Hi Guys,
Firstly, apologies to all of the cycling only guys 
I’m just wondering if any of the swimmers or Tri guys and gals have any experience of the Form swim goggles and the integrated training plans.
Ignoring the fact they are expensive, what are your thoughts?
If you have or are now using them, how do you find them? And have you seen improvement in your swimming as a result?
Cheers
I’ve been using the FORM goggles for a couple years now because of my pool situation and the lack of clocks. I love the goggles for ease of use, no fumbling for buttons on a wrist or my older eyes trying to see a watch face in bright sunlight. The workout syncs with the app and imports straight into TrainingPeaks.
The downsides are the fit is a bit fiddly to start (they provide a good variety of nose pieces to dial it in) and visibility in the goggles due to their shape and the display is more limited than my Vanquishers.
I have used their workouts feature and like it but have not used their Training Plan feature (it is relatively new).
I’ve been using them for a few months, and I love them. The goggles themselves aren’t great, I’ve had a hard time getting them to fit properly so they don’t leak without over-tightening them. Both my Rokas and my Magic5s are way more comfortable as goggles go, but it’s so great not having to look at my watch during workouts, and they do a pretty good job of detecting strokes and measuring distances & time correctly. I haven’t used the training plans yet since I’ve been focused on open water swimming lately, but I’ve enjoyed their workout library a lot; there’s so much variety of workouts and drills that it’s hard to get bored in the pool.
And have you seen improvement in your swimming as a result?
One thing I wish the app did better is show long term trends so I can see improvements. I’ve definitely seen improvements, I went from barely being able to swim a pool length at a time to swimming 2,000 yards continuously, but it’s hard to quantify exactly how much better, faster, more efficient I’ve gotten over time.
Ignoring the fact they are expensive…
Eh, I will say that I’m happy with them because I’m legacied into the old plans, but if I had to sign up for the new membership plans where the goggles lose most of their functionality when you stop paying, I probably wouldn’t.
I purchased the goggles when they first came out and still have the original pair. They work really well and love the screen data that I see as I swim.
I scan the detail in the app after each swim but don’t spend much time analyzing data.
I haven’t signed up for coaching and other things they are now offering.
Not sure I would buy a pair now because of the subscription model.
As others mentioned, the goggles themselves leave quite a bit to be desired, but the functionality is top notch–pretty amazing how well they work. I also got mine before they decided to basically brick the goggles if you’re not paying a membership, but I got a gift subscription for free with the purchase of the goggles with a Black Friday deal and have been really enjoying the guided workouts–it would be hard to go back to swimming without them. I really wish they would open up the membership so you could create/load your own (or your coaches) workouts as I really think they’re missing a big chunk of the market by just limiting it to their own workouts only, especially at the price of the subscription. I tried one of their 4-week “Improve Your Pace” plans, but unfortunately basically saw no improvement on the 1000m test pieces. My training volume for Ironman training was also ramped up quite high so the fatigue from that may have been at play/holding me back, as did the even earlier than normal wake up times to fit the longer swims in also made for a lot of tired swimming. I like the TrainNow type workout recommendations, but they don’t correspond to anything you’ve done. I also wish there was more analytics of my swimming and trends.
I JUST got a FORM email saying you can do custom workouts now.
You can also copy and edit existing sessions rather than create all new from scratch. It looks like a good progression in my opinion.
I went ahead and purchased a pair of these goggles. If I were to review them I’d say that as goggles they are very basic… They keep water out of your eyes but the field of vision is poor and not particularly comfortable.
However I find that having plans available (the primary reason why I went ahead with them) has been great in keeping me motivated for a good session when swimming solo. Like all things swimming, it will take a longer time to assess if they actually improve my times but I have to say I feel pretty optimistic right now
I’m guessing you still need the subscription in order to use the device you own with workouts you created yourself (or from TR, etc)?
it appears so. I tried to build my workout and currently you cannot configure a set to happen on a set interval, just fixed rest. I chatted with support and they said they’d add that to user requests. The feature is brand spanking new so I expect updates regularly. If they add set interval feature it means no more index cards in ziplocs on the pool deck.
