I've trained and competed mostly outside since I've been doing Masters and have noticed that I lose some of my excitement when I compete indoors. I can see better and feel more "happy endorphins" when I'm racing outdoors. If you can relate or have found a way to overcome this, please let me know.
My point is do not become an expert at swimming in one pool. Mix it up. Its to your advantage when you participate in swim competitions.
All the pools in Arizona are outdoors so I don't have much choice for training. But when I'm used to breathing dry outdoor air and being in a bright cheerful environment, it's pretty hard to get excited about hyperventilating in the dark. I did try the clear Kayenne goggles out and I can see better in dim light with these...
I completely empathize with you, I grew up in the sunshine state and swimming year round outdoors, I always felt indoor pools were where big meets like districts and states were held but even that pool had a retractable roof haha. I now live in Virgina and can't seem to find a good outdoor pool to workout at, extremely tired of the indoor pool. This past weekend I was determined to find a lane outdoors, so I went to the "aquatic center" (in my mind an aquatic center has a lap pool with maybe some kiddie pools on the side) not at all what I expected haha it should be re-named water park, although they did have a lane set up, I took advantage of it but had to deal with kids jumping in and out of the lane (couldn't really complaine to much since I knew full well what I was getting into when I got there) but even if they had all lanes set up it could only hold 4 lane, oye! Looks like I will just be sucking it up and keep swimming indoors.
I completely empathize with you, I grew up in the sunshine state and swimming year round outdoors, I always felt indoor pools were where big meets like districts and states were held but even that pool had a retractable roof haha. I now live in Virgina and can't seem to find a good outdoor pool to workout at, extremely tired of the indoor pool. This past weekend I was determined to find a lane outdoors, so I went to the "aquatic center" (in my mind an aquatic center has a lap pool with maybe some kiddie pools on the side) not at all what I expected haha it should be re-named water park, although they did have a lane set up, I took advantage of it but had to deal with kids jumping in and out of the lane (couldn't really complaine to much since I knew full well what I was getting into when I got there) but even if they had all lanes set up it could only hold 4 lane, oye! Looks like I will just be sucking it up and keep swimming indoors.
I guess I'm just spoiled rotten after 24 years in the desert. There's something about breathing fresh air, listening to singing birds, looking at blue sky and cloud patterns and swimming long course that provide a very zen experience for me. Anything else for me isn't real swimming. The only thing we don't have here in the desert is the ocean, which I love even more!
Well...in that case...
...I'm still probably not coming over. :)
Here are the details and order of events for the December 1st outdoor meet in Seattle:
www.clubassistant.com/.../meet_information.cfm
Yayyy: "First Annual Pneumonia Open" :banana:
Boooo: "No 400 IM or 1650, because you know, we’re not that crazy"
Yayyy: "Don’t worry if the air is cold, the water will be 82 degrees."
Boooo: "Swimmers may enter up to 4 individual events" (cue sound of door slamming and jaadams1 swearing loudly)
Yayyy: they're running the 500 free and the 200 stroke events :chug:
All the different perspectives on this topic are really interesting.
I grew up training and competing largely in the North where, as others have noted, you're lucky to even see an outdoor pool for more than 1-2 months out of the year. In Masters, I've had the opportunity to branch out a bit and trained with a team in an outdoor pool in the summer and even competed in a couple of outdoor pools.
I've noticed that swimming outdoors seems to feel more festive and when the weather is behaving, it can be very pleasant indeed. That being said, I much prefer the indoor venues for a couple of reasons:
1) better predictability of 'weather' in indoor venues. Pools are variable enough without having to worry about temperature, wind, rain (or snow!), sunburns, etc.
2) being prone to migraines, being out in the bright sun and heat can be a trigger. As you can imagine, my races tend not to be great (assuming I can actually make it to the block at all) when I'm fighting a migraine.
3) I'm really bad at swimming backstroke in a straight line without a visual cue on the ceiling.
4) allergies... worse outside, making it hard to breathe and therefore swim.
But even though one might say those are all very valid reasons, I suspect that the heart of it is that I'm more comfortable with indoor swimming because that's just what I'm most used to and grew up doing. Even though it's uncomfortable to get out of my comfort zone, it's a good thing, as someone noted above, and I do try to swim in different environments just for the practice. I'm even considering an open water swim.:bolt:
Here are the details and order of events for the December 1st outdoor meet in Seattle:
www.clubassistant.com/.../meet_information.cfm
Yayyy: "First Annual Pneumonia Open" :banana:
Boooo: "No 400 IM or 1650, because you know, we’re not that crazy"
Yayyy: "Don’t worry if the air is cold, the water will be 82 degrees."
Boooo: "Swimmers may enter up to 4 individual events" (cue sound of door slamming and jaadams1 swearing loudly)
Yayyy: they're running the 500 free and the 200 stroke events :chug:
I did look at it, and will NOT be attending for a few reasons:
no 400 IM
4 event maximum (Why would I drive all the way to Seattle to freeze my @$$ off and only swim a few events???)
I have a local 3 day USAS Invitational here at our home pool in which I can swim 11 or 12 events over the same weekend. :banana:
our water will be about 83 degrees :D (YMCA pool)
I guess I'm just spoiled rotten after 24 years in the desert. There's something about breathing fresh air, listening to singing birds, looking at blue sky and cloud patterns and swimming long course that provide a very zen experience for me. Anything else for me isn't real swimming. The only thing we don't have here in the desert is the ocean, which I love even more!
Susan, you probably ARE spoiled, but spoiled just the way you like it. Simple solution - save your shekels and only go to meets that are held when & where you like to swim. Being a workout swimmer myself, this poses no problems for me. . . .:blush:
