I like LCM because my turns are awful so I'm actually faster in it!

Prefer LCM. Stuck with SCM 95% of the time.

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

point taken, but it was more aimed at people who have spent time seriously swimming in all 3 and have developed preferences - and also curious if peoples' favourite formats are because it's what they grew up doing, as I suspect mine is

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

just because it's longer or is there something I'm not thinking of?

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

SCY simply because it's familiar and gives me a lifetime frame of reference for my fitness.

Back in the days when I was competitive, we swam mostly scy... because 'Murica. One time we swam a meet in a commie wanna be pool as lcm. I was an IMer. The difference between a 200 scy IM and a 400 lcm IM is akin to a nice morphine drip compared to a convenient hammer to your thumb. Damn that hurt.

We have a local pool that will, every once in a while, set up as lcm. I'd love to get used to this in my triathlon years. But damn if it's infrequent and not well advertised. There's no convincing the common folk for that to become a norm. Therefore, I'll default back to scy.

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

I swam 3 years in high school and 1 in college in the early '70s. I did not swim AAU, so before college, I only saw scy pools. My best stroke was breast stroke and I never had a coach that knew much about it. So I settled into a very high turnover choppy stroke (after a long underwater pull & kick). It worked well enough for the 100 y -- but then for college Christmas break we went to Ft. Lauderdale for a training trip and had an LCM meet. After that race I knew I never wanted to swim LCM again.

I did come to peace with LCM when I took up masters swimming in my 40s. Of course with a much longer stroke that was somewhat aided and abetted by the rule changes for breast stroke that allowed me to duck my head underwater on each stroke but also by listening to stroke instructions given by my boys' swim team coaches. For the 100 scy I actually came within 0.4 sec of my lifetime best. But I was equally competitive in SCY and LCM (and at the odd SCM meet).

Now my swimming is only for tri's and freestyle only. For that I like LCM best because I can settle into and focus on a good rhythm for my stroke without so many interruptions. But for most of the year the only option is SC and for that I prefer SCY because I do that the most and know historical paces there.

Where are the markers so you can do a 25x400IM...or do you just do 2x4000IM and 1x2000 Fly?

They have 4 lanes if not 10 lanes all day at the London Olympic Aquatic Center. I once had a stop in London where I flew in from Nairobi Kenya (8 hrs flt), arrived at 5:30 pm in Heathrow, took tube across town, was in the Olympic pool at 8 pm, swam 2 hrs to close, got a hotel next door, was up at 6 am, for 2 hrs to 8:30 am, took a tube to central London for a meeting, had meeting, took tube to Heathrow, flew back to Canada.....12000m of swimming in less than 24 hrs stopover in London and one biz meeting with some pompous dudes in Mayfair LOL. That was the coolest "swimming mission" I have done.







This is one of my favourite places on earth!!!!

.
Apparently swimming is not allowed in the large section of the lagoon and is restricted to the individual closed off beach areas (the light blue bits).The rest of the lagoon is for watercraft.

Have done 95+% of my swimming SCY. However the summers I swam competitively long course (many years ago) i really enjoyed it. You could get a lot of people in a lane and more social with more swimmers. One element of SCY I like is splits/pace/effort over any distance stroke or interval is imprinted in my brain because it’s so familiar. Never feel that way with LCM. Last LCM swimming was in 2019, a week of pre dawn practices at Santa Clara SC in CA. Lots of fun.

Pool? What? Where? Gosh I haven’t been to a pool in almost 6 months. My preference is LCM. And I do have a choice. In the morning the pool is set up long course. In the afternoon it is SCY. 50m x 25y. I don’t know if I’ve ever swam SCM.

That said, I prefer a clear lake with 65F water. Absent that, any clean and swimable large body of water. I want to put my head down and go for 60-90 minutes and not worry about flip turns or other swimmers. I used to like swimming laps. Hard to remember what that was like.

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Hillary Trout
San Luis Obispo, CA

Your trip is short. Make the most of it.
https://www.slogoing.net/

SCY for regular training LCM for distance workouts

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All I Wanted Was A Pepsi, Just One Pepsi

Team Zoot, Team Zoot Mid-Atlantic

SCY always. In college we had a few meets against teams with SCM pools and the 200m felt like the longest sprint of your life.

LCM is only acceptable on training trips, preferably tropical.

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Strava

Well you could do an IM set and swim fly all the way to Kona, then go back stroke Kona to Tokyo, do a single turn, and swim breast back to Kona and go free for the final leg back to San Luis Obispo. Only once turn involved in that one! HAHA!

Before COVID, I had access to a LCM pool year round. No such luck these days, so whatever I can find. SCY can be very fast for some of us that grew up as club swimmers and have "good" flip turns, but I find I the LCM builds me up a bit better for the open water.

Only have SCM or LCM as an option in these parts, and definitely LCM for me. SC gives me a false sense of reality.

DEV, I LOVE this story. That is awesome stuff right there.

To answer tigerchick... I grew up w scy in winter and lcm in summer (illinois) with very limitied exposure to scm.
Some exposure in college (umass) but still quite limited.

In my time at the OTC we traveled around the world and raced a lot in the SCM world cups in europe. I was always super impressed how our american athletes, with basically no exposure to scm or limited, could transition to scm and give it a solid go. It was fun to watch and there are def some specialists out there who love scm and can perform there vs lcm, on the world stage.

My fav pool is indy. They had the trials there pre-sydney and i got to swim in there in the days leading up to the trials. Something about that water, I have NEVER swum that fast in my life and dont think I will again. I did a few 800s bc I just couldnt believe I was holding 110 pace in lcm. (closer to 111s by the end.. but still!!) anyways, if I had to pick an order:

SCY
LCM
SCM

Prob bc i know scy and lcm the best and they could be interchangeable tbh
SCM, I just cant seem to engage in it on a personal level. But as a coach and avid fan of swimming SCM is fun to watch.


daved

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http://www.theundergroundcoach.com

well since I'm American, I've spent the vast majority of my time in a 25scy pool, but growing up morning workouts were almost always done with the pool in 50m configuration. I was always better at long course since I lose out to taller dudes on the turns.

I spent several years swimming in a 25m pool at a Lifetime Fitness, but overall I would prefer 25y just due to familiarity. I don't think you get much of a training benefit from the 25m pool (for me that is like 1 extra stroke per length).

I also have access to a 100ft pool (Deep Eddy, which is currently closed). This is strange as it feels closer to short course than long in my opinion. It really just makes intervals weird; you never want to do a set of 5x100 for example since you end up at the opposite end of the pool.

Austin also has an even larger pool, Barton Springs. There isn't really a wall at one end (it just gets really shallow) and the other is a dam covered in dark algae (so it's hard to do a flip turn). The pool has a marking of "1/8 mi" so it's roughly 200m long. Spring fed, natural bottom, with a slight current. Very good for open water practice and equipment testing, but not great for real intervals.

During the first two months of the pandemic I had to make do with my HOA pool. This one is only 20y across and about 4 ft deep, and no real markings so it's difficult to actually swim straight across consistently. I would say this is the absolute minimum to feeling like you are still swimming laps and not just bouncing back and forth between walls (for me this is 9-11 strokes per length). You end up with some of the same problems as the 100ft pool (100yds puts you at the opposite end).

I prefer the LCM format if I get a choice. But, I think there are a lot more important things that make a 'preferred' pool: water temp, wide lanes, tight lane lines + good gutters, good lighting, and not being over crowded.

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I am surprised you didn't mention the Pure Austin quarry. 750M loop of calm, clean water.

Between the traditional setups, I prefer a LCM.

LCM!

FTFW

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36 kona qualifiers 2006-'23 - 3 Kona Podiums - 4 OA IM AG wins - 5 IM AG wins - 18 70.3 AG wins
I ka nana no a 'ike -- by observing, one learns | Kulia i ka nu'u -- strive for excellence
Garmin Glycogen Use App | Garmin Fat Use App

I was hoping you'd chime in. Why do you like lcm the best?

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

cuz i was heaps better at it than SCY racing. And the olympics are in LCM.

what's got you in oklahoma?

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36 kona qualifiers 2006-'23 - 3 Kona Podiums - 4 OA IM AG wins - 5 IM AG wins - 18 70.3 AG wins
I ka nana no a 'ike -- by observing, one learns | Kulia i ka nu'u -- strive for excellence
Garmin Glycogen Use App | Garmin Fat Use App

A job. I got some fancy letters after my name and the university here has a top-notch research group for the stuff I occupy myself with when I'm not training.

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

You beat me to it.

The ocean is what motivates me to swim. Having spent enough years following a black line, I'd much rather follow a randomly encountered turtle, swim through a glimmering shoal of whiting, count the different species of rays and sharks, or watch cuttlefish flashing neon during courtship. Also the best finish to a swim set is body-surfing a wave all the way to shore.

Coming from Aust, where 50 metre pools are so common, publicly available and cheap to access, it's a no-brainer. If it must be a pool, then 50 metres it is.

My last time in a 25 metre pool was for an 8 km swim. Screw that with about 320 turns.

Although only 30 metres, Bronte is one of my favourite pools. It's lovely swimming from before dawn, then seeing the sun rise over the ocean, or on a rough day when the waves break over the pool wall. Sydney is blessed with lots of ocean pools along its coastline, free to use 24 hours a day.

Bronte ocean baths in all their glory:

https://www.google.com/...imgrc=oBIq-A7KE8aW5M