Looking for suggestions in North America with availability and easy access of both OPEN WATER and POOL training. Walking distance between the two would be awesome, but a short drive is workable.
Prefer open water temperatures from 65-75 degrees, and it does not matter if it's fresh or salt.
Anyone have any favorite locations or bucket list destinations?
Mark
Here in Austin, you have Barton Springs and Deep Eddy very close to each other. They are both called, "pool," but Barton Springs is much more like open water. It is about 200m long, varying depths, there are fish, plants, rocks, etc. Definitely fresh water.
Deep Eddy is 100 feet long for the lap lanes. There are lines on the bottom and ropes.
Both are spring fed, so the temperature is usually 68-73. Barton Springs tends to be a little cooler. There are 2 pools at Deep Eddy, and one is changed/refilled daily, so if the lap pool is on its 2nd day it may be a little warmer.
According to Google maps, they're a 7 min drive apart, or 25 min walk.
Don't I wish. I live near Albany, NY and my pool and OWS locations are about 20 miles apart. It's not that there isn't plenty of open water nearby, but I wouldn't dip my big toe in most of it. We have to drive between 15 & 40 miles to find good, safe swimming.
Thought of another one. Take a look in/around Ft Lauderdale FL (though the water temp may be warmer than you want). You can swim at the Swimming Hall of Fame pool, then go up/down the coastline at the beach.
Another idea is to contact the coach, Bryan, at SMOG in Huntington Beach CA. He holds training both in the pool and ocean in that area and you may be able to drop in on his workouts. theswimmechanic.com/.../ He's a great guy and I trained with him a bit when he was in TX.
