Tracking Your Swim Metrics: Interview with Phlex EDGE Creator Luke Torres
“We wanted to build a tracker that not only provided meaningful swimming specific feedback, but also did so in a totally unobtrusive manner.” -- Luke Torres
Due to being in the water and constantly on the move, it can be hard to track important metrics while you’re swimming. This makes it difficult to keep track of even basic statistics and metrics. The Phlex EDGE is billed as “the ultimate swimming fitness tracker.” The Phlex EDGE attaches to the side of swim goggles and measures heart rate along with tracking multiple metrics. We interviewed EDGE creator and Phlex founder Luke Torres about the tool, his experience as a swimmer, and what’s next for the company.
“I have been swimming since the age of six and have been through pretty much every stage the sport has to offer, from club, high school, college and masters swimming, and now triathlons,” says Luke. Luke swam for the University of Florida, where he was a part of four SEC Championship titles as well as four NCAA top five finishes. In 2016, Luke qualified for the Olympic Trials, but now focuses on adventure races and Ironman events.
Luke developed EDGE because of his personal frustration with basing his training on “feel.” He knew that he didn’t have the information necessary to properly analyze his training -- information that’s available in nearly every other sport and activity, including the other two legs of triathlons (running, cycling).
Diving Into the Phlex EDGE
According to Luke, one of EDGE’s primary features is the ability to accurately collect and provide real-time heart rate feedback. “For open water swims, I see this as one of the main benefits, as the EDGE uses haptic feedback (vibration patterns) to keep you aware of your heart rate zones.” It does this without requiring the swimmer to stop, and according to Luke, is key in training to reach specific goals.
Luke describes the Phlex EDGE as “a training tool that uses machine learning to help you keep track of your whole swimming journey and progress over time”. The Phlex team believes the EDGE will soon become a lifestyle tool for swimmers of all levels. The EDGE operates differently for pool swimming and open water swimming.
Pool Swimming: Full set detection, strokes swam, distance, sets, intervals, splits, efficiency metrics, including distance per stroke (DPS), SWOLF, heart rate, real-time heart rate zone feedback, Splash Score (effort level score) and calories burned.
Open Water Swimming: Total distance, heart rate, calories burned, Splash Score (effort level score), and real-time heart rate zone feedback.
Future plans for Phlex include continuing to focus on machine learning using deeper algorithmic processing to not only provide feedback on users’ swims, but ultimately guide them towards goals, along with much more.
Learn more about the Phlex EDGE ($250) here at phlexswim.com.