Swimming is a great deal of skill acquisition on top of fitness as you are well aware. I have a pal who swam distance at Auburn and is 25+ years removed from competitive swimming. Last time he swam with me about 2 years ago he was no less than 30 pounds overweight and does nothing but play golf. Dude still flew like a bird and was wearing board shorts he was embarrassed to put on a swim suit, but was instantly the fastest guy in the pool;)

i gotta post again in here. Here's the story: I'm at a local gym pool - not a Y - but you get every kind of person here -- true swimmers, water joggers, people frog-kicking, what have you. I'm in a lane, staying to one side, prepping for some longer sets (800, 400s, etc). I finish my warm up and notice 3-4 young guys (teen looking) have come in and are now in one lane doing "boxing" type moves - - boxing with water dumbells and underwater jabs, boxing footwork, and moving only slightly up and down the lane. Then there's one of them playing "dodge the lane line" such that he pops in and out of my lane by going under the lane line. I do a couple more 100s and notice he doesn't care at all he's sometimes in my lane. I'd rather not get smashed by him bobbing under the lane line, so I say, assertively "excuse me, do you mind staying in that lane" and point to the lane he's in. He looks at me, but doesn't say anything. I notice he stops the lane-line antics, but then I was thinking....maybe I was too harsh? What do you all think? Was I being a jerk?

definitly a jerk. let people do whatever the hell they want, screw proper etiquetee

I also have had a bottle of wine and have to fo for a run in 1 hour...

Hell no.

Speaking of wine bottles.... The glorious Kits Pool is open now, saltwater cramp fest of 130M long. Anyway the other day "I seen" an antique whiskey bottle, with wire cork thingy standing there at lane end amongst the all other water bottles, etc. and other assorted boards, fins and pull buoys. Struck me as v/odd. OK maybe some dufus was in a pinch...

Then a day later I thought - the deck is aggregate concrete and if someone kicks that glass bottle and shatters the thing, frig the clean-up could get ugly and they would have to close the pool, or barrier off the one end, it would be ridiculous - glass bottle at a public pool???.

So today I am finishing my final lap and I surface and what-the-frig is being put down in front of me? Yep the ol' whiskey bottle. So I says to the guy "That's glass right?" He says yes it is. I said "Did you ever think what would happen if it broke right here and pieces dropped all over the place?" He looks at me blankly, says no, jumps in a swims off.

So I get out and lifeguards are walking through right then changing shifts - I pointed it out and it was "ON NO" & gone in seconds.

I shoulda done that the first time.

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This morning was a Twilight Zone of politeness at my pool. When the guy I had been sharing with was finished (I was already in when he had jumped in), he said "Thank you very much for sharing." I was so stunned I said something like, "OK... you're welcome???" haha. Then when I was getting out someone asked me very nicely, "Excuse me, may I take your lane?" Again I didn't really know what to say. "... Sure?" It's not like we're actively mean at our pool, but I kind of got the "Where am I?" feeling after the second interaction.

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http://mediocremultisport.blogspot.com

Similarly a couple weeks ago I got onto the pool deck to see that all lanes had someone in them. I approached the first guy I saw taking a break on the wall and asked him if we could share. He said yes and when I jumped in he proceeded to introduce himself wanted to shake my hand. I was a bit flummoxed. I wasn't asking to become this guy's life partner or anything. I just wanted to share a lane. Still it was nice to at least not be shrugged off as I asked to share.

thank you :)

Long time swimmer first time commenter:

Picture the outdoor 50m public pool in the summer around 1pm. With large inflatables taking up half the pool for kids to play on, and the lanes are swimming across the pool so 25 yards.. The deep end is also limited so kids can use the diving boards. Out of a possible 15+ lanes, the pool is down to 5. Of course you have the mix of folks taking up all the lanes, some circle swimming, some just taking up the 8 foot lane by themselves . I ask a gentleman that looks to be swimming close to my speed and ask him to split.

"No, I'm doing sprints off the blocks."

Oh, sorry to bother you. Sometimes even those that know better, are still the worst offenders..

jake

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Get outside!

Does 95 yo guy asking (telling) me to untangle his yellow-stained, equally ancient mesh liners for him count as a denizen?

...and I did it :(

I can KINDA see this if you swim at the same time as the same people every day... but the one-off thing is a bit strange.


You are a kind soul; I would have noped out of there.

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http://mediocremultisport.blogspot.com

Another "old guy drying his genitalia under the hand dryer" sighting. What's up with this?

I'm pretty sure its a right of passage

Those things are for your hair?!

Was it this guy?




.

I never intended to be this guy, but I am this guy. While I wear a drag suit and not a speedo per say, the lovely folks at LA Fitness don't seem to discriminate in their weird looks.

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

Just make sure your testicles aren't on display for everyone to take a gander at. That might be why you're getting the weird looks... That, or you have a drag suit like mine, which somewhat resembles an adult diaper...

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Yesterday a somewhat portly middle aged guy was walking back and forth in his lane wearing a swim mask and snorkle. He never actually put his face in the water. He would get to the wall, act like he was about to put his face in and then would turn around and walk some more.

started seeing this guy at our pool for the first time last week... wears every swim gadget known to man at the same time: snorkel, those over-sized mask-style goggles, some sort of lap counter on his finger, waterproof ipod shuffle, fins, large paddles, and even his HRM. He refuses to do circle swims and his workout mainly consists of what looks like all-out 25s and 50s with ample recovery intervals. Fins/paddles come on/off routinely too. He also throws in a few 25s of butterfly (with fins). The kicker is that he is always sipping on a large can of NOS energy drink.

Sounds like one bada** hombre if you ask me.

Good god the HRM really tops it. It can't possibly work well. I'm very surprised the management puts up with the NOS. The pools I swim in would stop that real quick. It's not a matter of will but when that gets spilled onto the deck and into the pool.

I encountered one of these today too. Positions himself with kickboard, paddles and flippers. Swims 25. Puts on paddles. Swims to other side. Puts on fins. Swims back. Takes off paddles. Another 25. Grabs kickboard. Rinse and repeat with no real semblance of a plan other than to make sure a new combination of accessories is used for each 25. Swimming about :40/25 and taking huge breaks in between lengths. Really was quite confusing.

This thread is so funny!!! I've seen so many of these archetypes, hell I've been so many of these archetypes. I didn't read the entire thread, so forgive me if these have been used.

I'm sure you've all seen "Impossibly proficient super heavy middle aged lady". Maybe she was an Olympian once or something? She swam 4000+meters effortlessly and twice as fast as me, as agile as a dolphin on her flip turns, she's not a day under 40 and not a pound under 250 at 5'1". Mad respect!

And once, just once (this was the rarest of sightings at my local pool) was the Megan Fox look alike in a stringy tiger striped suit that entered the water like the dawn goddess. So sexy the water literally got out of the effing way for her. So sublime you could hear the collective gasps of everyone else even underwater. The kind of attractive that makes everyone uncomfortable, men, women, cats, pool bacteria. She smiled, said hello to an older guy and he mumbled. Literally couldn't talk.

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“Bloom wherever you are planted"

I've seen a good number of that first type, but sadly never any of the second.

I literally saw the "Impossibly proficient super heavy middle aged lady" yesterday. She got into the pool and probably did a 1500m "warmup" in the time it took me to do my last 20x50m. No joke, she looked just like Shelley Taylor Smith, stroke and all.