9 October 2022
I picked up a pair of the FINIS Smart Goggles at the start of this week so that I would have the ability to self-time my longer swims, particularly for my 3,000 for time next month. I wore them a couple of days ago on one set just to assess fit & feel, along with seeing how useful (or annoying) the in-eye dashboard was. I wanted to try them again today on a longer portion of my workout, so put them on for a repeat of my "Zipfizz 200" workout at my local LA Fitness (which is still blissfully cool thanks to the heater still not functioning properly).
Warmup Sets (1,550 yards)
1 x 400: IM, kick-drill by 25s
4 x 100: on 1:30, backstroke descend - 1:17, 1:16, 1:13+, 1:11
1 x 50: easy scull/breast kick w/snorkel
1 x 400: kick for time w/board, dolphin-flutter by lap - 6:02
1 x 50: easy scull/breast kick w/snorkel
4 x 50: on 1:00, 25 fast stroke / 25 easy, IM order
13.6, 15.6, 20.0, 14.2 according to my goggles on the fast 25s
1 x 50: easy scull/breast kick w/snorkel
Main set - ZipFizz 200s (2,450 set)
5 x 200: on 2:20, make them
My best ever performance ranged from 2:05 to 2:09 in January 2016
January 2018 - 2:10, 2:10, 2:11, 2:09, 2:08
03-01-2022 - 2:15, 2:16, 2:16, 2:16, 2:18 (ouch)
Today, 10-09-2022 - 2:11, 2:14, 2:17, 2:20 ... cruised the 5th one
4 x 50: active recovery on 0:45, 0:50, 0:55, 1:30
3 x 200: on 2:35, descend swim
January 2018 - 2:15, 2:11, 2:06
03-01-2022 - 2:24, 2:18, 2:15
Today, 10-09-2022 - 2:21.6, 2:19.2, 2:15.2
4 x 50: active recovery on 0:45, 0:50, 0:55, 1:45
1 x 200: on 3:00, fast
My best ever was a 1:58 done back in October of 2015
January 2018 - 2:04
03-01-2022 - 2:11
Today, 10-09-2022 - 2:11.4
5 x 50: active recovery on 0:45, 0:50, 0:55, 1:00
TOTAL: 4,000 yards
Smart Goggles after two workouts
Sleek profile to the point where they feel pretty much like a real pair of goggles and not a clunky appendage. Pretty darn comfortable. I could see myself doing a whole workout with these goggles.
The heads-up display is obliquely off to the side of your left eye.
On the positive side, it's very easy to ignore (unlike with Form goggles).
On the still to-be-determined side, it is enough off to the side that I still can't really see it much while swimming. They have options to adjust the placement of the display, so I need to mess around with that more.
For me, this might not be a bad thing as what I'm primarily looking for is something that can time me so that I can refer the splits after the workout, as the pace clock provides me sufficient in-workout timing.
Also still out for further review is the app that goes along with it. Right now, it gives me splits for every 25; while I appreciate the detail, I'd prefer to see 50 splits as I can relate to those better. I'll play around with it more to see if there are configuration options to do that.
Also still to-be-determined is if they have a companion website to view the workout and/or ability to download the workout's data into Excel. Having the data on the app is functional, but I like to manipulate data!
As for the workout and my performance today, I was kind of surprised how bad I died on the first set of 5 x 200 ... but it still felt like a great, pounding hard set ... a reason this is one of my long-term go-to sets.