Bradford-on-Avon Pool

I'm booked into the Hampton Inn Bath this evening and planning a swim 15 minutes further east into Wiltshire, in the lovely and historic Bradford on Avon (not that I'll see much of it as it's already dark!) - But i'm also tired, and far from feeling 100% - I've got about 10 minutes until I reach the M4 junction and a choice to make: keep heading north towards home and spend two hours in the car, or head east a couple of junctions down the M4 towards Bath for a swim.

I arrive into Bradford on Avon, through the town centre, over the picturesque bridge that's lined with Christmas lights and into the train station car park. I later realise there's a pool car park, and it's probably free. The evening lane swim session is 7:30 - 8:30pm, and it's already 7:35 by the time I've figured out how to pay for parking, paid the swim entrance fee and headed to the changing rooms.

The lockers are 20p and I've only got a £1 coin, so it's clothes in the bag, bag and shoes on the poolside tonight.

Out onto the pool deck, it's a four-lane 25m pool - and very quiet. I do have to share the fast/medium lane, but it's not a problem. After a stretch and a bit of faffing, I'm down to around 45 minutes left on the session clock.

Jump in the deep end, at a guess around 3m deep and extending maybe 10m into the pool unusual as there are no diving boards in sight. It's been 10 days since I last swam; I was hoping to add a new pool in Oxford last week after a meal at Jeremy Clarksons Farmers Dog pub, but work has been busy and I've been extra tired, putting off swimming day after day, which is never the answer.

It's an older pool, late sixties at a guess, tucked just off the main town centre street next to the train station (which is looking very festive with its huge Christmas tree at the entrance). While it's only four rope lanes, it's a great little pool for a small town. The pool floor at the shallow end has those brown burn marks you sometimes see on pools from this era. They're always near the water inlets, and I can feel warmer water coming from the circular inlets every time I turn at the wall. I wonder if the tiles react with the increased heat over time.

I finish 1km, then 4x150s and 4x100s. Two kilometres total will do tonight. I need to get back over into Bath city centre - which will be Christmas market crazy - and still have work to do before bed. This might be a hotel bar and a cold bottle of Corona kind of evening.