When we return to swimming.

I rented a car to go visit my father . I'm in Pittsburgh, He's in Arlington, VA. I should be able to find a lake in the mountains. Yay! I'll report how it goes.

Skuj I know you described yourself as luddite, but I just want to offer a few other suggestions for measuring your swim distances. As a devoted open water swimmer I've used them all from time to time. If you're swimming along shoreline, and there's a road running parallel to it...you can drive between the corresponding land references to measure it on the car's odometer (or use a bicycle with an odometer). If the beach permits...you can walk the measurement along the beach with a distance measuring app on your cell phone. Or, you could use the online pedometer at this link -- www.gmap-pedometer.com/.../ and 'click' off your course before/after your swim. It's really meant for runners and bicyclists as it will automatically route you from point A to point B via roads. Obviously that doesn't work on the water. So, click on CONTROLS -> ROUTING TYPE -> and select "Manual." That will allow you to measure your straight line swimming course. Lastly, if you do have a GPS watch but don't like it on your wrist as you swim...I have strapped my watch on my head so that the watch sits just at the crown of my head for constant GPS satellite view...then put my cap on over it. OR...if you're towing an inflatable safety buoy like many open water swimmers do (www.swimoutlet.com/.../) you can strap the watch to the top of the buoy. That's what I do because my GPS watch is designed for runners and doesn't work in the open water. Many of those buoys come with a dry compartment, and some swimmers carry their cell phone in it and run a distance measuring app while they swim. Hope this helps. Good luck. Dan Thanks Dan! Indeed, I have located my swim area on Google Maps Pedometer, and I confirmed that I basically go back and forth in a 200m line. My 34 breaths thing for “100m” is actually confirmed to be about 100m, if the wind/waves are not a factor. I keep to a certain (shallow) depth, which keeps me on the line that I wish to swim. It’s a beautiful thing. This morning I did 400m-200m-100m-50m-50m warmup, 400m push, 400m cooldown in the lake. My first 1600m session!!

That is almost exactly my scenario. Since i don't have a pace clock, I have used a Timex Ironman to help with intervals, and a lap counter (finger attached thing). That's it. But when I had to switch to open water, and started thinking about a 10K in September, I thought it might be wise to eliminate any guessing. I'm so ingrained with what I do in the pool that I found it hard to resolve how much different, and how much SLOWER open water is. A mile in the pool? 1:22 100's. Open water? 1:40's are really fast. So yeah, the watch is helpful in making sure I don't underestimate what I'm doing. Skuj I know you described yourself as luddite, but I just want to offer a few other suggestions for measuring your swim distances. As a devoted open water swimmer I've used them all from time to time. If you're swimming along shoreline, and there's a road running parallel to it...you can drive between the corresponding land references to measure it on the car's odometer (or use a bicycle with an odometer). If the beach permits...you can walk the measurement along the beach with a distance measuring app on your cell phone. Or, you could use the online pedometer at this link -- www.gmap-pedometer.com/.../ and 'click' off your course before/after your swim. It's really meant for runners and bicyclists as it will automatically route you from point A to point B via roads. Obviously that doesn't work on the water. So, click on CONTROLS -> ROUTING TYPE -> and select "Manual." That will allow you to measure your straight line swimming course. Lastly, if you do have a GPS watch but don't like it on your wrist as you swim...I have strapped my watch on my head so that the watch sits just at the crown of my head for constant GPS satellite view...then put my cap on over it. OR...if you're towing an inflatable safety buoy like many open water swimmers do (www.swimoutlet.com/.../) you can strap the watch to the top of the buoy. That's what I do because my GPS watch is designed for runners and doesn't work in the open water. Many of those buoys come with a dry compartment, and some swimmers carry their cell phone in it and run a distance measuring app while they swim. Hope this helps. Good luck. Dan

I bet your "water speed" was 1:52-1:57. Max was 0:48, average was 2:01, average moving speed was 1:54. Normally it is closer to 1:40-1:45.

There's a company that rents pools by the hour - $65. From the picture, it looks like I could do 3 strokes before I hit the wall. :banana: I opened our home pool about a month early this year. It doesn't have an Endless Pool device, but I was doing some tethered swims (with wetsuit on) with the tether I got from SwimOutlet. The elastic bungee cord tether costs about $15 +/- and works just as good. I can judge my stroke intensity...how hard I'm pulling on the bungee...by what object on the pool deck I'm next to. Dan

That reminds me... I wonder how many Endless Pools have been sold since March 13th compared to the same period last year? I'm sure business is booming! There's a company that rents pools by the hour - $65. From the picture, it looks like I could do 3 strokes before I hit the wall. :banana:

Back in the water Friday after a 10 day hiatus caused by attending a closing where someone subsequently tested positive for Covus-19. It took me 2 days to get a test and 8 days to get the results back. On the bright side, I required everyone to wear masks and use hand sanitizer and nobody else at the closing contracted the virus. Saturday, we had our July 4th workout with a 5,000 meter workout. Back to regular 3k workout today. I'm a little sore, but it is so nice to have a place to swim and a coach and lane lines and chlorine and goggles and paddles and water.

Good luck ... maybe you can swim in Big Pool, Maryland - www.riverexplorer.com/details.php swam in Shawnee Lake, near Bedford PA - opnce going and once coming back.. The water was wet and it was extremely gratifying. **** I meant to stop in Hancock, MD and find out about swimming holes in the Potomac, but was pushed for time. I've Ridden my bike on the C&O trail from Pgh to DC. It's good to know Big Pool has swimming. Most of the C&O that still has water in it is not suitable. I'll be sure to give it a shot sometime.

The gym where I do dry land workout will open next Mon. I'm not sure of going on the 1st week of opening. I'l wait and see if others tell me of the workings of social distance are useful or not.

Appreciate the Garmin recommendations, but: a) I am a luddite. b) I hate the feeling of anything on my wrist as I swim. Another option is to just use your phone for tracking. I bought a swim buoy for use during OW swims and the nice thing about it is it includes a dry bag to stash things like your keys in during your swim. I put my phone in a waterproof case for extra protection, start the Strava app before starting my swim, stash the phone in the dry bag and then start swimming. I find it tracks very well from inside the buoy since it's floating on top of the water.