Well it’s been a long time coming but we finally got to swim in the new pool in Consett this lunchtime. It was great (even if the pool hall was rather warm) decent pool temperature, wave eraser lane ropes and deck level sides.
There was a decent turnout as well with both big and little Clarkey making the effort to try the pool out. Lesley and I who have been two of the recent Sunday stalwarts were joined by another couple of them (Triathletes) see here.
It was Sunday so it must be hundreds right and EMSC 1.0 didn’t disappoint. It seems that he’s adapted well to the forced transition of habitat.
The general consensus between the crew was that the pool was pretty fast, probably worth 5 seconds a hundred over the old pool. After the initial euphoria we began to notice the defects, firstly the pace clocks hadn’t been fitted yet although we were assured they would be fitted as soon as the pool was handed over by the builders.
It was okay though because one of EMSC 1.0’s talents is his ability to call out the repeat times of at least a dozen swimmers at a time so we were getting a reasonable amount of feedback.
Then there was the the finish and we were all less than impressed by the fact that there was a line in the tiling which was not grouted at all, and there were little slivers of grout on the tiles at the shallow end (I believe the technical phrase for these slivers is “snots”). The tiler clearly had not made any effort to properly clean up after him.
Well it gave us something to moan and grouch about as we gasped for breath between the repeats. One other innovations of the new pool is the changing village which allowed us to continue our conversations (well okay our communal whinging) about the finish of the pool tank as we changed.
Stealing an idea from the Cyclists (and them Triathletes) I tentatively suggested that we established a post training tradition of coffee and cake, pointing out there’s a great coffee place in the reception area. “Not on your Nelly” said the Clarkey’s “but you can join us at Number 1 club for a pint!”
Arguably this was the best offer I’d had in years but for some inexplicable reason I turned their invitation to an afternoon soiree down, figuring I’d prefer a peanut butter brownie and latte.
Great choice! and looking forward to many more, sessions of course not the brownie!
- Warm Up
- 200 free
- Main Set
- 4 x 100 @ 2mins
- 3 x 100 @ 1:50
- 2 x 100 @ 1:40
- 1 x 100 @ 1:30 (yeah right Martin)
- 200 pull
- 2 x 50s @ 45s
- 4 x 50s @ 50 s
- 6 x 50s @ 55s
- 8 x 50s @ 60s
- 200 kick
- 1 x 100 @ 2:00
- 2 x 50’s @ 1:00
- 4 x 25’s @ 30s
- Swim down
- 300
- Total 3200 metres
Bingeswimming 