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How many times have you been in the middle of a 500+ yard swimming set only to ask yourself, “was that just 325 yards or am I at 275?” After scouring the recesses of your mind, you most likely gave up and decided to swim another 50 just to be safe. Combined with the monotony of swimming back and forth, this might be enough to drive you a little crazy. Instead of losing your mind next time you’re at the pool, try out these simple tips for counting laps. I’ll start with the cheapest and least reliable and move into the more expensive and accurate:

Repeat the Number

Simply repeat the lap number or distance over and over in your head. Okay, so this isn’t accurate at all and is probably responsible for more cases of temporary insanity than any other method. We’ll use it as the “control” (you know, like in a scientific experiment). Besides being mind-numbingly boring, you’ll probably forget to count after a while and be right back to playing the guessing game at how far you’ve gone. This is what I used to do. Don’t do it.

Break it Up

You can break your long set up into several smaller sub-sets (without a rest between them). It’s a lot easier to count to 100 five times than count to 500. Or, you could vary the distances and do 50, 100, 150, 200, 150, etc. to improve upon this method. The only risk is that you forget where you’re at and start second guessing whether or not you finished an even larger chunk. It’s not the best but can work in a pinch.

Don’t Count

Rather than counting laps, you could simply decide that you’re going to swim for a certain amount of time. Just let your brain relax and swim until you’re done. This is the stress free way to go. However, if you’re like most swimmers or triathletes it may backfire and you could end up either counting anyway or driving yourself crazy wondering about how many laps you swam.

Use the Clock

Once you’ve been swimming for a while, you should have a pretty good idea of your pace. Just keep an eye on the clock and use that to gauge how many laps you’ve done. You may need to have several checkpoints along the way and start the time over to keep the math from becoming too difficult. Those laps may just fly by while you’re attempting long division in your head.

ABCs

Now, onto the most effective method that you can do without any accessories. Simply go through the alphabet, using one letter per lap or length, thinking of as many things you can that start with that letter. For more fun, pick a theme, such as things you are thankful for, kinds of animals, or even baby names (if you’re expecting, you’ll have a lot of fun telling Zera the story about how he was named).

Coins or Poker Chips

Bring some coins or poker chips with you to the pool. Determine how many laps you’ll do and stack up that number at one end. Each lap, grab one and take it off the stack. When the stack is gone, you’re done and you know exactly how many laps you’ve completed. For bonus points, throw the coins in the pool and do some diving practice. The only downside to this is you’ve got to stop every time at one end of the pool to fiddle with the stack. This is not good for flip turns.

Lap Counter

This next method requires you to lay out some cash. Maybe you can toss your coins from the previous method into a piggy bank to help you get there. You can get a decent finger lap counter for under $40. Using one of these is a quick and easy way to track your laps. A little twitch of the thumb is all it takes. You can also use the lap counter function on any waterproof watch, but the buttons are a little more difficult to press.

Swimming/Triathlon Watch

Lastly, if you really have a lot to spend, you can splurge on a triathlon or swimming watch. A good triathlon watch is usually $200 at the very cheapest (for an older model) and can go up to $700, so be prepared. These watches can detect your movement and count the laps for you. They are not 100% accurate (especially if you mess up on a flip turn and end up floundering around with your legs up in the air), but work about 95% of the time in my experience.

There you have it. Give one of these ideas a try next time you’re at the pool.

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