I swam more laps yesterday. It was a lot harder because I was sore and tired from the day before. But I swam 66 laps non stop...well...I say nonstop. I did put my feet down once or twice to adjust my goggles but otherwise I swam the entire time. Other people came and went while I was swimming laps. I was fascinated by this one guy who looked like a pretty decent swimmer to me but he would frequently stop and rest at the end of the pool. And he only swam for like MAYBE 15 minutes. Another dude swam like three laps and jetted. (What's the point?) Even though I never stopped to rest, I did mostly stick to the breast stroke. Every time I would try to crawl I would realize just how tired I was.
Believe it or not, I forgot to look at the clock when I started but I think it took me about 50 minutes to swim 66 laps. So I think that's a pretty slow time but whatever, I'm happy with it.
I did practice putting my head under for the crawl. My sinus infection is improving so I could breathe a little easier. I practiced breathing out through my nose with my head above water and after a few laps of that, I tried underwater. No big deal. I think I just had to get used to breathing out through my nose because typically I'm a mouth breather. (More info than you ever wanted to know about me, right?!)
Why did I do 66 laps? Well, the board at the pool said 64 lengths is a mile (I had read that there's debate about what constitutes a mile) so I figured I'd do 64 laps this time. And then when I finished that I think my brain got a little muddled with euphoria so as I was coming down the home stretch of the last length I thought, "Oh! I should do a little sprint" (because I like to sprint at the end of a run). So I decided to sprint back to the other end. Of course I was exhausted by this point and my "sprint" probably looked more like thrashing to the life guards. It took me about 30 seconds to swim the 25 meters. (Next time I get in the pool I'll have to try sprinting on my first lap, instead of my last one.) And then of course I had to swim back. So there you have it. Sixty-six lengths.
Showing posts with label weight loss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weight loss. Show all posts
Saturday, June 12
Thursday, June 10
LapCounter
I love swimming. I don't have fantastic technique or lightning speed but I enjoy it. I've never had a swim lesson in my life, as far as I know, and sometimes I entertain the idea of doing it. I'd love to learn how to turn at the end of the lane. And I'll confess that I usually "crawl" with my head out of the water - though at this point in my life I justify it to myself because I need to be able to hear if I get paged back to the childcare center, right?!
Most of all I wish I could keep track of how many laps I've swum. I'm terrible at remembering stuff like that and it drives me crazy. Previously, as I've struggled to remember what lap I'm on, I kept thinking there must be some sort of gadget to keep track of that. The other day I finally remembered to go look online and sure enough, there are numerous gadgets for exactly that purpose.
I decided to get all wild and crazy with my money and I impulsively bought a SportCount LapCounter. There's a basic lapcounter OR for a few bucks more you can upgrade to one that keeps track of your pace and total time. But the basic one had tons more reviews and I figured I can keep track of the time easily enough so I went for simple (less stuff to break that way, right?).
Today was my first time trying it out and can I just tell you, I love, love, loved this little gadget! It was so easy to use.
I've often wondered how far I could swim but by the time I would get to like 25 laps, I would be really struggling to keep count. So I aimed low and asked the guards how many laps to swim half a mile - 31 laps. After counting to ten I doubled checked with the guard to make sure that a lap was two lengths of the pool (to the other side and back) and found out that in fact half a mile was actually 31 LENGTHS so I'd actually swum 20/31 lengths at that point. I decided I should go ahead and do a mile (62 lengths). The added benefit to keeping track of lengths, instead of laps, was that I knew it was always odd at one end of the pool and even at the other so if I ever questioned whether or not I had actually hit the button, it was easy to double check myself.
Unfortunately I'm not exactly sure how long it took to swim my 62 lengths because on that tenth lap, I got paged to the childcare center. Off I went in my swimsuit. They told me I needed to change a diaper...which turned out to be a false alarm. (For some reason my two year old likes to announce that she has a poopy diaper. Of course I'm used to this and totally ignore her but they didn't know. *sigh*) I think it was good that I showed up when I did because a little girl in the bathroom had an accident so I was able to alert the staff.
Anyway, I got into the pool at like 12:55 and got out of the pool at like 2:05 but I'll bet I was out for the childcare adventure for at least 30 minutes. I hadn't been in the pool much more than ten minutes when I got paged and by the time I got back in, I know it was after 12:30. Okay, okay, I know no one else cares about all these details. (Though if you're like me, you might understand what it's like to get obsessed with the STATS.)
Next time I'll have to keep better track of the time. I doubt my time will be super fast because as soon as I get tired, what to I do? Yep, the breast stroke. Tonight I was reading up on the various strokes and discovered that while the breast stroke feels the most comfortable (because you can breathe naturally), it actually burns the most calories. Yippee. :)
Most of all I wish I could keep track of how many laps I've swum. I'm terrible at remembering stuff like that and it drives me crazy. Previously, as I've struggled to remember what lap I'm on, I kept thinking there must be some sort of gadget to keep track of that. The other day I finally remembered to go look online and sure enough, there are numerous gadgets for exactly that purpose.
I decided to get all wild and crazy with my money and I impulsively bought a SportCount LapCounter. There's a basic lapcounter OR for a few bucks more you can upgrade to one that keeps track of your pace and total time. But the basic one had tons more reviews and I figured I can keep track of the time easily enough so I went for simple (less stuff to break that way, right?).
Today was my first time trying it out and can I just tell you, I love, love, loved this little gadget! It was so easy to use.
I've often wondered how far I could swim but by the time I would get to like 25 laps, I would be really struggling to keep count. So I aimed low and asked the guards how many laps to swim half a mile - 31 laps. After counting to ten I doubled checked with the guard to make sure that a lap was two lengths of the pool (to the other side and back) and found out that in fact half a mile was actually 31 LENGTHS so I'd actually swum 20/31 lengths at that point. I decided I should go ahead and do a mile (62 lengths). The added benefit to keeping track of lengths, instead of laps, was that I knew it was always odd at one end of the pool and even at the other so if I ever questioned whether or not I had actually hit the button, it was easy to double check myself.
Unfortunately I'm not exactly sure how long it took to swim my 62 lengths because on that tenth lap, I got paged to the childcare center. Off I went in my swimsuit. They told me I needed to change a diaper...which turned out to be a false alarm. (For some reason my two year old likes to announce that she has a poopy diaper. Of course I'm used to this and totally ignore her but they didn't know. *sigh*) I think it was good that I showed up when I did because a little girl in the bathroom had an accident so I was able to alert the staff.
Anyway, I got into the pool at like 12:55 and got out of the pool at like 2:05 but I'll bet I was out for the childcare adventure for at least 30 minutes. I hadn't been in the pool much more than ten minutes when I got paged and by the time I got back in, I know it was after 12:30. Okay, okay, I know no one else cares about all these details. (Though if you're like me, you might understand what it's like to get obsessed with the STATS.)
Next time I'll have to keep better track of the time. I doubt my time will be super fast because as soon as I get tired, what to I do? Yep, the breast stroke. Tonight I was reading up on the various strokes and discovered that while the breast stroke feels the most comfortable (because you can breathe naturally), it actually burns the most calories. Yippee. :)
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