The Aquatic Goat Rodeo

They've shut down the training pool at the Y for maintenance for six weeks. The training pool is kept about 10F warmer than the lengths pool. The depth is adjustable, but it's generally kept about three feet deep. This is where older folk go for low-impact exercise and physio; novices develop their strokes in an environment where the side is never far away and the water's never deep. I like going there at the end of my swim to stretch in the warmer water.

But as it's closed, the die-hards among the denizens are flooding the lengths pool. There are three roped-off lanes for lengths, taking up half the pool, but I wasn't sure I'm fast or consistent enough to use them, when I had the whole other half of the pool to swim lengths without getting in somebody's way. But today, it was an obstacle course in there. People just standing around, people doing physio routines that looked like interpretive dance, people just in general getting in the way.

At first, I was sore displeased. I was having a helluva a time picking my way around people to do my set. Twenty-five metre lengths were becoming 30m lengths. I was shipping water from the wakes of other people trying to swim lengths pressed into a more confined area.

Then, dodging someone coming eastbound while I was trying to go west, I almost collided with a guy going west at a fair clip front crawl. I pulled up in time, but found myself swimming right at his feet. And I found the going surprisingly easy; I was keeping pace with breast stroke, and it was a cool-down lap. My first experience of drafting in the water.

That's when I realized ... if I think *this* is a goat rodeo, what am I going to make of the beginning of the triathlon? I started to enjoy it more. It's good practice for swimming in traffic. Good for learning how to draft. Good for learning how to deal with a mouthful of water.

And I started realizing the people "in my way" weren't pylons. The two women leaning on the edge of the pool chatting? One was trying to help the other overcome her fear of water and feel more comfortable floating. The older guy beside them was doing pushdowns with flutterboards stacked on top of each other. Excellent idea.

I did eventually move over to the roped off lanes, where I settled in quite comfortably in the medium-fast lane. I actually ended up doing almost as much dodging there; one of my lane-mates had a massively horizontal front crawl, his arms swinging out almost the entire width of the lane. I had to duck half into the fast lane on more than one occasion. But I managed to string together 200m uninterrupted, which is the best I've managed to date.

With only eight weeks to go, I think it's too late for a massive overhaul of my swim technique. That'll have to wait till winter. But I find myself hoping next swim is going to be just as crowded so I can work on my traffic skills and see if I can sneak in a draft or two without anybody noticing.