I will be in Bloomington for a few days, my son is visiting the University.
Recommendations for places to work out? Runs should be fairly straightforward, how about access to pools? It would be nice to at least get on a stationary bike for a ride - will be missing my weekend long ride.
Don’t forget to bring your snowshoes. Bloomington just got blasted on Monday with a whole bunch of snow.
What a great college town and education!! Hope your son enjoys the visit.
The Student Rec (workout) Center SRSC is the best facility around. They may have a daily public pass option to purchase.
There are two gyms at IU, and there is the ability to access them if you are not a student, but as I never dealt with that I can’t remember how. The first gym is the SRSC. A landmark near this gym is the Business school. It is newer bigger and nicer. Cardio machines will be clogged with sorority girls (a + or - dependant on your viewpoint). I never saw a better or worse time to use this gym. The good news is everything is pretty newish. It also has a glorious olympic sized pool which aside from practices always has room for swimmers. The times the pool is closed for sports activities are posted online, look up recsports at www.iub.edu. The other gym is the HPER. A landmark near this gym is the IU auditorium. There is nothing new about this place. However, the beauty of this gym is its relative emptiness when compared to the SRSC. The pool is called Royer pool and also has hours you’ll need to be aware of. I’m not sure how you would purchase a pass to use the HPER facilities as the checkin etc for the weightroom and pool isn’t really done in a non-student friendly way.
Anyway, IUB.edu will have your answers, look up recsports for more information there.
I would suggest the HPER facility (I’m biased, that’s where my office is). Royer pool is nice - not new, but it was good enough for Mark Spitz (and 6x national champion team).
pool is open from 6:30 to 7:30am, and 4:30 to 7:30 (ish) pm. Masters swim here at 11am.
HPER also has an indoor track (not an indoor track meet track, but a rectangle-ish running track inside). it’s not great, but it is good when the roads are icy.
there is also a weight room.
if you enter the HPER through the south entrance, go to the glass booth (marked member services) for a one-day pass. i think it’s $4, but i’m not sure.
let me know if you have questions. and be sure to go eat at Nick’s sometimes,
Masters swim here at 11am.
If I had access to a masters swim at 11am, I might actually do it. That 7am stuff just doesn’t do it for me.
Anyway, for the OP, my suggestion is to find an open road outside of town, and wait for a truck to drive by. Then draft behind him, until he reaches 60mph and gets pulled over.
That’s how it works in movies, so I imagine it’s just like that in real life, too.
here is the site with the pool hours:
http://www.iurecsports.org/aquatics_spring_hours
I’d go to the srsc, its bigger, more hours, less hassle sharing lanes. HPER is smaller, dark and yeah, it was good enough for Spitz, but if Sptiz was here today, he’d go to the srsc. The site above also has the info about getting a one day pass.
easy running in and around town. But we just got a lot of snow (for us), so I’d run early so you have empty streets, and don’t have to bail into snowbanks when traffic is out and about.
The SRSC is the way to go. MUCH nicer pool than HYPR. It’s a little more on the daily pass ($6:00 I believe), and you’re within walking distance of Lennies (brewery and restaurant). The SRSC daily pass also gives you access to the indoor track and/or treadmills, stationary cycles, and weight equipment.
He said Lennies… I love that place, bbq chicken pizza on multigrain crust…
Lennies for lunch, Nicks for dinner and beers.
Something about the pool at the hyper…dingy…old…water alwasy tasted wierd. Kind of like Wrigley Field in a way though.
finally, someone else here who appreciates the HPER (pronounced hyper, but no ‘y’ in the spelling)!
it’s old school, and all the kiddos go to the srsc. what could be better?