Swimmingly

[jack]

I went swimming at Jesus Green yesterday and it was great.

I just did 13 lengths of Jesus Green, but felt quite cleansed after. My legs felt weak afterwards, and my arms ached a touch this morning, from which I judge it to have been actually a decent workout, and yet easy to *do*, not in constant pain like trying to go jogging :)

I hadn't been swimming for years[1], not since I was at school. Dad and I used to swim quite a lot (often and far, in fact, I was briefly quite selkie).

[1] Except last week, I *had* arranged to go in the cam at the puntmoot, in lead up to taking up swimming again.

I thought it might be too cold, it hadn't been a very summery day, and flirting with raining. But the water was cool, which felt pretty good, and to make up for it, the showers were full and hot, which felt very very good. Though it would be nice to be sunny *sometimes*

I thought I mightn't be able to do it any more. In fact, I was AFAICT, pretty slow -- I can still swim, but not with a very efficient technique any more. But I can get up and down enough that it works rather than doesn't work.

I thought I might be embarrassed at stripping off in public -- my sveltness wars with my tact and my constantness as aspects that appeal people to me the least :) I think the same every time I get a new girlfriend, for that matter. But since Ghoti's party, I decided I might be able to improve it, but didn't see any point worrying about it. And indeed, no-one objected, and somehow when everyone's drenched its different.

It was quite quiet. There were at most half-a-dozen people, all circular swimming, so pretty much no-one's in anyone's way whatever happens. A couple of people in mini-wetsuits (which makes you look like you know what you're doing), a couple of middle-aged men who look like they could swim for leagues, a young couple who seemed to come to swim two lengths and shower together :) A young man in red shorts who practised diving with the lifeguards whenever the middle was clear. I met one of the men in the changing area coming out, and he said he came every day, and highly recommended it.

ETA: And I dropped my watch, but it overfulfulls its waterproof rating, and a nice man found it for me, and I can still manage to scoop stuff up from the bottom in a shallowish end.

Comments

[naath.livejournal.com]

Most pools have a lane or two roped off for people to swim lengths in and then the rest of the area for doing whatever.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's what I'd expect. Here they had 2/3 of the pool for circular swimming, and 1/3 roped off because -- apparently, according to my friend in the showers -- the number of lifeguards on duty was regulated to only be sufficient for a smaller pool, regardless that it would be *safer* to space people out more.

[numberland.livejournal.com]

I'd heard a lot about this last year and knew they were going to rope of about 1/3 at least for a lot of the time, silly, silly government rules. What have they actually done in the end? (i.e which bit did they rope off?)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Yesterday, they'd roped off ~third of the width, on the opposite side to the entrance. There weren't any signs or anything, I don't know if they'd have stopped me or not if I'd gone in to practice diving, but didn't try.

[numberland.livejournal.com]

That makes sense. I'm pretty sure that that was indeed not meant to be used. The rules are very, very silly, including that in terms of how many lifeguards is required for a pool of a certain size, only the area is counted. Beacause obviously you need the same number of lifeguards in a 6x100m pool as a 20x30m one.... Anyway, I could rant about this all for far too long...

Would you like to head down to Jesus Green together at some point? I've been meaning to go for quite a while and I would be nice to go with someone - it sounds like neither of us will be scarily better than the other. Oh, and I second that 13 lengths should not be preceeded by just!

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes. Yes, I assumed the rules had got based on area. Which is a reasonable guess, I mean, it's obviously *about* right. But really does produce a stupid answer in this case -- if the pool had been the full width, it would have been *safer* as there'd have been *absolutely* no need for collisions, and no-one would be any further from the nearest guard; and yet even if there'd been only one person you'd still need more than one guard, as you could probably half-drown quite happily at the far end without really being visible.

Would you like to head down to Jesus Green together at some point?

Yes, sure. I want to go again, hopefully regularly, and certainly would enjoy a little company. Though it'll no doubt be a while before we're both free at the same time, I'll probably just shout if I feel like going and want to see if anyone wants to come with :)

[simont]

If it's entirely based on area, they should have roped off a bit in the centre – so that people could still swim in circles around the entire circumference of the pool :-)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

:)

Though actually, I don't know if that's better; most people seem to go end to end, swimming diagonally at most, I bet they think in terms on lengths rather than "turn right and swim 4m" at every end. And with the current set up, you can overtake in the oncoming lane, as it were.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Of course, with six people there, it's practically impossible for them to get it wrong, free swimming, circular swimming, lane swimming, would all work fine :) I *don't* fancy coping with kids -- but then I don't fancy coping with fast people either :)