I swam in the pool yesterday for the first time in about four months. I live in coastal New England so the water and weather temps are beginning to drop. Since I trained for, and swam my first marathon swim this summer...I did much more open water swimming than in past summers. So much so that I'm was already way ahead of my average annual mileage by August. But, I had decided that when I went back into the pool this fall that I'd take a different approach to long pool swims. Instead of counting laps, I'm simply swimming by time. Through the use of the GPS watch, I realized over the summer that no matter when/where...on long swims I was swimming a pretty even and contestant pace...even in later miles. So in the pool, I'm just counting every ## minutes to equal a mile. Then I just rest/drink for one or two minutes and continue on. Yesterday was my first attempt at it, and I wasn't sure I'b be able to NOT count laps. But it worked. And I find it much less monotonous, and I'm able to ponder a lot more minutiae, and senseless stuff. And, as a strict fitness log maintainer, in the long run (er swim) it doesn't really matter if I'm off by a lap or two.
Dan
That sounds so peaceful, Dan. Did you feel like you kept a good, even pace in the pool as well? Did you find your mind wandering or did you get to a zen-like state where you just were into the rhythm of your strokes?
Kari -- Yeah, I felt like my pace was pretty consistant. Every now and then I'd check it against the pace clock for a lap or two and it didn't vary more than 2-3 seconds throughout the swim. That's even enough for me. And yes, I did wonder about things much more than when I'm counting laps. But it wasn't "zen-like." For instance I'd find myself doing simple math about non-swimming related topics. I.e. how many kilometers was my 51-mile bike ride during our recent trip to Italy? Or how many US dollars was it for the 17 Euro memento that I bought? Usually I don't let myself think about any numbers other than my lap count because as soon as I do I lose track.
Dan
That sounds so peaceful, Dan. Did you feel like you kept a good, even pace in the pool as well? Did you find your mind wandering or did you get to a zen-like state where you just were into the rhythm of your strokes?
Kari -- Yeah, I felt like my pace was pretty consistant. Every now and then I'd check it against the pace clock for a lap or two and it didn't vary more than 2-3 seconds throughout the swim. That's even enough for me. And yes, I did wonder about things much more than when I'm counting laps. But it wasn't "zen-like." For instance I'd find myself doing simple math about non-swimming related topics. I.e. how many kilometers was my 51-mile bike ride during our recent trip to Italy? Or how many US dollars was it for the 17 Euro memento that I bought? Usually I don't let myself think about any numbers other than my lap count because as soon as I do I lose track.
Dan
