Sunday, March 18, 2012

Kicked out of the pool and week in review

Well I am stoked this week that I have ticked all of the boxes on the program again and got all of the work done. Consistency yeah yeah! The knees/ITBs are both fine and feeling good. No burning even after the 60km ride and the 15min run off so again extremely happy. I'm not tired/fatigued and I have been sleeping really well which can be an issue for me, but at the moment all good.

Highlight of the week - was jumping on the last 60kms for Gaz's (6.5hr) ride and as I was fresh and he was pretty shattered I took the lead the whole way round the lake and hit the headwinds pretty hard. Felt comfortable and strong the whole way and we did some efforts and the legs/body responded well.

Lowlight of the week - gotta work harder on getting the diet right. I'd say 80% of the time I am getting it right but I know there is room for improvement. Energy wise though I am feeling good. I just know I can do better.

Mental note to sam - Got to stretch my calves more. Bit tight after the runs this week as I guess I have had a break from running and they didn't like getting back up on the front foot.

So about the pool and getting kicked out.............

Well imagine an 8 lane 50m pool. 5.30am in the morning. The squads are on. Lanes 5 through 8 are taken up by what I call "The Big Guys" You know...the kids that have been swimming since they were born in fact I think some of them have got to have webbed toes and fingers as they just smash through the water at a rate of knots that is well beyond this little black duck. Anyway, lanes 1 through to 3 are taken up with other squads. This squad is open to the average raggy doll anyone from the community can jump in and the cost is $10.

That leaves one little lane left. Lane 4. This one isn't booked and is for the general public to use. Soooo at 5am I am driving to the pool to meet my Coach and the rest of the team for our training session. So there is Alex (Coach and writes the session), Johno, Michael, Ed, Justin, Me and then Megan. Then there is this other guy who comes. He isn't in our group but he is a very strong swimmer and he is training for I.M too. And then there are 2 (larger) ladies in the pool doing freestyle (average swimmers) and then there is one little old lady with flippers and kickboard and she does one lap on her back and then one on her front. OK, so there is one lane and what's that???? 11 people crammed in there and the congestion is mad!!! To top it off the boys are very strong swimmers and it is just like swimming in open water when they go past you. And because the set goes 1km warm up, then drills, then main set, then warm down. It is a smash fest.

So ok, I can understand when the three ladies hop out of the pool and one or all of them have put in a complaint about us. Yep, its a train and it can be intimidating to anyone who is not a confident swimmer.

So anyway, the head of the pool sends Coach (Alex) an email stating that we need to stop! We have been kicked out of the pool. So our 7 athletes are kicked out. AND the dude that is the I.M swimmer doesn't get kicked out. Just because they know Coach they send him and email "Cease and desist order".

Now...ok I can see their point. But hang-on. Why do we have to get out? Why do we miss out and now these old fat biddies get to swim. If we had kickboards would we have got kicked out? When winter comes we will be rolling on but will they? I doubt it!. So their $15 (3x$5) entry fee vs our $35...hmmm It seems unfair. Now we have no place to swim and train and I personally was really getting a lot out of swimming with Coach and the rest of the team. We have explored other days and other pools but nothing seems to suit.

I think the compromise might be to give up the fast lane for the raggy dolls squad and give it to us. After all there is only 3 usually in that lane and here there is 11 of us crammed into one lane. But then the pool would lose the $10 x 3. Maybe they want us to join the raggy doll squad. But we are following our own Coach not some boring lady standing at the end of the pool and falling asleep every 10 minutes. 

I dunno....do you think we are being horrible to these women?

Or are we the ones being treated unfairly?

1 comment:

  1. I spent 9 years as a competitive swimmer and have seen a lot of mismatched swimmers put together in lanes. I'd say that one of two things happened - a) the complainers had some pull from being either related to someone at the pool or long time members or b) the person who made the call to kick you out has no idea what swimming practice is like.

    I'd say you're being treated unfair to not even get a warning. Everyone knows with 11 people in a lane there's bound to be one complaint.

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