I hear you. Sooooooo glad I have my Vasa.....

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Next races on the schedule: none at the moment

Seriously! I know I've been one of their biggest fans on this forum and elsewhere, but the lockdowns have really made the Vasa a critical piece of tri training for me.

I think I'd be losing my mind right now if I didn't have my erg, as I signed up for an August race that I'd like to try and put up a good showing at, and I have no intention of putting up a subpar swim performance.

And on a sort of unrelated note, I recently switched from Android to iphone and thus lost access to my preferred programmable stopwatch/interval app. If anyone knows of a good one on iphone that doesn't require a freaking subscription (!!!) that you can program interval workouts into, I'm all ears. I don't mind paying a one-time fee for it - but the ones I'd liked on the app store were charging like $10-$20 per year or even month just to continue using it. WTF?!

Do you have another family member who is also under your pool membership? If this was me, I would book a 45 time slot and then get the next 45 min slot booked by my husband. We can share a lane because we are from the same household. So we would swim together for each 45 min time slot. If you booked a family member right after you, then you could get 90 minutes with that member or maybe enjoy it all yourself. A bit sneaky but if you have a big race coming up and need pool time....not sure how strict your pool is or if the employees police the lane reservations.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

Here in Michigan, our local Y allows for 2 for 1/2 of the lanes. (8 lanes = 12 registrants). It's likely that 4 do not show up, but most lanes have 1 swimmer for most hours.
We register for 45 minute slots so that the lifeguards have 15 minutes to clean and prepare for the next 1 hour time slot. We check our name via sharpie marker before walking into the pool area.

Side note: other than the 45 minutes (wish there were a few sessions with 1 hour or 1 1/2 hour slots), I do appreciate booking the lanes and having full confidence that I'll have a lane to swim in that isn't packed before heading to the pool. My hope is that they continue doing that for the next year or two... or longer.

San diego is next to impossible.

It has become harder to find open lane reservations here as the weather has started to warm up. There were a few weeks where I couldn't get any reservation at all (after being pretty consistently able to get 2-3 per week). Recently pools started to offer split lanes (previously you could only split with a member of your household), which has opened up more space. I just did my first split lane reservation yesterday, and I have to admit I've been spoiled getting a lane all to myself for so long. As annoying as it sometimes is to have to plan ahead and try to get a reservation ahead of everyone else, having that uninterrupted 45 minute time slot has been nice!

I'm fortunate to live in Florida. I only missed 6 weeks of swimming last spring before my pool reopened at the beginning of May. It's mind boggling to read that some are still closed. However, with few exceptions, almost all of the pools here are outdoors which makes them much safer.

San Diego folk. Water is warming up. Olympic tri Sunday 6:29a start at fiesta island. Self supported. Message me for details

Same here.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

Ditto - plenty of pool space and time. Strava has me at 231K for 2021. One thing that changed at the pool was the college team did go to split squads with half the group starting on one end of the pool and the other half on the bulkhead. During the winter months there was plenty of lane space but then we saw the normal increase in usage starting last month with the local tri s getting the go ahead to proceed.

Actually my pool just had their first local sprint tri last Sunday (my first since Taupo in '19). It was capped and sold out. Everyone there was really pumped to be racing again. Masks were required while they corralled us in the natatorium (42 degrees outside) but then no special rules. They had some self serve snacks afterwards but no awards ceremony. All in all it worked out really well and we have a full season of tris scheduled this year :).

Man - replying to my own thread, but if even possible, swim reservations in Norcal have gotten even WORSE. Literally nothing available at any community pool, unless you log in the minute it opens up. Every single community pool in the 6-7 adjacent towns are instabooked and sold out, at all hours they are open.

Luckily, I found a good place to OWS. The drive is annoying, 30 mins, but I can swim as long as I want and practice in the wetsuit, which I think is very important. Turns out I really enjoy OWS! I think between that and my very useful Vasa Erg, I'm covered. (The erg is awesome for the pull part of the stroke, but you get fatigue in the stroke extension muscles if you haven't swam in a wetsuit for awhile.)

I may also join a small local swim-tennis club that I didn't know existed until recently, but I have to check out their pool wait first.

I hear you. While I have a lane for tomorrow morning, my husband slept on the sofa in the living room last night, set his alarm for midnight and booked lanes. (if I wasn't training for an IM I would just say F it and wait a few more weeks for ows). Starting this week, everyone can book half lanes in the pool. So now my husband has to book half a lane on my lap top and book the other half on his laptop. And you can't see what is open and what's not open. It sucks. I am super annoyed and I'm not the one getting up at midnight. My husband is a saint. Since he's not training for an IM he is sacrificing some sleep for a few more weeks.

Anyhoo, glad you can swim in the open water now. So much better!! I'm dying to swim outside. But it didn't even get above 55F at my house today for an air temp and started to rain :-(

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

I posted this on the first page, but I think it's worth repeating. If you have any smaller gyms in your city, that advertise a pool, it could be worth it to check it out. Our local Y's, University, and Swim club are all crowded and booked too. Ironically, this place is 1/2 mile from my house, and I drove past it, every time I went somewhere else... never thinking the pool at a podunk converted grocery store for-profit gym would amount to much. 4 months ago, the boiler went out, at the pool I regularly swim at, and it was closed, and projected repair time was a month. This prompted me to finally stop by this small local gym, just to see what the word "Pool" on their sign really meant. Holy shit! 3 lane 25 meter pool. The guy said the only people who actually use it, are the water aerobic folks, at 10am. The place opens at 5am. I asked him what the protocol for reserving a lane was... and he laughed! He said that of the 2 years he's been working there, he never sees someone in every lane, actually swimming. Membership costs $22/month and I signed up on the spot.

Here's a picture of "my" pool, at 8:45 this morning. I showed up at 5am, and swam until 8:30am... and had it to myself. It's been this way every day, since I joined the place. It's a swimmers paradise. I have seen other folks dip in the pool from time to time. Usually a muscle head doing a couple laps of "cardio", or someone cooling off after sitting in the hot tub too long. But I have yet to see another serious swimmer there. I can't believe all the freaking pool hassles I've put up with for the last stinking year... when this place was right down the street, all this time.

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Athlinks / Strava

That is smart and looks wonderful!

I live in a rural area and drive 22 miles to a ski town for my pool. No other pool options right now. There is a university pool a bit closer but it's been closed to the public since March 2020. But for those living in more densely populated areas with more pool options, this is a great!

My Endless Pool can't come soon enough! That is really my best option for where I live.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

@DeanT - That is good advice on the checking of small gyms that may have unused 'hidden' pools.

Unfortunately, I checked all my area - none to be had. The 24hr fitness which isn't too far from me has a pool but it's shut down (indoor pool) per CA requirements right now.

Yes. My gym in Chicago requires reservations (1 person / lane) and the reservations can only be made 24 hours in advance. It's like trying to get tickets through Ticketmaster or getting a great seat on Southwest - if you're not already logged in and pressing the button at exactly half a second before the time slot opens up, you're out of luck.

Most of the people there have been there since the pools reopened last year, but there's definitely a new crowd of people training for their first sprint / Oly. Looking forward to warmer open-water swimming -- there's plenty of room in the lake for all of us!

OWS is def where it's at now. I'm lucky that it's absolutely NICE OWS swimming season here in Norcal - I just have to deal with a 30 minute drive each way to do it, so I can't go every day, but 1-2x/wk is all I need if I keep the sessions 60-90 mins. I didn't expect to enjoy the serenity (at least of the water in the morning, not of my splashy swimming!) and natural beauty of OWS, but it's become the highlight of my week.

Swam this morning at the ymca. 6 lanes - 2 people per lane and register 2 days before.

7 total people in the pool.....(I had my own lane)

Rarely have to share a lane.

I just got word the pond down the road from me (2 mile easy bike ride) is 52F which is still a tad too cold for me! But I may try sooner than later in my thermal wetsuit and gear. We still have a few weeks before it's really nice for OWS. I love this mountain pond as the only swim access is through private property and my neighbors let a few of us swim there anytime we want. I thank them all the time as it's almost life-changing for me :-) It's 400 yards across or about 1400 yards to swim a big circle. I sometimes run, swim, run home on my lunch break. Or we can drive 25 minutes to a large reservoir which doesn't allow motor boats. That is paradise and gorgeous as well. I agree, ows is serene and peaceful. It's my favorite part of IM training and swimming is my slowest of the three sports. While ows is amazing where I live, it only lasts a few months of the year!

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

the san diego 24 fitness pools are open... i just dont want to pay new stupid $50 extra yearly fee, as the bays near by are finally warm enough for me

Many of the 24 hour LA pools are open, have a couple friends who use them regularly. As far as reservations, it has gotten better in southern CA where I swim(5 different pools), as some have gone to 2 a lane, and they have added some more hours to the daily schedules. I just swam today in Palm Springs, over a month ago really hard to get, now can reserve day of because of the 2 per lane. But funny thing is that there was not 2 per lane, still just the one. Palmdale and Santa Clarita have also gotten easier to get lanes, not sure what to think about that as they are still both 1 per lane.. Not complaining though, just an observation...(-;

Swimmersguide.com is worth a look at. I found a few pools that I didn't know existed!

Thanks for that link - I found a place there that I've known about and have checked on for years, and they never had lap swim, but I checked again after seeing it on that website and it looks like I may be able to get in there sometimes. Def helpful, thanks!

if we had reddit upvote system i would give you the gold status. thanks!

Good news update -

Thanks to all who recommend rechecking all the area for lesser-known pools as well as swimmersguide.

I did just that, and came across a swim school in my area that I'd written off for awhile because I could never make their pre-COVID hours due to my young kid, and they entirely shut down through COVID.

I did check again and they actually re-opened mid-April. Since my kid is now not totally dependent on me in the morning, I found I can make it to the morning swim if I hustle to work right afterwards. Plus it's not booked solid - I can consistently get a slot, usually day before. Caveat is that the hours are really limited as it's a swim school so that gets priority, but I'm not complaining .

For the first time in over 1.5 years, I did 4 days of in-water workouts in a row. Hallelujah!

And yeah, the first 2 went great as I was fresh and excited, the next one was tiring, and the last one was a grinder since I lack the multiday swim endurance. Between this for 3-4 days and my erg on the days it's closed, I got swimming covered.

So get out there and do your homework - pools are opening up again.