Hi everyone,
I’ve been experimenting a bit with the Intervals.icu swim metrics and was hoping to get your thoughts on how to best configure training load settings for swimming.
Initially, I had my Training Load Priority set to the default for swimming: Power > HR > Pace. With this setup, I noticed that my swim training load was consistently around 20 TSS, regardless of whether I swam 2k or 3k. It also seemed significantly lower than the load I was seeing for cycling or running sessions. That made it nearly impossible to stay “in the green” for training load balance if swimming was a core part of my routine.
However, when I started creating planned swim workouts, I noticed that the estimated workout load was much higher — often in the 40–60 TSS range for 2–3k swims. That’s when I noticed my (default?) workout load prioirty order was set to Pace > HR > Power. These loads now also scaled more reasonably with distance and intensity.
I switched my Training Load Priority to Pace > HR > Power, and that changed things dramatically. The calculated loads for completed swims are now much higher.
But now I’m wondering, am I tricking myself with this setup?
I’d love to hear how others navigate this:
- Do you use pace-based load for swimming?
- Is the large discrepancy between HR-based and pace-based swim load normal?
- Any thoughts on best practices for the settings to make the data most usefull/fair and consistent with load from cycling/running?
Would really appreciate any advice or shared experience — thanks in advance!