How to Keep Track of Laps When Swimming

To swim a mile in the pool at my gym requires 35 laps. Two miles is 70 laps and three miles (HA!) is 105 laps. I used to try to keep track of the laps in my head, but if I stopped to rest, it always seemed that the person in the next lane would want to talk and I would forget what lap I was on. Arrgh! To ease my frustration and encourage myself to be sociable, I developed an easy and foolproof way to keep track of my laps.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 10 pennies
• 2 nickels
• 3 dimes
• 2 quarters
• ziploc bag or empty medicine bottle to keep coins in.

1. Once you are in your pool lane, arrange your coins on the edge of the pool where you can easily reach and move them. If possible, have a visible dividing mark, (such as the grout lines in the tiles) to slide your coins across as you count your laps. Line up your pennies in a long line stretching away from you to the right of the dividing line, then put your nickels to the right of the pennies, the dimes to the right of the nickels and the quarters to the right of the dimes.

2. Swim to the far end of the pool and back to where your coins are (one lap). Slide one penny to the left on the other side of the dividing line. Swim 9 more laps and all 10 pennies will be across the line. Now, pick up a dime, put it across the line with the pennies to indicate you have completed 10 laps and move the pennies back to their original position to the right of the dividing line.

3. Continue swimming as many laps as you want, using the pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters to count the number of laps. Feel free to talk to other people in the pool or get out of the pool to rest, or to jump in the hot tub...with the coin system, you will always know how many laps you have completed!

Tips & Warnings

• If you don't want to use coins, you could use something like tiddly-winks or poker chips, as long as you give each color a number value.
• Always dry your coins (or tiddly winks or poker chips) well before storing in ziploc bag or medicine bottle; wet objects can quickly form mold or mildew.
• Don't use any type of metal that can rust, i.e. beer caps.