🛠️ HOW TO: fix and use your FINIS Tempo Trainer PRO

We received an excellent reaction to last week's blog emphasising the importance of always giving your best. Thanks for writing in if you did 👍.

Interestingly, I found myself embodying that ethos just a few hours after sending out that email, as I participated in the GeoBay 20km swim in Busselton, Western Australia - a swim that would prove to be one of the hardest marathon swims I've ever done!

For the risk of you being a little squeamish, I'll spare you the images and details of the event in which I managed to join the podium with two brilliant young marathon swimmers, who's combined ages were less than my own!

If, however, you are interested in learning a little more, check out these 4 posts on Instagram which do a great job of telling the story:

1. Assessing / predicting the conditions 14hrs before

2. The result against the youngsters

3. Video of my swimming technique at 13km

4. The grisly aftermath and some stats to show how hard the event was

Please feel free to like, subscribe and leave a comment on the posts, as this really helps us - we really appreciate your kind support! 🙏

How to fix a ‘broken’ Tempo Trainer

Today's blog started with an image of a pool clock - something you've either grown to love or hate as a swimmer.

Here at Swim Smooth, we seldom use the pool clock for five key reasons:

1. ⏰ accuracy of use - at very best accurate to 1 second, but usually rounded to the nearest 5;

2. 👀 hard to see - not always and not for everyone, but some;

3. ➗ difficult to handle the ‘math’ required for send-offs - again, not always and not for everyone, but some;

4. 📚 feedback is only ever retrospective - never real-time unless you pop your head up as you're turning;

5. 😩 not always working - like this morning, a power-cut at the pool saw no clock availability

When FINIS released their Tempo Trainer in 2001 (and subsequently the Tempo Trainer PRO a few years later), suddenly, you had:

1. the accuracy of 1/100th of a second to work with - producing the possibility of more marginal gains;

2. no need to look for a clock on deck - only listen for the beep;

3. no need to handle any send-off calculations - just leave on the beep;

4. have real-time feedback on your pacing as you swim;

5. barring a battery or unit failure* - no need to worry about power cuts affecting your session

*Water and electronics don't mix!

Now, unfortunately, water and electronics seldom mix well, so this week I have two quick videos for you to prompt you to get back to using your Tempo Trainer PRO to help you improve your swimming:

• A 40-second clip showing you how to use all 3 functions (which we'll expand on in a new Blog series going forwards);

• A 5-minute clip showing you how to resurrect a ‘broken’ Tempo Trainer PRO using a little "Swim Smooth Magic"

Here are those clips - I hope they help: