Hello All,
So I've gotten back into swimming as part of my fitness regime and had a question many might think is basic, but I'm interested in your thoughts.
I usually do longer swims as opposed to interval training. My go to swim is 2000yds which is usually around 40min, give or take. 2 weeks ago I clocked 39:25 which was great - during the next swim a couple of days later I thought "I might even beat that" only to finish with a 46:20. I was really surprised (and bummed). The next swim was 40:35. So I was thinking...
I may have lost count and added a couple of laps to the longer time or dropped a couple on the shorter. I had a lap counter watch which got moisture inside and stopped working a while ago, and frankly was kind of a pain to hit the little button at the top of each lap - I found it distracting.
My question:
What do you do to make sure you're accurately counting laps on longer swims? I'm going to move to 2500yds soon and fear that may be more of a count problem.
Thanks in advance for your time and any help you can offer.
Cheers,
Chris
Keep count in your head.
Swim several 100s and take note of the average time. When launching into the longer swim, you should already know what time to expect for each 100, simply watch the clock and compare. Adjust, obviously, if you are swimming faster or slower than expected. Technology is wonderful, but highly overrated for a task as simple as this.
For some of my longer swims (2-3,000), I'll repeat a 500 multiple times: 25-25-50-50-75-75-100-100. I focus on DPS during the first of the pair, then pick up the tempo for the second. The varying distance helps in keep track of yardage (for me).
I use the Garmin Swim Watch, although it may be a little expensive just for counting laps. Some people complain that it adds an extra length every now and then but I've been using it 5 days a week for about two months and so far, it has never failed to count my lengths accurately.
Honestly, though, I think the penny idea is a better option than buying a high-tech watch, especially if all you need is a lap counter.
Keep count in your head.
Technology is wonderful, but highly overrated for a task as simple as this.
I hear what you are saying but the poolmate also acts as a stopwatch, records all the info for your entire workout, (which you can download onto your computer with the Pro model), tells you how many calories you have burned and the coolest feature of all (well for me anyway) is that it counts your strokes and gives you an efficiency rating. This has really helped me increase the efficiency of my stroke. I am one of the easily distracted types and I find it difficult to concentrate on my catch, head position, body roll, count my strokes and keep count of the number of laps I am doing at the same time. With the watch doing the stroke counting for me I can concentrate on my stroke. In fact I really only use it for the stroke count and stopwatch feature. I don't really need a lap counter as I never swim anything longer than a 200. It is nice to know how many meters I have swum at the end of a workout, though. Also to have a general idea of the number of calories burned (although I kind of suspect the accuracy of that feature). But if I do a set of say 10 x 100 it will record all the times and record a stroke count for each repeat (this is really neat as you can see your stroke count increase as you get tired). I don't have the Pro version. The basic model is sufficient for my needs. I don't need to download my workouts onto the computer but I suspect this might be more attractive to triathletes or long distance swimmers.
