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Marq Aviator - swim with external HRM not recording (tracking) heart rate

MagellanOfBass
8 months ago

Hi all. I have a Marq Aviator (gen 1) that I've had for some years now and I am very happy with. I do a lot of swimming, in fact this is my primary sport other than strength training. I use my Marq every time for every single swimming session. As you know however, wristwatches just don't monitor Heart Rate that well, and they are especially bad at it for swimming. So you need an external Heart Rate Monitor. Now here's the problem: the ones that Garmin offers at the moment just don't cut it (chest or biceps straps aren't the best). My swim coach, who is former Olympic athlete (Athens 2004) and trains a lot of young prodigies, actually uses an external HRM (from a different brand) for himself and all his students, which you can place under your cap (next to your temple) or attach to the strap of the swim goggles. So I decided to get one of those. After some initial struggles, I managed to understand how it pairs with my Marq and now I can do it no problem. It can track my HR during other activities (such as "Cardio" or "Bike Indoor") without issues, and once I finish those activities and save them, the HR history is saved and I can look at time in zones etc. However, when the same external HRM is paired for a "Pool Swim" activity, the Marq simply refuses to record the HR. I changed the Data Screens of "Pool Swim" so that I can see my actual HR and I confirmed this morning that it is, indeed, working - the HRM is transmitting data and the Marq is picking it up during the activity, while I am in the pool. But when I finish the session, Garmin simply discards all the HR data! It is not being tracked or saved in any way. The "HR Zones" are all blank. :-( Why is this? And how can it be solved?

It'd be great if I could look at all my swim workouts and study all my HR zones throughout... This is essential to become a better swimmer. :-)

Thanks in advance for the assistance!

  • 0 8 months ago

    For swimming with a Garmin watch you need a strap that will store the HR data during the activity so that it can be downloaded once completed -HRM-Pro for example. Or use OHR from the wrist.

    In general, the watch will not connect to a strap while swimming as the data cannot be transmitted through water. The data can be seen while both the watch and strap are out of the water but will not be detected while swimming. Have you tried using the OHR while swimming? This has got much better over time and, for me at least, correlates pretty well with data from my HRM-Pro+..

  • 0 8 months ago in reply to philipshambrook

    Thanks for the fast response sir. I didn't know data wouldn't transmit in the water... That saddens me a bit. My external HRM is a Polar Verity Sense. Do you have any idea on how you would go by if you wanted to use this HRM to actually save and track the HR while swimming? Does it support OHR? It can actually save information, I know that for a fact... But I'd rather not have to use the Polar Flow dashboard to view my workouts. It would be totally silly to have Garmin Connect showing accurate pool length, strokes, etc, with no HR data, while on the other hand Polar Flow showing only the HR data. Suggestions welcome. :)

  • 0 8 months ago in reply to MagellanOfBass

    Unsure if the Polar strap can use store and forward with Garmin watches. Try using OHR and see how that works for you - that's wrist heart rate from the watch. Go to Sensors and Accessories, Wrist Heart Rate and ensure While Swimming is enabled. When you swim ensure the Polar strap is not connected to the watch so that the watch will take the data from the optical sensors.

  • 0 8 months ago in reply to philipshambrook
    philipshambrook said:
    Unsure if the Polar strap can use store and forward with Garmin watches.

    It cannot.

  • 0 8 months ago in reply to tmk2

    Hi tmk2, thanks for your answer. So does that mean there is no way whatsoever that I can feed the HR data collected from the Polar sensor to Garmin Connect, so that the info on my "Pool Swim" activities are more complete?

    If that's the case, then I guess that leaves me with no other choice other than the below options:

    1. accept the fact that Garmin Connect will show workout info sans HR info, and Polar Flow will show HR info sans workout info (ugh...)
    2. use a different type of external HRM that is compatible (?) any ideas? (preferably not chest/biceps straps)
    3. try the Marq Aviator watch's own wrist OHR as suggested by philipshambrook above

    For now I'll try Option 3 and report on how successful (or unsuccessful) it goes. In the meantime, any other suggestions are more than welcome.

  • 0 8 months ago in reply to MagellanOfBass
    MagellanOfBass said:
    there is no way whatsoever that I can feed the HR data collected from the Polar sensor to Garmin Connect, so that the info on my "Pool Swim" activities are more complete?

    None that I know of.

    MagellanOfBass said:
    use a different type of external HRM that is compatible (?) any ideas?

    The only compatible chest straps are Garmin's HRM-Tri, HRM-Swim and HRM-Pro.

    MagellanOfBass said:
    try the Marq Aviator watch's own wrist OHR as suggested by philipshambrook above

    This is probably the simplest option.

  • 0 8 months ago in reply to tmk2

    Hi tmk2, thank you and thanks philipshambrook for the suggestions. I did a trial Pool Swim with the changes suggested (Option 3 above) and the Marq's OHR seemed to work fine. A few days later I did another trial Pool Swim with both the Marq's OHR and the Polar Verity Sense (worn under swim cap) working independently of each other, and the results were similar enough to not bother me too much.

    So I'll continue to simply use the wrist watch to document my HR in the "Pool Swim" activities. Should be fine just like that.

    I still like the external HRM for other things so I won't bet getting rid of it. I use it on biceps straps at the gym only (quite handy), and at the pool it can feed live to my swim coach's iPad so he can track me in real time. It's a pretty neat little device.


    Thanks again both.