Swimming: 1800 Yards - 4/25

For a while I've been wanting to get into a proper lap pool, partially because the sprint triathlon in Sudbury has its swimming portion in a pool, and partially because I wanted to have some sort of calibration information on what my swimming speed is. While the endless pool is a great tool, it's very difficult to get distance information out of it.

Another reason I wanted to do some swimming in either a pool or open water is because I have been suspicious that swimming in an endless pool is significantly different than a traditional pool. It's hard to explain - but the best I can do is say that there's a difference in effort swimming against a current than there is in propelling yourself through the water. Sure, you can increase the speed of the endless pool, but its not quite the same. No matter what the countercurrent flow rate, if you just let yourself float in an endless pool, you will drift at a slower rate than the counter current. As it turns out, my suspicions were right.

Thats not to say the endless pool is still not a phenominal tool - but it is important to realize it is just that - a tool. And like all tools, there is a right way and a wrong way to use it.

Anyhow - this morning I ventured over to the Atkinson pool in Sudbury. I chose this location because its where the sprint tri takes place, but also because it sounded like more of a workout type environment (based on the web site), as opposed to a pool at a Y or a gym. The nice thing about this pool is that it pretty much always have lanes open for lap swimming.

So - here are the results:

Lap 1 - 400 Yds - 9:23 (distance of the sprint tri swim, just to get an idea)
Lap 2 - 100 Yds - 1:46
Lap 3 - 400 Yds - 8:01 (timed in 50 Yd sections to measure how pace changes)
Lap 4 - 100 Yds - 1:57
Lap 5 - 100 Yds - 1:53
Lap 6 - 100 Yds - 1:53
Lap 7 - 200 Yds - 4:13 (mostly for practice of flip turns)
Lap 8 - 400 Yds - 8:22

So - it takes me about 2 minutes to do 100 Yds. A far cry from what I used to be able to do when swimming in high school - but at least I have a number. Also, I was glad to know that I was able to swim a mile in about 38 minutes total aggregated time (would certainly be a bit longer if done all at once).