Swimming for fitness (part 5). The pools are open again. Dust off your goggles and dive in!

[TheOrigRights]

We're so busy counting laps we didn't see part 4 fill up!

Everyone is welcome here.

[tizwozliz]

If there's a pace clock available that should give you a figure that's good enough to use.

[MinnieMountain]

It’s a 1930’s lido. There’s only an old clock on the tower

[TheOrigRights]

I've just had a full on pool side row.
I'm home now and so upset, I can't stop crying.
I need to get on with work now, but will come back later and tell you what happened.

I just wanted to swim. I have swum at that pool w/o incident for years.

[Biking0077]

Oh dear @TheOrigRights I hope you are not put off going back and the staff were supportive. There does seemed to be frayed patience in the pool at the moment.
I did a polite complaint last week to the mgr after a yet another frustrating “swim for all” session which just sees speedy guys (always men sigh) hog the fast lane and then the middle double wide lane is full of dry hair breaststroke so as a woman who wants to swim front crawl I literally can’t. I asked for the middle lane to be split properly so it can be a medium lane offering a middle ground between those who want to glide BS and those (normally women!) who can front crawl but cannot physically compete with 6ft blokes who get a lane to themselves. It’s happened several times now. Today I just went in the fast lane as it only had one guy in it so was able to just continuously do FC was heaven.

[TheOrigRights]

No, it won't put me off.

This is what happened.

• Busy session so people need to be mindful of etiquette.
• 2 men in the fast lane swimming the odd length really slowly and not being at all aware of others ie waiting at the end to let people by.
• It was too busy to allow for passing.
• I asked the lifeguard if they could be asked to move. He knew exactly who I meant w/o me pointing them out, and said yes.
• A couple of lengths later, they hadn't move and I got to the end and just as one of them was about to push off ie RIGHT in front of me.
• I managed to speak to him and asked him to move lanes as this was the fast lane.
• He just looked at me and said he'd wait for the other gentleman - made it sound like I was being impatient.
• I pointed out that they'd already been asked and he just repeated the same. I asked him why they hadn't moved? No reply.
• Meanwhile 'gentleman' had reached us. I can't remember the order now; whether I got the attention of the lifeguard or spoke to 'gentleman' first, but he then just started on this big speech about how he has asthma, and autism and ADHD.
• I said that was nothing at all to do with swimming in the fast lane, you swim in the lane you belong in.
• lifeguard said NOTHING.
• meanwhile this other chap in another lane totally piled in on me...it's not just for me, I haven't paid any more than anyone else, why don't I get my own private pool, we all have to swim together.
• People were staring, I stood my ground against 3 people having a go at me, then gave up, got out and sobbed for the next hour or so.

Once he'd told me about his disabilities I knew I had to be careful lest I came across as being disablist, which I absolutely am not. If the swim session requires swimmers to make adjustments for others then I think it would be reasonable to be told so that I can make an informed decision as to whether I want to swim or not.

DS2 is having HUGE problems at the moment, I just wanted my 30 minutes to swim. I know if it's busy I might not be able to lose myself up and down up and down, but I should be able to swim.

[TheOrigRights]

Back in the pool today and all normal and lovely. Busy, but everyone was courteous. It's not hard.

[Finfintytint]

Glad you had a better swim today. Some people are just arses.


I had my own drama in the pool today. My meds for high blood pressure are being tinkered with at the moment. Swimming, weight training and a physical job have helped me lose weight and lower my blood pressure.
Well, I felt faint at the poolside, was fussed over my several attendants who laid me down and called a bloody ambulance ( who refused to attend thankfully). Had to get a taxi home and my car is stranded at the pool.
Very embarrassed but will get back in on next set of rest days.

[Mxflamingnoravera]

I've been doing 7 am swimming lately, it's a lovely way to start the day. But this morning I just could not motivate myself, I've eaten carbs all day and already on wine and it's only 6pm. Not a good swimming day :(

But, there's always tomorrow. It's a new day.

[Biking0077]

Glad you went back @TheOrigRights some people are just arses and covid has bought the worst out in some folk. Well done for trying to stand up to them. Hope your DS2 is ok. I too use my swim space as a head clearer from my tricky youngest DD. I must admit I’ve really enjoyed sea swimming this year as it avoids most folk and lane issues

[Biking0077]

Hope you can get your car @Finfintytint and also back in the pool soon.

[lljkk]

Oh dear TOR :(

I've had the occasional snapped few words with another swimmer (like once every few yrs) but yours sounds hugely worse. You'd probably have felt worse if you said nothing, though. I'm glad you stood up for yourself.

Over weekend I pointed out a dog creating a turd mountain on the (at least fairly empty) beach; owner decided to ignore me. I didn't escalate it coz it wasn't worth the aggro. Only so much you can do.

[TheOrigRights]

My period started today (a special edition peri 21 day cycle one) which might explain the extreme sobbing. I had a big old cry this morning as well.
I never used to get tearful before a period but my symptoms are getting more dramatic.

[pearlsthatwerent]

Hello all! Tiptoeing back onto the thread having finally caught up and started swimming again - wisdom tooth removal + covid jab + busy time at work stopped me getting back to the pool for a bit.

@TheOrigRights That sounds awful. I get the rage about swimming too (and cycling actually: live in a flat city which is usually a tourist mecca, and have not missed remonstrating with idiots who don't know what roads are for). As others have said, you need to stand your ground; and that just sounds manipulative, as none of those conditions remotely suggests why someone is in the wrong lane. In fact they strongly suggest he should have been in the slow lane.

I wonder how lifeguards are told to deal with these situations? We had a chap in the medium lane yesterday who was literally walking for at least half the lengths; spoken to by a guard (I was too far away to hear) and then merrily carried on for half an hour.

They've also changed the lanes round, so now you have to cross scary fast lanes to get from medium to slow (don't have to book into specific lanes here), which is stopping people from moving. No idea why they've done this.

@MinnieMountain Were you looking for a watch? I couldn't find exactly what I wanted (which was: waterproof; counts lengths on the watch in real time; relatively cheap) so I went for a compromise. I have the Fitbit Charge 4 - bought in the sales for c.£100 - which is fine, except you have to wait until you get to the changing rooms and look at your phone to see how many lengths.

[MinnieMountain]

I’m looking for anything that times me TBH @pearlsthatwerent. Maybe I’ll just give in and get a Garmin.

The lido was very busy today but it felt great doing 1km in my lunch hour.

The peri-menopause is shit isn’t it @TheOrigRights? Especially when it takes some of the joy out of swimming. And some people are just arseholes.

[Iamblossom]

How very upsetting for you TOR. And infuriating. I take great delight in overtaking all men in our fast lane, they soon move over if there is space in the middle one. Although our pool still has the double lane width they introduced due to Covid, so there is actually plenty of room to overtake, in fact I just end up going up and down in the middle.

I have been swimming every other day as I can't run at the moment due to being very wheezy, mix of asthma and hay fever, and using an inhaler, which is very annoying. Doesn't seem to affect me as much swimming although I was hammering this morning and I did get quite wheezy. So annoying.

Anyway, I could'nt work out why the backs of my thighs were aching so much and it dawned on me that it is because I have been trying this. I clearly use different/more muscles using this technique, and go much faster, so much so that I was half a length in front of my friend I swim with today, when usually we are pretty evenly matched! Every day's school day right?

[Biking0077]

Ooh thanks for link @lamblossom I will share with DDs as they both had to do 15mins of kicking last week in a club session but there’s little instruction now on ‘proper way’ to do it as it’s assumed they all have it but some don’t (I have no idea how they kept it up as I die after 4Ls)..it’s something I really need to work on too.

[Iamblossom]

I do 12 lengths of just kicking in every swim I do and I am ALOT more tired now that I try and do it this way!

[tizwozliz]

I should do more kick sets but it messes up my Fitbit stats so tend to avoid!

[Biking0077]

I’m the same tiz my watch doesn’t count those kicking lengths so I’m Arrh I’ll have to do extra to make it ‘count’ bonkers really!

[Iamblossom]

My watch doesn't either, but I log the distance on strava correctly.

Come on, does it not count if your watch doesn't log it? Course it does......

[tizwozliz]

I was logging it manually but for some reason this confuses my Fitbit app and overwrites the auto tracked swim. I'm aiming for 365 km swum this year which is why I'm keen on logging everything.

[Biking0077]

I’m going tonight so I will if lane conditions allow try out some more kicking

[Biking0077]

Tried changing my FC kick tonight (thanks lamb ) with good success did a mile of FC and just flexing my leg more I was able to flutter kick more continuously. Interesting playing around with it but I forgot my float so didn’t get to do just kicking so will try that next time.

[MinnieMountain]

Is it bad that I prefer the worse weather so the lido is quieter?

I had a great swim today, and everyone was behaving themselves and going in the correct lanes.

[Biking0077]

I had a sea swim this morning and it was remarkable quiet for a Saturday morning, everyone put off by the grey day. I was enjoying my swim until seaweed wrapped on my face and I breathed in water ugh! Luckily I wasn’t too far from shore as it did make me choke enough to need to float and re-gain control of my breathing. But lovely and calm on a super high tide.