Hello! I'm located in the Morristown, NJ area. The pool/Masters program I usually swim at is closed for the next 3 weeks, and my backup one is also closed! I have an open water swim on Sept. 10th, so I have to keep swimming. Unfortunately the only times I can swim during the week are in the evenings because of my work schedule, and I'm not sure if there are any pools around me where I can just go and swim laps that late in the month of August. Does anyone have any advice? I'd prefer to swim with Masters, but if not, swimming on my own would be fine....
Thanks!!
CW
Mermaid,
I travel to NJ a lot and am consistently frustrated with the lack of pools. One option for you to consider is Lifetime Fitness as they have branches at both Florham Park and Berkeley Heights. They supposedly have a masters team there, but I haven't worked out with them. They do, though, have 5 lanes indoors and should have their outdoor pools open now, both 25 meters. These are slightly better than typical health club pools in that they have proper lane ropes, backstroke flags and nice electronic pace clocks. Flat walls and shallow pools, but generally kept (at least indoors) at a decent temperature (79 to 81) for training.
If you do any amount of traveling and want access to pools in many places in the country, I highly recommend Lifetime. Even if you don't travel, their facilities and options are awesome.
CW,
Here's a link to NJ Masters "Places to Swim" from the LMSC website, specifically focused on Morris County:
www.njmasters.org/.../swimmorris.html
I know firsthand that the Lakeland Hills YMCA (my home base) is in a shut down period, so you might need to call around a bit.
Thanks, guys...I've tried the Masters list of Places to Swim, but first of all, some are reallllly out of date, and second of all, the 3 closest to me are on a "break" right now. I called some public pools and they are $20 to go once if you are not a member, and plus, I would only be able to go on the weekends because I get home from work too late (but I may still be able to go on the weekends, even though it's expensive...)
As for Lifetime, I DID get a free pass for last week and I did swim there. I actually swam at the same time as Masters (at the Florham Park location), and there were only about 4 people there. It's a really nice gym but I don't want to join it b/c it wouldn't be worth it for me $$$ wise. I think it also costs something like $35 if you just want to go once...
It is really annoying, I used to live in MD and they have awesome pools that are run by the counties and some towns that are not too expensive to go to and much more convenient (when I had a Master's break last year I was able to go to an awesome 50 m pool for $7/day.) Even the nicer pools in NJ are not THAT nice. I don't understand why :( :( I'm so bummed.
