Ashby-de-la-Zouch Lido

Just completed a swim in the indoor pool. The indoor and outdoor lido pools and changing facilities are completely separate, so don a T-shirt and head back to reception in my jammers before going out to the outdoor pool deck.

Considering they seem so particular on the website that pre-booking is required, not a single person checks whether I've actually booked!

Head out to the pool deck and immediately see this is going to be a frustrating swim. It's a 30m pool with five lanes painted on the bottom, but just like the indoor pool, they've strung an orange rope down the middle and called it a lane swim session.

It's absolutely packed. Count 15 people in the fast 'lane' and even more in the slow one. Worse still, there are breaststrokers in the fast lane moving slower than people in the slow lane. The main end of the lane is basically a mothers' meeting of gossip, so getting a turn in is going to be fun.

Head over to the fast half and spot a girl in a Coniston Chill Swim hat. Ask if she did this year's event, but no, it's just a cap she's borrowed.

Wait for a gap and push off. It's immediate chaos!

Two separate fast lanes with six swimmers in each would be infinitely better, but I can understand them wanting to pack 'em in and maximise the short summer sales window. Accept it is what it is. The hope is to put 2.2km on the watch and make it a 4km morning, but right now I'll be happy with the minimum needed to get the pool on the list and get out!

There's no organised swim plan. It's just start and stop whenever possible. Sometimes I can fit a proper turn in, but mostly not.

The triple-stack overtaking happens almost every length, with swimmers overtaking other swimmers who are already overtaking!

The other main problem is that no one moves across at the turn. They swim to the end along their lane path, then push off across the pool to reach the other side of the five or six metre-wide 'lane'. There are near misses at pretty much every end.

It doesn't help that my now permanently misty goggles, the cloudy pool water and the cloudy sky one minute followed by glaring sun the next mean sighting and visibility aren't great.

Remind myself halfway through that I've chosen a midsummer Sunday morning to visit. It was always going to be a packed paddle!

With all the stopping and starting, I'm pretty sure my watch miscalculates at least two lengths. I'm heading well over the minimum distance needed to get the pool on the list, so I'm not going to be too precious about this one, but I think the true distance covered is actually 2,190m.

After 20 minutes of battle, decide to stop for five minutes and see whether things thin out as the one-hour session goes on. Sure enough, they do. For the final ten minutes we're down to just a couple of swimmers, but by this point I've lost most of my enthusiasm for the swim!

Finally manage to string together 600m, then target a few last lengths to reach the 2.2km goal.

Swim done, take a quick rinse in the ridiculously hot poolside showers. The shower heads are set so close together that you may as well be washing the person next to you!

Find an empty poolside cubicle to change, then it's time to head home. A Sunday lunch at The Hollybush in Little Hay awaits.

For some reason, my elbows hurt. Typical. Shoulder sorted, now something else is playing up!