Umm, yeah, the title pretty much sums up my first-world problem here. Since about the middle of the summer of this year the gym pool I swim at has been running at 89-90° without fail. I've been told that the problem will be fixed as soon as they budget for the piece that's causing the problem (something needs to be replaced with the thermostat I believe). Might happen this month, maybe by the end of the year, who knows. My swimming has decreased to primarily drill-work with the occasional sprint set thrown in, resulting in roughly 1000-2000yds per session, 2-3 sessions per week. I can do distances from 25-125 ok enough, but anything longer is really draining. And even though I'm a lazy sprinter, I do like to swim longer distances occasionally to combat boredom.
I guess my question is, has anyone had to deal with 'training' in such warm water, and what sorts of sets did you do? Suggestions, other than 'find a different pool,' would be appreciated. I've got access to a cooler pool (78-80°) on three days of the week for approx 1 hr, which I'll be doing, but the cooler pool is 23yds as opposed to 25, and I'd also like to swim more than 3x a week.
Now if you'll excuse me, my world's coming to an end because my cell phone won't hold a charge as long as I think it should…
:bliss:
Swimming in 90 degree water?
What comes to mind is backtroke intervals.
Say 100 yards on 6 minutes.
With a cold beer balanced on your belly.
And, lose the cap, have your water bottle standing by at all times and hop out for cold showers. :agree: Caps retain heat like crazy, so when our pool temp. is increased for the noodlers in the winter :bitching:, I have to lose my cap after warm up. And, I hop out to run cold water over my head to cool myself back down. :chillpill:
My snarky answer is to load the water bottle up, suck it up and swim.
On an only slightly-less-snarky note, many swimmers in AZ pools in the summer time with less-than-adequate chilling systems will often train in 86-88 degree water with air temps well over 100. I definitely DO NOT recommend it, but you can adapt to it in a number of ways:
Liberally use the aforementioned water bottle,
Recognize your max speed / times will suffer,
Limit your length of time in water
On a more serious note, though:
Try to get to that other pool and do your HARD & AFAP stuff there; use the hot tub ... err ... other pool for drills and recovery
Don't swim alone in those conditions: have a buddy or alert the lifeguard if you're really going to push yourself
If you showed them how much they were paying a month extra to heat the pool to 90 they might fix it quickly. They are probably paying at least double to keep it that warm.The > 90⁰F pools around here are unheated in the summer months, one of them has coolers working but water is still in the high 80's.
A couple summers ago, they were putting a new roof on the pool and we were sent to the outdoor pool. A string of 95+ degree days with several days going over 100 quickly had the pool over 90 degrees. One day, the pool temp got to 93. We dealt with it by hydrating more, taking longer breaks in between sets and not going quite as fast as we would in a cooler pool. After a couple weeks, your body does acclimate some but it probably won't if you alternate days with a cooler pool.
We usually do 4000 to 4500 yards a day in 800 to 1200 yard sets. I don't remember dropping the yardage but we did adjust some intervals due to the excess heat.
Thanks all for the responses. I know, I know, I'm being a bit wimpy, but the warmer temp just really saps the energy out of me. I guess I got some confirmation that I'll have to adjust my intervals and rest periods accordingly. Oh well. Think I'll still hit the cool pool at least once in a while because it's fun to hit it hard every so often. I just hope the 'heat wave' is indeed a temporary situation, we'll see I guess…
:banana:
I know, I know, I'm being a bit wimpy, but the warmer temp just really saps the energy out of me.
No, you are NOT being "wimpy". Remember what happened to Fran Crippen? 90 degree water is just plain dangerous for anything but noodlers. :afraid:For drill work and long, slow swimming, ok; but speed work? Fuhhhgetaboutit! :agree:
Be sure to listen to your body. If you start feeling bad, STOP, get out, cool down, and hydrate. Don't be macho and keep going or you may not keep going much longer...
There's got to be a manual over-ride on the heating system and the custodian/maintenance man should simply turn off the heater until the new part arrives and just leave the filter/chlorination system running.
In addtion to creating hell (figuritively and literally) for the swimmers, they're running up a huge energy bill and it sounds like the operators don't have any mechnical apptitude either.
