So I’m in my 50m outdoor pool this morning. It has only 2 lane lines for about 10 available lanes. First 50 meters feel easy, backwards kind of slow. I’m thinking, perhaps it’s because it’s 7am and I’m a little bit tired. But on my second lap, I notice the same again. It always feels like swimming in a river. No wind. But other swimmers noticed the same. Is this possible?
Stefan
Yes this is possible, pool design plays a big part in how fast or slow a pool is. We used to train in a 10 lane LC pool but could only race 9 lanes due to poor designing.
Another pool had jets recirculating water into one lane creating a very strong sideways current that constantly pushed people into the lane line.
Is it the same depth all the way along? I always find if you have a pool with a deep and that gradually comes down to a shallow end it always feels faster swimming back into the shallow end because the bottom gets closer and looks like it’s going past faster.
Did you actually time the laps?
Most pools have jets that circulate the water in a certain direction. I used to teach scuba diving at a YMCA pool and being under water for an extended period of time it was amazing to notice how many “floaties” such as clumps of hair, etc used to pass by us underwater always going in the same direction.
Common in LC pools. The end lanes have current, whereas the middle of the pool = none. The pools recirculating system on older pools is to fault. Usually I find about a 1.0-1.3 sec difference when changing directions in the lane. Makes it hard to coach distance swimmers when trying to do pace work. Of course, if you are racing a 50 mtr sprint - hope you get the lane “with” the current babeee!
If you were in Toronto, I would say you were swimming at Smythe Park in Etobicoke. In that pool, the outside lanes were 5 sec per fifty faster in one direction over the other and our coach would adjust the times for 50m repeats for people in those lanes. Many pools will have a current if the jets aren’t aimed/designed properly. So no, with respect to this issue, you are not crazy.
I was swimming fairly on the edge of t he pool, so the circulating current may makes sense. The pool is in NYC and is constant of 4’ depth. I did not time my laps, but 4 seconds difference seems about right. And as cerveloguy mentioned, all the clumps were floating same direction. I tried to ignore them…
Stefan