Need a pool on the Eastside, stat.

April 12, 2006 8:27 PM

Seattle Eastside swimmers unite! I'm moving to Sammamish, working in Redmond, and I need access to a lap swimming pool for workouts. Someone throw me a life ring?

Health clubs, high schools, whatever. It needs to be open to the public, preferably with a wide range of hours. It can have a cost, like a health club, but shouldn't be terribly expensive. Obviously, it needs to be big enough to, you know, swim laps.

But the No. 1 priority is that it's not crowded. I can't stand sharing a lane with more than one person, circle pattern be damned.

Whaddya got for me?

posted by frogan to sports, hobbies, & recreation (10 comments total)

I swim twice a week in the Bellevue Bally's. I usually either get a lane to myself, or just split it with someone else.

Only two real lanes though.
posted by patrickje at 8:58 PM on April 12, 2006

YMCA Family Center on Bel-Red Road. Nice facility.
posted by lois1950 at 9:16 PM on April 12, 2006

I take my grandson to the parent toddler swim class at the Redmond Hartman pool. There usually seem to be lap swimmers there. It's a nice place!

Located across the street from Redmond High School on 104th street.
posted by anitar at 9:31 PM on April 12, 2006

Bellevue Aquatic Center is fairly low-key, cheap and very nice. That picture does not do it justice; that pic doesn't even look like the pool at all. It's right by where I went to middle school, and it's in your general area.
posted by apple scruff at 11:05 PM on April 12, 2006

Gold's Gym in Sammamish (at the end of 520) has a good lap pool.
posted by jeffbarr at 11:06 PM on April 12, 2006

You aren't perchance relocating to work for Microsoft, are you? Because I notice your current location in your profile is SoCal, you have some posts of a technical nature re: computers, and well... "work in Redmond" doesn't have to mean Microsoft but it's a decent chance...

If that is the case, you may not be aware that you will automatically get (basically) free membership to the Pro Club in Redmond, which is a walkable few blocks from the MS campus(es). I'd never used them for their aquatics although they have several pools, so I can't speak to the "not crowded" part- but the price can't be beat. If you opt not to join the pro sports club, you get something like $600 or maybe it's $1000 or something in that range to apply to membership at any other club you want.
posted by hincandenza at 3:29 AM on April 13, 2006

Notes about ProClub...

I was a Microsoft intern in the summer of 2003. We had (free) access to the Pro Club, so that was very nice. It is not walking distance, or is at least not a fun walk, since one has to walk along and across a few big streets to get there. But the ProClub is very nice. Great locker-room facilities, and the pools are grand. There are a bunch and they're kept at different temperatures even.

It does get busy at prime times. But I often swam in my own lane or shared a lane with one person, even in the evenings after work. If you're at MSFT, it's free and is probably a good choice, even with your aversion to circle-swimming.

You will notice that approximately 75% of the patrons of the ProClub work out in various flavors of freebie MSFT tshirts. Lots of "Excel 2002 launch party!" and "VB.net is in the hizzouse, yo!!" Don't know if this will bother you, but it seemed very insular and kinda trippy to me.
posted by zpousman at 6:51 AM on April 13, 2006

More notes about the Pro Club: you will only wind up circle swimming if the multi-purpose pool not available for lap swimming. You can check the multi-purpose pool schedule here [pdf]. I prefer swimming at lunch to swimming after work. Swimming early in the am is probably ok too.
posted by crazycanuck at 9:36 AM on April 13, 2006

But yeah, if you have to pay for the Pro Club yourself, you will go bankrupt. It has a 1k+ initiation fee and $100/mo fees (excluding tennis).
posted by crazycanuck at 9:36 AM on April 13, 2006

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, I'm not working at MSFT, so no free access to the ProClub (which I hear is very sweet). I could pay for it myself, but hopefully there are other options to explore.

Not to derail my own thread ... my issue with circle-swimming is purely one of pacing. I can't (yet) keep up with advanced swimmers and need to take 1 minute rests here and there, and then I get self-conscious about how I might be ruining someone else's workout.
posted by frogan at 11:06 AM on April 13, 2006