Anyone own / train in one? Curious to see if it’s worth the $$, practical to train with, etc. Maybe even purchase a used one?
We had our pool installed with a Fastlane last fall.
The negatives:
Without trying to oversimplify things, I’d say it’s comparable to a treadmill. Time seems to go by slower when on a treadmill in comparasion to running outside. Same with the Endless Pool. The second complaint is I find myself getting out of rhythm if I move away from the current. It’s not as simple as moving back. I have to drift back and then get in front again and swim close. However, that hasn’t been as much of a problem since getting the mirror. Lastly, more than once I’ve planned on doing a workout, and decided to fall asleep on a raft instead once I got to the pool.
Positives:
A major factor for me was that I really don’t enjoy going to a gym. I may never go to a gym again. If I change something a little, it’s instant feedback to see if I changed speed. The mirror is cool.
They are not for everyone. Contact Endless Pools to see if there’s an expo, showroom, or open house near you.
I got lucky. One Monday I randomly checked craigslist and found a guy that had just posted his pool 2 days earlier. It was about 10 years old and he was asking $2500 for it. It needed about $1500 in replacement parts, most of which were in a ‘move kit’ that Endless Pools sells: new liner, new through fittings, new impeller blade, etc. That will also transfer the support to you, and they’re good to deal with. This one also needed a new circulation pump and I splurged on upgrading to the wireless remote. That lets me turn the current on and off and adjust it in discrete increments using a key fob. Cost me a few hundred more and a ton of work to pour a slab for it. Once that was done, assembly was pretty straightforward.
For me, it’s been great. I’ve already swam more this year than I did all of last year. Of any workout, I was most likely to skip the swim. Now, I really can’t make any excuses. Here’s my list.
Pros:
- Convenience. I throw on my trunks and I can be swimming 30 seconds later. Even with the gym about 8 minutes from my house, I’m still saving least 30-40 minutes every time I swim. I also don’t have to worry about scheduling. If I’m busy with something around the house or my wife and I have plans, I can still walk out onto the back deck at 10 pm and do a full swim workout.
- Non-stop swimming. I don’t have turns breaking up my tri swims, now I don’t have them breaking up my training swims, either.
- I control the temperature. For whatever reason, I do better in water that’s several degrees warmer than most people prefer. To me, water temps in the 70’s feels cold, which makes me less likely to swim. There were times when I would be at the gym with my feet in the water and still bail on the swim workout because it felt too cold.
- Feedback. Get the mirror or rig one up on your own (mine came with it). You can watch your stroke at every point.
- Consistent pace. If you’re doing workouts at a certain pace, you don’t have the option of slowing down as you fatigue. You know that you’re going the exact same speed at the end of that workout as you were at the beginning. That also holds true across workouts. With the wireless remote, I set a baseline current speed and then index off that for different workouts. When I turn the current on, that’s my warm up speed. If I’m doing long base intervals, I’ll turn it up 3 notches. If I’m doing tempo swims, I’ll go up 6. For speed work, its 8 and for sprints, it’s 12. When I’m done, I bring it back to where I started to cool down and it’s set for the next time I use it. As my fitness and speed increase, the increments remain the same, but the baseline increases.
- My Golden Retrievers love it. Two of the 3 just like running around the edge and pawing at me while I swim. The third has figured out that it’s fun to get in and swim around. It’s become a trick sometimes to get her out and she can’t be on the porch while I’m trying to do a workout.
Cons:
- Swim by time only. Obviously you can’t swim a certain distance. Since most training plans spell out certain distances at certain paces, you have to convert them. If a plan calls for fast 100s, I’ll swim for about 1:30. If it’s a more relaxed pace, I’ll swim about 1:40 for each 100. Timing those intervals can also be a trick, so you’ll need to set up a clock that’s easily visible while you swim. While it’s not easy, I’ve determined that it is possible to look at your stopwatch during the recovery phase of the stroke.
- Unless you have the $150 pace clock they sell, it’s easy to lose track of the baseline speed I mentioned above, since you’re pressing the button on the remote and listening for a change in the motor to tell you the speed changed.
- Can’t do multi-pace intervals. There’s really no way to do something like an easy-build-easy-hard 100, since you can’t change the speed while swimming. I’m a bit surprised that Endless Pools hasn’t come out with a programmable interface so that you can set up workouts for certain durations, speeds, etc.
- If you’re a fish, it probably won’t be fast enough for interval stuff. They claim the standard motor is good for about a 1:15/100y pace. The high performance motor is supposed to be good for about 1:02/100y. I can’t speak to the validity of those claims, since I doubt I could manage those paces for even 25y. Given that, it’ll be a long time before the capacity of the motor is a limiter for me.
I disagree about it being boring. To me, long sets in the EP are no worse than in a regular pool. In fact, it’s better. Maybe that’s because I have the mirror and that’s something to focus on.
Can’t tell you if it’s worth it. Getting the used setup that I did, it was a no brainer. Here’s the setup:
Thanks for those reviews, dgunthert I love the pic. What a sweet setup and a nice deal!! I have an email in to EP now. Haven’t discussed w/ the wife yet!!!
I did a quick search and found this in Danbury. Offer them 5 grand they will probably take it. Worth saving 15 g’s to pick up.Rent a uhaul.
http://newyork.craigslist.org/fct/for/1771086874.html
Damn kinda wish I was in the market.
Those dimensions in that post don’t make sense. The standard inside dimensions are 7’x14’, although you can get it up to 2’ shorter. I’d be curious how they ended up with one that short.
Lastly, more than once I’ve planned on doing a workout, and decided to fall asleep on a raft instead once I got to the pool.
LOL.
I have swum in one but do not own one. They are fun and I could see myself using one a lot if I had one - so much easier than getting to a pool!
I dont know but I would definetly go see it in person before I paypal/wired a downpayment and maybe ask to see pictures of it when it was together.
I was really lucky with mine. The guy still had it assembled, which allowed me to check that it was functioning. I also helped him take it down, which made a difference when it came time to put it back together again. Even without that, though, it wouldn’t have been too bad. The videos EP provides are very clear.