When we return to swimming.

Before all the closures began, I swam at the YMCA pool. They are opening their cardio and weights areas on May 26, but they have not committed to opening the pool. In addition, they announced that when the pool does re-open, they will no longer support a Masters program. :( This leaves me wondering what to do. The Y has the nicest competition pool in the area, in the state as a matter of fact. We have been told by the aquatics director that if we want to have lanes for un-coached group workouts that we have to pay per lane per hour on top of our membership dues. In other words, they are not being at all accommodating to Masters. A local health club chain reopened yesterday. Some of their locations have pools, not nearly as nice as the Y's, but pools. I can't decide what to do... Wait another month to see if the Y decides to open their pool, or just join the health club? Ugh. As long as the weather stays decent, I guess that I'll keep working on my flip turns in my parents' 13yd backyard pool.

Almost a week ago, more guidelines came out. WATER PARKS are now allowed to open. WATER PARKS!!! Furthermore, guidelines SPECIFICALLY ABOUT POOLS were stated. And they are slightly more lenient than the plan we put in place. We sent all of this information. And they are now just ignoring us. . Our local water park is opening May 30, but the City of Boise has announced that it won't open any of their outdoor pools this summer. I don't get it.

I start to get pessimistic now and planning to give up swimming soon. Pools were closed since February, which were reopened for a short period in March, then closed again late March as the world shut down. I need pools in order to have swim lessons for my technique but it is no longer possible. Even if the pool reopens in June it is too late to be useful because - 1. it is too hot already, the temperature is already in the upper 80s which I can not do high-intensity training; 2. my A-race is in August and if it can go ahead (which I now doubt) there is no longer enough time for me to practise. The IOF has already canceled races up to the end of July so I really doubt if my August race is still possible (I will stop swimming immediately if the race does not go ahead and wait until October / November to resume swimming), but I think I will probably need to wait until July to see the final decision.

KristiLyn you could download some of the workouts on the other part of the forum. A lot are good and you can tailor them to whatever you need to do that day. I used them quite a bit between the rotation of Y-coaches I've had here.

Check this one out, 67': www.cdc.gov/.../aquatic-venues.html That is one of the ones that has been shared. It is a few weeks old. You'd think it would be enough, of course in conjunction with showing the directives from our governor, as well as showing them that several other teams around us are training. But alas, it is not. Was hoping that there was a CDC report I could reference that was worded as definitively as Michael stated. The most strongly worded release from the CDC I can find, dated April 23rd, reads: "There is no evidence that the virus that causes COVID-19 can be spread to people through the water in pools, hot tubs, spas, or water play areas. Proper operation and maintenance (including disinfection with chlorine and bromine) of these facilities should inactivate the virus in the water." Which is pretty strong, but it only shows that there is no evidence it can spread, rather than stating there is evidence that it cannot. Two very different things, scientifically, anyway. That is from a pull down tab from this site: www.cdc.gov/.../water.html

That is one of the ones that has been shared. It is a few weeks old. It was updated today, according to one of the Georgia Masters board members (and a neighbor of mine) is a retired CDC employee (worked on HIV/AIDS). I scrolled down to the bottom it does say it was reviewed today.

The problem as I see it is that the CDC is talking about the virus being spread via the water. People are taking that to mean that if you are in the water you won't contract the virus from nearby persons who are shedding virus. These are two very different things, in my mind. If you knew that you were going to be sharing a lane with a person who was shedding virus, would you still get in the pool? Would you send your kid into that situation? I'm not trying to be inflammatory, just trying to divulge how confident people truly are in extrapolating from the CDC's proclamation that the chlorine present in the water will protect them from inhalation of virus. I absolutely agree with you, and I guess our community's HOA manager does as well. Our outdoor pool is going to open as part of Phase 1 of our three phases of reopening the amenities. The indoor pool and gym will be opened in the last phase. I would feel much safer swimming in an outdoor pool rather than indoors. The lap section of our pool is only two lanes wide; however, they are only going to permit one swimmer to be in that section at a time. Since we don't have a lot of lap swimmers in our community, I don't think it will be too much of a problem. If somebody else comes, and my time is up, I will move to a quiet section of the main pool and do drill work, or I will go outside of the gate to the grass area and do dryland work until the lap lane opens back up. At this point, I have been out of the pool since March 13, and I am anxious to swim! I am not anxious enough, however, to risk my health. I am fortunate I live in a private community with our own pool!

The problem as I see it is that the CDC is talking about the virus being spread via the water. People are taking that to mean that if you are in the water you won't contract the virus from nearby persons who are shedding virus. These are two very different things, in my mind. If you knew that you were going to be sharing a lane with a person who was shedding virus, would you still get in the pool? Would you send your kid into that situation? I'm not trying to be inflammatory, just trying to divulge how confident people truly are in extrapolating from the CDC's proclamation that the chlorine present in the water will protect them from inhalation of virus. Right, that is why I was anxious to read what was quoted, which is notably more firm than what I linked. That said, the internal discussions we have had were that kids will exhale underwater, except backstroke, and that we might not swim any backstroke or kick sets where kids would be at risk to be exhaling as they cross. Our team is based in a county where case load is exceedingly small. 37 cases in a county of 75,000. So a 0.005% chance of that person having the virus. And in a very inhospitable environment. Now you mix that with the fact taht they will never be stopping on the same side, or even capable of breathing close to each other. If I knew they had teh virus? No. But I know how likely they are to have it, and in that case, I am comfortable. Noting my kids have asthma, so they are at elevated risk.

I absolutely agree with you, and I guess our community's HOA manager does as well. Our outdoor pool is going to open as part of Phase 1 of our three phases of reopening the amenities. The indoor pool and gym will be opened in the last phase. I would feel much safer swimming in an outdoor pool rather than indoors. Interesting. I am actually of the exact opposite perspective. The air around an indoor pool will have a fair amount of chlorine in it, and I would expect that it may be more inhospitable to the virus than outdoor air. This assumes that the 6' distance means that the virus will fall out fo the air and to surfaces by the time it travels 6 feet. Because that would mean that any of the virus cells that were exhaled would not leave the area, so all the fresh air blowing around wouldn't do any good. Now, any other indoor factility, I would be the exact opposite. But to be clear, I am speculating. I don't know how much chlorine is in the air, or how much it takes to kill the virus. Used to use the term "directionally correct" if a statistical change to a single action couldn't be measured (noting a bunch of directionally correct actions together could be). I see this like that, in the absence of data.

That is one of the ones that has been shared. It is a few weeks old. You'd think it would be enough, of course in conjunction with showing the directives from our governor, as well as showing them that several other teams around us are training. But alas, it is not. Was hoping that there was a CDC report I could reference that was worded as definitively as Michael stated. The most strongly worded release from the CDC I can find, dated April 23rd, reads: "There is no evidence that the virus that causes COVID-19 can be spread to people through the water in pools, hot tubs, spas, or water play areas. Proper operation and maintenance (including disinfection with chlorine and bromine) of these facilities should inactivate the virus in the water." Which is pretty strong, but it only shows that there is no evidence it can spread, rather than stating there is evidence that it cannot. Two very different things, scientifically, anyway. That is from a pull down tab from this site: www.cdc.gov/.../water.html The problem as I see it is that the CDC is talking about the virus being spread via the water. People are taking that to mean that if you are in the water you won't contract the virus from nearby persons who are shedding virus. These are two very different things, in my mind. If you knew that you were going to be sharing a lane with a person who was shedding virus, would you still get in the pool? Would you send your kid into that situation? I'm not trying to be inflammatory, just trying to divulge how confident people truly are in extrapolating from the CDC's proclamation that the chlorine present in the water will protect them from inhalation of virus.