Perils of Lap Swimming!

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Comments

  • wendyv34wendyv34 Vashon, WASenior Member

    We call those tumbleweeds!

    ssthomasSolodpm50

    It's always a bad hair day when you work at a pool.

  • dpm50dpm50 PA, U.S.Senior Member

    Eww!

    Compared to that, you might have preferred this pool experience. ...

    https://www.google.com/amp/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/39427029

    ssthomas said:
    This should probably just go into a Perils of Pool Swimming thread, but since we don't have that one, I'm placing it here:

    Holy cow- Last night there was the biggest, most disgusting hair/snot/trash ball floating below my lane. It was huge. It was nasty. And it was hoovering just below me for HOURS. Gag, gag, gag! I had to keep my eye on it, in case it floated up and tried to hit me in the face. :-D

    ssthomas
  • wendyv34wendyv34 Vashon, WASenior Member

    In our outdoor pool (Colman), which is right on the beach, we've found mice & rats, (alive & dead), and several dogfish (dead) which I believe were thrown over the wall at night. People throw all kinds of junk over the wall after we've closed for the evening, we find rocks and other things on the pool covers some mornings.

    At least you didn't encounter any pool salad.

    IronMikessthomasSolo

    It's always a bad hair day when you work at a pool.

  • ssthomasssthomas DenverCharter Mem​ber

    I grew up in Texas. There were times we'd find big ole snakes in the pool gutters in the morning when we came in. Not to mention cockroaches. Uck.

    We also had a really tiny outdoor 25 meter pool (well, it was actually like 26.25 meters, if legend is correct) that we would sometimes swim in in the summer. No lane ropes, no flags, no lines on the bottom/walls. One of the dads fashioned some lane ropes for us out of ropes and buoys and made some flags by pouring concrete into some 10 gallon buckets and stuck a pole in them to attach the flags. We'd roll them out every time we were swimming... and just eyeball how far away they needed to be, with varying results in accuracy (you always counted your strokes the first time you needed to do a backstroke turn, just so you knew where it was that day). It was across the street from a minimum security prison. And every year, at the end of summer, they would grow algae in the pool (on purpose!) for the annual fishing tournament. We'd swim until it got too green- then they'd close the pool, dump fish in there and go to town. I miss that pool. So many memories (I taught swim lessons there for years, too).

    Sorry, now we're really off topic. I definitely wouldn't call this a peril of lap swimming- just happy childhood memories, when growing things in the pool for a fishing tournament was no big deal and we'd scratch our names in the algae on the wall with our fingernails at the start of practice to see if it was still there when we'd finish. :-)

    wendyv34aafairmandpm50IronMikeCamilleevmoKatieBun
  • ssthomas, what a wonderful memory! My husband and i were just talking about how different the world was when we where kids! Can you imagine a training pool/ fishing derby co-existing today!? haha!

    ssthomas
  • BridgetBridget New York StateMember

    Ok, last summer, I was in the lake doing laps along the outer line of the beach. (If you come to my beach, I'm the one swimming laps) Anyway, any time I arrive and there are people near the rope, I go over and explain that I'm going to do laps for a while, and that between the glare of the sun on the water and my foggy goggles, I can't always see them, so can we all try to look out for each other? I've had great luck. I never actually aim for people. Well, one day, a group of kids was there, having fun, and they were agreeable. A few laps in, I actually plowed over one! I felt terrible, because I was still full of energy, but I just didn't see him-- he was fine, and apologized when I apologized. He said he was trying to sink down to give me a thumbs up! Periodically, as I swam on, one or two would try to pace me. ;-) Too cute. Turns out, it was one's birthday, and they were all there to celebrate-- maybe 10 or 11 years old? Mixed group. When I finished, we all chatted a bit and I did an impromptu clinic. A great day!!!!! MUCH nicer than the evening that I was doing laps, then the beach closed, I kept swimming but moved just outside the rope to stay out of people's way, when I hear a woman calling to me, "Hey, are you OK?" Now, there are times when we get tired and sloppy, but that wasn't it. I stopped long enough to ask what was wrong, and she took her cigarette out long enough to say, "Are you ok? You've been swimming for HOURS!" Um, really????? Too weird. At least the wind wasn't blowing her smoke at me.

    Solodpm50KatieBun
  • ssthomasssthomas DenverCharter Mem​ber

    My normal pool was hosting a swim meet today, so I hit up my backup pool. It's a pretty decent pool, but I forgot how busy it is on Sundays. There are three areas: one with two water slides, a lazy river, and some fun water features; a lap pool with two diving boards; and a warm therapy pool. When I got there, the kid area was packed. I've never seen it so busy. The lap pool was also hopping. Four lanes were set aside for the diving board and the guards weren't doing a very good job of keeping kids from playing in the lap lanes. There were three lap swimmers, and then three other lanes were taken up by kids playing. So, I took the last open lane- the one next to the diving boards and kids playing with balls in the shallow end. Sigh. I was hit by 5 kickboards that escaped kids who were sitting or standing on them, got hit by an errant beach ball, and lost track of how many kids I had to dodge who were crossing my lane while I was swimming or who were hanging onto the lane rope with their feet coming into my lane. I managed to only swallow one mouthful of water from a wave caused by a canonball off the diving board. I admit to being more grumpy than usual, but I wanted to confiscate every kickboard that wasn't being used for kicking....

    IronMikedpm50KatieBun
  • wendyv34wendyv34 Vashon, WASenior Member

    You might ask the management why they let kids play with kickboards. We have noodles for play, because kickboards aren't toys.

    We only allow them during lessons, family swims (where the child is using the kickboard appropriately under direct adult supervision) and lap swims. Anyone sitting or standing on a kickboard loses their kickboard for the day. We've had staff and swimmers get injured from kickboards shooting out of the water due to misuse, injuries as serious as chipped teeth and a broken nose. Fortunately for us, the woman with the broken nose was injured by her own child, who we had warned not to stand on the kickboard.

    As for kids playing in the lap lanes, as a swimmer, I tend to just run over them. They usually go somewhere else after they've been run over. As a pool manager, we don't allow kids to be in the lap lanes at all, unless they are swimming laps and following the rules. I've even had to kick swim team kids out of the lap lanes for being rude and endangering (mostly) themselves.

    It's frustrating to hear that pool staff do such a poor job of managing risks and providing customer service. I have a hard time leaving my pool manager hat at work. :ar!

    ssthomascurlyKatieBun

    It's always a bad hair day when you work at a pool.

  • MoCoMoCo Worcester, MASenior Member

    I missed an idiot kid by literally inches during a hard paddle set on Saturday. The guard had yelled at him prior and he didn't listen (of course). He stayed out of my lane the rest of the time, as did his buddies, I think I scared the crap out of them.

    ssthomaswendyv34dpm50KatieBun
  • A few weeks ago when swimming I went around a slower woman swimmer on the left and didn't pass fast enough so the person coming my way pushed me into the woman so my right hand during my stroke landed right in the middle of her, err, intergluteal cleft and I touched parts that should have gotten me slapped. Total accident.

    She rightfully yelled at me and I explained it was an accident and I'm utterly ashamed and I'm a jerk. I was panicking. She asked me my name so she could "report me" and I stammered and gave her my friend's name instead because that's what came bumbling out. :(

    Tonight I go back to swimming in my small 4 lane by 15 yard pool.

    Solossthomasdpm50flystormsKatieBun
  • KatieBunKatieBun CornwallSenior Member
    edited October 2017

    I went back to coached Swimfit last night, sharing a lane with a lady I swim with occasionally.... and three teenage boys. I've swum with all three of the boys at one time or another, in various mixed lanes, but this was the first time they'd all been in the same lane. Something about this changed them. From being fun to train with, they suddenly turned into a collective nightmare of chatting along the end of the lane, taking 3 times as much rest as the coach gave us and stopping after 4 of a set of 5 x 100s of steadily increasing speed. We gritted our teeth for a while and got on with it, leaving them to it.

    The next tiny little bit of irritation was during a set of 50s, when each of them stopped well short of the end of the lane..... in fact the one directly in front of me stopped so far out, I ended up swimming about 40m. After 3 or 4 of these, I asked very nicely if the lads could finish the 50s a bit closer to the wall. I made a bit of a joke of it. Who wants aggro in their lane? That was that.... or so I thought....

    The lad in front of me now changed tack. Instead of just standing up about 8m short of the wall, he stopped halfway down the lane, stood up, kicked off the bottom with one foot and set off again. The first time he did it, I stubbed my finger on his back.... the second time, I practically swam where the sun doesn't shine. :-S

    By this time, I'd had enough so I asked him if he was being deliberately annoying. He said he wasn't, asked why I'd directed my question at him and denied he'd been stopping mid-lap. I refuse to have an argument in the middle of a session, so I didn't rise to the bait.....but he stopped doing the thing he'd denied he was doing.

    I'm betting I'm in for some sort of parental complaint next time............ for being a tetchy old bat. ;)

    ssthomasCamilledpm50
  • ssthomasssthomas DenverCharter Mem​ber

    Really?! Who on earth stops 8 meters shy of the wall on a 50?! That's just total craziness! Some people's kids! :-)

    KatieBundpm50Camille
  • curlycurly Issaquah, WASenior Member

    Reminds me of the opposite problem I had with a guy years ago. In our lane, I was behind a couple guys in the order and then there was one guy behind me. He had very poor eyesight. So the way it worked is the guys in front of me would finish and I would come in behind them. Then the guy behind me would plow into me because he couldn't see anything to save his life. I tried every trick I could but it was always this way. I realized that the guys in front of me knew the deal and were really happy I showed up to be the buffer. I think I was actually a bit faster than one or two of them, but they wouldn't accept my offer to swim ahead of them. I left that masters group after about a month of this. Who needs the aggravation.

    Hate to add to the perils. Darn it all....

    KatieBunssthomas
  • ssthomasssthomas DenverCharter Mem​ber

    I thought that adding to this must have killed you, @curly! It IS a marathon swimming group, full of members who love open water and mostly hate the chlorine prison. It shouldn't be a surprise we have trouble in the confines of walls, black lines and lane ropes. :-)

    KatieBunBridgetwendyv34
  • curlycurly Issaquah, WASenior Member

    As a recently converted pool swimmer, I have to agree with you about the chlorine box. I'm finding I much prefer the wide open spaces. Now that our rainy season has started even my wife/kayaker is mentioning how much she misses our summer swims/paddles.

    Oh crap! I just added to the perils thread...

    BridgetKatieBunssthomas
  • BridgetBridget New York StateMember

    I tried. I'm just not there yet. I teach aqua fitness on Mondays, and a few lessons, and eventually it will go back to being a multi mile day again. . . but not yet. I did a mile last week and it was grim. Wet velvet. Slog. I've been back in the lake since, including this morning before work. 60F water, air in the 40s by the time I finished my mile. Brisk, but once I got going I felt better, not worse. Even if I was cold, I was only there for a pre-work swim, and I bundled into a sweatshirt, my son's old winter coat, and a skirt for work. Oh, I am so pretty after swimming! I finished dressing at work. ;-) This past winter was my first winter with pool access in over 10 years, and I well remember that it often took until January to feel good about doing laps. I'll get there.

    I tell myself that the warmer water (Still hard to get wet! Those first few minutes in ANY water. . . ) will keep me from blasting away too fast and straining my shoulders as I add miles. When I transition back to the lake in the spring, I'll tell myself the relative cold will ice my shoulders as I gain speed. :-) Trying to stay positive. Planning on the lake again Friday. My big pool advantage is that where I work, the pool is always available. :-) Not many pools out there let you swim for 8 hours straight.

  • wendyv34wendyv34 Vashon, WASenior Member

    I was run into while doing backstroke yesterday by an Australian guy. He apologized immediately and we chatted later, he says he's here/there half the year each for work. I cut him some slack because it must be tough to switch one's autopilot back and forth. He said driving wasn't so bad, due to the location of the driver's seat, but riding a bike was the worst.

    ssthomasKellie

    It's always a bad hair day when you work at a pool.

  • ssthomasssthomas DenverCharter Mem​ber

    I swam for a summer in Australia (with a team while I was in college) and swimming backwards circles was a little rough at first. The two guys I was sharing a lane with were giving me a hard time about it, so I suggested that we swim our warm down the "American way." After that, they cut me some slack- it was harder than they thought!

    wendyv34KatieBunBridget
  • @ssthomas ... I always wondered whether the brits and aussies swam "the other way!" I have similar issues when circle swimming, especially in masters if we have super crowded lanes. When I flip, I turn my body clockwise, but I find that most people turn counter clockwise. I speculate that this has to do with handedness....I'm a lefty. So, in American circle swimming, when I flip, I'm nearly always turning into the lane line, then having to Scoot across the middle of time lane to end up back on the right side. Or.... I "change sides" right before I flip so that I'm turning into the center of the lane and can get right back into the pace of the set. With lots of room, this isn't a big deal, but if we have short course lanes and 4 or 5 swimmers in a lane.... it can get interesting. I will open turn if need be to avoid collisions. I wonder if that means that it would be an easier transition for me to drive on the other side of the road? Lol

  • KarenTKarenT Charter Member

    So in these pools, are you saying that movement in all lanes is in the same direction, either clockwise or anti-clockwise? Every pool I've swum in (in the UK) alternates swim direction across the lanes so that the person immediately on the other side of the lane rope is always travelling in the same direction as you. It avoids painful hand clashes (kind of). Perhaps the 'British way' is simply indecisive...

    ssthomasIronMike
  • ssthomasssthomas DenverCharter Mem​ber

    @KarenT, I've been in some pools that alternate directions, but for the most part, the pools in the US (at least the ones I'm familiar with) all swim the same direction- staying on the right in an anti-clockwise direction. The Aussies I swam with all swam clockwise, or stayed on the left.

    @Sara_Wolf, that was exactly my problem with the flip turns. In the US, I flip toward the lane rope I'm heading toward, so I can see easily where I need to be to stay out of the way. In Australia, I was flipping toward the middle of the lane, causing collisions. I actually got better that summer at doing my flipturns backwards, so I could flip toward the lane again. It makes me dizzy now if I try and do it. ;-)

  • KarenTKarenT Charter Member

    @ssthomas I had no idea. After Brexit, perhaps we'll all have to go back to swimming only on the left!

    ssthomas
  • @ssthomas hah! I've tried flipping the other direction..... it didn't end well. lol Let's just say, that I finally know where every single sinus cavity is in my face..... because I felt the water flow through them! lol (Maybe this is something I can throw into the WU/CD portions of masters swim workouts, to make things more interesting).

    The other thing I find interesting is that when I do a backstroke flipturn, I tend to initiate it the other direction (when my stroke count is ON).... and leave the wall the way I do for regular flip turns. Not consistent at all.

  • Copelj26Copelj26 ChicagoSenior Member

    @ssthomas "I've been in some pools that alternate directions, but for the most part, the pools in the US (at least the ones I'm familiar with) all swim the same direction- staying on the right in an anti-clockwise direction. The Aussies I swam with all swam clockwise, or stayed on the left."

    I never even noticed this, I will admit that at my gym, if I have to instigate lap swimming, I always go clockwise, never put two and two together on this for the left side of the stuff. Probably weird's out the people swimming in the lane with me.

    ssthomas
  • ssthomasssthomas DenverCharter Mem​ber

    @batches and I went to swim this morning together. Pool was crowded. We asked to swim circles with a guy who was alone. He adamantly refused. Like, what the heck, dude? John tried to explain, but some people can't be helped. The guy ended up only swimming for about 15 minutes, so it worked out fine in the end. But, I've never had someone say no when the pool was crowded like that.

  • ssthomasssthomas DenverCharter Mem​ber
    edited May 2018

    @curly has been far too positive with his "Joys of Lap Swimming" thread so I wanted to give my better, much snarkier post a bump. :-) I've been pretty positive myself lately, but we can't forget that there are perils in lap swimming, too.

    For example, this past week, my favorite pool has been cranking the heat up- had to have gotten up to 85. Why? They were preparing for an aqua aerobics certification class last weekend. The entire class was in the water for a total of 3 hours over 2 days last weekend, yet all of the lap swimmers and swim teams have had to suffer in the heat for a week. Doesn't seem right! I've swum in a lot of 85 degree pools, but it's not fun! And this pool doesn't usually do that us. As a result, when I swam on Monday, I picked a shorter, cold lake swim over the pool. (Better for the soul anyway.) I hope when I get back in on Thursday it's back down to the usual 80.

    FlowSwimmersCamille
  • curlycurly Issaquah, WASenior Member

    Grrr.... OK, I'll bite. I was swimming some mellow 800's just minding my own business when a couple younger guys jumped in. After the near head on collision, we established that we would be swimming circles. So they started tearing along doing whatever they were doing. At one point I ended up behind the faster guy and there was no way he was going to let this old guy get past. So after about a hundred yards or so of tapping him on the foot near the turn with no response, I just stopped and grabbed him at the turn. I explained to him that my tapping on the foot was the universal signal that I wanted to pass.

    So he let me take the lead and I proceeded to bury him. Wait. Maybe that part should go into the joys... :P

    ssthomasSoloflystormsCamille
  • I wonder if this is a "peril" or not........
    We're outside (finally) now, and there's that ONE spot on the small of my back where sunscreen didn't reach... that's hot and itchy now....as well as ONE spot along the edge of the leg opening of my suit on my cheek that is a big fat MISS for sunscreen. So.... I'm gonna have an UNEVEN tan!!! (once the redness goes away) :)

    Solo
  • CamilleCamille Member

    Over the winter my husband has finally decided to get in the pool- not because he was harboring some secret desire to be a swimmer... rather he has to pass a timed swim for a Scuba instructor certification. (I mean who would want to do this for fun?!)
    Watching him struggle through so many of the same issues we all deal with has been eye opening for him and almost enjoyable for me.
    One of my favorites has been how angry he gets at the people in the pool who plop in his lane and mess up his work out! He used to think I was straight up nuts as i would rant about clueless "aqua bobbers" and selfish lane hogs! I about died when he was ranting at me after his workout about the oblivious breaststroker!
    Needless to say he no longer thinks I am crazy...well not for that reason at least!

    jsrobertsssthomasdpm50
  • ssthomasssthomas DenverCharter Mem​ber

    @Camille : This is hysterical! My husband has been driving me to the pool quite a bit over the winter since I've been sick/going to chemo, so he's observed a lot of lap swimming lately. He says that pools are the weirdest place he's ever been- half naked people, all sharing the same space, all doing something different, with a weird "code" that everyone needs to follow. His perspective has been quite amusing.

    jsrobertsCamillesosophiaphiacurlydpm50flystorms
  • @ssthomas : You didn't tell him about the secret handshake did you? I mean, if he hasn't gone through the initiation ceremony, of COURSE he wouldn't understand the "code".

    ;)

    wendyv34CamillejendutssthomasKate_Alexanderdpm50
  • sosophiaphiasosophiaphia Colorado USAMember

    Last week, a guy in a full wetsuit on a surfboard paddling 25 SCY laps.

    We live about 1200 miles from the nearest ocean.

    ssthomasdpm50CamilleIronMikeandissSydneD
  • CamilleCamille Member

    I just got back from USMS National's and if my hubby didn't think all swimmers are weirdos before, he has now confirmed it, haha!
    I told him he just doesn't understand the "Code" yet!

    I could also write an entire post on the perils of a warm up pool- OMG!

    IronMikedpm50Sara_Wolfssthomas
  • ssthomasssthomas DenverCharter Mem​ber

    Camille said:

    I could also write an entire post on the perils of a warm up pool- OMG!

    I grew up age group swimming in Texas. If I can handle a swim meet warm up pool there, I can handle ANYTHING. Maybe that's why I like open water so much! I learned to swim in waves, with people thrashing me if I was in the way. I do have to remind myself sometimes that it's not acceptable to do a flip turn on someone at lap swim if they're blocking the wall. That happened all the time growing up. Old people don't take too kindly of the rude reminder that they're in the way. As a kid, if someone flipped on you when you were standing in the middle of the lane, you just realized you deserved it. You'd get kicked out of the pool now!

    evmoCamillecurly
  • CamilleCamille Member

    ssthomas- I have no doubt you can handle just about anything!

    I have started calling warm up pools- "Thunder Dome", only the strong survive, haha!
    Lately I have been loving swimming with some big guys on my team because they create such a wave and move so much water, I get some extra open water practice!

    Solossthomas
  • andissandiss Senior Member

    Camille said:
    ssthomas- I have no doubt you can handle just about anything!

    I have started calling warm up pools- "Thunder Dome", only the strong survive, haha!
    Lately I have been loving swimming with some big guys on my team because they create such a wave and move so much water, I get some extra open water practice!

    My local pool turns up and down the heat pending activity - I think Monday afternoon are baby swimming and the temp is over 30C.

    So usually Sunday evenings are fine and Monday evening is hell on earth!

    Then when the kids have their holidays - these type of things appears!

    inflatable

    Kate_Alexanderssthomas
  • CamilleCamille Member

    I'm not going to lie- I want one of those!!!!

    ssthomasJaimie
  • WipperWipper Fort Collins, COMember

    sosophiaphia said:
    Last week, a guy in a full wetsuit on a surfboard paddling 25 SCY laps.

    We live about 1200 miles from the nearest ocean.

    There's a couple who swim in Fort Collins who swim with paddleboards. They're part of Poudre River Rescue, and are practicing rescue swimming, from what I have heard.

    sosophiaphia
  • ErrrwinErrrwin BerlinMember
    edited May 2018

    Triathletes.

    (yes, some good old generalization on this Friday afternoon ) B-)

    They turn up at the pool. Tons of equipment with them. Kickboards, paddles, flippers and the obligatory snorkle and once they actually get into the water 95% of the time it gets painfully clear that instead of spending money on equipment a decent technique training would be much more helpful.

    Anyway. They splash around water like a firetruck in action, don't swim very fast and have no clue on etiquette. Tapping them on the feet while overtaking means nothing, the cheerfully go left hard even when being overtaken. At the end of the pool standing in the middle of the lane: no problem. Starting a new interval (or whatever the hell they're doing) while I am IN THE MIDDLE of my turn: no problem.

    There, I've said it. I'm no fan of the triathletes in my pool. ;)

    ssthomas
  • sosophiaphiasosophiaphia Colorado USAMember

    Wipper said:

    sosophiaphia said:
    Last week, a guy in a full wetsuit on a surfboard paddling 25 SCY laps.

    We live about 1200 miles from the nearest ocean.

    There's a couple who swim in Fort Collins who swim with paddleboards. They're part of Poudre River Rescue, and are practicing rescue swimming, from what I have heard.

    That's awesome! I don't think that is this person's situation, unfortunately. This is an ocean-worthy short board, waxed and everything. He even has to angle it over the lane line when it's time to turn around.

  • curlycurly Issaquah, WASenior Member

    Errrwin said:
    ... Starting a new interval (or whatever the hell they're doing) while I am IN THE MIDDLE of my turn: no problem.

    Yes, that one drives me crazy. For some reason there are swimmers that think it's a good idea to shove off right as you are coming in. I still can't fathom the thought process there.

    (sorry to be adding to the perils thread...)
    :\">

    Solossthomas
  • wendyv34wendyv34 Vashon, WASenior Member

    curly

    Errrwin said:

    ... Starting a new interval (or whatever the hell they're doing) while I am IN THE MIDDLE of my turn: no problem.

    Yes, that one drives me crazy. For some reason there are swimmers that think it's a good idea to shove off right as you are coming in. I still can't fathom the thought process there.

    (sorry to be adding to the perils thread...)
    :\">
    Just crush them against the lane line as you go by. ; )

    Solossthomas

    It's always a bad hair day when you work at a pool.

  • andissandiss Senior Member

    Errrwin said:
    Triathletes.

    (yes, some good old generalization on this Friday afternoon ) B-)

    They turn up at the pool. Tons of equipment with them. Kickboards, paddles, flippers and the obligatory snorkle and once they actually get into the water 95% of the time it gets painfully clear that instead of spending money on equipment a decent technique training would be much more helpful.

    Anyway. They splash around water like a firetruck in action, don't swim very fast and have no clue on etiquette. Tapping them on the feet while overtaking means nothing, the cheerfully go left hard even when being overtaken. At the end of the pool standing in the middle of the lane: no problem. Starting a new interval (or whatever the hell they're doing) while I am IN THE MIDDLE of my turn: no problem.

    There, I've said it. I'm no fan of the triathletes in my pool. ;)

    And they stop and fiddle with their massive Garmin watches everytime they finish or start a set.

    Wrist watches in the pool is my pet hate!

    ssthomasCamille
  • dpm50dpm50 PA, U.S.Senior Member

    My masters coach is a pro triathlete w a wealth of experience as a marathon swimmer. He has weaned me off my watch and pushes people to use the pace clock, includes stroke sets in practice, and encourages swimmers to learn flip turns or if doing open turns, practice efficient, streamlined push-offs. He bega doing tri's b/c of the challenge. ...and the prize money. (One does have to pay bills.)

    I enjoy his practices, because he teaches lane etiquette right from the start, and reinforces it. Have learned a lot about technique and putting in the training to reach goals.

    ssthomascurlyCamille
  • ErrrwinErrrwin BerlinMember

    I use a wristwatch! :D But I also "use" lane etiquette and flipturns and the pace clock, so that might compensate a bit. ;)

    I use my wristwatch to monitor my progress (or lack of progress) during my training periods.

    Back to perils though: yesterday I was doing a rather tough program and in my lane there was this one guy that stopped ten meters from the end at the shallow end every time. >:P

    ssthomas
  • dpm50dpm50 PA, U.S.Senior Member

    If the pool doesn't have a pace clock, I do use my watch as a pace clock, letting it run during a workout. And I plead guilty of using gear, but w an explanation, your honor: gear my coach advised me to get to work on some technique wweaknesses.

    Errrwin
  • SamSam Member

    I can beat you all. On Saturday I planned a 10k pool swim. I had a specific breakfast, dialled in my nutrition and set off with a particular time in mind. I was excited to see how are I have progressed since my first 10k pool swim almost a year ago now (I've done two more since). After the first 1k im feeling good but then get pulled up by the lifeguard who tells me the pool is now being evacuated for the immediate future because some kid has pood in the pool. Needless to say I was not happy!

    ssthomasSolodpm50
  • glennglenn cape town SAMember

    what a crappy saturday

    ssthomaswendyv34Camilledpm50
  • wendyv34wendyv34 Vashon, WASenior Member

    CODE BROWN! I REPEAT, CODE BROWN!

    SoloIronMikedpm50

    It's always a bad hair day when you work at a pool.

  • flystormsflystorms Memphis, TNSenior Member

    Mmmm... Baby Ruth!

    wendyv34IronMikedpm50
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