Pool Review: Cocoa YMCA

Address: 1519 Clearlake Rd., Bldg. 18 Cocoa, FL 32922 (on the campus of Brevard Community College)
Hours: M-F 5:30AM - 7:30PM, Sa: 8:00AM - 4:00PM, Su: 12:00PM - 3:30PM
Size: 50M x 25M, SC when I was there. However, the day I left they were setting it up for LC for the German National Team, or so the lifeguard said.
Environment: Outdoor, ~80F

The Cocoa YMCA's aquatic center's main attraction is a pretty nice pool. While the pool certainly wouldve been better if it had been set up for LC but SCM is still preferred in my book over SCY. Other positive attributes were the jet location, water used, and the availability of lanes at 5:30AM.

The jets pumped warm water in through the bottom of the pool which is therefore a force perpendicular to a swimmer's direction of travel rather than parallel to it in the case of jets mounted on the side of the wall. The obvious advantage here is that water does not effect the swimmer's lap times.

Speaking of the water... the temperature was nice but more importantly the concentration was superb. No worrying about excessive chlorine because the water was slightly salty rather than chloriny. I'm guessing this decision was made due to the high salt in the air which exists due to their proximity to the ocean but who knows. Regardless, less chlorine is always better!

While the pool had some positive attributes, there were a couple of negatives as well. Although it did have a pace clock, the clock was a good 15m from the pool and the second hand was one of the skinny ones which made it a bit hard to pick up. Additionally, the gutter system was minimal which resulted in a bit of a chop when the swim team was also in the pool but nothing too bad. I've certainly swam in much worse.

All in all I had a pretty good few days at the Cocoa YMCA. The staff was very friendly and I didnt have to pay a dime!

Mar22-28

S: 29,500 yd
B: 7h 52min
R: 2h 54min

Total: 18h 32min

Saturday I was in Orange County, FL but today I'm checking in from Orange County, CA. Seeing new places can be fun but at the same time traveling is always a bit of a hassle. Certainly the most obvious victim is cycling fitness but the real detriment is just all the extra time due to being thrown off of the schedule. Finding hotels, worksites, and pools just gets old after a while. On the bright side, it was nice to swim LC outside in Cocoa, FL.

The first half of the trip was for an environmental effects meeting while the second half is for a SRB separation bolt plating issue (again). Seeing that these bolts are for the Shuttle and there are only four Shuttle flights left, hopefully this will be my last trip to AMP here in CA.

Mar15-21

S: 26,000 yds
B: 10h 8min
R: 5h 19min

Total: 22h 18min

Yes, I did work out last week. However this week I've been down in Cocoa Beach for meetings all day and thus the procrastination.

As for training last week.... OUCH. It appears that the racing season is right around the corner! Last week saw the return of the hard work necessary for me to keep from embarrassing myself. Winter was fun but now its time to get serious. This means out with the "adaptation" phase and in with the "ass kicking phase". Less really easy and really fast, more long tempos. It was a rough first week but it definitely makes we want to get out there and race!

Mar8-14

S: 24,700 yds
B: 7h 30min
R: 4h 38min

Total: 18h 38min

Last week was a nice light week to end the training cycle, capped off by a Sunday ride that included ~ 2 miles of cyclocross on my road bike over an unpaved road in the rain... Fun times!

While that ride was fun, the highlight of the week was without a doubt the beginning of daylight savings time. This is HUGE as it means the end is near for the trainer for another year. Now, if I could only get my new bikes, I'd be all set...

This Week's Sign of the Apocalypse....

It wasnt too long ago that new, exciting purchases included things like stereos, hats, DVD players, and other items which portrayed youthful exuberance. While this has still been seen a bit lately in my fairly recent acquisition of a flat screen LCD TV, other exciting "big ticket" items have been, well, less exciting.

First off, there is the the gas grill (thanks, Dad!) which, while awesome, certainly wouldn't be classified as a toy. Next on the list, the BA Jenn-Air refrigerator, is probably the dismal turning point from "cool toy" to "boring domesticated expenditure."

Yesterday, however, I sunk to a new low. I got all excited about purchasing a new washing machine.



Really? A washing machine? REALLY?? I know... sad but true. But such is life in suburbia.

To sum things up, I put together a little chart. Note the downward trend of Fun as a function of time (with the TV an obvious outlier):


On a bright note, I do have a couple of new bikes which should certainly help buck the trend. After all, if a new bike doesnt epitomize childhood joyfulness, I don't know what does.

Mar1-7

S: 30,000 yds
B: 8h 23min
R: 5h 17min

Total: 21h 34min

A little ITB flair up resulted in an extra swim workout and one less run. It was too bad, too, because Chris P, who I was going to run with, had a very nice workout on his own and it would've been fun to run a nice tempo with him.

Feb22-28

S: 25,800 yds
B: 8h 20min
R: 5h 50min

Total: 20h 57min

Back in the saddle.... After a couple of weeks of skimping on the cycling, I had a solid weekend on two wheels. Of course it helped that the weather cooperated as Saturday and Sunday were nice and sunny.

In other news, I really need a haircut because I'm looking like a hippie.