I switched from Lifetime Fitness to the local Y due to costs and convenience. I think I got about 4 real quality workouts the entire year I was there. I just switched back to Lifetime two weeks ago and cannot believe the difference. If a kid even thinks about getting in the lap pool they run him off, which of course means no biological incidents. If people aren't swimming laps they immediately ask them to move to the rec pool. 5 lanes no waiting, I did have to share a lane last week but that was with my wife.

---

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

My Y is great. Lap pool with Masters' workouts and a separate pool for the water ladies. No kids, though I understand Friday nights is junior high/high school night.

---

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

I find community pools to be hit-or-miss. I've always had good luck with university pools. Other than lunch time, when professors come to workout, there are usually pretty empty, and the people that are there are people like me, students who are actually working out.

-Colin

---

------------------------------------------------------------
Any run that doesn't include pooping in someone's front yard is a win.

i know what that's like. last club i trained at had poorly trained guards who did nothing to monitor who did what in the lap pool. very frustrating. where i'm at now you are either doing laps or nicely guided to the rec pool. that's not to say there are some users on the borderline but they keep things well under control.

---

Train hard...race well.
www.jimmishler.com
"Jim, I happen to agree with you" DougStern

If people are just standing in the pool and not working out, then the water temperature is probably very warm and likely too warm for you to get in quality long workouts. Yea, you might consider finding another pool or club.

Yes it does... I had a guy do a cannonball after getting out of the hot tub the other day at 24 Hr. Fitness... I do enjoy when people make out in the hot tub though

Is this the same Monk who just called theswiss a complainer for giving a bit of into on something he though could be potentially dangerous (and I fully noted the word potential)? The pot and the kettle seem to have met, I should thnk.

In the last couple weeks things have gotten bad at my pool too. Only 4 lanes and 2 go to floating class a couple nights a week. The other night a girl was told no when she asked to share a lane so she came to my lane to share, then last night I was there and one guy was doing 50 about every 4 minutes, lady doing some kind of breast stroke with head out of the water in 2, lady floating / back stroke in 3 and a lady barely moving then doing walking in 4. I asked the lady in 3 if I could share and she sneared and said "I'm almost done but fine"

I belong to a "nice" club but my patience is about gone with that goup. The other thing that fires me up is the people who are moving the slowest won't share, even with someone moving as slow as they are. If I think you're slow in the pool then you are moving s l o w;)

Nope. Different Monk.

I don't mind the classes. I can schedule around them. And I don't care if someone is slow (like me) or floating the backstroke. They are moving and that's good enough for me.

I would let someone share a lane, but they should probably wear a helmet with a nose guard.

I agree with CCf that university pools seem to work best. Very seldom have to share. Only problem is when the swim team takes the entire pool for practice.

I used to belong to a Bally's and the 4 lane pool was always filled with elderly and asians leisurely laying on their noodles or just standing in the middle of the lane. If you were able to get a lane to swim in you inevitably would run into someone walking through your lane who didn't bother to notice that there was someone actually swimming in the lap pool. Very frustrating. Will never go back as a member.

Same thing happens when I use the pool at 24 hour fitness (rarely)...this guy comes out of the sauna or steam room about every 5 or 10 minutes and cannonballs into the pool. Get outs and goes back in the sauna. He did this 5 times one day, which - coincidentally - was the day I decided to find a different pool.

I know the dogs you're walking... The Y where I swim now is actually great.... However when I lived in New Hampshire there were always random meatheads screwing around in the lanes.... I just see it as training for mass start tris....if meatheads are in your way wrestling or something just swim really fast past them if not over them ...they'll get the idea pretty quickly...

---

http://www.mountainmettle.com

We have one guy who gets in and does pull-ups on the back stroke start bars. He complains if he has to share a lane or someone else is in "his" lane when he gets there. He swims but slowly enough you have to watch for a while to see him move- i estimate his pace at about 3 minutes per 25yds.

Not much traffic in my YMCA pool at 5:00 AM. I usually get a lane to myself. God forbid if you are in at 8:00 AM, though, when the water aerobics start. If I stay in one of the middle lanes, I'm usually safe, but it's hard not to get distracted. All I can think about is the scene in "Fantasia" with the dancing hippos.

ROFLMAO!

Seriously, though, just paddle over near one of those folks hanging out in a lane and doing nothing. When they look at you, get a realllllll pleasant smile on your face, sigh deeply and say, "Oh man, I been holding that one all morning."

Mostly the 24Hr Fitness I use is pretty good. I've never had to wait, although I've offered to share with people who were not as lucky a couple of times (and was politely declined). The temperature is possibly a litte warm but to my liking...still feels cold when you first get in. It's free since I teach spin for them, so no complaints.

However, one day I come out and there is only 1 lane not being used, and there are a pair of hand paddles and googles sitting in front of it. There are several people in the sauna, but as I take a leisurely pre-pool shower, I don't notice anyone making a move for the lane. So, I figure either someone left their toys there, or they are quite ridiculously thinking that they can "reserve" the only open lane while they soak in the sauna by placing their toys there. So, I hop in the lane and swim about two laps when I see some big fat dude of color standing at the end of the lane. I look up at him and he grabs his toys and shakes his head giving me a disgusted look, and moves over to the now open lane 3 lanes down (as if some lanes are better than others). Well, I think maybe that was the case because there was a nice looking girl in the lane next to me, and he was no longer able to "view" as well, although he still tried to start a conversation with her a few times. Last couple weeks at the same time he has been doing the same thing, although there have been plenty of lanes and no hot chicks. Of course he swims 25 meters about every 3 minutes in a blind sprint, does this about 10 times and then heads back to the sauna (or earlier if a younger woman is there).

What's with the old women swimming back stroke with both arms moving together, their butt 2 feet under water, and yet they still float like a rubber ducky?

I swim at a country club and the place is infested with old people. There are always 2 lanes set aside for lap swimmers but they think they qualify with their noodles and 10 min. per 50y pace. Of course each and every one feels the need to have there own lane. hte place looks more like a physical therapy rehab place than a swimming pool.

You mean like your mom and dad, and their moms and dads. With some luck and the grace of god, some day you will be an "old people" too.

When I start to get a little annoyed at the slowness of a "Person of Age", I think, if that were my dad, would I want someone to be patient and kind towards him. Then I decide "Hell, NO. He wouldn't let me pitch in Little League, and he was the Coach! Knock his old ass out of the way."

BTW--how did you come up with the screenname grumpy?

I swear that this post cursed my normal Thursday afternoon swim session.

Thanks ;)

Cheryl

Stand By--Tomorrow's Rant is on your 401(k)

Not directed at Monk specifically ... how long until we, as people, are completely honest and just simply type, "Everyone who is not me, just plain sucks"? Is there ANYONE else in the world that does anything in the manner that we prefer?

---------------------------

Nope. Different Monk.

LOL. That's funny.

--------------------------

My Y has scheduled sessions. If I try to swim laps during the open swim, I know it'll be like trying to swim an obstacle course. If I swim during the adult swim, you never know how crowded it can be. I swim at 3pm, during the "arthritis classes". The ladies don't seem to mind, I take up one (unmarked) lane by the wall. I do my thing, they do theirs, I go home.

I envy those that have masters swim groups. I'd have to drive over an hour (one way) to get to one.

---

=======================
-- Every morning brings opportunity;
Each evening offers judgement. --

Monk, I don't have a problem with someone being old or slow. Lord knows, if I swam with a masters group I'd be in the slowest lane available. Which is exactly my point. I wouldn't jump into the fast lane and goof up someone elses work out. My heartburn is the attitude that just because they survived WWII, they act like they own the place and don't need to have any consideration for others.

I think another poster nailed it when he said something like "If you don't think like me, you suck". I come by my screen name honestly.

A mate of mine from here in Perth is working in Houston at the moment. He tried to explain the American approach to lap pools to me, but I can't understand it. Reading this thread has not made it any clearer for me...

At the 8 lane 50m lap pools I go to around here, I expect to share a lane with about 6 other people at a time. There is a sign at the end of each lane saying what stroke and what pace you can do and as long as you are pretty close to that you are OK. You stick to the left of the lane and swap sides at each end. If someone is tapping your toes for a while, you pause at the end and let them pass. If you want to stand around, water run, breast stroke etc, you go to the lanes set aside for that...

How hard can it be?