My pool is still open,its outdoors and 50M, the number of people using it on a late Saturday is probably 5 or 6 people. Thats super low density in my book and coupled with the chlorine I just think this activity is a pretty low risk. My daughter fought huge lines in a grocery store this morning, i refused to go with her.

Talking about covid 19 and chlorine.

Couldn’t pay me to go in a locker room these days

Outside pool with no locker room for the win

😎

Keep a few things in mind

1. You actually have an immune system. It can fight things including Covid even at the pool. I seriously doubt the volume of air another swimmer is breathing out relative to all the air around you moves the needle in terms of concentration.
2. The locker room is a different matter. But what is everyone touching that is so bad?. You change without touching anything other than the floor with your feet, put your dry clothes in your bag, shower (yes you will touch a public showerhandle, but you're using soap after) then you will walk to the pool deck and place your bag on the pool deck....you don't have to touch anything else at all
3. Just stay 2m away from others in the change room
4. Whether the pool is a bad location or the deck or the changeroom, you still have to go get groceries at a grocery store. I suspect that spot is worse than the pool. Lots of people touching all kinds of stuff. Its OK, go touch everything and don't touch your face. The virus won't infect us through our hands. Then Purell hands after leaving grocery store and then clean hands at face as soon as entering the house.

What's left that I am missing

1. 
   

That we need to be doing everything in our power to avoid social interaction so that we hopefully do not end up like Lombardy. If we don’t we are fucked and some epidemiological models show millions of infections (yes, most wont have serious symptoms, only a fraction, but we have 1 million hospital beds total and not enough ventilators)

IMO no one’s swim fitness trumps this. Want to stay fit? Go out for a run. Easy to keep your distance.

And yes there are some trips we will have to take, to get food. The conclusion from that is not “well two trips are just as good” (when in reality that is exposure x2).

I seriously don’t get this attitude. I see it on Facebook when people talk about flying to Mexico or Hawaii, “go, you only love once, you’ll be fine”. Selfish, irresponsible and entitled.

And sorry and with all due respect, your “serious doubt” that the 3 people in my lane, or the 4-5 in the next lane over, doing 100s at 90%, breathing heavily, blowing noses into the gutter, etc. are not capable of transmitting the virus to me is not quite the scientific support I’m looking for.

Not addressing the locker room comments because I am not going in there

The Ys in Hampton Roads have suspended their Masters Swim, but the pool is still open. The suspended a number of other group lessons but not Yoga.

The Aquatics Director told the coach that she will not stop us from swimming "they'd probably all meet and swim in a drainage ditch in Hickory".

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All I Wanted Was A Pepsi, Just One Pepsi

Team Zoot, Team Zoot Mid-Atlantic

Sorry, going to a near empty pool is not in the same category as flying to Hawaii for a vacation. In any case, neither you nor I have the information to decide what is risky or not. If the pool is open, its regarded as having low enough risk. If the flights are open, someone smarter than us decided there is a need for the flights to keep going (there are good reasons why essential flights need to happen for a while yet). If we are allowed to go to the grocery store, someone decided that its better to let people go and get in line than have delivery trucks drive around neighbourhoods and deliver rations of wheat+rice+milk+eggs like in war time in some countries.

Don't tell people which workout they can do or not, in that not everyone can go run or ride a bike (or for that matter swim). I closed down my entire company and sent my employees home on full pay (hopefully we will get some work done remotely), potentially costing us around half a million over the next few months (my company is small enough but still...and we can't really afford it and will ideally come out strong on the work we do get done), so its not like I am not doing my part to reduce spread as I think it is HIGH RISK to have a bunch of tech employees working in close quarters all day for 8-12 hrs straight and we would be working against what the Cdn govt is asking us to generally do. Me going to an open pool, is super low risk that I will spread anything (the only place I can catch and spread something is at the pool at this point and they just closed up anyway). My company is closed and I am otherwise exclusively at home seeing no one.

Wait. Neither you or I have the info to determine if swimming in a pool with others is risky.

Yet you “seriously doubt” it is

Have at it then. Good luck

No such thing as self isolation here on the Sunshine Coast in Oz. Was doing laps in my local pool a very short walk from my place here in Coolum and 2k in the staff started pushing the huge inflatable islands into lanes 1-3 and 5-8 and shortly after about 100 little kids from the Coolum Surf Lifesaving Club showed up and started creating the expected havoc.

I lasted another kilometre before I gave up and left,not because of anything to do with the Corona virus but I had to leave before some kid bombed me in my lane and I turned into a grumpy old man. :-)

Back tomorrow for another 4k in the morning..

I pulled the plug today even though the pool is still open for the time being. Will hit the Vasa until further notice. Social distancing/isolation requires an all hands on deck approach. I'm going to try to do my part by only going to places I really need to.

I can doubt if something is risky or not just based on math. I have also swam in countless lightening storms close to shore surrounded by forested hills....the math says I should not die and I never did. But just because I am weighing math, there is no deterministic answer (thus the word "I doubt" versus "I know"). In any case, getting hit by lightening only hurts me. You're saying swimming hurts everyone, but I am saying it hurts everyone way less than going to the grocery store or going to the office (which is why I shut my company down to do my civic duty, I stopped all travel for customer visits to close deals too...all of which hurts badly $$$$ wise....because its the right thing to do to help reduce the spread).

Going to an almost empty pool we are not hurting anyone or hurting society just marginally more than staying in the basement all day hanging out on the internet.

Your statement of "have at it" I interpret as "if you want to die from Covid go swimming" versus "you are screwing all of us over by going swimming and spreading it". "have at it" is generally reserved for "if you want to screw yourself, have at it".

In that case, I would infer that you're saying that swimming in an empty pool is no longer in the same category as catching Covid and spreading it during a long haul flight to Hawaii (your first example).

Vasa sales are hotter than purell right now.

I wish they would keep open for team bookings only...

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http://en.wikipedia.org/...eoesophageal_fistula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_palsy
2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

That's kind of a selfish way to think about it. It may be true that because of limited contact, you will not have significantly increased your risk of getting COVID-19. However, in order to support your swimming, the pool has to remain open. That means that the pool employees come into contact with more folks. And more folks at the pool come into contact with employees and other patrons. So the probability of further transmission between at least one pair of participants can go up significantly. Since you mentioned math, perhaps you're familiar with the Birthday Paradox. Same deal here.

I know you like to post long diatribes, but really not interested in getting into it with you.

So again, have at it. Whatever it is

Someone gets it

The #1 swim team in the US (NCAP) is suspending all team practices, except for (possibly). a small group of OT qualifiers. That’s until April.

I’ve switched to dryland at home and in the neighbourhood until the crisis abates.

My wife’s office has everyone working from home starting Monday. No announcement from my office yet, but we’re having everyone work from home on Monday as a test to make sure our VPN has sufficient capacity.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

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

I swam this morning. Got in the water at 7:30am on a dark, rainy Saturday morning. Tried like hell to avoid everyone. Sure enough, one effing gray hair floating in the pool but no one else except this one guy I know who blocked my path to the far lane and proceeded to shake my hand. Wtf...The first case of Covid19 just hit the neighboring county today. The guy fled the hospital and was forcibly quarantined at his home. I've had to go to the grocery and it's mayhem and not safe as far as sick people. We have to go there, but not the pool. I can hit the treadmill and trainer. I think that's where I'm at after today. Gotta minimize the risk. Way too many dumbasses out there that are oblivious.

Just to be clear, I am not asking the pools to stay open to support my desire to swim or not. Its a question of "if it is open, how unsafe or not is it to use the pool". Its not up to most of us on ST if pools remain open.

I do agreed, that best thing is to shut the pools. (and you can shut everything other than the grocery stores like they did in parts of Italy). I think that would be best. Until they shut everything people will selectively do things where they feel they are harming no one (whether they are right or wrong is another story).

I personally think they should ground all airplanes too. This is the root cause of all of this spreading from China and personally my parents are 9.5 time zones away on a trip planned before this started (they flew before the first Wuhan positive) and are due to come back in 10 days. But if they get stuck 9.5 time zones away from home, it would still be better for all global flights like all pools being shut down. But assuming the flights are on, they will fly home. But I still prefer if global air travel is shut down even if my parents are stuck (so I am trying to say its not about my needs...I am willing to sacrifice my company needs for which I am the major shareholder and my parents for the greater good and two of my very good friends are airline CEOs) ... its more about risk management.

I went around dinner time tonight. Club was pretty empty as it usually is at this time on a weekend. 2 -4 of us sharing the pool. There are no pool employees to interact with. The pool guy shows up at the end of the day when the pool is closed. I’ve never talked with him. He would still have to do his job if the pool was closed. I am surprised the pool is open but I’m going to keep going if the conditions remain the same. If someone can convince me I need to stop then I’ll stop.

It seems to me that it is more likely that pools and gyms would close if no one went to them.

There is, of course, the separate concern for employees and business owners and their lost revenue and wages. That discussion might get a little too close to politics for reasoned debate, so I'll leave it there.

In any case, the question might well become moot pretty soon. I don't get the sense that many non-essential businesses will remain open much longer.

Add my gym to the list of closures. I normally swim at the 24 Hour Fitness gym near me, and they are all closed as of midnight last night.

Fortunately, there is a good lake nearby that is open for swimming, and it's now warm enough to use it comfortably. So OWS + stretch cords + strength training it is.

Check out Lane 3 membership on our site, http://www.theraceclub.com. Over 50 videos on dryland swimming exercises. You can sign on for a month or longer, or until your pools open, but you will have access to our entire video (230+) and articles (200+) library. Hope it will help you stay in swimming shape during these challenging times!

Gary Hall Sr.

More info: https://ymcaboston.org/...essrelease_final.pdf

I guess I won't be swimming for a long time.

YMCA Raleigh closed yesterday.

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Janyne