Better Swimming Experience on Thursday

This past Thursday I had a better swimming experience than usual. First of all, I decided to swim on Tuesdays and Thursdays instead of M-W-F, giving those days to my running and making weekends a kind of wild card in terms of exercising (or maybe resting from exercise). Then I got to the pool earlier in the morning, around 9:30. The water aerobics "bouncers" were all out in the shallow part doing their class session, but to my delight all of the 25-meter lanes were open. I took the one on the end and proceeded to swim 50 consecutive minutes for a total distance of 1,050 meters. I employed my strategy of alternating between freestyle and my modified backstroke, switching from one to the other halfway through each crossing. It worked perfectly, giving me a lot of confidence and making me feel on a par with the other lap-swimmers I've seen there. I did have a problem with the sun's glare while on my back. Later in the day I purchased some swimmer's goggles that should help with this on future swims.

Also, I developed what I think is a pretty cool way to keep track of the number of laps I'm swimming. I mentally run down the alphabet with each lap, starting with "A". While doing the "A" lap, I think of any words or names beginning with that letter and make any associations that come to mind. Next lap is "B", then "C", and so on. I got through "U", i.e. the 21st 50-meter lap. Not only does this method help me keep track of my ongoing lap total, but it also is fun, distracts me from the rigors of the exercise, and even gives me some insight about my mental state as I tire toward the end (my "S", "T", and "U" laps didn't evoke the same quality of associations as the earlier letters did). In the future, when I swim my 27th lap, I'll just reset the alphabet back to "A" and add 26 to the total.

My strategy in swimming is to continue with what I'm doing until I can swim 30 consecutive 50-meter laps, which at 1,500 meters I believe represents triathlon distance. Then I will gradually increase the freestyle portion of each crossing, always leaving a little room at the end for some backstroke swimming. And at some future date I'll insert some breaststroke into the routine.