I give up after today

 I am officially giving up on my resolution to train like a swimmer. That's right. After 4 days. 

I swam on Sat and Sun but then Monday 5:30am came and I stayed in bed instead of going swimming. But you see, it was not all my fault, it was 5C degree and raining. Brrrr.

Then this morning I woke up at 5:15am and had a fight with myself whether to get out or now. Thankfully my good self won and I told myself that if I stick my arm out from the window and it does not freezes then I will go. It was not too bad so I went. Outside temp 7C and water 20C. Not the most pleasant combination but the athlete got to do what she got to do.

And that’s the real blow to my resolution came. This pool is as crowded as every other pool. With senior citizens. Of course it is not as bad as indoor 25m pool but still pretty bad because people are idiots! Get this. There are no lane dividers so people zig-zag left and right even when they are breaststroking (and everyone is breastroking). I was swimming my straight line right above the line on the bottom (without that I would be going left and right like the others) and there were these two guys swimming next to me on my right side. And then suddenly I am between then. And then suddenly both of them are on my left. And then right in my way. And after one more turn they are on my right again. WTF? Can’t you swim straight especially since you see that I am swimming freestyle and can’t really see you, and I am holding my line and it is you who is zig-zagging? And it went like this for around 30min. And after those two left new idiots came and it was always the same.

I think that I have strained my neck because I had to sign every few stroked to see where people are. I wanted to do fast 100s but well, I did them but they were not fast.

500m w/up, 20x100m, 100m c/d.

So that’s the end of my swimming career. I have officially nowhere to swim. Unless I ask whether it is possible to reserve a lane, but I am not that rich to be able to do that. Or unless it rains every single weekend, because these seniors citizens do not go to swim on weekends and because it rains no kids are playing there.

I am going to join a group of triathletes to swim with but they swim only 1h 3x/week (and possibly only 2x/week in summer) and their swims are not as fast as I would want to. Because they cramp everything (drills, some sprints, some easy) into one session. You cannot get fast doing this. However, it costs 120Eur/year and I might leave Hannover in July (most probably Sept) and I am not sure I can pay that much money for just 6 weeks…. I will try to negotiate with them.

I will still go swimming in the mornings but I am setting my expectations very very very low. If I set my expectations for the swim high than I will lose my marbles. You cannot even imagine how anxious this pool situation makes me. And probably cannot even imagine how bad it is unless you experience it for yourself.
We shall see whether I can substitute quality with quantity.