Slow swimmer

[cjsmith]

I met my first seriously slow swimmer today. REALLY slow. INCREDIBLY slow. There were times when I just put my feet on the bottom and stood there, in the middle of the lane, waiting for him to change position perceptibly. It was amazing. Eventually I caught on to what the other five people in our lane were doing: partial laps. Reach this guy and immediately turn around wherever you are. Makes it hard to keep count of what you've done in your workout, but it's that or have no workout.

He just kept soldiering on, too. No rest at the end of the lane. No changes in stroke. No use of the kickboard or knee float (whatever you call those things). Just sauntering along.

Took him a while to hoist himself up the ladder at the end, too. He hung on, bobbing, for long enough that I wondered if that was some other kind of exercise he was doing.

Very very weird. I thought I was slow. I don't know how to move steadily through the water at a speed like that. Wow.

Comments

[ericainohio.livejournal.com]

Dude oughta get some kind of fitness medal for sticking to a workout that slow and tedious!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

No kidding! I kept wondering if he might be recovering from some injury. I couldn't see anything that would make it difficult for him to swim with more vigor, but that doesn't mean it wasn't there.

[kimatha.livejournal.com]

Wow. that is weird. I mean, good for him for trying, right? :)

Every time I see your swimming kitty, I just go "AWWWW!!!!" I love that picture.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was impressed with his tenacity.

YAY SWIMMING KITTY!

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

Awww ... what a great icon!

I don't know how to move steadily through the water at a speed like that. Wow.

I know what you mean -- I can't walk that slowly either. Sometimes when I go with a group to walk a labyrinth (http://www.labyrinthsociety.org/html/about_labyrinths.html) I'm the first one finished, because I simply can't walk as slowly as some of them do!

I met my first seriously slow swimmer today.

Does your pool not have separate lanes for faster and slower swimmers? It's usually good pool etiquette for very slow swimmers to stay in the first lane. If the people who run the pool? Maybe they can put up signs designating a "slow lane" -- some pools even have lanes marked "slow", "medium" and "fast", or put up signs numbering each lane and a sign that requests slower swimmers to stay in Lane 1. Is that a possibility?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

We have two lanes: FAST and EVERYONE ELSE. So yeah, he was staying in Lane 1... but so was I, and so were about five other people.

(I don't think FAST and EVERYONE ELSE is equitable, particularly when the pool is vast and mostly unused, but nobody asked me.)

[firecat]

Don't think I've ever seen a swimmer that slow. Too bad he was using the whole lane rather than allowing people to pass.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Well, the lanes are pretty narrow, and we circle-swim. Passing involves going head-on with someone coming the other way. :-/ He was staying to his side, as we all do.