Measure open water swim?

[Brit]

How do you measure open water swims?

My post earlier this week inspired me to swim today, which was nice. I swam in the ocean and just went for 40 minutes, but I wish I knew how far I went so I could measure improvement.

I tried to see if Google maps had the facility to measure between buoys, but it doesn't seem to.

[kams]

I just go by time. Thankfully measured courses are available to use here every few weeks in the summer, but otherwise my garmin is not reliable.

[Brit]

kams - Do you have a waterproof Garmin? I have the 405cx, but I'm almost certain that it is not waterproof...which may not matter if it isn't accurate anyway.

[kams]

I do - the 310xt, which is multisport specific. I use it for all of my training (including cycling) and just pay attention to the swim time. I guess that does make a difference.

[juliabug]

I've gotten pretty good at judging the distance if I do an out and back swim. I also just got a Garmin 910XT and it is always within 100 yards of what I think I swam.

[mrs.jacinthe]

You can use mapmyrun to draw lines on a map and get an approximate distance.

[emilyj]

I have the Garmin 910XT.

[niq]

I have a 310xt and put it under my swim cap in a Ziploc bag. I tried "swim mode" but it's just terribly inaccurate.

Our tri group also has some swims that are known distances.

[trigal]

I just go by time, unless I have a marked course.

[Susie]

Aug 1, 2015 13:35:59 GMT -5 mrs.jacinthe said:

You can use mapmyrun to draw lines on a map and get an approximate distance.

I have done this; it works especially well when swimming someplace with map-visible landmarks, like across a lake.  (Like this one.)

Now I wear a Garmin 910xt.  But in general, I swim for time rather than distance in OW.