Swim travel/prep time vs actual pool time

For me, I'd say a couple minutes to toss my clothes together the night before.  My drive is about 15 minutes to the pool in the morning, 5 minutes to change and I workout for around an hour.

After the swim doesn't really count since my pool is in the direction I work, I actually save time.

Ready for me to make you feel really good about your travel time?

To swim, I drive 45 min (my pool bag is always packed so I don't count packing time), park and change (10 min total?) - then I swim for 60 min, shower, change and get back to my car in 20 min and then drive home another 45 min.  So a 1 hour workout costs me 3 hours.  Nice, huh?  Good thing I don't blow dry my hair!

Running is almost as costly for me in terms of time, too. 

This is the typical time line for a masters practice for me:

7:30pm - throw my stuff in my gym bag

7:35pm - head out of the house for the drive to the pool

Between 7:50-7:55pm, step out on the pool deck

Stand around and chat with the group until 8:00pm (ok, sometimes 8:05)

Swim until 9:10-9:15ish

Sit in the hottub until 9:30 when the lifeguards kick us out

Get home by 9:50 or so.

Surf BT until 11:00 or so because I'm wired!

I considered this when I was looking at the sprint training plans on this site. I'm not going to go through all that work just to swim "18 minutes" or whatever.

Here's what I've done 2x/week for the last 6 weeks... 

• pack bag night before
• 4:45 get out of bed. Go downstairs, eat cereal.
• 5:05 stand up. Rinse bowl, put on shoes and coat, grab bag, walk out door.
• 5:13 start car. Drive to Y, change clothes, put in contacts.
• 5:30 get in pool.
• 6:30 get out of pool. Shower, dress, drive to work.

Now that I have quit my job (yay!) and once I get back from spring break, it will look like this 3x/week:

• 7:30 leave house. Drop daughter off at school, go to Y and have fun!

Master's swim @ 8PM?  You're lucky.  Around here starts are 5AM or 10-11PM.  Impossible with my work schedule.

6 minutes from locking the door to inside the pool.

I actually timed it today too.  I live in the dorm closest to the gym/aquatics center.  Easily one of the best decisions of my life.  

15 minutes to get there, 20 to get back.

5 from desk->car

5 to drive

5 from car->pool.

Extra 5 to shower and get dressed after the swim.

My average swim workout right now is anywhere from 40-60 minutes.  I come from a swimming background, but I find it so inconvenient anymore that I only swim twice a week (that and even after a 10 year hiatus from swimming, I still feel burnt out on it).  It's so much easier to get home from work, throw on my running shoes and hit the trails or hop on my bike than it is to go to the pool.  Maybe it would be different if I had options for swimming that didn't pretty much require that I do it over lunch.

In the summer I'll get open water swims in in the evening after work, which take more time (more driving), but still seem more convenient.

Here's one of my favorite workouts:

1. Run easy to the pool (suit and goggles in the pocket of my shorts).  Prep time is <5 minutes.

2. Change and quick rinse-off (takes <3 minutes).

3. Swim

4. Change again.

5. Run home.

It is our entire morning on T/Th.

7:30 start packing kids snacks, extra clothes, swim bag, and getting them dressed

8:30 head to the car

8:31 remember that I have not fed the pets

8:45 actually leave the driveway

9:20 pull into parking lot, unbuckle the children and begin the painstakingly slow walk with a 2 & 4 year old to the door

9:25 actually enter the building, sign the children into the daycare room, take them potty, help them open snacks

9:35 I am actually swimming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

10:20 wait, just a few more laps

10:30 crap, I should have got out sooner, hurry up and shower, no time to dry hair

10:45 set up toys for toddler gym class, take son to swim lessons, play with toddlers in gym class

11:45 put away toys from toddler gym class, get son from swim lessons

12:10 on our way back home

12:45 HOME

There you go - only 5 hours!

35' drive to the pool

5' getting into the pool, into a suit, and out to the deck

60' swim

15-20' to get showered and back out to my car

20' drive to work + 10' walk into my building OR 35' drive home.

So 60' of swimming with at least 1.5 hours of transit, etc.

Most of it in my case is really the transit.  No matter where I'm going from (work or home) it's easily a 30-40' commute each way.  Not much you can do about it.  The biking by the pool is terrible and I basically chose to have better places to bike over having a close pool.

There's a lap pool a 2' walk from my house but I can't swim there.  They are only open certain hours in the summer and then mostly for the stupid kids swim team.  So I end up having to go really far away to swim instead of walking 2' to the pool.  Bummer.

Now that I signed up for a Masters class, I'm looking at :

Set up Clothes the night before

Wake up at 4:45 am

In car at 5:00

Masters Class at 5:30

Go to work at 6:30 am

I used to go to a gym pool about 5 miles away, which at times I ran to, met the wife (who had my clothes) then swam.  The Masters schedule is going to suck but I'm looking forward to real swim training.  I was going to do it in January but swimming in 30 degree weather scared the crap out of me.

Masters starts at 6:30. I leave the house at 6:15, am down on the deck by 6:25ish and in the water at 6:30. Swim Until 7:30, shower change drive home, arrive around 7:50.

All told 1 hour of swimming plus 35 minutes there and back time.

Really it's not that bad. Biking is worse for me. Find all of my biking clothes and decide how many I need to wear depending on the weather = 10 minutes. Grab some water bottles and find something acceptable to munch on during ride if necessary =5 minutes. Going over the bike and pumping up tires, checking chain = another 5-10. Then depending on if I'm meeting people I may need to pack the bike into the car and drive to the meeting spot or just take off from my house.

Looks like the average trend here is that its more time than its worth!

I'm seriously becoming less and less of a fan of swimming, I thought it would have the opposite effect on me as I progressed.  I agree with most, running and riding seem like a lot less time invested, and I personally enjoy it significantly more than swimming.  Once Ironman is over, me and swimming are going to take a break.

It takes me about 35 minutes total just to have a swim, I swim about 45 minutes to an hour on average.  I have another prep time that maybe not everyone suffers from and that is the 30 minutes to an hour sometimes to mentally prepare to get in the pool!

I know this thread is for pool time, but does anyone have an estimated swim travel/prep time for open water swimming (in colder regions)?  I visit Hawaii at least once a month (mainly due to being addicted to swimming there) so there it's just get in in my swim suit and out, but being on the East Coast (Washington DC) are there people who actually get out to swim here in the colder, less pleasant waters?

Also, this was a great thread idea. I don't feel so bad about my 2.5-3 hour pool swim workouts now!

--BT Forum Newbie

I think the trend is that people take the time because it is worth it.

45 Minutes, total.  73% of that time is actual swimming. 

Dress at home. 5 minutes to Lifetime and on-deck (1.1 miles) 33 minutes workout (2000, swim close-to-straight), dry off, 5 minutes home.  EZ PZ.

My prep for bike and run are similarly short. I've got tons of trails and great terrain right out the garage door. I hate standing in line, prep, and wasting time. And that works out for me, because as a parent and dude that travels for a living, I don't have much time.