I suppose this is an inexperienced swimmer problem, but I have a terrible time trying to keep track of my distance in longer sets. Pretty much anything over 300 and I start to lose track ("oh rats, does this lap make 400 or 450?"). I'm not normally the flighty forgetful type, really, but I get in the water and I seem to lose all short-term memory. :o I thought about getting one of those lap counter thingies but it seems like it would be a hassle to have to punch a button on every turn. Is there a trick to keeping track of these things? I love swimming longer distances, but it's disorienting to be in the middle of a warmup or set and suddenly realize I have no idea how far along I am.
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Former Member
The lap counter is perhaps useful, but Guvnah's suggestion is better.
I'd like to expand on that, but first I should qualify something. What I'm going to suggest really only applies if you happen to be swimming alone, and not as part of a master's team (although if you were on a team, I'd be surprsied if you wern't doing this already, I guess...). I mean I guess this information could still help you if you're on a team and doing team workouts, but it might have to be altered a little bit.
Really, the idea is that you start swimming on intervals. Instead of just swimming a 400 or a 450 at such and such intensity, give yourself a pace. Then, you should get a wristwatch that you can wear in the water, and figure out how to time with it. That'll be easier than using the on deck clocks...because unless they have digital scoreboard clocks like at my university pool, you can easily get confused as to how many minutes may have gone by. Plus there's the whole problem of seeing the clocks in the first place (goggle foggle!).
I mean this way you can check your pace/lap amount when you are in the middle of a swim, instead of having to pause at the wall.
If your pace on a 600 warmup was like......I don't know....12 minutes or something like that, then you'd know that you were on swimming a 2:00 for every 100. Meaning that if you were comming off the wall and were wondering if it was 400 or 450...a quick check of the watch showing either a time closer to 8:00 or 8:30 would let you know exactly where you were.
Or you could just hire someone to use the lap counter boards for every set you do... ;)
The lap counter is perhaps useful, but Guvnah's suggestion is better.
I'd like to expand on that, but first I should qualify something. What I'm going to suggest really only applies if you happen to be swimming alone, and not as part of a master's team (although if you were on a team, I'd be surprsied if you wern't doing this already, I guess...). I mean I guess this information could still help you if you're on a team and doing team workouts, but it might have to be altered a little bit.
Really, the idea is that you start swimming on intervals. Instead of just swimming a 400 or a 450 at such and such intensity, give yourself a pace. Then, you should get a wristwatch that you can wear in the water, and figure out how to time with it. That'll be easier than using the on deck clocks...because unless they have digital scoreboard clocks like at my university pool, you can easily get confused as to how many minutes may have gone by. Plus there's the whole problem of seeing the clocks in the first place (goggle foggle!).
I mean this way you can check your pace/lap amount when you are in the middle of a swim, instead of having to pause at the wall.
If your pace on a 600 warmup was like......I don't know....12 minutes or something like that, then you'd know that you were on swimming a 2:00 for every 100. Meaning that if you were comming off the wall and were wondering if it was 400 or 450...a quick check of the watch showing either a time closer to 8:00 or 8:30 would let you know exactly where you were.
Or you could just hire someone to use the lap counter boards for every set you do... ;)
