13 September 2026 Getting “racing reps” in, at least for me, is critical to eventually swimming fast at a peak meet. I get to try out different strategies, extend myself to do different things than I normally do in a workout. As well, no matter how hard I try, I can never summon the same level of energy and commitment in a workout that I can in a competition, so racing is also a great way to push my limits. Plus, I just love to race. This quote from Australian great Lani

12 September 2026 I have had the good fortune of sharing a number of my pool tourist explorations with all of my daughters, my siblings, father and, on one occasion, a swimmer niece. But I have had more of these shared experiences with Maia, my oldest daughter, than anyone else. She’s always game for a trip and a swim, still taking that advice that her maternal grandfather gave her before she went off to university in Vancouver, “Say yes to everything!” Maybe not the safest

6 September 2026 My memories of Bracknell go back 20 years ... but not for swimming. In the summer of 2006, I was building the European arm of the first analytics startup I had become involved with a few years earlier. I had built my fledgling team in Theale to maybe 4 or 5 people. We were the scrappy startup division inside a scrappy startup company (HQd in the USA). Over that summer and into the early fall, we engineered a deal with a client HQd in Bracknell that more th

6 September 2026 After a Saturday night swim (#821) at the University of Surrey, I started off my Sunday morning with what would become a three-pool day and a four-pool weekend at the iconic Guildford Lido (#822) ... This nearly 100 year-old facility lived up to all the love and hype I've seen online. It routinely appears on online lists of the best lidos (such as this one from Time Out), but I have also had many of my fellow pool tourists tout this pool on Instagram in thei

5 September 2026 I had signed up for tomorrow's Berks & South Bucks County Masters meet awhile back (as I do), both to swim in the Bracknell Leisure Centre pool and to get some "racing reps" in. I entered before I figured out the travel logistics to arrive in time for the "day of event" confirmation (check-in by 9:15am) Then, a number of weeks ago, I saw the 3 bus - 1 tube - 1 train approximately three-hour journey that would have required me to leave home at 5:30am ... and

18 July 2026 I really, really wanted to love the new Canary Wharf Sea Lanes. Maia came up from Brighton to spend the weekend in London with us ... and the timing was pretty perfect as it was almost three years ago to the day (July 9, 2023) that we had swum together in the "OG" Sea Lanes pool down in Brighton. We booked our swim for 3pm and had absolutely perfect conditions, with fairly skies and the water chilled, but not too chilled. The location is less than a ten minute

11 July 2026 As Elton John sang ... "… It's getting late have you seen my mates Ma tell me when the boys get here It's seven o'clock and I want to rock ..." The boys (and girls) were out, but no bellies full of beer because Saturday night was allright for racing at the Life Leisure Grand Central pool in Stockport for the Cheshire County Masters SCM Championships: I cannot recall when I first learned of this pool, but the facility, dating to an urban regeneration project in th

30 June 2026 As I was planning our move to London in 2023 and started swimming around the town on visits that summer, I started to learn about English lido culture and began to hear about this apparently magical, 90-meter long unheated Tooting Bec Lido in south London, London's longest lido (and, I believe, second only to Cambridge's 91-meter / 100 yard length Jesus Green Lido in terms of longest pools in England). I did make it down to the indoor, 33-meter long Tooting Leisu

10 May 2026 I’ve been too busy with work and life while trying to squeeze swimming into the former to writeup my racing and the great 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games pool, the Sandwell Aquatics Centre, which became pool #794 on my #1001Pools list. I was up there on Sunday, May 10th, for their first ever Masters meet and, other than a brief episode after my 200 freestyle, had a great day. I always love swimming in a “games legacy” pool, having enjoyed swimming in: Multip

4 May 2026 I asked ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini to describe Luton in three words. I got: Gritty. Transient. Unvarnished Industrial. Diverse. Connected. Gritty, underrated, unpretentious. I’ll take Underrated and Unpretentious (props to Anthropic) but, based upon only visiting the 2012-era, 8-lane, 50-meter, all deep competition pool at the Inspire: Luton Sports Village, I would add LOVELY. I have had this pool on my “London Pool Bucket List” for awhile, but it’s just far enough