Penance and other swimming vocabulary

Over at Evan's blog (with the best banner picture ever), he's posted about swimming vocabulary, in his case, getting chicked and grandpa pace.  That got me thinking.

In my stupid pool, I have to swim 3 laps to make 100 yards.  That gets trying when you want to swim some distance sets.  I've tried the lap counting watches, but my Swimovate I've decided is a POS, and I've put it in a closet to rot.  And I can't afford nor trust their updated version or Finis's SwimSense.  I've even used the little finger lap counter thingies.  But nothing works for me except for good old fashioned counting.

But that is where I slip up.  I start day-dreaming and lose count.  Or, and I don't know why this always happens when I'm in the pool, I start thinking about numbers, or time.  And once I throw a number into my brain that isn't the actual number of lap I'm on, I'm screwed.

So, what does this have to do with the word in italics in the title?  Well, whenever I think I've dropped a lap, say, I can't tell if I'm on lap 8 or 9, I'll always pick the lower one.  If I was actually on lap 9, that's okay.  What I've done is a penance lap.  I do penance for the pool gods.

This, I tell my good Catholic brain, is pay back for any laps I skipped without realizing it.  This will appease the gods, and in the end, what I put in my USMS fitness log will reflect reality.  Or at least my version of it.

Comments

[evan]

heh... i do the same thing.

[Gords]

Seems like this is a common philosophy, nice to have a term for it now. Thanks!

[Katie]

I breathe to the outside of the lane for 100yds and then to the inside for the next 100. That way, I only have to remember if I'm on the 1st 50 or the 2nd.

To help with that part, I might do something different on the 4th length of the 100 like speeding up, slowing down or closing my fists. Or, I'll use a different focal point for the 1st & 2nd 50 of each 100.

If I do forget, I do a "bonus" 50.

[Effective Exercises]

I do it too:) and not only with laps, but with exercise reps, mantra chants etc. it's pleasant to think that you need to work harder, because you think you did less, but - voila! - your goal is right here:)