Did they close the pool or just that one lane? :)

Amazing how "undamaged" that car is after plowing through a freakin' brick wall.

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Proud member of FISHTWITCH: doing a bit more than fish exercise now.

I bet no one wants to share that lane, it's all yours!

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The secret of a long life is you try not to shorten it.
-Nobody

I usually just mark the lane I'm going to jump into with my paddles, pullbuoy and kickboard. I suppose the car is an option too.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

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

Wow, and that's a solid concrete block wall too, just guessing of the top of my head but that guy must've been going 30 mph or more to bust through that. In fact, it's kinda sorta like a suicide bomber attack on the YMCA pool, those damn infidels with the C in their name. Was he/she drunk??? I hope no one was swimming in that first lane when it happened; I'd be pretty effing shocked if i was taking a breath and all of sudden this car roars through the the wall. That would def be a WTF moment:)

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

Apparently it was an 86-year old woman who hit D instead of R when backing out of a spot. It happened last Friday and the wall repair is being completed tomorrow, pool refilled Thursday, and the pool is scheduled to reopen "early next week".

Immediately outside that wall is a sidewalk, then a row of parking spots - even if someone backed up there as far as they could to the lot's perimeter and floored it toward the wall, it's only about 4-5 car lengths in which to accelerate.

Well, i just hope i don't do something like that at 86, if i make it to that age. Was anyone swimming at the time???

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

Yes, but amazingly nobody got hurt.

That was their ultimate, lifetime "WTF moment" in the pool:)

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

The cinder blocks in the pool were from the car accident, the rest of the mess in the lane was from the swimmer who was swimming there.

This is for sure a strange denizen of the pool

The pool I swam at this morning has a kids area with a lazy river. When I've been there later in the day it's packed with kids. At 7:00 this morning there were several old guys floating around the river on pool noodles and zero kids. My first thought was "Really?" Then I remembered that the darned kids always get in the way on the river and realized the guys were brilliant. I may have to change up my next workout to fit in a lazy river set - can I count that distance for my overall workout?

I have been swimming at a 25m pool lately. Went to my old 25y pool to compare previous times to see where I stack up to start my training season. There was a lady that hopped in the lane next to me. She would do one length on her back zig zagging between the lane lines like pong. Then she flipped onto her stomach and played lane line pong again to complete a lap. This went on for the entire 45min I was there. Couldn't figure out what her objective was. Probably wasn't one.

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

Switched pools, there is a guy who shows up regularly. Doesn't say anything to anyone. Does some form of extreme stretching before getting in the water such as holding a deep squat with his legs spread, swims like a manatee, exaggerated super slow arm movement, no power in the pull and rotates all the way around while he swims. Upon completing his workout, he heads to the hot tub next to the pool and stretches in and around it. Spread eagled in the hot tub, climbs out and proceeds to lay on his back and put his knees by his ears?? I can't help but watch….it is freaking bizarre. Im betting he is a serial killer

Add "The Slapper" to the list from an article in the Globe and Mail

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/relationships/an-unexpected-friendship-among-swimming-strangers/article23202809/

I had a new one today: the bro

I'm just doing my thing at the Y, doing a long pull set when, all of the sudden someone jumps into my lane as I'm doing a turn and starts swimming along side of me creating a tremendous amount of white water. Keep in mind there are four other lanes next to me that are completely open. I stop at the end of the next length and guy and say "do you want my lane?" to which he replies "I figured I'd race you to get some intervals in" and proceeded to mention something about crossfit. He was very "bro"... hopefully I don't have to describe that stereotype.

I told him that I'd already been there for forty minutes and that I wanted my own lane. He moved over and proceeded to do one 25 for every 100 I did maybe six or seven times and then left.

A different version of 'the slapper':
In the showers, this individual washes her nether regions so vigorously that a 'slapping' sound is created. Expression blank, doesn't seem to be uh, 'pleasure-driven'.
Just a furious scrubbing.
It was really weird.

I encountered a stereotypical triathlete the other day. I didn't think people like this actually existed except in exaggerated stories here:

I am swimming along doing my thing when this mid-40s to early-50s guy, in decent looking shape, walks up to the lane next to me. Proceeds to lay out every pool toy imaginable out on the deck at the end of the lane. Paddles, buoy, fins, kick board, some other doodads I had no idea what... All of which he pulls out of an M-dot adorned duffel bag. Spends a good couple of minutes setting them up "just so" perfectly. Has his workout printed out and in a plastic baggie, which he sticks right in the middle of his little shrine of pool toys.

This is happening all in the course of me swimming at recovery pace and I manage a few hundreds while he is doing that.

Then he goes through a Phelpsian back-slapping stretching routine. I swim another 150 or so.

Then he gets in. At this point I am turning at the wall and notice his M-dot calf tattoo. I swim another 100 and when I get back to the end of the pool, he finally gets started on his workout. I kinda wasn't actually thinking much about this guy other than being amused at his rather lengthy procedure before starting a workout. But then he proceeds to arm-slap/splash, leg-thrash/flop his way to a series of 100s that were in the 2:30-2:45 range.

Again if he hadn't spent all that time with the pool toys, and the M-dot bag and tattoo I would have thought nothing of it. Just a guy trying to swim for exercise. But... given all of this together... wow

The other day, I saw a bald dude blow dry his head. (And I can predict the snark now...No, not a shaved dude blow dry his boys)

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

With your permission, I'm posting this to my FB page today.

twomarks

Gladly - It's too funny/strange not too share

at the local outdoor public pool, on more than one occasion, I've finished a lap to discover my kickboard/bouy have gone missing. usually the culprit is some 5 year-old playing with it at the other end. I've not been stopped by a parent yet, but I'm sure it'll happen eventually.

this morning, after getting out, the young woman lifeguard informed me that had I been racing, I would have been DQed for three of my four strokes (too many strokes before backstroke turn, one hand on the wall for breast/fly turns). maybe I was the SD today?

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king of the road says you move too slow
KING OF THE ROAD SAYS YOU MOVE TOO SLOW

Plan is for my swim workout to last 60 minutes or so. I'm 20 minutes into my workout and I see a hand frantically waving under the water at the wall. I'm assuming it's someone that wants to share the lane with me since all 3 of the lanes are full. I stop and say you're welcome to share the lane. The woman says "You've been swimming long enough, it's my turn!" I told her I still had a good bit of time left in my workout but repeated she was welcome to share the lane with me. I turned and continued swimming. 5 minutes later she is back with someone from the front desk. They explain it is policy to share lanes which I explained I had made that offer and had no problem with it. The woman again explained to the employee "He's been swimming long enough it's my turn to swim." He told her she could share or wait but there are no time limits.

I completed my workout under her icy stare from the deck.

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Fight............Finish

   Sounds like it is time to add an extra 1,000 to your workout.

While I have zero problem lane sharing, I do sometimes get annoyed by the Asians that seem to flock to the pool I go to. For some reason they all LOVE to do an exaggerated Breast stroke. Arms stretch way out, legs way out. And this includes the skinny little females. This means that I'll get kicked or hit a few times each session, from BOTH sides as they stretch out under the rope as well as over the line.

The faster ones get close to a 2:30 / 100m time while the slower ones are 5:00/100m. And, they seem to gravitate to the lane that has the fewest people in it. Seeing as the slow lanes are taken up by their buddies walking up and down, that means they end up in the medium lanes where I happen to be.

The good news is that I'm learning to swim around them and attempt to do so without getting kicked and not running head long into the other one(s) coming the other way. Fortunately only a couple in the lane with me.

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

A few weeks ago, there was a noodle swimmer in the lane next to me. After about 20 minutes, she stopped noodling, and started watching me swim. How do I know she was watching me? Because every time I got to the end of the pool where she was standing, she would duck down under the water and stare at me from just after the flags into the wall. She did this three or four times. During my next interval, I noticed that she had started trying to do flip turns. With her noodle. Obviously, I had to stop and watch her.

My 6-7AM group of denizens has changed up a bit lately.

Lane 1 - was aqua joggers and such, but they've all disappeared. Lane 1 has become newer/slower swimmers - nothing that interesting.
Lane 2/3 - These used to have (1) side stroker each, but due to an influx of new swimmers this year, the side stroke guys have had to swim together in either lane 2 or lane 3, leaving the other lane for new swimmers. It's sorta interesting because they don't really seem to like each other.
Lane 4 - Me and whichever of the other guys/ladies from the masters workout group that show up for 6AM. One of the more regular attendees is the masters coach. He's a denizen in his own right, because he LOVES swimming and sharing this passion for swimming with whomever will listen. If a person shows up at the pool that he hasn't seen before, it's like he's a moth drawn to a flame! He'll bolt over to their lane to make introductions and start providing advice (whether they want it or not). Good guy.
Lane 5 - (2) guys that will swim in no other lane with no other people. One of these guys is there every single day, swimming ~3min/100m. The other guy isn't too shabby. He'd be going 1:50/100m if he could do flip turns. Both of these guys also like to start their morning by dropping down the the bottom of our 12' deep end and hanging out there for a few seconds. I don't know what that's all about.
Lane 6 - Another new swimmer that has decided I'm his go-to guy for swim-related information. I'm sorta regretting being conversational, because we have now had 20 too many conversations about goggles.

At 7AM, a whole other mix of denizens takes over. Then, there's the evening group (which I get to see while coaching I'm coaching the kids in lanes 3-6). The evening group has to be a separate post. Later.