As a result the conference dinner was fully booked, no worries I could always spend Friday night visiting the Olympic Pool. Sadly after a bit of whinging and tenacity I managed to blag myself into the dinner so unfortunately no swim on Friday; but a great night out and I learned the answer to the question how many lawyers does it take to get a bottle of alcohol out of a vending machine in a hotel at 1:30am..... ?
I was dying to swim in it and anyway if I was planning on making this week a green week then I needed to put in an extra 1000 metres somewhere.
I "borrowed" a towel from my hotel (it'll be in the post tomorrow I promise) and headed out for Stratford, getting to the pool was easy but getting in was a bit more of a challenge, I succeeded in completely circumnavigating the place one and a half times before I located the entrance. (cunningly hidden on the level below the main walkway to get to it and very poorly signposted)
I also pre booked my ticket it cost me a mere £3.50 for the swim. Walking onto the pool side I selected the emptiest lane and dived in. As I did so there was a girl hanging on the pool side under the block and two guys talking at the other end and that was it. Annoyingly just as I came up to turn one of these guys moved into my way, so swearing at him (under my breath of course) I had to grab turn but as I pushed off the wall they got out and by the time I reached the other end I was the only one left in my lane.
Amazingly it stayed that way for the best part of half an hour, maybe I was swimming up such a storm that the vibes emanating from me were just "don't mess with the Binge" but it wasn't until my swim down that anyone else ventured in my lane.... How's that for great value?
Apart from the value the pool didn't disappoint, a great temperature, a huge airy space and the feeling that you are about to be abducted by aliens as you turn to breathe and catch sight of the circular lighting rigs embedded in the roof, a touch of close encounters.......but a great experience can't wait to race in it.
The answer to the lawyer conundrum is it doesn't matter how many of them you have (there were 5 of us at one point) because what you need is the hotel porter with a pocket full of change (to swap for your notes) and an access code.
600 warm up mixed swim, catch up
200 steady
16 x 50 @ 60 secs
200 swim down
1800 metres,,,
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