Swim Rant...

...But first, a little bit of a back-story.  Here's April by the numbers:

Volume ended up being just under 43 hours for the month.  Cycling volume?  I'm happy with the month.  Running volume?  It's a little low for me, but close.  Swimming volume?  This was a complete failure.

I manage to come up with a new excuse every month as to why I'm not getting in more yardage, so here's the one for April.  Going to the pool just plain blows.  I hate walking into the pool area and seeing that each lane is packed to the gills - 3, sometimes 4 swimmers in each lane.  I hate it when you are forced to circle swim with someone who is doing the doggie paddle 15 yards at a time and then standing in the middle of the pool for 5 minutes before they carry on for the last 10 yards.  I hate it when a bunch of kids show up and start playing Marco Polo with no regard for anyone.  And I hate it that gym management does nothing about it, despite complaints from many.

I need to become a better swimmer.  And on the rare occasions when the stars align and I'm able to get a smooth workout in, each one is better than the last.  But the good workouts happen maybe once a week.  The other workouts are so frustrating that I almost want to start drowning the other people in my lane.  At this point, it's usually best to cut my losses and leave the pool, regardless of how far into my workout I am.  Sometimes I don't even bother logging them in my training plan, that's how bad those sessions are.

Pool Enforcer

Lately I've taken on the role of self serving pool vigilante.  I can't help it, because there is so much inconsiderate behavior going on.  Example - Yesterday the pool wasn't overly crowded, so I decided to wait for half a lane to open up instead of being the 3rd wheel in another lane.  I don't like 3 to a lane, so I try not to even consider asking others to like it.  After about 10 minutes, a lane opened up.  So I walked over to the pool deck and unpacked my kick board and other stuff and then walked back to a bench to put my swim bag away.  While my back was turned (which was maybe 15 seconds), some other guy came out of nowhere, jumped into my lane and pushed my stuff aside so he (get ready for it) had a place to put his bottle of Mountain Dew.  This was total BS and I immediately called him out on it.

Me:  Hey man, what's up?

Him:  Excuse me?

Me:  You just took my lane.

Him:  I didn't know...

Me:  What do you mean you didn't know?  You just moved my stuff so you could put your sports drink down.

Him:  I'm new to this swimming stuff, I just want to get a quick swim in.

Me:  Awesome, but you need to wait.

Him:  Why?

Me:  Because I've been waiting awhile for a lane to open up.  I don't recall seeing you around until about 5 seconds ago.  Things work a certain way here.

Him:  Well what are the rules?

Me:  The rules are that you need to be considerate.  If we were upstairs (the weight room), would you walk over to me while I was using, say the shoulder press, and pull me off the bench if I was between sets?

Him:  No...

Me:  Well that's kind of what you just did here, and I gotta say I'm kind of bummed about it.

Him:  It's cool dude, I'm getting out (leaves lane).

But I'm on fire by now....and the small victory gained by him leaving was not enough justice.

Me (to the older woman, who for all I know was a nun, that was using the other side of the lane):  NO ONE else in this lane.  I'm sick of this s**t.  You OK with that?

That last line is pretty classy, huh?

Well I'm sorry sweet old lady, but this stuff is really starting to make me mad.  Especially since there are like 3 or 4 of these signs hanging on the walls:

Lane 1 is for slow lap swimming or water aerobics

Lane 2 & 3 are for lap swimming ONLY

2 swimmers to split a lane 

More than 2 swimmers to a lane by mutual consent of all swimmers.

These rules are pretty clear, right?  Then what's the problem - Do swimmers have a 72.3% lower literacy rate than non-swimmers?  Doubtful.  So it's a mystery.

My swim volume is bound to go up in May and for the rest of the summer because the weeknight OWS groups start up in the next couple weeks.  But if I've learned anything about swim training over the winter is that it's all about drills Drills DRILLS and repeats Repeats REPEATS.  Obviously this is tough in the open water.  Maybe I need to switch pools.  But is the next one going to be any better?  I doubt that there is a kick-ass pool that no one knows about waiting for me in it in this city of over 200,000 people.  It's really kind of a bum out.

So, what's your pool situation?  Can you at least empathize with my pool vigilante tendencies?