Vasa and TrainerDay - new swimmer

General Site Questions
#1

New TrainerDay/Vasa swim erg user - new person questions!

So … first ‘real’ workout (did a Vasa swim erg ramp test a few months ago) and I have a few questions (some might be more relevant to the Vasa swim erg, if the answers aren’t here, I’ll work those in parallel!)

  • During the workout (Vasa 5-1 Increased Effort), I noticed the SEC/100M was, well, in meters (“M”) … is there a setting I can change to get yards?
  • Do folks have any ‘generic’ advice for using the VASA and TrainerDay for ‘dryland’ swim workouts? I’m guessing there are many lessons learned, and it’d be great to hear those!
  • I noticed there were only about 20 ‘Vasa’ (or ‘swim’) workouts on TrainerDay … that’s not a specific concern (I think initially) - do you all (swimmers using an erg) branch out and use ‘cycling’ workouts (or … ?). There is part of me that says ‘power is power’ (meaning, you can use both a swim or cycle erg to create power), and I’m guessing there are many more ‘cycling’ workouts that might be adapted to swimming (is there much translation needed?)
  • (Probably more a equipment/Vasa question than TrainerDay, but I’ll throw it down here) I use a phone to connect (via Bluetooth) to the erg - does anybody have advice on how to make that better (some sort of ‘arm’ to hold the phone closer to the horizontal swim surface? For the workout I put the phone on the floor, but it was a bit of a reach).
  • (probably also a Vasa question) How about drinking water - any advice? Of course my arms are constantly rotating (doing strokes), so there isn’t really the chance to drink (of course I can stop and drink, but there wasn’t any stops in the workout … perhaps other swim workouts have those?)

In any event, thank you for considering my TrainerDay/Vasa questions!

#2

Good questions. Let me see if I can get someone from Vasa to answer these questions. We don’t have that kind of knowledge.

#3

Hi there!

I am Keith Watson, COO with Vasa. Thanks for the great questions! I will respond here as well as the email that you sent in to us.

  1. The Vasa meter only records and sends data in meters, not yards.

  2. As a general rule, I like to use my SwimErg as a pool replacement tool for those days that I can’t get to the pool. I simply build out my structured swim distance workouts based on time as close to what I would expect to hit in the pool for certain distance intervals. For example: if I was doing a sub threshold session of 10x 100 meter intervals on 1:30 with 10" rest between each, I would simply build out my workout in TrainerDay to be 10x 1:30 @ 85-90% of threshold with a 10" RI at 1% of threshold.

  3. The vasa workouts currently on TrainerDay are mostly from the Vasa Premium library. There are probably many more but they are most likely flagged as private and thus not available to all. With that said, I am sure you can use some of the cycling power based workouts as SwimErg workouts but I find it better to build out your own structured sessions. If you work with a coach and they are prescribing you swim workouts, they are probably doing so in distance (ie: yards or meters). As I mentioned above, I simply take the avg time I would normally hit those intervals in time and build out my sessions that way. So instead of 10x100 meters I would make it 10x 90 seconds or 1.5 minutes.

  4. Here is a great holder for your phone to be used on the SwimErg: https://www.amazon.com/SHAWE-Phone-Holder-Gooseneck-Mount/dp/B083BRX7D6/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=SHAWE&qid=1692807641&sr=8-1&th=1

You can see an example of it in use in this video which is also a great video for helping you build structured swim workouts in TrainerDay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqrPLMMVuFs

  1. Regarding stops and drinking water. That is a personal preference. You can pause the workout to grab a drink or build in rest intervals and grab a drink then. If you are a triathlete, just remember that there are no aid stations during the swim so performing a 30-45 min workout in the water or on the erg and intentionally not drinking water during that time will help you train for race day!

I hope all of that helps.

Best,

Keith

1 Like
#4

Keith,

A lot of great answers (and advice), thank you!