I was recently skiing in Colorado (late season trip to A-Basin). I stayed in a hotel with a 50-foot long outdoor pool. In four days, I managed two workouts where I swam about 120 laps (2000 yards) each time. Lots of turns! Anyone else with a similar experience? In breaststroke, after my pullout, it took me only 3-4 strokes to complete the lap. How much effort do folks make to find regulation pools while traveling? When I was in Whistler, I actually found a town rec center that had a 25-meter pool.
I was in Ontario the last xmas break. There was a 25 m community indoor pool near my in-laws, where we were staying. I figured, its cold out, its the suburbs, holiday season, nobody was going to be there, I am totally going there every morning. Boy was I wrong. It was packed. There were clearly marked lanes, slow, medium, fast. I observed the pace on the fast lane and decided, alright, I will get on that lane. But there were 6 other people, and they were going really slow. And they weren't doing circle swim, more like figure 8 swim. I had several near death collisions. I just couldn't swim at all. So I gave up and didn't go back to swim ever again.
Then I had to travel for work, I picked a hotel that had a pool. Of course, when I called, nobody there knew the size of the pool. So I decided to give it a try anyways. I think it was close to a 15 m pool, I don't even know what shape the pool was. It was not designed for lap swimming. Since then, I haven't been very optimistic about swimming while travelling.
I've read some of the blogs, and I've noticed that people do visit and workout with other master clubs while travelling. How does that work?
Last June I was at a resort in northern Vermont and it had a 2 lane, 50ft indoor pool. I swam it each morning, alone, not a soul there at 7 AM. At least the lane markings made it look like a lap pool, but it was annoying doing such short laps.
Next October I'm going to a conference at the Dulles Hyatt Regency in Washington DC. I saw a fitness center on the map within walking distance, at Worldgate Center. Does anyone know if that has a pool better than the hotels?
I've swum in many pools in the ~15 yard to ~22 yard range when that was the only thing available for a workout. Just this week, I dropped into the pretty darn nice East Oakland Sports Center and found one of the most random pool lengths - 21.5 meters! My lower limit on length is right about the 15 yard range. Mind you, even in that 20-23 yard range, the pool feels very short, but something is better than nothing.
I've said this many times before, but www.swimmersguide.com and the USMS places to swim tool are the traveling-swimmers' best tools for locating a pool. While there is a good deal of overlap between these two tools, each of them, depending upon the city you are in, will often have a pool (or a few) that the others don't.
There have been times when I have jury-rigged my own swimming tether at a small hotel pool. I tie a towel around my waist (rope cuts in too much). Tie a rope to the towel, and the other end to something stationary on the pool deck (ladder, fence, etc). Sometimes I'll tie it to my feet instead of around my waist. You can actually buy tethers for this very purpose.
image.slidesharecdn.com/.../choose-home-swimmer-to-get-good-swimming-workouts-3-638.jpg
Note: This can become VERY boring!!! And expect some odd looks...more so than when actually trying to swim laps in such a small pool.
Dan
I've said this many times before, but www.swimmersguide.com and the USMS places to swim tool are the traveling-swimmers' best tools for locating a pool. While there is a good deal of overlap between these two tools, each of them, depending upon the city you are in, will often have a pool (or a few) that the others don't.
like Patrick I too travel a fair amount and the only time I have traveled and been unable to find a pool was in medina, Saudi Arabia. these resources are awesome and the swimming community is very welcoming. It takes a little bit of getting out of your comfort zone to swim with a new team, but after a while it's actually quite exhilarating. Everyone I have swum with have been very friendly.
"I've read some of the blogs, and I've noticed that people do visit and workout with other master clubs while travelling. How does that work?"
SSUMargot - I've looked at other teams on Where to Swim, contacted the coach when it was possible, then just showed up. Some will ask for a minor drop in fee, while most will just let you jump in with them. It's fun to get something different on occasion. On my last team, we'd have people show up about once/month or so.
I was recently skiing in Colorado (late season trip to A-Basin). I stayed in a hotel with a 50-foot long outdoor pool. In four days, I managed two workouts where I swam about 120 laps (2000 yards) each time. Lots of turns! Anyone else with a similar experience? In breaststroke, after my pullout, it took me only 3-4 strokes to complete the lap. How much effort do folks make to find regulation pools while traveling? When I was in Whistler, I actually found a town rec center that had a 25-meter pool.
If you're not the type to make your own, this nifty tool is perfect for small pools. I love it!!
lanegainer.com/.../
