Swim ... just flipping well swim

[sillybut]

What has got into people over lock down. Lane swimming used to be a lovely peaceful experience - just up and down with the odd rest at either end maybe a few friendly words with some fellow swimmers . Now surrounded by people hanging about talking for 10-15 minutes at a time. taking up the space at the end, making push off and turning harder. Oh and when they do swim they go along in twos, slowly have a little chat as they go FFS. To add insult to injury they've got rid of the medium lane so I'm exiled in the sloooooow lane as no way can I manage the fast with the fitness freaks amazingly fast swimmers who speed through the water like eels.

I get an hour and fifteen minutes to walk to pool, get changed, swim 30 lengths, get changed and walk back... I do not have time to waste... lane swimming is for actual swimming...

The pool holds 3 "Splash and Chat" sessions every week why the hell can't they go to those and leave my precious lunch break and vague attempt at getting fit alone :(

I really don't remember it being like this before lockdown

Either way, just so happy and grateful to be swimming again

Completely agree with every single one of you, I currently have free DL membership as dd works there, I will honestly pay when I can no longer have it, I usually have the outdoor pool more or less to myself and when the weather is good the indoor pool is quiet. Always 3 lanes very rarely do I have to share one. I go around 7.30 mid week evenings. I haven’t had lane rage for years.

I've come back to this thread to report yesterdays experience.

It was boiling hot and"freedom day" so people flocked to the pool. It was at full capacity for lane swimming and the fast lane has now been relabelled medium so fast swimmers in medium lane and medium people still with no real home.

Yesterday:

A lady who was DANCING in the middle of the slow lane. She was quite a good dancer but lane swimming is not the place for ballet.

An elderly man and his wife holding hands and paddling about half way down the pool and back again without a care in the world. Very sweet but arrrrg

A man doing acrobatics in the medium lane getting in the way - he nearly got whacked in the face by the man we call Butterfly Man (he does 60 straight lengths of butterfly before leaving looking as if he's not broken breath - he misses the fast lane unsurprisingly)

And to top it all someone swimming backstroke / paddling very slowly in the medium / fast lane and going in the wrong direction until about to go out of depth and then crossing it - he kept getting splashed in the face and being told by other swimmers to follow the arrows - which he was seemingly incapable of doing. After all that he got out and complained to the life guard that he was being splashed

Going again later today so we will see what joys await... At least DP finds it quite funny listening to my rants