October 20, 2008

Gasping in the Morning

Ever been in a pool where you are gasping for air in the morning, but come back in the evening and swim much better?  Before you break out the extra caffeinated coffee, consider this.  It may not be a personal wakeup issue, but may be due to your swimming pool.  Most facilities turn off or reduce air ventilation at night in order to manage operating expenses.  Even if they don’t, the calm water all night long can create a blob of stagnant air above the water that saturates with pool chemicals (like chlorine).  The early morning swimmers are the first into the pool and thus get the most exposure to this blob.  By evening, the ventilation system has been running full steam all day and the waves and activity break up that blob of air.

Here’s how to tell the difference between a normal and chemical fatigue.  If it’s chemical, you will get tired very soon after the start of every hard swim and the fatigue will be very sudden.  You will feel great, then hit the wall and feel terrible.  In worst case conditions, that wall occurs with 15 seconds of hard swimming (or the amount of time you can swim hard and hold your breath).  If air quality is marginal, it can happen as late as 10 minutes.  Conversely, normal fatigue in swimming is steadier.  You feel normal fatigue in your muscles and your lungs, whereas you usually feel it in just your lungs with chemical fatigue.

What should you do about this?  If you know a pool is bad in the morning, then try to use it at night or go to another facility, or swim outdoors.  If none of these are practical, schedule your short sprints and/or long and easy workouts in the morning and do your hardest workouts at night.  If you have to swim tough workouts in the morning and you know the air will be bad, just be careful and be prepared to quit at a moment’s notice.

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