I've recently moved to an area where there's the possibility to continue open water swimming year round, i.e. the water doesn't freeze over in the winter. I've been going out in water temps at 58-60F. I followed advice from other cold swimming threads on this forum. The advice about warming up has been most helpful. I do wear a wetsuit, neoprene booties, and sandwich a neoprene cap between two silicone caps. I have neoprene gloves, but I don't care to wear them.
After warming up, I always feel good to go, but then 30 minutes into my swim (continuous), I start to get very cold. This is frustrating because I would assume that I'd just get warmer and warmer as I go, but the opposite seems to happen. I've tried pushing to just swim faster, but the cold still hits me. When I say that the cold hits, I don't mean that I initially start feeling cold. I feel comfortably cold after warming up, but when the cold hits I get to the point where I'm shivering, and I feel like staying in the water would result in that mental fog you get from the cold.
Has anyone else experienced this? Could you provide insight into how you overcame this? Note: I'm not aiming to swim in super cold temperatures. Right now, I'd just like to manage an hour long swim at 55-60F.
After warming up, I always feel good to go, but then 30 minutes into my swim (continuous), I start to get very cold. This is frustrating because I would assume that I'd just get warmer and warmer as I go, but the opposite seems to happen. I've tried pushing to just swim faster, but the cold still hits me. When I say that the cold hits, I don't mean that I initially start feeling cold. I feel comfortably cold after warming up, but when the cold hits I get to the point where I'm shivering, and I feel like staying in the water would result in that mental fog you get from the cold.
Has anyone else experienced this? Could you provide insight into how you overcame this? Note: I'm not aiming to swim in super cold temperatures. Right now, I'd just like to manage an hour long swim at 55-60F.