I had a great swim today. I now swim for an hour, much better than the 30 minutes I could barely do when I first began swimming. Back then they wouldn't even let me in the swim lanes.
I got lucky. I was sneaking into the single lane as the woman previously in it was getting out. A man walked up to get in at the same time. I've learned etiquette says he gets the lane, not me at the other end of the pool so I quickly moved back to the middle lane I was sharing with two other people. The man kindly gave me the single lane.
It was extra nice to have my own lane as one of the swimmers kept passing me. I like to do stretches in the shallow end and tread water plus exercised in the deep end. It is easier to go
at my own pace when I'm alone or sharing a lane with swimmers that move a bit closer to my speed.
Do you have more than one lane that is shared? One for fast, one for slower?
I'd recommend (if you get in the lanes with a faster swimmer) going right behind them. Let them go and then go behind them. When you've done two lengths wait until they come back again. And then go right behind them again. That way you will never have them passing you.
We have two lanes for multiple swimmers. If there are only two people using it we each take a side of the lane for our own space. Once a 3rd person joins in we circle.
I try to get behind the fast swimmers but then I'm still getting dictated by their actions. I like to set a different pace, depending what my shoulder needs when I get to the ends of the pool.
Our lanes aren't set up by speed which I can see why since there are so very many speeds people go at. I also don't turn my head out of the water to breathe so when I do the crawl my pace changes half way through the pool when I slow down to do switch to the breast stroke once I run out of air. I also like to do the last part of a lap without using my arms and exercise my legs by kicking very hard. I found since I concentrate so much on my shoulders I don't kick as hard as I used to and then need a bit of extra work.
This is all much easier when I have my own lane.
