I belong to the Mount Prospect park district fitness center. They have a nice facility with a pool, weight room, standard exercise machines (treadmill, elliptical, etc.), an indoor track, and a few other things. Their membership prices are very reasonable, and include discounts on any classes. During the year, I will use just about everything that they have--I'll run indoors in the winter, lift weights (not as much as I should), and swim in the pool.
So why am I boring you with these details? Every year, for about 2 weeks in August, they drain the pool, clean it out, and repair any broken equipment. This year they are closed for the entire month of August as they are replacing all of the pump equipment (or so I have been told). This has caused more confusion as they had to temporarily switch the men's and women's locker rooms (there is some equipment in the ceiling of the women's locker room). The nice thing about this is that the outdoor pool that is about 5 blocks away from my house opens up in the mornings for lap swim during this time. The water is a little cold, but it's fine once you get moving, and it's actually pretty neat swimming in an outdoor pool.
Wait, did I say outdoor pool? Has anyone seen the storms that have been hitting in the mornings the last two weeks? Outdoor pools aren't generally open when there is lightning, and even if the storm is done by 6, there usually isn't anyone there until later in the day (and certainly not for lap swim). Because of this I have only been able to swim two out of the six times I am supposed to swim. Unfortunately, this happened to me last year, too. Maybe they should reconsider doing it at a different time of the year when either a.) I don't need to use the pool, or b.) when there is less of a likelyhood of storms.
It's a good thing I'm beginning a taper and am on week 17 of the program...
