Ashby Leisure Centre

I've been meaning to head over to the other side of Tamworth for a swim in the Ashby-de-la-Zouch lido for a few years. It's probably the closest outdoor pool to home. It's a seasonal outdoor pool and I never seem to find the time during the few summer months it's open, but today is hopefully the day!

I've booked the 9am lido session, but I'm up early and always keen to get another pool on the list, so head over for a warm-up in the adjacent indoor pool.

Decide to take the rural route rather than the M42. It's a spectacular morning. After weeks of hot weather, the grass across the entire country is baked golden yellow, while the hedgerows are still bright green. The sky is full of black clouds with bright sun poking through the gaps. The combination of colours, especially through my Oakley polarised Prizm lenses, looks like a painting!

Arrive at the pool, scrape the underside of the car on every single speed bump leading into the car park, park and head in. I've pre-booked the outdoor pool session starting in 45 minutes and know there's a lane swim session in the indoor pool, so hope the lady on reception lets me in on the same booking.

Unfortunately not. Pay the £6/$8 entry fee and head through to the changing village. It seems the indoor pool and outdoor lido are completely separate.

Changed, a quick stretch, then head out to the pool deck. This is a slim four-lane, 25m pool. Unfortunately, for this session at least, they just stick a rope down the middle and leave it at that. It's advertised as a lane swim session, but you can hardly call this a lane.

There are five other swimmers already in the lane and they're all doing a pretty decent pace, trying to make do with the rubbish double-width setup. It looks like they're set up for children's swimming lessons in the other half of the pool, but currently there's just one kid in there!

In addition to the awful lane setup, there are some movable aluminium steps placed along one side of the 'lane', which limit the stop and turn area at that end. At the other end, there's a protruding circular filter outlet or light fitting at exactly the wrong height in the middle of the 'lane', so I keep getting one foot on it when turning.

To make matters worse, my Arena Swipe anti-fog goggles have given up and are now permanently opaque! I have the replacement pair ready... at home! So suffer a couple of late turn / didn't quite make the wall moments!

Work through 400s. The plan is five before my lido session, but halfway through the fifth I realise the session has ended and everyone else has got out! 1,800m will do. Stop the watch, save the swim and head out to the main event.