Great Training weekend

Due to a water polo tournament at EMU, I broke my streak of training in Ypsilanti by choosing to swim at a local community pool for Saturday and Sunday. As expected, there were kids and foam noodles as far as the eye can see. At times it felt like a medieval gauntlet.

Since my recent revelation about the benefits of swimming in an actual training facility, I've avoided community pools because I was so certain I got a better workout when I swam at EMU. My main complaints about typical community pools are:

1. High Water Temp
2. Distractions
3. No Lane Lines
4. Shallow Pool Depths
5. Crowded
6. 1 Hour Duration Open Swim

I'm pleased to report that through a few tweaks, I seemed to have overcome a few of these training speedbumps:

1. High Water Temp - I've been trying to do too many mid distance training in a warm pool. Sprinting works much better since you don't heat up nearly as much when only swimming for less than 30 seconds
2. Distractions - I solved this one by accident. I left my normal "smoked" goggles at home and was forced to use my "eclipse" tinted outdoor goggles. These suckers are so dark that I could barely see anything, it was a great way to lose myself in my training without distractions!
3. No Lane Lines - This one is more laziness than anything, I almost always have the option to put in a lane line, but are usually too lazy to do it. This weekend I took the time and put in a lane line.
4. Shallow Pool Depths - Since most community pools are shallow, I can't work on my underwater kicking in an ideal setting. I accepted this fact and simply added 5 minute kick set at the end of my practice in the deep end where I had plenty of room.
5. Crowded - This weekend just happened to be fairly light on patrons.
6. 1 Hour Duration Open Swim - I arrived early so I could stretch and hop in as soon as open swim began and then stayed till it ended, maximizing my training time.

My practices this weekend (by comparison) were fantastic. It was great to overcome these hurdles but in the end, my training success can be chalked up to me simply cranking up the dial. I worked harder and pushed myself like I needed to.