Calling all triathletes - current and former

Yeah, wearing a HR monitor in the pool is automatic fail. Somebody at my gym wears one though I haven't seen him there in a while. It's great - over and over again, he stops every 25-50 yards to slide the monitor up from his navel to his chest. :rofl: To answer the original question, Polar makes great HR monitors. You can find good, inexpensive ones at Performance Bike. As for wearing them in the water... one saved my dad's life. He noticed that his heart rate wasn't going up properly while running. A few weeks later he had triple by pass. It was a genetic defect an unavoidable and could have been a widow maker! Now he wears it whenever he exercises to make sure his heart is doing well.

Huh? That's nonsensical. It's not like you can't swim without one. A good friend told me he carries his HR monitor with him at all times, his index finger, the ability to count to six and then multiply by 10. Much cheaper. Hard to use your index finger and take your pulse while you are swimming a 200 fly. No fun when you are on an adrenalin surge to have to stop in the middle of the swim and see what your HR is. All you need to hear is the little beep telling you to slow down, slow down before you blow a fuse. Try it, guys. The worst thing that can happen to you is that you might look like an "uncool" triathlete. Would the world come to an end? :wiggle:

Would the world come to an end? :wiggle: Probably. I don't need a gizmo to tell me how hard I'm working during a swim, the clock is enough at the end.

Probably. I don't need a gizmo to tell me how hard I'm working during a swim, the clock is enough at the end. Now, now Geek. Don't be closed-minded. Go back and read the article submitted by aztimm. UGA #1!

Huh? That's nonsensical. It's not like you can't swim without one. A good friend told me he carries his HR monitor with him at all times, his index finger, the ability to count to six and then multiply by 10. Much cheaper. Funny thing, I do the same when I am interested in my HR while at the pool. Can't beat the convenience. :cool:

To answer the original question, Polar makes great HR monitors. You can find good, inexpensive ones at Performance Bike. As for wearing them in the water... one saved my dad's life. He noticed that his heart rate wasn't going up properly while running. A few weeks later he had triple by pass. It was a genetic defect an unavoidable and could have been a widow maker! Now he wears it whenever he exercises to make sure his heart is doing well. Thank goodness your dad had one on! I likewise have a medical condition that affects my heart and have found the HR monitor to be an invaluable tool. I was curious to hear about what other brands folks were using because some monitors are better than others. Also, I've heard that some hold up better than others in the water. I've always heard good things about Polar.

I have never been able to keep a HR monitor on while swimming (not to mention pushing off the wall). I've only tried it with Polar monitors, all failed miserably. Women can use the suit to keep it in place; for the men here who use them, what monitor do you use?

Hey, maybe that's the purpose of the ubiquitous Mankini - to keep the heart rate monitor in place. :lmao: On the original point.. I too am a triathlete, although swimming is definitely my favorite of the three disciplines. This past winter I stopped biking entirely except for the occasional ride on the trainer. I swam between 3 and 5 times a week, ran maybe 2 to 3 times a week, and lifted weights. I did a few swim meets in the spring. Then I switched over to "triathlon mode". Started commuting on the bike, doing long rides on the weekends, bricks. Simultaneously kicked up the run training - more intervals, speedwork, hills, and threshold runs.. while ratcheting down the swimming. No more 4 or 5X a week, no more breaststroke-specific days. :( Started doing some open water swims, both with and without the wetsuit. All of this seems to be working pretty well, because my results from the sprint triathlon on Sunday were 10 minutes better than last year's last sprint. That really isn't as great as it sounds, last year was a slow year because I worked too much and trained inconsistently. Also I can probably attribute around 2 minutes to the new bike chain which no longer pops off on hills.. Still, it is good to know I'm on the right track, and I haven't been injured in a long while. Overall I like my current balance of training. I've got my bike speed back and I'm gradually getting more comfortable with running. I wouldn't necessarily recommend my "training plan" to any triathletes, since it involves ignoring the bike for 4 months. For me it's not a problem since biking is my strongest suit and I do a whole lot of kicking and fin swimming. I find that legwork in the pool translates pretty well to the bike, but nothing carries over to the run. The only thing that improves my running is running. Other people's results may vary. For me, it is a worthwhile trade-off so I can focus more on swimming during the winter.

Turn in your USMS card, you are now banned! If you can't find your card, look in Stud's Euro Man Carry All purse. I figure he has a few of those given his recent love of the needlepoint. I do own a HR Monitor. Certainly not the watch style folks are talking about using in the pool (I do the finger thing when doing HR sets). It came with the computer gizmo I bought for my bike 2 or 3 years ago. For the record, I've used it once. :oldman:

Thrashing Slug - I agree with you that the bike and the swim seem to help each other, particularly in the kick sets. One of my favorite sets is 10 x 100 dolphin kick on 2:00 or 5 x 100 dolphin kick on 1:45 (no fins of course!). This seems to really work my core and my legs. Great job on your race this past Sunday! Blackbeard's Peg - Maybe we can get you to join the small group of us that wear an HR monitor when we swim. I'm a big believer in the HR monitor because like swimshark's dad, it helped identify an underlying medical condition. I started doing triathlons in 2000-2001 and really got hooked. By 2003, I was actually starting to get decent at them and thus, had big goals and big dreams. Starting in 2004, however, my performance started to decline dramatically to the point I had to walk the run of the last triathlon I did in 2006. I did not understand what was wrong. I tried backing off, etc. and nothing seemed to work. I got my answer one night when I was wearing my HR while running on the treadmill. I had finished my run, been off the treadmill for 20 minutes, and was talking to somebody when I looked down and noticed that my HR was 140! I thought it strange and figured my HR was broken, but when I felt my wrist, my pulse rate was out the roof for somebody just standing still having a conversation. I had a friend take it and he got in he neighborhood of 140. When I sat down, it dropped to 60 in 15 seconds (my resting HR is 50). When I stood back up, it jumped to 136 in 1 minute and stayed up that high while I was just standing still. Anyway, to make a long story short (I know this is a long post already), I was diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), a malfunction of the autonomic nervous system. My cardiologist is a swimmer and a triathlete, so he has been very understanding of my situation. Many with my diagnosis are put on beta blockers but my doc said this would change my VO2 max. He felt I could continue to compete and not take beta blockers if I was very diligent about monitoring my HR while training and staying well-hydrated. I've done three masters meets since I was diagnosed 2 years ago, but have yet to do a triathlon. It was a challenge to train to swim at Nationals and not make too much of a fool out of myself. I'm hoping now to take on the challenge of training to compete in a short, sprint triathlon.