lap counting?

Motivated posted this link to a neat little device a few weeks ago. I would like to get it sometime.

http://swimtowin.com/products/741036.html

I found that counting laps in groups of 5 helps me keep track better.

I feel your pain! I am the same - I will not do one lap more than I have to!!! I did the moving the flipper, drink bottle etc thing every 4 laps of a 50 metre pool to help keep track. When you have moved each item across you start moving them back again. I found remembering I had just done 4 laps the easiest amount. I am in a 25metre pool at the moment and just count in blocks of 10 and in my head I go "one one one" "two two two" as I head up and down the lanes. Dull as dull I know but if I drift off I punish myself by going back to the last number I remembered - I rarely forget now. Swimmers will tell you to do it by clock time - work out your average speed over a set distance - but that is a bit airy for me. Sometimes I swim well, other times I am wet spaghetti and need edge cling time.Dx

I bring a handful of pennies to the pool with me. After each lap I move one penny from one pile to the other, then back again if necessary. I also have a watch with a lap counter that I can wear in the pool.
Chris

I swim in a 25-yard pool that thankfully has 20 diles across the edge of the lane. The water bottle gets moved one tile for each lap. This worked wonderfully, until I had to share my lane, and the guy getting in the pool moved my bottle! (I only had 2 or 3 laps to go!) Now if I share a lane, I put my stuff so that it takes half of the tiles (towels, etc.) and I can run the bottle up 10 tiles and back.

Not as fancy as the other lap counters out there but it works. Hey! I should write an article for Ron on the poor man's tri gear!

LOL! good one! :-)
I'm in 25m pool so I count 100s: forth and back "half, half, half..." forth and back "one, one, one, one... " forth and back "one and a half one and a half..." etc
What's silly is, that when I reach numbers over 700 it seems to me it is "not possible" it looks "too easy", it is that monkey of dubt on my shoulder; and to go back to the last number I remebered is exactly what he wants... LOL

Polar... I wanted to buy one last year, but the chest strap was killing me! due to my week core, I suppose... Man was so kind and gave me my cash back!!! ...but if I ever buy one, it will be with lap count now!

wow! a handfull of pennies! a bottle and the tiles... and I thought that it's only me! neat!

Good ideas, I will try'em all (now I have another reason to go to pool!) before buying.
tnx

I went to that link - SO SWEET! absolutely adorable little thing!
I'll buy it some time. (I loooove smal things, you know.) Must resist for now. But wait! My birthday is soon... ;-)


ps. this is funny: http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=8608


Edited by sanjana 2004-09-01 9:48 AM

Great topic!

I thought I was the only one who couldn't count! I like all these approaches...I feel like going back to the pool now...and counting.

Very funny article in the link, Sanjana. Thanks.

I say the lap number realy loud, not only in my head, and slowly. I think its harder to forget something I said.

My cheapo timex triathlon watch has a lap timer/counter on it. If I don't have my watch, I move one of those disc thingies that make up the lane line with each lap.

I've never met the swimmer who doesn't have this problem, and I guess everyone solves it in a way that works for them. For me, the more experienced I become, the easier it has been for me to just count and keep track, but I do have to say the lap number to myself - sometimes quite a few times while swimming down and back - to stay on track. My point is that the more you swim I think the easier it gets. Good luck.

I think Ellen? posted this once - I haven't once lost track doing it.
Groups of 100s - A is for Anna (down) Anna married Adam(back) they live in Arkansas (down) and sell Apples (back). B is for Brietta.....

I repeat the lap number in my head every stroke, as I count strokes. For instance, on lap 20, with each stroke, I'll think 20-1, 20-2, 20-3...

Mind-numbing, but effective.

Edited by the bear 2004-09-01 10:18 AM

OK, so you guys can count laps.  Have you tried counting swim strokes and laps at the same time???????   Give me some advice there before my brain explodes in the pool.

Hey Garydana,

Let Gary count laps while Dana counts strokes.

TW

Edited by tech_geezer 2004-09-01 10:38 AM

But Ellen doesn't know how to count. I mean Dana!  I can't figure out who I am????

Actually I don't think either of them can

Edited by glf33 2004-09-01 10:41 AM

i do the alphabet to J (500 yards) or T (1000), then start over if i'm doing more. when doing 2000, sometimes i do 4 to J, or 2 to T. during the lap, i think of things that start with the letter i'm on (apple, artichoke, ardvark, antelope, banana, broccoli, bangladesh, brazil, carrots, cabbage, caraway, etc.). this also works well for counting strokes. i'm an O, but working on adding strokes so that i'm more like an R.

Just reading this thread is mind numbing.

I like several others tend to try and count in my head what the lap is for me, if I forget well then I punish myself by going back to the last lap number I can remember. For me this does two things, 1. It helps me focus when otherwise I would be thinking of Golf, beer, peanut butter, etc., lest I have to do a few more laps, 2. when I forget what lap I am on, I end up actually swiming farther than planned which in the long run will only help anyways.

Adios
Dave

A new thing that i've made up to help me count laps is to stack something on the pool edge (i have used ankle weights and whatever i can find as long as no one is using them) and after each 100m, i pull one weight from the pool deck down into the pool, so when i've got 5 weights in the pool, thats 500.... and if i keep going, i'll take one from the pool and stack it up on the deck again after each 100m....

Here, I go, dragged into another thread again... AGAINST MY WILL! Maybe affirmation will help, Gary.

Gary, you have good brain, a fine brain. Your brain is big and strong. And darn it, it likes you.

D

They call that pollution around here.

What great ideas - I had given up counting and just went on time since I always got lost or bored with myself. I tried the A is for apple, adam, alice and alaska B is for ... this morning and voila - it worked!! Thanks!!