SCY vs LCM

You see that? I am using big words (abbreviations in this case but whatever) like a real swimmer. 

Until February 2011 I did not even know that something like short course yard pools existed. I knew that 25m pools existed because I might have gone to the pool back home once or twice (and that one was 25m) and then I started swimming more in Cali in Oct 2010 and there we had 25m pool and 50m pool. Actually I did not know that 50m pool existed until then. I knew that there were two different kinds of pools competitions were held at but I was never interested to find out what the difference was.

Anyway, when I went to Michigan I started to swim in a small indoor 25yard pool. I have spent almost one whole year in that pool and I loved it.

But now I spend most of my swimming time in 50m outdoor pool and that my friends is love. It is so different from what I got used to in MI. 

This 50m AND outdoor pool is heaven!!! We have had a nice weather in past 4 days and I was able to do all my swims in sunshine. There is nothing better than swimming under the shining sun. Seriously. I am really jealous of people who can swim outdoors in sunshine all year long. Honestly, I am going to move to Cali, Hawaii, Florida, Arizona or wherever you can swim outdoors all year long. (I am sure you can swim outdoors in southern Europe as well, but as you might know by know you cannot really swim in pool in Europe so no moving to southern Europe).

I swam in outdoor pool under the sun in LA but there I swam maybe 2-3k/week so I was not really able to appreciate the beauty of it. I can do it only now when I swim more and when I can compare tiny YMCA pool in Michigan to this heaven-like pool.

So, yes, I love that pool. 

I think that swimming in 50m pool is much better to prepare myself for triathlons than shorter pools. (And even more if the pool does not have lane dividers and therefore it can get quite choppy.)

CH told me that his 1500 swim is around 1min slower in 50m pool than it is in 25m pool. And I believe him because CH is an accomplished swimmer so he must know what he is talking about. That’s like 4s per 100, or 4s for 3 additional turns! Of course, because he is a swimmer he knows how to push hard off the walls and then for someone like me the “wall effect” might not be quite as high but I am sure that it is still there.

Plus 25yard pool is only 22.8m, and your pace difference btw 100yards vs 100m can easily be 10s.

Of course I realize the difference but still swimming in 25yard pool can give me a fake feeling that I am a decent swimmer when in fact I am not. (I am not saying that I ever thought that I was a decent swimmer, I have always known that I suck because my best 100yard in scy was around 1:14, which would be like what in lcm? 1:30ish, which is really nothing to brag about…)

There are no walls in triathlon so it is better than I have a wall only every 50m as opposed to 25y, right?

So all in all. I love the pool! Because it is outdoors and because it is 50m!

Now if only all German senior citizens slept until at least 8am and I did not have to deal with them during my morning workouts.