Finis Aquapulse

This morning was my first swim with the Aquapulse.  It arrived last week Thursday, but I did not get a chance to swim over the weekend.  It was easy to charge and attach to my goggles.  I checked the heart rate against my Garmin 305 and it was within a couple of beats per minute.

I had it set to announce every 20 seconds which felt appropriate.  That is a little faster than once every length for me.  I had to turn the volume up a little bit as well.  When I am exhaling underwater, I had a hard time hearing it, but the sound was pretty good if I caught it at the right time.

In the water it was easy to turn on and stayed in place during turns.  The sensor was snug but not painful.  I adjusted the position of the monitor a couple of times for comfort.  I need to loosen the goggles a little bit as well.  The extra width does not seem like much, but it is a little bit.

Warming up, my heart rate went from 100 to about 120 beats per minute (bpm).  The next set was 3x400 FR.  My heart rate was in the 130’s for these sets.  The next set was 1x200 KICK followed by 1x200 Pull.  My heart rate dropped to around 120.  The next set was 4x100 and my heart rate was in the 140’s and did not come down much during the 20 second rest interval.

I think my cruising pace should be right around 130 bpm.  The maximum heart rate I recorded was 148 bpm.

Interval training done in the pool is most appropriately done on time.  Heart rate training can be a valuable technique, but the limitations are that heart rate is slow to respond to effort level.  I am very curious to get the Aquapulse in the open water, but want to verify that it floats first.  I am not sure that I would use it racing as having my goggles knocked off during an open water start would certainly not help the Aquapulse.