The April 3 issue of the NY Times has an article reviewing waterproof MP3 players for swimming. Fitness writer Sarah Bowen Shea’s article begins: “SOME swimmers joke that the only way to fight the boredom of laps is to get a good song stuck in their heads…Now that second-generation MP3 players offer better technology, fitness swimmers can listen to Maroon 5 and the Bravery instead.”

This struck me as an unintentionally ironic complement to the Times’ article last week which suggested that kickboard training sets ("Kick 500 as fast as you can...") are a good way for fitness swimmers to spend their time, when they are actually a nearly perfect prescription for pointless tedium.

In 1972 I swam across Long Island Sound from Greenwich, CT to Locust Valley, NY. At the time, all I knew of swimming was that you just kept pulling and kicking until you were mercifully finished. What made the 9-mile crossing – and countless college varsity workouts – endurable was playing songs in my head. Somehow, an endless 3 1/2 hour loop of "Louie Louie" by the Kingsmen was preferable to being present with my stroke.

In 2008 every swimming “practice” is utterly absorbing because of the inclusion of drills, focal points, and “gears practice.” Many of those who use MP3 players while swimming are likely motivated by the feeling that swimming is so tedious that one needs “distractors” to endure an hour of it. This is no doubt true if your swimming consists mainly of “following the black line.”

Since most TI swimmers have been there, here’s my discussion topic for today: For those of you with "pre-TI” swim experiences, how did you occupy yourself mentally then and how has purposeful and mindful practice motivated by a Kaizen mindset changed your approach and experience?

Join the Discussion at the “Favorite Practices” conference of the TI Discussion Forum.