That was a long time ago… 
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Their efficiency will be different because you will have trained them differently…
What is it that the Oly champ has that the swimmer hasn’t?
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Half the weight 
Thorpe was about 105kg and 6’4
But efficiency. Fast turnover, low contact time, using the elasticity of ligaments to aid propulsion , . I find it hard to describe in word but you only have to watch the African track runners to see “effortless” efficient running. Id have trouble looking at Mo or Haile and critiquing them though. Id struggle. …give me Phelps and I’ll describe and critique his stroke though.
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So, if you value fast turnover and low duty factor (stance time), why not train your swimmer to run with these components of good form?
Using the running chain of muscles effectively takes a little more, though…
If the African athletes appear effortless, what is it that makes them appear effortless?
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Suspect Mo Farah’s swim stroke has room for improvement (from about 5m10s)
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Just been having a look at watches this morning. The 910xt and 920xt look great except for the lack of heart rate in the watch itself. The 735xt looks good too but bit pricier.
What’s the cheapest good gps/hr monitor watch? Would that be the 735xt?
To be honest tracking swimming isn’t a focus of mine at all, when I eventually can swim I’ll probably be spending a long time just getting comfortable in the water and working on form/basic fitness rather than anything specific.
Will be looking myself but thought I’d ask here too in case anyone knows off top of their head!
I think the Garmin Forerunner 35 looks like a good watch for me.
Looks good, has multi sport functions, nice size display for what I want to see, GPS, built in HR monitor, can pair with ANT+.
Waiting on the Jan sales, although I can see it for £99.99 in the Garmin store on a new year new you sale… I feel like that can be beaten.
EDIT: It’s £89 in a couple other places, so I’ll wait on Jan sales see if it goes down in price at all.
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Struggling to see what multi sport options that has?
£90 ~ for a brand new gps running watch is pretty good I guess but
I’d say the 735xt is your best bet. A quick search on eBay shows plenty of examples around 100 and cheaper. It will genuinely do everything you need
I’d also not get caught up on wrist based heart rate. Certainly in the cheaper models it’s not the most reliable
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I’m not sure if I’m using the term right, saw a review calling it that though. You can use it for running, cycling (indoor and outdoor) and it’s possible to use for swimming too but you have to press lap after each length if you want length by length analysis (not sure how swimming watches work better than this to be honest?). Is that multi sport or does multi sport mean you can use it for brick sessions and triathlons to track transitions etc.
The 735xt looks so good and I’d prefer it honestly but I can only see used/refurb for 119.99 and upwards which I assume means no warranty?
More upmarket watches have internal accelerometers that pickup the change in direction and the end of each length. Hitting lap would be a real pita!
If it’s got a cycling profile too that would be a plus for it
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What’s really missing on the low end Garmin’s is the ability to attach to other sensors, so once you care enough about heart rate that your wrist one isn’t good enough for you, then you can’t just add a 10-15 quid HR strap and get accurate info. You can’t put a power meter, or even a speed/cadence on the bike, you can’t attach a foot pod etc. None of it is essential, and the simplicity might even be good.
For swimming, they’re just stop watches. The advanced ones recognise strokes, count the laps for you etc. so you get to see that you’re now doing 8 strokes per 25m rather than the 15 when you started - worth it? Who knows. Some of them are also able now to have a shot at wrist based HR, although no idea if the 735xt is one, I suspect not.
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Definitely not!
Actually the 35 does have ANT+ for speed/cadence and runner, but not power meters or HR.
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Look like it does connect to HR chest straps on here [-Cant post link but was on this is ant website-] but not a power meter from what I can see. Can you pair more than one thing at once with watches? I.e. both a chest strap and a cadence sensor
To be honest I can imagine I will be happy enough with
- Wrist based HR workouts for running/cycling to begin with to get a rough idea of zones etc.
- GPS tracking for outdoor runs/cycles (where I occasionally go for PRs on these, or some segments of these so I can track my progress)
- Pairing a chest strap HRM for more accurate HR workouts eventually.
By the time I’m interested in power on the dumb trainer I think I will probably just have to fork out for a smart trainer and potentially Zwift.
My swimming I imagine will just be technique work for a long time whenever I can eventually get in the pool which I feel like won’t be until everyone’s vaccinated to be honest!
If you’re worried about a warranty then yes, go for it I’d say.
Like you say it seems to tick a lot of boxes and won’t cost the earth 
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Dumb trainers can actually often do rough power, and some of them pretty consistent rough power, just from speed/cadence, but if you’re at home anyway, then you can use computer etc.
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unfortunately its stroke cycles not strokes. Confusing for IMJ types when they try to tell you their 2min 30 / 100 had sub 20 SPL or their Garmin made up SWOLF score, nothing like the real world one.
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Figured I’d keep any more of my beginner questions in here to avoid clogging up the forum. Thanks for the help so far to everyone feel like I’m on my way and know what to do next.
I got the FR35 watch as it was the only affordable new one with warranty for me. It can’t connect to power meters on the bike but can connect to speed/cadence sensors, so was looking at the Garmin Speed Sensor 2. Means I’ll be able to set “PRs” in my garage rather than just X amount of time at Y heart rate for every session. Which sounds useful.
Couple of questions:
1 - Is there any more budget/reliable brands of speed sensors I could get that would work with a Garmin watch?
2 - Will this show up on my Strava/Garmin connect as a distance travelled despite the GPS not moving, or would I have to manually change that gor the activity afterwards? (Not a deal breaker really but would be handy if it did automatically update).
3 - Lastly I’m not too fussed if it is accurate or not, as long as it is consistent so I can try and do a distance faster and show I have improved etc. But would be interested to know how far the distance/times of stationary bikes are from outdoor rides (even if just anecdotal)
Welcome Valaspuku.
Bit late to the party but here’s my tuppence (I think mostly repeating what others have added):
*be kind and enjoy it
*listen to your temple
*remember that you have friends and family (not us on this forum) - quality time is only there for the mmoment and can never be reclaimed
*staying focussed to achieve what you set out is important, however so is enjoyment, so if you enjoy a discipline, then don’t let that stop you, unless you want a sub-10 IM in the future 
Good luck on your journey and keep us informed of your progress
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Any ANT+ sensor will be fine, you do not need to spend the garmin prices at all!
Before brexit you could’ve probably got some off aliexpress for under 10$ each (so 20$ for both) however the VAT changes screwed that, but the same devices can be had for 10-15 quid on ebay and places. If you can get one of the old style combined sensor that’s possibly even cheaper but you don’t see them as much now and they’re a PITA for set up.
But a speed / cadence sensor is such a fundamentally simple thing that if you’re just for turbo use you don’t need to worry about the weather for it etc.
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