitor to Swim.com. I don't care about the tracking at all, but what I find useful is the ability to (a) either use somebody else's workout if I don't feel inspired to create one and (b) the tracking of the workout on the watch. If you follow the workout on the watch, it will credit you the appropriate amount of yardage (while looking at your HR, etc) because it assumes you are doing the workout as written.
I haven't used the Swim.com app -- it doesn't seem to want to load on my watch (maybe b/c I am running the iOS beta on my phone) -- but hopefully it has something similar.
I haven't tested either the app or watch in an OW swim, but I suspect the problem is the GPS hardware not the app.
I appreciate everyone's replies so far. For myself I'm still using FLOG and will likely either start up an Excel spreadsheet or go back to paper log books so I can enter more kinds of information, especially different kinds of note sections I can either search or scan by keywords. The Swim.com site is great if you have a tracker you like but I don't use one and don't plan on using one.
Nah. I have a spreadsheet to track all workouts, not just swims. I record run/walk, bike, swim, pushups, squats, and misc., then calculate weekly and annual totals. I have logs stashed away that go back to the 1970s.
I have a lot of spreadsheets to track my different stuff:
one for my swim training, and swim / run time trials
one for my swim / bike / run races
one for my orienteering races
and many more
So, is there anyway to use the FLOG method as before? I agree. I just signed up for the membership thinking it would be easy access from swim.com to USMS. Help.
So, is there anyway to use the FLOG method as before? I agree. I just signed up for the membership thinking it would be easy access from swim.com to USMS. Help. I would prefer using FLOG as I remember it. Can someone tell me how to do it; or tell me how to set up a spreadsheet in Excel.
So, is there anyway to use the FLOG method as before? I agree. I just signed up for the membership thinking it would be easy access from swim.com to USMS. Help. I would prefer using FLOG as I remember it. Can someone tell me how to do it; or tell me how to set up a spreadsheet in Excel. The Apple Watch workout for pool swim is great, except for no way to do cumulative totals. I really only have one friend that tracks swimming like I do. She has a Garmin and she is pleased with that, and I have an Apple, but don't want a Garmin, as the Apple has all the other features I' m interested in. I hear the new watches will have additional features, and I suspect will add in totals eventually, but can't afford to purchase a new one. I've only had my watch for about 2 years.
