GPS Wearables for Swimrun

Welcome to Gear Talk with Annie and Brooke from Swimrun Labs.

On this episode, we answer a question that we got from several of our listeners: what GPS Wearable should I get for swimrun? We discuss everything that should be considered in choosing a GPS watch and share our personal favorites. But first…

Gear Updates/First Impressions

Aquasphere Classic Pull Buoy

Annie ordered the  Aquasphere Classic Pullbuoy that was mentioned on the Budget Swimrun Kit episode for $6 and free shipping. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as giant as advertised. It’s the size of a regular swim pull buoy. That being said, for $6 you can buy two of them and glue them together.

Ark Sports KORP

Brooke has continued to have water infiltration issues with her Ark Sports KORP wetsuit. She contacted Ark and they mentioned that she should have sized down…but didn’t offer to replace it for the right size since she had already used it in open water. While the KORP might run big, Chris mentioned that his VIGG suit might run small. So make sure that you are super confident about your size.

Ark Sports Keel+ Swimrun Pull Bouy 

Finally, Chris and Chipper have started testing with Ark Sports Keel+ Pull Buoy (this item is sold out online). Chipper did a “scientific” test of 100 yard swims with nothing, a regular pool pull buoy, a Keel, and the Keel+. The Keel+ was definitely the fastest. Chipper also used the Keel+ in a swimrun practice and was a lot faster in a full kit. Chris did a longer non-scientific test of 500s with paddles alternating between the Keel and the Keel+ and his gut told him that the Keel+ was faster. It took some getting used to swimming with the Keel+ given the size and extra buoyancy in a pool without a full kit on. 

We’ll have a full review on the Keel+ in a future show. In the meantime, you can listen to our complete review of the Keel Pull Buoy on Gear Talk.

GPS Wearables for Swimrun

Before getting into the details about the best GPS wearables and watches for Swimrun, we wanted to make some global statements about GPS watches. 

First, having a GPS watch is not a necessity to participate in Swimrun or have fun out there so don’t let the lack of a GPS watch stop you from training and signing up for a race. Second, there are a lot of considerations about the technical features of the different watches. There is a better source for that type of analysis: DC Rainmaker is the gold standard for super in-depth reviews about specific watches. Finally, while most GPS watches have some form of heart rate monitoring and use different methods, either with a chest strap or wrist-based optical readers. Chest strap is the most accurate so if you’re looking for something for heart rate training and optical tracking is more for folks that aren’t totally devoted to zone training. Annie had some more thoughts on the matter that you can read below:

  • Optical HR sensor accuracy can vary from individual to individual. Aspects such as skin color, hair density, and position can impact accuracy. The band should be snug.  It doesn’t need to leave marks, but you shouldn’t be able to slide a finger under the band (at least during workouts). 

  • Chest strap will always be more accurate than optical. If you do a lot of steady state training, using a wrist based HRM is generally pretty reliable because there’s not much HR variation it needs to pick up. Still can be 2-10 BPM off though, which is a lot.

  • If your training is based on shorter intervals and you rely on HR to guide effort frequently, as in tightly zone-based training, opt for chest strap over optical HRM and save some bucks on your watch as you won’t need this feature. Wrist based HR can have a delay in presenting changes in HR, so if for example you are doing a 30 sec interval at higher intensity, you may be done with the interval before your watch picks up the effort increase.

  • One last note- 24x7 HR monitoring (am resting HR, avg resting HR) can be helpful for gaining a lens into when you may be over-fatigued, having trouble recovering from your training, or responding to other stressors in life. Fatigue and cumulative stress is an important metric to monitor for any athlete. Optical wrist HR does well with this application.

Some general recommendations that we have are the following:

  • Make sure that the watch is a GPS watch and doesn’t require you to run/swim with your phone.

  • Make sure that it has good battery life if you’re going to be doing longer events.

  • Make sure it’s waterproof.

  • Make sure that the watch has some form of multisport setting. (Either built-in like Garmin or able to add like Coros, Suunto, etc.)

  • Make sure that the watch can capture the metrics that you care about.

GPS Wearables and Watches that We’ve Used

Chris and Chipper both use the Garmin Fēnix 5 and would recommend it. It works well, has swimrun-specific settings, good battery life and it’s tough. Chris has used Suunto watches in the past but would always come back to Garmin. Chipper has always used Garmin watches for multi-sport events but hasn’t seen any reason to change.

Brooke uses the Garmin Forerunner 735xt and has had it for three years. She loves it because it calculates open water and pool swim metrics like SWOL score and stuff like that. The battery life lasts about 9 hours for her which is less than advertised but still pretty long life. (This watch is currently on sale on Amazon for $229.95!)

Annie also uses that Forerunner 735xt but first used the Suunto Ambit 3 Vertical for a long time. She had initially got the watch for its superior altimeter data collection (and because of the color: Bright Turquoise Blue) but she was disappointed with it when using it for Swimrun. The watch wasn’t easy to set up custom multi-sport settings. It did what it needed to do but it wasn’t ideal. Annie is super happy with her 735xt and recommends that people do not choose a watch based on the color. 

NOTE: it’s easy to change the color of the Garmin watch bands if you want to bedazzle your GPS watch look with one of these color bands kits.

Here’s a handy list of the GPS wearables and watches that we know of that have Swimrun-specific or Multi-sport settings:

Overall Impressions

In closing, we all agree that while having a GPS watch is totally optional for Swimrun, we would recommend making your life easy and make sure that whatever watch you use collects and sends your data to your preferred method of recording, e.g., Strava, Training Peaks, Garmin Connect, etc. We’re obviously fans of Garmin but they are by no means the only way to go.

That’s it for this week’s Gear Talk show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme ideas. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined. 

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