I would skip it until it gets a little warmer because if your going to swim in 40* with only a wetsuit (no feet booties or gloves), it's going to be stupid cold....Add in your wife what in a kayak on top of water in just as much cold air temp, etc? Or will she be at the beach watching you swim back and forth.

I would invest in booties and gloves if it's that cold.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

She would most certainly not be in the water haha. Probably on the shore with her finger on the dial button for 911. I can drop $1-200 on booties and a cap etc if that will get me in the water with my current wetsuit. Meant I was hoping not to spend $1k on a cold water wetsuit or the like.

Man,
That sucks. Sorry you are stuck in that situation. I would be trying to find out who has a pool closest to you that you could hop in. How far is it from you to Lionel's house?

If you do get booties, I would probably order 2 pairs. 1 in a smaller size, than another in a size up. Then also use hand warmer packs to put in between. Maybe same with gloves.

Good luck.

Any chance you can defer the race to another venue later in the year?

I swam a few local lakes in that temperature this past spring due to covid. 5 mil booties, 3 mil gloves, and neoprene cap makes it doable. Ear plugs and a jog before the swim helped the first cold water shock after jumping in. I used my surf gear that is not swim specific but kept me warm.

Okay, this is doable, though I wouldn't call it pleasant.

I did some open water swimming in Gloucester, MA starting in March last year, when all the pools were closed. The biggest issue is the extremities.

I found the most effective set-up was a neoprene hood, designed for scuba diving, to keep your head & neck warm. Also a mask & snorkel to keep your face from freezing - and because you can't really side-breathe while wearing the hood.

For my hands, I also used scuba gloves, with the thickest neoprene I could find. If I were doing it again I'd invest in neoprene mittens. For my feet, I wore two pairs of Blueseventy wetsuit socks, and a pair of Blueseventy toe covers (designed for cycling) under the socks. You can use code "HowellMasters" for a 20% discount at Blueseventy.com.

You want to make sure the hood and gloves are both tucked under the wetsuit, not over it. If the gloves are over the sleeves, they can fill up with water, making the recovery part of the stroke more difficult. (Though repeatedly pulling on your wetsuit over a thick pair of gloves can add wear and tear to the wetsuit.)

It's good that you have access to a house on the water, because that gives you the ability to break up your swim into shorter sessions. For example, when the temp was 40, I would try for 3x10 minutes swimming, with warm-up breaks in between. By the time it got to 45 I could do 30 minutes straight (maybe I was more used to it by then, too!)

Cheers,
Ginger

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https://www.instagram.com/gingerhowellracing/
If you find yourself thinking "What if I can't", instead think "What if I can!"

I live in Denver and run into the same issue this time of year. Would love to be able to get into a lake or reservoir, but pool swimming is the only real option until it warms up enough even for a wetsuit. And it also affects races - can't really do an early season race for the same reason. Heated lake, anyone? !!

The obvious solution is to do a training camp down south. You could get 10 days in if you leave on a thursday night and return the next week late sunday. Go to a place with water in the 70s maybe south florida

I can’t fathom swimming in 40 degree water......

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Let food be thy medicine...

That's cold - at most 1 km for me in such temperature.

This sounds like a bad and potentially dangerous idea.

Same as others. I'd hold off until its a bit warmer.
I'm reasonably used to cold-ish water (down to about 10 or 11C (50 F or a bit above). And quite, ahem, bulky, at present.
Whilst an AOS, I'm comfortable with OW generally (from a past life White water kayaking) and have done quite a few swims at 5 miles sort of distance and some higher.
BUT I went in to swim on New Years Day in a lake at 3 C (39F) and it was fecking painful. I got about 100m swimming at best. My hands felt like they were burning.

I did it with 'proper' safety cover and with several other friends swimming too. Not on my own.

I'd seriously doubt you'd get more than a few minutes in there at best. So no real training.

Except for the mental benefits of the cold water, I see it as all risk (to life) and no training reward.

Hold off until it's a bit warmer. Then fill your boots !

I guess we all pretty much have the same problem here. With pools closed and absolutely zero swimming done since august, i'm starting to worry about my early may IM70.3 (which is probably not going to happen anyway but i'm training like it is nevertheless). I don't live near the ocean and all the lakes here are frozen over at the moment. And even when they thaw out, i'd rather not risk swimming i water that cold for obvious safety reason aswell as for the reason that i don't want to put too much stress on my immune system. A trip to the south would mean crossing borders for me here in europe and that's not an option either right now. I am bummed out as much as the next guy i guess, but there's not a whole lot of options.

Your wife on the shore dialing 911 won't help if you get in trouble. They will be too late. At least take a flotation device like a buoy with you and someone in a small boat close to you.

I thought about putting a small pool in my backyard to swim in on a cord. No way of heating that though, it will be -15°C tonight so it would be frozen the next day. Maybe on a month or so....

My experience with cold OWS: gradually acclimated to cold water last fall. Started 70+ and gradually worked down to 46F. 20-30 minutes was max at 46F. Full length tri wet suit, neoprene gloves, booties and cap. Takes 3-4 minutes for face to go from pain to numb. Then pretty comfortable. Hard to swim with effort at really cold temps. Easy effort just to maintain feel of the water. Takes about as long to get suited up and take every thing off as it does to swim. For me, it was just an adventure, I wanted to see how low and long I could go. Never alone at those temps. Always had my buddy with me. Kicker is that he is a Wim Hof fan and he swims in just a speedo. After we get done, we run for 30 minutes to warm up. We tried running first and there is something to be said for generating some heat before getting into cold water, but we decided we liked to run after swimming to warm back up instead.

So my conclusion after all of this is there is a fair amount of planning, work, and equipment that goes into cold OWS. Although it's fun to do and provides an interesting physical and mental challenge, I'm not sure that the quality of the swims at that temp, given the prep time you put in getting suited up, are worth the effort for triathlon swim training.

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Blog: https://swimbikerunrinserepeat.wordpress.com

I definitely agree that with cold water swimming, it is important never to be alone, and to stay close to shore so you can get out whenever you need to.

And yes, Wim Hof is amazing! I read his book, and went through a phase (several years ago) when I was trying to learn his methods. No longer under any illusion that I'm going to get to that level - but it was definitely useful experience to draw from when I had to move my swim training to the ocean.

Cheers,
Ginger

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https://www.instagram.com/gingerhowellracing/
If you find yourself thinking "What if I can't", instead think "What if I can!"