Day 124: CAC Close-Down
Every year, the CAC closes for a period of time in early August for maintenance, rehab, and upgrades. Typically, the close-down is anywhere from 7-10 days, but this year, we only have to find alternate workout locales for 4 days (July 31-August 4).
For me, the most important facility to find is a pool, especially since I'm so close to reaching my 500-mile goal. Last year and the year before, I was able to swim at the outdoor Southside Park pool, which was being run by the YMCA rather than by the Sacramento Parks & Recreation Department (budget cuts meant that the City couldn't afford to operate some of the seasonal pools). The lap lanes at the Southside Park pool are 20 yards instead of the more standard 25 yards, but that was a pretty minimal adjustment to make in terms of keeping track of my distance.
This year, the pool is back under the auspices of the City, which is unfortunately much worse for lap swimmers, as we no longer have any early morning or after work lap swim times! So I'll be swimming at the indoor pool at our local YMCA for the next few days and paying a $10 walk-in fee each time. Today was my first visit to the pool, which is located in the lower level of the building:
The pool has 6 25-yard lanes and big windows at either end with colored glass accents at the top (seen at the right side of the photo above - hard to see the colors since this photo was obviously taken at night). The large lower windows are actually sliding doors, and both sets were open this morning, so the overall experience was almost like swimming outside!
I had a lane to myself for about 2/3 of my swim and then shared with a gentleman for the remainder of the time. I noticed that the pool was getting quite busy and crowded as I left around 7:30am, with several lanes forced into circle swimming - never an easy situation, as it's very challenging to find folks who can truly match speeds. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the next two days are equally quiet in the earlier part of the morning.
For me, the most important facility to find is a pool, especially since I'm so close to reaching my 500-mile goal. Last year and the year before, I was able to swim at the outdoor Southside Park pool, which was being run by the YMCA rather than by the Sacramento Parks & Recreation Department (budget cuts meant that the City couldn't afford to operate some of the seasonal pools). The lap lanes at the Southside Park pool are 20 yards instead of the more standard 25 yards, but that was a pretty minimal adjustment to make in terms of keeping track of my distance.
This year, the pool is back under the auspices of the City, which is unfortunately much worse for lap swimmers, as we no longer have any early morning or after work lap swim times! So I'll be swimming at the indoor pool at our local YMCA for the next few days and paying a $10 walk-in fee each time. Today was my first visit to the pool, which is located in the lower level of the building:
The pool has 6 25-yard lanes and big windows at either end with colored glass accents at the top (seen at the right side of the photo above - hard to see the colors since this photo was obviously taken at night). The large lower windows are actually sliding doors, and both sets were open this morning, so the overall experience was almost like swimming outside!
I had a lane to myself for about 2/3 of my swim and then shared with a gentleman for the remainder of the time. I noticed that the pool was getting quite busy and crowded as I left around 7:30am, with several lanes forced into circle swimming - never an easy situation, as it's very challenging to find folks who can truly match speeds. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the next two days are equally quiet in the earlier part of the morning.
posted by jms | 9:32 PM
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