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

[TiggerMother]

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?

Oh I miss swimming pool lane rage.
Ideally I like to mix my strokes up, but sometimes have to stick with front crawl only if medium is too busy and I have to keep the pace up in Fast. For me, it really is about who's in there between the two.

I'm looking forwards to just turning up to a public session when I feel like it. The Covid Secure arrangements don't suit my MO.

Booking a space has really forced me to go. I’d have been wishy washy and found an excuse without booking! Funny, isn’t it.

There are times somewhere but it’s for 50m. I can definitely make the 50m time but not if I’m doing 400m.

I'd book medium but if the fast lane looks more suitable on the day, ask the lifeguard if you can switch. (I'm a lifeguard)

Medium...!

Only people in the Olympics with tumble turns in the fast

This all reminds me of swimming many years ago, and sharing a lane with ladies in full make up (if gender identity had been a thing then, they would definitely not have identified as women and would have demanded a separate category of lady) who would get very cross if anyone overtook them and splashed them. I found it highly amusing to overtake by swimming underneath them and popping up in front. Until the lifeguard told me off. I was a dick when I was younger

I'm curious what % of your pool fast laners do tumble turns.
I was in with a channel swimmer yesterday who did them a bit, but mostly she had the pull-buoy so no TTs.

I'd say that < 8% of our fast laners can ever do tumble turners, but they are usually working on technique (like with pull buoy) so < 4% of anyone you ever see at the wall in fast lane will tumble turn. Our vet competitor swimmer or the lifeguards: they can do TTs but they all stop a lot, they are mostly sprinting (max 6 lengths before they stop for a rest).

Except the time I was in with the youth club swimmers whose own session had been cancelled so they were just trying to stay fit. They were very fast TTrs. That was an adventure in staying out of the way.

@lljkk our fast lane seems to be full of people (mostly men) who have just come out of the gym and seem to think they must need to be in the fast lane because they have big muscles. None of them do tumble turns and they get very annoyed when my small for his age 11 year old club swimmer is overtaking them and tumble turning, one even told the lifeguard "if that boy wants to play around doing somersaults he should be in the family section not the lanes"