Not Bitterne in Southampton (#757)

5 October 2025

This morning’s very short 1,100 meters was so for three very good reasons. First, this leisure centre just outside of the downtown core of Southampton doesn’t start its Sunday lane swimming service until 8:30am and I have a morning train to catch back to London, with breakfast still to eat. Second, with yesterday’s 2,500 meters fast aerobic Masters workout, I had already ratcheted up my average weekly swim volume by 30%**, and I am trying to be mindful of increasing dose and intensity.

And last and certainly not least, when I embarked on this preposterous #1001Pools quest, I set a “rule” of having to swim at least 1,001 meters to count a pool.

And so this is pool #757. But, it was not aimless. After a 400 IM kick-drill, the remainder was a targeted mix of speed (with appropriate recovery) underwater dolphin kicks and butterfly which I have been doing as my warmup for the last three weeks.

We were in Southampton for less than 24 hours, but it was well worth the trip. We came to see a live taping of the long-running BBC radio show, I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, on Saturday night at the lovely Mayflower Theatre. It was a riotously funny evening full of clever wordplay, hilarious songs and the takeaway that I'll never pass the Mornington Crescent tube stop again without a minor chuckle.

The only bummer about the trip is that the main city pool, the Quays, was practically attached to our hotel, but not open for lane swimming on a Sunday morning. I'm not sure if I'll ever make it to Southampton again, but, if I do, I'll add this pool.

** The magic of math and the beauty of small numbers: I have been averaging 5KM a week of mainly drills for the last two months of rehab work!