When my Tuff Pool with an Endless Pools Fastlane became functional in October, I completely gave up swimming at the gym lap pool. Besides the fun, I needed to try to work myself out of getting sea sick in it, which I made progress with the more time I spent swimming against the current. Four months later, I had the chance to swim in the rooftop pool at the Grand Regent Hotel in Taipei. Now, I would see what a regular pool felt like after all that time in moving water.
The roof is 20 stories up in the middle of Taipei. It is not the tallest building, but is tall enough that most of the skyline is clear blue. It feels like it could be a private beach.
There is a digital sign at the entry to the pool area that shows
- the current air temperature (29.8° C, 85° F, but the thermometer was in a sheltered area; the weather report said it was more like 72° F),
- the pool water temperature (28.7° C, about 83° F),
- the pool pH (7.5), and
- (I think) chlorine levels (0.63?).
The water temperature felt perfect, somehow easy to get into, but never too warm to swim in. The breeze may have had something to do with that. The attendant said the length was 20 meters, which seemed right according to my experience.
I really didn’t know what to expect. Would my balance be different? Had I lost any stamina due to only swimming 30 minutes at a time? Would I be slower or faster?
I did not have my swim watch on, so can’t verify it, but I felt smooth and quick in the water. Stroking felt easy and my form felt natural. After the normal period of warm-up, when my breathing adjusts to the rhythm of swimming, I was able to swim several laps without stopping. The total time for the non-stop swimming intervals (except for touching the wall and turning) was definitely longer than any of the swimming intervals I had been doing in the Fastlane current.
The only trouble I had is that one arm got somewhat strained. I’m assuming this is because I swam a mile, or about twice as long as I had been. It had all been so comfortable, that I didn’t think the added distance would be too much. Now I know to be careful of that.
It seems like swimming in the Fastlane translates well into swimming in less turbulent water. I just need to work on increasing the length of my swimming intervals and the total time swimming. And fit in an open water swim or two. Then, I think I will be ready for my next triathlon.
