The kiss of death......84 degrees.

We had 83 or 84* the first day of 2003 SCY Nat's in Arizona. The 1650 was interesting.....especially the last ~1200 of it!

Yikes! These are horrid stories! Last summer, in preparation for worlds, YMCA nats took over UMD (as they always do), and we were forced outdoors. If y'all recall, it was hot and droughty last July. Every pool I could find was at least 92°, even the LCM one. Thankfully, it was only a week, and taper yardage isn't high. I don't know of any pools around here with pool coolers - if they've got climate control, they're either heated or an indoor pool. Then we get out to Stanford and the water is ~78. How refreshing! Seriously though, I think if complaints are made loud enough and frequently enough, by the time teams start filing in the doors of your new facility next fall and competitions occur regularly, I see the temp coming down and the water buffalo will have to issue themselves a DWI (Deal With It). If you build a facility like that and it is meant to attract the big meets, teams, etc., the lap pool needs to be temparature-catered to the lap swimmers. Have the facility do a cost analysis... How much money do they project water aerobics to bring in vs {lap swimming/Swim Teams/Meets} ? Start at a base 80°. For every % of that total the aerobics is projected to bring in, raise the temp by that %. IE: 800k total; 100k for aerobics (12%) - raise by 1 degree. Bottom line is that most folks go to an aquatic facility to cool off. If you want a bath, fill up your tub.

Kip, I just searched for pools in your town, and it is the Greater Plymouth Community Center you're talking about, that is a really nice-looking facility! I certainly hope a better compromise can be made. It would sure be a shame to have a place like that get underused because of pool temps.

Kip, my sympathies go out to you; 84 is way too hot for a very hard, intense workout; fatigue sets in so quickly and the loss of fluids is even worse. Our ocean gets to about 88 degrees from June to September and I find myself actually panting when I try to sprint or swim distance. Those are the workouts that when I come home I always ask my husband: do you want dinner or laundry done? You can't have both. But you know why they are doing this: the majority of lap swimmers/elderly people/water aerobic people do not break a sweat like swimmers do so they can keep the water that warm. Maybe you should point out the cost of keeping that pool's heater on to that degree? After all, most businesses bottom line is profit. If you have to swim in water that warm, keep lots of cool/cold hydration bottles at your lane's end. Overheating is not only uncomfortable, it can be a health problem. donna

Although it is better now, my local YMCA pool (the ONLY place to swim within 70 miles) sometimes gets up to 90 degrees. Then a workout involves just getting into the water, breathing a few times and adjourning to the sauna to cool off. That said, this is the BEST training facility I have ever swum at, mostly because of availability of the pool and flexibility of my time. Boy, Jim, I remember swimming in AZ in May and August. Not fun for the distance swims! -- mel

Although it is better now, my local YMCA pool (the ONLY place to swim within 70 miles) sometimes gets up to 90 degrees. Then a workout involves just getting into the water, breathing a few times and adjourning to the sauna to cool off. That said, this is the BEST training facility I have ever swum at, mostly because of availability of the pool and flexibility of my time. Boy, Jim, I remember swimming in AZ in May and August. Not fun for the distance swims! -- mel I just swam a one mile race at our local YMCA Saturday before last and the water temperature was 87 degrees. I had to slow it way down after about 400 - 500 meters in b/c I was overheating so much. I also workout in that pool....lately it has been around 85 - 86 degrees and that has been a substantial improvement over what it normally is. BTW I like the way you say adjourning to the sauna to cool off Mel LOL! Newmastersswimmer

The boiler broke at an outdoor pool we trained at years ago, and the water temp was decently over 90 and it was 90+ outside. Everyone finished warm-up and was red in the face and feeling dizzy. Our coach we had then said, "This makes you tough." :(

The pool I usually swim in is probably around 80 degrees, which is great. I also swim at a city run pool that is kept at 85. It took me a while to get used to it, but now it doesn't really bother me. I tend to swim slower and get more tired from an easier workout there, but it's tolerable. Anyway, any warmer than that would be very difficult to swim in. I'd recommend picking your battles on this issue and if you can get the pool managers to keep the temp at 84-85, live with it. By the way, I swam at the warm pool yesterday and they had to close because everyone was smelling natural gas. I only got in 1,600 yards, but probably the right call to close the pool if there was a gas leak! edit: funny story. Back in college we'd swim in the outdoor long course pool into November (this was in Michigan). One year they turned off the heat overnight without us knowing. We all dove in for morning workout and found the pool to be probably 60 degrees tops! I think a few of us set personal bests in the 200 free trying to get warm :) After a few minutes the coaches realized there was no way we could workout in those conditions.

I did the postal series for the first time in 2005 and I'm gearing up to do it again this year (silly me). Our club swims at Northwestern's pool, which is definitely tailored to the needs of the men's and women's teams. It's always set up for SCY though, so when I wanted to do the 5k and 10k swims I had to go elsewhere. Here in Chicago 2005 was rather hot. I swam the 5k at the UIC pool which was having trouble keeping the temps down. I think they had trouble getting the temp below 81, while Northwestern's pool is generally around 78. Accordingly, I wilted. The 10k was a bit better (swam outdoors), but still warm. This year to get in some longer swims I'm switching to the local health club (Northwestern only lets the masters swimmers swim during scheduled practices - 90 minutes, maybe 100 minutes if I stretch things). The health club pool temps are much warmer. I decided that's okay though. I'll be acclimated to the higher temps if it's hot in Chicago this summer, and if not, the postal swims will be more refreshing (yeah, right!). Skip Montanaro

My pool is usually very warm for the people doing rehab work. Ice water helps, but other than that, there doesn't seem to be much that helps. On especially hot days, I usually do drills only or sets of 25 sprint/75 easy and avoid anything involving endurance. I have thought about trying to create some sort of belt with places to stick ice packs, but I don't think that would go over too well with the lifeguards - but actually the lifeguards just sit there reading, so they might not even notice.