Find a Different Pool
Sometimes, a change of scenery can do the trick. If you've gotten used to the 25-yard pool in your neighborhood, seek out an Olympic-sized pool and do your next long workout there.
Mix In Different Strokes
Nothing will fight boredom better than mixing in the butterfly, backstroke or breaststroke to your workout.
Put a 200-yard IM into the middle of your workout. Or if you don't know all the strokes, learn the backstroke and substitute in a lap amidst all your freestyle laps. As Koskella writes, "learning proper backstroke and mixing it in to your workouts can help your freestyle hip rotation...if you're only going to learn one other stroke besides freestyle, backstroke should be it."
More: 4 Lessons From a Swim Clinic
Watch Your Neighbors
Sometimes, you can learn a lot by watching the person in the lane next to you.
If your neighbor is consistently faster than you, watch a little bit while you swim and try to figure out why. What's he doing that you're not? Is his stroke longer? Where does he end in stroke? Is he kicking differently than you?
Watching your fellow swimmers out the corner of your eye is much more interesting than staring at the blue line at the bottom of the pool—plus you might learn something from your peers.
Enjoy the Daydreaming
For many of us, swimming laps is a break in an otherwise crazy day chasing around kids, putting in a full day of work and juggling all of life's responsibilities. So you're bored. So what? Let your mind drift off and appreciate the alone time. There's not enough of it in this world.
More: Keep Your Feel for the Water With These 30-Minute Swim Workouts
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