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Original poster

Any swimmers? I don’t know what lane to book- fast or medium

32 replies

TiggerMother · 01/05/2021 10:44

I hadn’t managed to swim in a long time pre Covid but I swam a lot in my childhood, teens and twenties. I obviously still have a bit of muscle memory going on.

I booked the medium lane this week, but was faster than the other 3 people. The fast lane looked v intimidating though. They all seemed to know each other and there was a lot of chatting and bombing out the occasional 50 fly.

I want to go back for myself and no one else I know could talk this out with me 😂 what would you do?

OP posts:
HunterHearstHelmsley · 01/05/2021 10:50

Stick with middle!

There's always rows at my gym about this. There's no set rules about the speed so one person's fast is another person's middle. There seems to be more arguments in the slow and fast lanes.

DancesWithDaffodils · 01/05/2021 10:54

Depending on the people there on any one day, I would swim in middle or fast.
I could be the fastest in the fast lane, or way slower than all of them. I'd stick with medium until you've gauged if the fast lane was typical.

EasterEggBelly · 01/05/2021 10:56

Stick with medium. It’s better to be the fastest person in the medium line then the slowest person in the fast.

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Original poster
TiggerMother · 01/05/2021 10:57

I think I’ll keep booking medium then! It all seems very political 😂

OP posts:
Divebar2021 · 01/05/2021 11:00

I’m not at all fast but whenever I go there’s always some bloke in the fast lane trying to do butterfly - takes up a massive amount of room and splashes like hell.

On another separate note I also see a very ripped young guy who wears the long leggings, hat and goggles. He definitely looks like a pro. He fannies about at the side a LOT then gets in and does 2 lengths of the most sedate breast stroke before getting out. Grin

lljkk · 01/05/2021 11:13

Do you do predominantly front crawl or breast stroke?

Breast-stroke only is a bad idea in our fast lane (just makes you too wide).

Morning, noon or evening session? Mornings & evenings will be younger so faster. Noon will be mostly retired; I used to always be the very fastest in entire pool at noon (not in recent covid times, tbf).

I am too fast for medium & too slow for fast...
I devote a lot of thinking time to this situation.
The medium people are uncomfortable, may even freak out, at being overtaken. They may further object to being splashed (yes really).

My goggles may fog up & then I may struggle to see well to overtake.

Lots of people are oblivious about giving others space to overtake, but that only becomes my problem if I'm in the medium lane.

The fast people are just a nicer crew; they are used to overtaking & sharing lanes. They are more tolerant on the whole. Most of all, I can take many measures to give them room to get by. I can be in control of overtaking me made easy.

So I always book fast but will move to medium lane if the fast lane is going to be much more crowded with me in it.

I've had to share lanes with Channel swimmers, almost feral no-discipline rocket fast (14yo) youth competitors & lifeguards practicing 50m sprints. There's a vets guy in our lane who does butterfly up & down the middle twice as fast as anyone else can swim. All less stress than dealing with oblivious nervous 6' wide breast strokers in medium lane.

UserAtRandom · 01/05/2021 11:17

It's generally a bit free flow at our pool. If you start out in medium and realise you are too quick then you just move to fast. As long as there aren't too many people in any one lane, no one seems to mind. And the lane you need to be in really varies by who else is there, so hard to judge anyway! We don't have to book specific lanes though; I don't know if that changes things.

Frankie4me · 01/05/2021 11:20

@Divebar2021

I’m not at all fast but whenever I go there’s always some bloke in the fast lane trying to do butterfly - takes up a massive amount of room and splashes like hell.

On another separate note I also see a very ripped young guy who wears the long leggings, hat and goggles. He definitely looks like a pro. He fannies about at the side a LOT then gets in and does 2 lengths of the most sedate breast stroke before getting out. Grin

Could be recovering from an injury / rehab?
DancesWithDaffodils · 01/05/2021 11:22

I agree lljkk the fast swimmers are much better at sharing, and the medium swimmers (or some I had the misfortune to share lanes with) can freak out at being overtaken, but wont wait at the end when you've been on their toes for half a length. I MUCH prefer being the slowest in the fast lane to the fastest in the middle lane (but I'm a breaststroke swimmer, and know I need to be able to hold my own before I move into a fast lane pre covid booking requirements).

SouthOfFrance · 01/05/2021 11:23

Stick with middle. It's luck of the drawer who you get, the next time you go you could find the fast lane has slower swimmers than last time etc, but until you go a few times you won't know. You will soon get a feel of it, and also might find different times of the day are better to go etc.

TeenMinusTests · 01/05/2021 11:28

I'm a faster-medium where I swim pre-covid

Fast is for frontcrawl only, maybe with tumbleturns.

Original poster
TiggerMother · 01/05/2021 11:30

I’d like to do some freestyle and some breast stroke, and I bought a kickboard too. I’ll give it a few weeks and see. I could swim in a lane with 7 other people at 5 second intervals at one point, so I should be able to master this Confused Grin

OP posts:
DoingItMyself · 01/05/2021 11:31

Thought this was a thread about sperm count.

DancesWithDaffodils · 01/05/2021 11:33

@TeenMinusTests

I'm a faster-medium where I swim pre-covid

Fast is for frontcrawl only, maybe with tumbleturns.

That definitely depends on the pool. Depending on the session, I can overtake frontcrawers in the fast lane while I'm doing breaststroke.
Silkiecats · 01/05/2021 12:48

In ours you can move lanes and if I've not been for a while will go in medium and move if needed. When going regularly I go in fast for front crawl and move to middle for breast stroke / backstroke unless fast is empty or slow. If you want to book fast go for it.

SausageCrush · 01/05/2021 12:54

Sorry, totally irrelevant to thread but a bloke turned up to our pool yesterday with a mask and snorkel and proceeded to do his lengths. It made my day!

Kezzie200 · 01/05/2021 14:23

Stick with the middle it's much more fun!

I used to attend adult masters and we had three lanes although first two were similar as lots of adults didn't have the confidence to come to a group called masters! We always left the fast lane for those who took the whole thing very very seriously.

I was asked to join them one night when the other lanes were quite full and whilst I was their speed I didn't have anything to add to their conversation during rests.

ListeningQuietly · 01/05/2021 14:32

Am glad my pool does not make people book Smile

MikeWozniaksGloriousTache · 01/05/2021 14:32

Morning, noon or evening session? Mornings & evenings will be younger so faster. Noon will be mostly retired
Not in the pool I used to work in, the retired were the ones there waiting for the place to open before I even got into work at 6.30am!!

I agree with sticking in the middle until you work out the speeds and politics of the fast lane at the times you go. I hate lane swimming for this reason!

Queenoftheashes · 01/05/2021 14:51

We don’t have this thank god. Usually two to a Lane and you just pick a side. But it’s impossible to know which lane it depends eg if you’re in with men or women. One bloke was going up and down with bloody flippers in the lane with me and it was like a cruise ship going by each time he passed.

Anonmousse · 01/05/2021 14:53

On another separate note I also see a very ripped young guy who wears the long leggings, hat and goggles. He definitely looks like a pro. He fannies about at the side a LOT then gets in and does 2 lengths of the most sedate breast stroke before getting out. grin

This made me laugh. I'm not a swimmer but used to take my DC when they were toddlers. Once saw an elderly man using one of the blue elasticated shoe protectors as a swimming cap! 😂

Cacacoisfarraige · 01/05/2021 15:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Kerberos · 01/05/2021 15:10

Ours has guidelines. >45 seconds for 25m is slow, between 30-45 Medium and under 30 is fast

I'm mid of slow given no swimming during covid but likely to be top of slow when I've had a bit more practise.

JaninaDuszejko · 01/05/2021 15:20

It very much depends on the pool. I go to two different pools. One is 60% old folk doing very slow froggy stroke and never getting their hair wet then two lanes of people who are more confident swimmers who do a mix of strokes. The slowest person can be half the speed of the fastest (still makes them twice the speed of the slow folk) but everyone is polite and lets faster swimmers overtake. Whereas I've been sworn at and get all the dirty looks if I overtake in the slow section. The other pool has more fast swimmers and so the balance is different, I'm a slow swimmer in the middle lane there.

And I agree with the PP who says the early morning session is full of old people where-ever you go.

lljkk · 01/05/2021 17:37

guidelines. >45 seconds for 25m is slow, between 30-45 Medium and under 30 is fast

Those guidelines are common & stated by my pool... problem is they don't apply in reality. I know because I do 25m in about 37 seconds. That's about the true threshold between our fast & medium. I would say median pace in our medium lane is ~ 45'. I live in the 'oldest' local authority in Britain, so probably our numbers get skewed.

Age 65+ persons dominate only the slow lane early morning at my pool. I've been at pools where the fast lane is all under 40s early morning.