So, after years of training in an Olympic-style pool designed for competitive swimming, I just moved to a small town with a "nice enough" leisure pool which ostensibly is supposed to be 25 meters long. The issue? I am just busting a gut to hold pace times which normally would be cruising for me. I am a full 5 seconds slow on the hundred across the board.
I did spend much of my summer working stroke correction in an outdoor pool without too much speed work, but I did rock-out quite a few hard sets to maintain fitness. I just cannot fathom how a change in pools can gut performance this much. Could it be the stress of the move (2000 miles and a whole new carreer) or perhaps the fact the pool is kept really warm? Its as if the pool is about one or two meters too long. (BTW: I usually go about 15 strokes per length and this pool has me working hard to get less than 17 strokes).
Any ideas or similar circumstances?