New visitors today.

Two crossfit-type gentlemen, in black knee-length tights (unless they make jammers that go below the knees) sharing the center lane. The workout apparently goes like this:

1. At either end of pool, stop and do 10-15 reps of jumping. The high-knee, plyometric type of thing, such that you send 4-6 inch waves all over the pool and scare the water walkers.
2. Face each other with asses against the lane ropes, then side-shuffle to the other end of the pool, like some sort of football drill.

These 2 steps repeat for a while, seems about 30 minutes.

They leave, so I take the lane (I was waiting on deck). At this time, swim-yoga-woman decides to move from her currently shared lane into mine. (admittedly, it was a wall lane). Her workout goes like this:

a. Breast stroke, but on her back, including wildly flailing feet and arms. I don't know what to call this stroke, but fortunately it was only a small phase of the workout...
b. Get to end of pool, hang legs on the deck, and do situps / crunches. Includes variation of leg width to knock over my water bottle, which then got moved to near the lane rope on my side.
c. Some strange stretch variation on (b), where you have your head underwater, then do a split with your legs ABOVE the water while hanging onto the rail. This my friends is very disconcerting to see when doing my (slow, pathetic) open turns at the end of the pool.

That's all for today.

Scuba guy. Doing lengths with regular Scuba fins and booties, mask and snorkel. Dives down to the bottom of the pool and swims maybe 1/2 a Length, then surfaces, discharges snorkel (at least he was able to do that properly), back under again. Walker is right behind him, walking the full length of the pool, reminded me of Godzilla coming out of the water with all he was pushing. Interestingly enough, Godzilla could pretty much keep up with snorkler. This pool is relatively shallow though, only about 4' (5'?). Plus, this is in the Medium lane.

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BC Don
Pain is temporary, not giving it your all lasts all Winter.

This thread fascinates me. Other than the old women water walking, I'm surprised to have anybody else swimming in the pool at all. If 2:00/100 with a minute break between each counts as swimming that is.

Elementary backstroke?

One of the senior citizens at the pool uses yellow mustard and red ketchup bottles to hold his shampoo and conditioner.

We also have a 450lb guy who just floats around the pool. Maybe does 50m for the 1/2 hr he is there.

I'm proud to announce that I believe that I have discovered a new species of strange denizen: today at LA Fitness a woman... probably 5'6" 250lbs... appeared to be practicing synchronized swimming movements by herself. Keep in mind that the pool at my LA Fitness is 3' deep max. She would also occasionally dive under water and attempt to stay down by kicking very violently.

this is amazing, i am going to start doing this.

Equipment Man: A relatively new swimmer at my pool jumped in the lane with me today, and his gear took up almost the whole width of the lane, with my 1 set of paddles and 1 pull buoy aqueeezed over in my 9" of space, out of the 7' lane. He had: 3 sets of fins, 3 sets of paddles, 2 snorkels, 2 pull buoys, 1 custom kick board, and 1 very large gym bag to carry it all in. He does all of his kick sets with fins, so I would guess he prob just can't really move much without one pair or another, although have seen him swim breast w/o fins and it appears he does get something out of kick on breast w/o fins. My new goal on kick sets is to out-kick him with no fins when he's wearing one of his sets of fins:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Maybe he's thinking that fin and snorkel rotation should mimic that of running shoes. You dont want to swim one pair of fins or a snorkel into the ground. Increases risk of injury

Probably a triathlete..:-)

My new favourite is jelly fish lady who's appeared recently while one of the other local pools is being renovated. She does some kind of weird upright breast stroke looking thing with her head above water while moving slowly backward. All this in a white bikini at 6am.

Luckily the bay temp has reached hospitable so it's far more fun to go swim with the real jellyfish!

I just love passing people doing freestyle while I'm doing kick drill.

That does make you smile inside (sometimes outwardly). I also thoroughly enjoy doing a one arm drill faster than people swimming normal freestyle.

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"Just don’t abandon everything you’ve ever learned because of something someone said on the internet." - Eric McGinnis

Sadly, I am also that denizen. Now, I only have one pair with me, and they're short zoomers, but without them I probably take 90 seconds or more to get down a 25 yard pool. I can swim with a band without too many problems, and my IM swim PR is 1:15, but I can't kick worth a crap.

Spot

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Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.

I have experienced something similar lately. Bikini lady who goes down the lane backwards moving her arms as if she were doing fly - except from a standing position. She hops off the bottom of the pool in about 5 foot jumps using the arm motion to propel her up and backwards. This particular workout is also done at a pretty relaxed pace. She seems to pause for a short rest after each jump. Bizarre.

I think it must be an epidemic. Yesterday there was a woman wearing a white bikini that did a very slow breaststroke, and nothing else, for about 25 minutes. Sometimes she put her head in the water sometimes she didn, but I couldn't discern a pattern.

I might have to own up to being one of these denizens as well. I often find myself as the 50yd and rest guy. Granted, I've got such limited time in the pool that my endurance just isn't better yet. Worse off, I don't think I'm dusting anyone. That's just as far as I can swim in my very early swim career. I do apologize to those who might share a pool with my in Philadelphia. I annoy myself more than you though, don't worry.

Just when i thought i had thought of everything, you come up with a novel interpretation:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Actually, he's not but rather he is the rare species: ex-football player turned adult-onset masters swimmer. He's only 34 but is already carrying about 60 extra lbs sagging down below his size 38 Speedo. Nice guy though and i think he is trying to lose the weight.

Regarding your "jelly-fish lady", i believe these are a pretty common summer species, generally observed in the female version not wanting to get their hair wet, although i have seen a few of the male versions also. Don't want to get their immaculate hair wet:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

It seems that the ability to kick flutter kick is perhaps the most widely variable part of swimming freestyle: a very few just motor with ease while the vast majority struggle to some greater or lesser degree. I have learned to kick decently but i'll never be kicking 1:30 for 100 scy. Fortunately, we have the pull to fall back on:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

I can top that: very slow breaststroke woman who swims for 1.5 to 2 hrs at 5:00/100 scy pace, all of course w/ her head out of the water, with no hair getting wet:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

This is one great thread! It really highlights the human condition. If you want to avoid most of these denizens join a swim team. If you identify with these individuals and want to get better, join a swim team. But I hope there are a lot of us that continue to share the pool with the strange denizens and report their activities to Slowtwitch from time to time.

I have a daily encounter with this denizen at my pool! Hair is always perfectly dry at the end of her marathon sessions.

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"Just don’t abandon everything you’ve ever learned because of something someone said on the internet." - Eric McGinnis

Was this her....
Original - Prancercise: A Fitness Workout:

Had my first encounter with a strange denizen today. Guy in board shorts brings this huge bag of gear which had really long scuba fins in them. Dude starts doing 25 yard under waters with the long fins while holding a 5 lb weight in his hand. I was surprised he could do the whole 25 yards under water even with fins. My only guess as to why he had a weight was he has trouble staying under water without coming to the surface.

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