I have lived in this apartment for a year now and haven't ever tried the outdoor pool. Tonight I was planning on going swimming at the public pool but didn't feel like it, so decide to try the outdoor pool. I thought (from what I'd seen) that it would be too small for swimming, but it was actually pretty decent. Not really big enough to do lengths, but big enough that I could kick back and forth or use just my arms and not be hitting the opposite wall every five seconds.
I swam for about half an hour and it was nice swimming outdoors on a sunny, cloudless evening, especially since the pool is surrounded by trees. Swimming on my back, the only thing I could see was trees, a few apartment towers, and blue sky.
For some reason tonight I felt like I couldn't breathe the entire time. When I was a kid mint flavour (like gum, toothpaste, etc.) used to set off my asthma and make me wheezy. Not sure if I was slightly allergic to it or what. As an adult I've been fine. Lately I have been using my Ventolin (or whatever the generic is) inhaler pretty much daily, sometimes twice a day. I've been meaning to go to my doctor or the clinic about this as I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to be using it so much. I think it's mostly from allergies, even though the pollen here isn't that high. Anyway, tonight before I left I had a stick of "Hydromint" Trident gum and as soon as I chewed it my lungs felt weird. Then I went swimming right afterward and that, and possibly being outdoors surrounded by trees, just made it way worse. So I used my inhaler as soon as I got back up to my apartment and it's mostly helped, but I think I should definitely bring it up with a doctor.
I am definitely going to try and use my apartment pool more often on days I don't feel like going swimming or doing some other form of exercise. With a pool and an exercise room that I am paying rent for, I don't really have an excuse not to exercise daily except for laziness!