Bonus laps

After almost dying yesterday, I was a bit apprehensive going to the pool this morning. I didn't like the idea of getting dizzy from swimming. Swimming is supposed to increase health not decrease it.

After jumping in the pool and going through the first few stages of hypothermia, I swam a few warm-up laps, nice and slow, concentrating on my new improved breathing technique. I felt good, all lingering traces of the plague seemingly gone.

Now I had to decide my strategy to trick myself into swimming a full work-out. I usually go for the "I'm 1/4 of the way there" then "1/2 way there" then "just four more laps" until I'm finally done.

Today, I decided to lie to myself. I told myself that I'd do 24 laps, then when I got to 20, I'd spring the "haha you fool, I lied, you have 12 more to go, haha". And that worked. But then midway through lap 28, I realized that I still felt good and started planning a sneak attack. Bonus laps! I planned on finishing 32, and announcing the need for 4 more "bonus laps."

These bonus laps don't do much for me, I can't redeem them at any store, they don't get me a discount off of the club membership and they sure as Hades don't win me any points with my lungs. But they're in the bank now and I hope they might just pay off on the day I decide to race Chopstick in the 100 yard freestyle (1:20.03 in case you're wondering).