I am on a business trip and so today’s morning swim was done at a pool I don’t regularily swim at. The pool was really warm - 84 degrees! The lifeguard said its that warm so that the little kids don’t get cold during swim lessons. Anyway, I noticed my swim times were really slow today. 10 seconds slower on my 300 repeats. 5 seconds slower on 200s. 2 seconds slower on 100s.
Has anyone else experienced being slower in really warm water? I was well rested and fresh going into todays workout, so I can’t really blame being tired as why I swam slow.
Absolutely you will swim slower in a hot pool. My pool is usually 81 degrees at the YMCA because of the arthritis classes. Every once in a while the heater will break and when the temp gets down to 78 degrees, for ex, my times get faster. Just adjust your time goals…no big deal!!!
Today’s Y pool temp (they have it on a board on the deck) 84.
Complaints from the aquarobic senior citizens during the hour I was there that the pool was too cold. 5.
Average pool temp the last year 86.
Having someone from another town come to the Y and try to train then leave after 15 minutes cause they are overheating…priceless.
Agreed. Usually swim at my gym where temp is somewhere around 82-84. Swam for the first time with a masters group last week in 76-78ish water and was WAY faster than my normal set times. Something like 2-3 seconds per 50 in a set of 10! I was wondering 3 days later when I was back around my old times at the gym what happened, and came to the same conclusion. Maybe I’m not as slow as I think?
The fastest split times I’ve had for 1000 yards was in water that was around 90 degrees, outdoors, with snow on the ground.
It was freaking awesome. That’s our hotel in the upper right-hand corner. The water came out of the ground at around 120 degrees and went straight into the pool. It was niiiiiice and hot on one side of the pool, and on the other end, about 70 yards down, it cooled off to around 90.
The reason I think I had my fastest times was because a) I had just spent 24 hours in a van with three toddlers, four adults, and my father in law, and b) the pool has a ***very ***high mineral content, so it was kinda like swimming in the ocean.
Eww. gross. Hate warm pools. Gotta be 80 or less. And yes you are slower. This has been shown with results from all sorts of international events.
I remember swimming when I was about 7months pregnant, so you are basically burning hot all the time. The heater in the pool we normally swam in was broken, so it was a nice 74. I loved it. I think I was the only one to finish the workout
Y’all are wusses. The pool temperature here at my unheated-by-humankind outdoor pool is in the 88-90F range all August long because of the power of Southern summer weather.
I actually used to like it when one of the indoor pools I used to train at kept it set to 68F in the summer. Once you made it through that first chilly 100 yards or so, it was pretty pleasant and easy to go fast.
I really dont’ want to hear from someone in Florida the we are “wusses”…How many times do you train in subzero temperatures, train in sleet or snow, come home from a run or ride and cant’ talk because mouth and eyelids are frozen. Were I live you have winds 25mph quite commonly in the summer continuously. I/ve raced my bike home while getting hailed on in a tornado warning… All we’re saying is that a hot pool will slow you down, its certainly far from the most important enviromental challenge we all face as triathletes!!!
Or if you’ve got too much hair to go capless, it helps to stop every 1000 or so, pull cap and goggles off and swim or scull a 50 that’s as slow as you can go.
Oh absolutely, slow stuff. Over winter break I was swimming in a pool that is posted at 85-89 degrees, and to add to the pleasure, there is a big sauna right on the pool deck, just a couple of feet from the water. That was crazy.
Yes. My pool is always a bathtub, and I hate it. 84+ degrees. Every day!! Heater broke once last year, and it was down to 73… Loved it! The excuse we get about the high temp is that the older patrons complain if it’s too cold. I guess there are more of them than there are younger swimmers. In any event, I get out of the pool every morning with my face beet red. Sucks, but there ain’t thing one I can do about it. I do find I swim faster in a cooler pool.
n = 1, but I think I swim faster in colder water just because I’m trying to keep warm. I get cold soooo easily - faster swimming means less time shivvering
In January, I was in Tokyo for work and the hotel had a 25m pool – heated to 32 degrees celsius (pretty close to 90)!! That was one of my worst pool workouts ever. The chlorine felt like vapor. Not fun. I prefer a pool where it takes about 50-75 yds of swimming before it feels comfortable…
