I sometimes surprise myself as to how rigid I can be and how resistant I am to changes. Take my triathlon training for instance. I have always done the same bike route, same run route. Even when I'm doing my long rides, I just do a few rounds. As for long distance running training for the Ironman, trust me, doing 7 loops of 4.35km can be pretty mental at times!
Since moving to this neighbourhood, I have been travelling to my usual swim pool at UWA. It takes about 20-30 minutes drive from our place, depending on traffic.
For my last two swims however, I tried something new. Li-Ann was given two free passess to the swimming pools near our place from the municipal council. Sort of lot a welcome gift for moving into the neighbourhood.
The first pool I tried was Terry Tyzack Aquatic Centre in Inglewood. There was a tri squad there under the coaching of Ross Pedlow of Exceed Sports. Fellow tri blogger, John Cooke joins that group as well and we had a short chat. The session was pretty good. I'm used to swimming in a 25m pool, so my times were slower at this 50m one. And it hit nearly zero degrees that night, so I was feeling a bit numb, most likely due to frost bite!
The other pool was even closer to home, Balga Leisurepark. I did my own session this time. It was an indoor heated 25m pool. Nice, short and warm. Having said that, I still swam slower by 5 seconds for every 100m. Mainly due to the walls being higher and I found it difficult to turn.
Would I be changing pools anytime soon? Probably not. I know I would adapt to a new place if I gave it a chance. But I'm justifying my decision purely based on costs. I do not have to pay for pool entry at UWA, just the coaching fee. But these places charge almost $5 per entry, on top of the coaching fee. Which is way more than what I would pay if I stayed on at UWA, even after taking traveling costs into account.
Yes, I am an accountant by profession, after all! :P
7 comments:
Awesome! Its is winter,0 deg. and no wetsuit? I was thinking hypothermia.
How do you recover afterwards?
Hahhah Paul, the pool is heated lah. But the air was still freezing. So it gets very cold when doing the recovery stroke. Also, need to get dressed in warm clothes quickly after the swim.
Since we triathletes do swim non-stop most of the times, it is sometimes annoying when other swimmers are crossing our paths, don't u think?
Let's train hard bro, PD tri is nearing fast!
OK! I though only the 2nd pool being indoor was heated, whereas the 50m pool was open so no heating...
Nik: Pools here are quite good and organized. There lane ropes and designated signs for fast, medium, slow swimmers. So minimum interruption.
Paul: Oops, I need to be clearer in my posting then. Yeah, all pools here are heated. Otherwise no one will swim during winter.
good luck for pd tri.. =) $$$ is always the main factor =)
Thanks Fong. Won't be too caught up with money, as not sure what are my chances like. Just to have fun racing with no pressure :)
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