Actually I was staying at The Broadmoor for a business meeting. With a little early recon the week before I found a beautiful 50 meter pool at the exclusive Country Club of Colorado. It's a private members only club so the chances of getting in were slim. A simple ask by me of the aquatics manager landed a day pass to the pool. I'm glad I asked as the setting was gorgeous; an outdoor 50 meter pool at the base of Cheyenne Mountain.
Luckily the scenery looked good because I sure didn't! I was slightly out of breath, alternate side breathing was a thing of the past and my send off's while typically manageable were a bit tight. I started to blame it on fatigue from the 3 mile Misery Challenge a couple days before when it dawned on me it was the high altitude-duh! Once I figured that out I just enjoyed the scenery and swam a leisurely 2,000 meters and got out.
This pool ranks in the top 10 of all pools I've swum in based purely off the setting. Glad I made the effort to ask to swim there. If you don't ask you don't get!
The second high altitude training session of the week was the lap pool at the Broadmoor Hotel. Absolutely no comparison to the Country Club of Colorado but it was a legitimate outdoor lap pool at a hotel. I slogged through 1,000 yards which was a good way to decompress post meeting and to get ready for the awards banquet. I still felt the altitude, perhaps not as much.
A little internet research showed that I was at 6,000 feet in elevation in Colorado Springs versus 46 feet in Boston. Now I fully appreciate why our Olympians train at altitude at the U.S. Olympic Training Center.
Hopefully this training will have me swimming faster at sea level soon!
Will be back in Colorado in a few weeks for some more altitude training.
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