Dealing with cold
When we were in Dover two years ago for our two-way relay swim, one day we were getting ready to go swimming in the harbour. Three guys came over to us and we got talking, as is common in Dover. They had come from New York for a one-way relay. They wanted to know why…
I’m right in the middle of a painful learning experience, and that is the cumulative effects of daily swimming “into” cold or very cold. I’m tired this week as a consequence partly of last Friday’s nine and a half hour swim. But last Sunday I also started to sea swim daily. I’ve swum through the…
Edit: this post, the site’s most popular, has an updated version. This post is courtesy of searches on the site as a few variations of this question have cropped up. I guess one could divide thoughts on lowest possible water temperature in which to swim into three camps. 1 degree WARMER than it is now What…
I’ve been doing a bit of reading on some new research papers on body fat (adipose tissue). Most (almost all) of the fat in our bodies is white fat. Fat stores energy and acts as an insulator. White fat specifically, which could be up to 25% of body weight, does not generate heat. Until last…
Another of the joys of Long Distance swimming in salt water is bloating. It’s a combination of factors including Third Spacing, more properly called (apparently), “Third Spacing of Fluids”. Prolonged exposure to salt water causes the body to swell, making marathon swimmers look bloated after a long swim. There is also electrolyte loss causing Third…
So most of us have noticed a difference between how men and women react to cold, and even that we feel cold at different temperatures, and most noticeably that women will generally feel cold before men. (I’m guessing most men think a duvet with different togs per side is a good idea.) Well, there are…
Cold Water: Prepare- I often put on my togs before leaving the house. (Saves me a minute or two of cooling down before getting in the water). Most important on windy days. I stay warm as long as possible. Uncomfortably warm is good! Monitor- How do you feel in the water? How are your fingers/feet?…
I’ve touched on part of this before, but thought I’d expand it. Check the Weather forecast. No point getting there and finding out conditions are too bad. Obvious? Yes. Learn from the forecast though to extrapolate to your local spot conditions if you are not close enough to see it. If you are still learning…
Those who don’t swim in the swim much are often confused about what temperature to expect. The specific heat capacity of the ocean is greater than land or the atmosphere. This mean it’s will stay at a specific temperature and not quickly change. The volume of the ocean contributes to it retaining heat, as only…
This is quite simple but if you really understand it, it explains a lot of other things. We’ve briefly covered the various stages of hypothermia. For regular cold water swimming, the important thing here is that as temperature decreases blood-flow changes. Blood circulation from the extremities to the core decreases, in order to protect the…
I’ve surfed in San Diego and swam in La Jolla Bay, in San Diego, a couple of times, last time in middle 2008. La Jolla particularly was a great swimming experience for a cold water swimmer like. On friday nights all the local triathletes, including some the of the world’s top professionals, swim from La…
In 2008 I did the first* Blackrock to Cobh 8 mile (tide-assisted) in October without a wetsuit that took me 3 hours in 12 to 12.5 Deg Celsius. I had already done a couple of similar or longer distance swims but not at this temperature continuously. (I had done Clew Bay at 12 miles and…
The rest of that summer had me in the sea weekly and I even did my first few races (the Lee River Swim, and the Sandycove Island Challenge, both around 2K) but got little real information especially I knew few people. As I said I’m a late starter so I’ll never be the fastest swimmer,…
For the first couple of months I had constant nervousness before swimming, thinking about the cold. I usually found it hard to put my face in the water each time. I got in fairly slowly trying to get used to it, splashing water on my wrists and neck (heat regulation centres, and sides, to accommodate…
The most common problem I see with cold water is the fear of cold or the lack of belief of being able to deal with it. “I just can’t handle the cold”, as so many people say to me. It is more a belief or perception though, often extrapolated from other factors, (like how much…
LoneSwimmer 