If someone is faster then me and I swim with them, afterwards I say, “thank you for the workout.” I think they appreciate that.
If the post is 42% fascetious, does that make the other 58% facetious?
Frank
Thanks, Mr. Harbrace.
You raise a very important issue that I think we all need to pay more attention to. BTW, have you talked to your boss about this? I bet he’s got some pearls of wisdom to share.
why bother to worry about what the lane next to you is doing? sorta like getting all upset about the car next to you at the stoplight - who gives a c%^&.
Life is way to short and keeping to my workout is more important than getting upset that someone else has a different view of what the pool is for.
I enjoy having someone in the next lane to push me, or someone I can crush, either one diverts my attention from the workout (and concomitant pain). In the pool, there usually isn’t that much conversation. If I’m riding with a fast pack, to where I can’t spend much time on the front, I’ll always thank them for the tow. If I’m running with someone who paces me well, I usually kick their wallker out from under them and then drop them like a bad habit…
“If the post is 42% fascetious, does that make the other 58% facetious?
Frank”
A possibility surprisingly lost on many here!
I nominate “sunglass guy”. 5’6, 425# greasy in appearance. Stands in the corner of the lap pool dunking himself for 10 minutes at a time. Like a big ol bobber, up and down. Never seen the guy without huge dark sunglasses on while doing this. <indoor pool, large club>. When his “workout” is complete, he moves to one of the whirpools to stand in yet another corner and, well bob.
My friend and I had an interesting experience in the pool last week…we are females, and were in the middle of a pretty fast workout in the “fast lane” on our gym’s 3 lane pool when an older man asked if he could get in our lane. I replied “If you can circle swim at 1:40/100 come on in.” and off my friend and I went for our next 100. As we came back we saw that he was WALKING in sneakers in our lane! We dodged him as best we could (the lanes are not regulation and are a little narrow) but I nearly had a head-on collision with my friend when I came off the wall; the walker was down at our end of the pool as we were flip turning and she had to swim around him to get to the wall; she had to stand up to avoid hitting me. Finally when we were all at the same end I said to him “We need to find a way to make this work if the 3 of us are going to share this lane.” at which point my friend suggested that he move to a now empty lane two lanes over. He said “Why don’t YOU move over?” We told him “We were here first. All our gear is here.” He replied “Tough sh__!!!” and proceeded to walk away…we couldn’t believe it! When he came back I said “The next time you ask us to share our lane we’ll tell you no.” HE then pointed his finger in my face and said “Your problem is that you think you own the pool!” And I pointed out that we were already in the middle of our workout and he was an invited guest in our lane.
We finished our workout anyway, but now I avoid swimming there when he’s there…The reason I am telling this story was because I decided to use it as a lesson in problem solving. In triathlons the swim is the most frustrating, aggrivating part of the race (because of the proximity and physicality) SO, I took this as an opportunity to mentally move beyond the emotion (anger!) and focus on my workout…
and hey, it wasn’t ME who let all the air out of his car tire!!!
I’ve told this story here before, about 2 years ago, about “The Underwater Swimming Guy.”
But I’ve got one even more wierd than that. Its a dude who is very real who does underwater laps in our 25 yard indoor pool. Okay, he starts about 5 yards from each end and goes to the other end and stops 5 yards before the end of the lane, under water, frog kicking. It ends up being about a whopping 15 yards under water.
Does those laps back and forth for about an hour. After each lap, he pops up, does some kind of whooping bird, fidgety pacing thing, and, about a minute later, off he goes, for another Jacque Cousteau segment.
When it gets real crowded we actually cuss at him because we can’t share a lane with him. He’s still there and I see him everyday. Some of the newbie swimmers will want a lane and they will walk up to him and ask him if he’s swimming, when he’s going to stop. A few brave ones will ask him to share a lane. I saw one guy point to the kids side, he was so pissed when they were talking. He will mumble something, and I don’t know what he says, but they don’t share a lane with him.
Hilarious.
I believe people like that are the reason Butterfly was invented.
A couple sloppy repeats usually solves everything.
Nope, no answer. Just the blank stare of a perplexed senior citizen. I think I might have seen some drool as well 
Mercy, if that were me it would have likely ended in assault. Luckily it would be that bastard attacking me and not the other way around. My mouth is as foul as my fuse is short when it comes to people saying crap like “your problem is…” I apparently have a knack for talking people into attacking me in those situations. It would be worth getting both of us banned from the club and me very seriously threatening to press charges. There’s fewer things more satisfying than seeing someone’s face full of rage right after they’ve hit you and you’ve calmly asked “Feel better now? Had enough?”
Those guys don’t bug me too much, it’s the ones who wait until I’m just about to hit the wall before they push off that drive me nuts. Look buddy, we’re in the FAST lane and I’ve lapped you 3x in the past 200m. What’s the deal with pushing off nanoseconds before my feet hit the wall? You KNOW I’m going to ram right into you on just the pushoff alone…
My normal tactic is to pass them close, and then cut in when they’re right beside my hip. Oops. Sorry about that.
It would probably bug me a lot less if it didn’t happen EVERY SINGLE TIME I go to the pool.
Hey AP - what time do you swim? The night crew at VAC is just freakin’ CLUELESS (as apparently am I, for continuing to go there). I gotta start getting up early to swim…
I had a similar experience on a long bike this week. I was about 45 minutes from home, and had been on the road for more than 4 hours. A couple of yahoos in Euro-tour team kit and expensive bikes came up to me at a stop light. They looked like they’d been riding about 15 minutes and said something about hurrying back to the office after this lunchtime ride. As we pulled away, I heard some muttering directed toward me about “Why have a bike like that if you ride so slow…”
A-holes.
I laugh at the some of the pricks on the road bikes that will pull up next to your bike at the red light and will not even look at you to say hi. Lighten up roadies…it’s a short life…enjoy it.
I get fed up with the 25yd racers also. The best bet is to nuke them and nuke them good, even if it means screwing up your interval a bit. The bottom line is if your a better swimming you should be able to drop them, even if they are resting after each 25.
The people I hate the most are the ones that will stand at the end of the pool with a confused look on their face trying to pick a lane to get into. The idiots choices are as follows 2 lanes with one oldy per lane doing side stroke, 1 lane filled with a whale floating up and down the pool, 2 lanes with fitness swimmers making the same pace as the guy trying to pick which lane to get into, Finaly my lane with me doing 100 Meter repeats on the 1:30-1:20. You guessed it they pick my lane and I start lapping them about every other 50. Even after we nearly hit about 10 times and I nearly drown them they still won’t move to another lane.
I guess thry like the challenge? Makes no sense to me especially when they could swim with someone closer to their skill level and not get abused like they do when they try to swim with someone much faster.
Tim
Sorry, but this one has me lost. So you’re forced to share a lane with a swimmer who is slower than you… what’s wrong with splitting the lane? It ain’t rocket science, we do it every day at masters.
you know why you’re upset at these guys? because when they race you, you feel obliged to race them back. “You must be stupid, stupid, stupid.” (evert luftkin, vp, claims dept)
don’t you realize that he knows you’re swimming equal with him even tho you’re in the middle of a long set? don’t you know he feels like a girly-man after he exits the pool?