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Swimming lengths: how many have I done now?
ouraggie
Posts: 336 Forumite
Posting a little idea I thought of the other day in case it saves someone else money.
I recently started going swimming again and aim at 40 lengths per session. Often I would get halfway through and lose count of how many I had done so far today. I looked online for help but only found expensive electronic swim watches and so on. Over Easter I cleaned out the "tut drawer" in the dining room (do we ALL have at least one of these?) and came across a box of 10 unused covered ponytail bands from when I had long hair.
Yesterday I went to the pool with the 10 hair bands around my left wrist. Every 2 lengths I moved one band over to my right wrist. Then repeated this. Then got out.
Whilst there I spoke to two ladies who said they had the same memory problem. One said she was now going to buy herself some bands on her way home ( "in blue to match my costume"). Another told us she'd paid £35 for a lap counter ( I confess I felt very OS at this point) but she'd left it in the showers last week! She planned to raid her daughter's vast hair band collection at the earliest opportunity!
Hope someone else might find it helpful.
I recently started going swimming again and aim at 40 lengths per session. Often I would get halfway through and lose count of how many I had done so far today. I looked online for help but only found expensive electronic swim watches and so on. Over Easter I cleaned out the "tut drawer" in the dining room (do we ALL have at least one of these?) and came across a box of 10 unused covered ponytail bands from when I had long hair.
Yesterday I went to the pool with the 10 hair bands around my left wrist. Every 2 lengths I moved one band over to my right wrist. Then repeated this. Then got out.
Whilst there I spoke to two ladies who said they had the same memory problem. One said she was now going to buy herself some bands on her way home ( "in blue to match my costume"). Another told us she'd paid £35 for a lap counter ( I confess I felt very OS at this point) but she'd left it in the showers last week! She planned to raid her daughter's vast hair band collection at the earliest opportunity!
Hope someone else might find it helpful.
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Comments
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Brilliant idea. I have exact same problem when swimming.
The only problem I envisage is I may forget to move band over
Decluttering, 20 mins / day Jan 2024 2/20 -
Not in the least bit MSE, but the apple watch (from version 3 onwards) does an amazing job of counting laps.
At nearly £429 for a watch, your method is about £428.50 cheaper.0 -
I just use a basic stopwatch, with a lap facility. I press lap after each out and back. The screen shows what lap I'm on. X2 and you have your lengths.How's it going, AKA, Nutwatch? - 12 month spends to date = 2.60% of current retirement "pot" (as at end May 2025)0
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our pool provides length trackers which are really good however only if you use the same stroke the whole way throujhg some times i like to 'mix' it up and do breast stroke on odd lengths and front crawl on even and yep i lose count too
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I have a little doodah that fits on my finger like a ring.0
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