It's summer and time to swim outdoors! Show us where you swim!
We swim at the Roeland Park Aquatic Center, in Roeland Park, Kansas (a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri). The main pool is covered by an air-supported dome in the winter. In May they remove the dome for the summer.
PHOTO 1: Note the four long-course lanes. We swim long-course every Saturday during the winter, and pretty much all the time in the summer. The lanes next to the long-course lanes are short-course meters. If the ropes were turned 90 degrees, the lanes would be short-course yards.
PHOTO 2: If you looked carefully in Photo 1, you saw the bulkhead at the bottom of the long-course lanes. In this photo we're done with practice and they're raising the bulkhead before the pool opens to the public. The bulkhead drops into the bottom of the pool; it is raised by means of an air bladder inside the bulkhead.
PHOTO 3: The end of the pool, showing the 1-meter and 3-meter diving boards.
(Continued in next post... I can't put all of the photos into one post.)
I do most of my training at the City of Scottsdale's lovely Cactus Park Aquatic Center (see www.scottsdaleaz.gov/.../Cactus.asp and first picture below). This is a 8 lane 50 meter by 25 yard pool and is the competition centerpiece of the City's four wonderful pools (each of which has some portion available for lap swimming in a 25 yard course).
Much of the year the bulkhead is in so that we've got
a fairly deep (6') 25 yard up to 10 lane competition course in which the Masters train in the mornings
An additional 10 or so lanes going widthwise, but more shallow (4 or 5 feet) where the club team trains
Starting next week, the mornings will be LCM Monday to Saturday and the Masters team will get 3 lanes. I LOVE Cactus Pool. My only minor complaint is that the water cooling system is not that effective, meaning that summer training (usually mid-June-ish to late August) is in pretty hot water.
When I'm not traveling and can't get to Cactus, I head over to Lifetime Fitness (2nd & 3rd picture) where I have access to:
5 lane, indoor, 25 meter pool
6 lane, outdoor, 25 meter pool
I always swim inside as they keep the water temperature cool (78ish), have a digital pace clock and there are rarely more than 3 other folks swimming, so I almost never have to fight for or wait for a lane.
I do most of my training at the City of Scottsdale's lovely Cactus Park Aquatic Center (see www.scottsdaleaz.gov/.../Cactus.asp and first picture below). This is a 8 lane 50 meter by 25 yard pool and is the competition centerpiece of the City's four wonderful pools (each of which has some portion available for lap swimming in a 25 yard course).
Much of the year the bulkhead is in so that we've got
a fairly deep (6') 25 yard up to 10 lane competition course in which the Masters train in the mornings
An additional 10 or so lanes going widthwise, but more shallow (4 or 5 feet) where the club team trains
Starting next week, the mornings will be LCM Monday to Saturday and the Masters team will get 3 lanes. I LOVE Cactus Pool. My only minor complaint is that the water cooling system is not that effective, meaning that summer training (usually mid-June-ish to late August) is in pretty hot water.
When I'm not traveling and can't get to Cactus, I head over to Lifetime Fitness (2nd & 3rd picture) where I have access to:
5 lane, indoor, 25 meter pool
6 lane, outdoor, 25 meter pool
I always swim inside as they keep the water temperature cool (78ish), have a digital pace clock and there are rarely more than 3 other folks swimming, so I almost never have to fight for or wait for a lane.
