So my next all-weather mental training breakthrough needs to come in open water swimming, namely swimming all alone in freezing lakes.
I finally tried out my new wetsuit today, but I am such a wimp. The new QR suit’s wonderful and so boyant I would need to wear concrete galoshes if I wanted to drown in it and it’s warm too: But the lake is 55 degrees and so’s the air temp today and it was just too much for me. I would swim around for 5 minutes, my cabeca and fingers would get numb, then I would sit on the dock. Did this twice and decided to wimp out.
Last summer I borrowed a suit and never had a problem in 65-degree water, especially when it’s 80 out and sunny. But I live in Montana now and I gotta get over this, or I’ll never get much open water training in. Oh great, now it’s raining. Glad I got my long bike ride in yesterday … Ideas?
55 is cold. but my response is not about temp but about solo OW swims in freezing lakes. Is this wise? Do other people do OW solo swims, even in wetsuit? I am reasonably strong swimmer and I have no “weirdness” about swimming OW, but just as a matter of caution never do it alone. But then again I don’t do a lot of OW swimming outside of races…
i surf all the time in <55 degree water, alone, and with waves that are just a tad bigger than a lake’s, and so do thousands of other people. and lakes don’t have 15 foot maneaters. tbinmt will be fine. but seriously, congrats for getting out there. 55 is some cold sh*t, but you’ll get used to it and learn that it ain’t no thing. 40’s is cold… ish.
tb, get a neoprene swim cap for your melon. it’ll make a huge difference.
There’s a world of difference between 55 and 65. Swim in the pool and you can still practice sighting. A neoprene cap and ear plugs are crucial for cold water. I swam a mile by myself in Lake washington a few weeks ago. It was 59 and that felt cold. It’s only really my face which feels the cold. Just remember it’s only pain.
Wetsuit, or no wetsuit, unless you are training for those antarctic record swims, I don’t think you are getting much “toughness” benefit from swimming in 55 deg. lakes in 55 deg. air.
That would be like trying to build toughness by going out bike riding in 40 deg. heavy rain with nothing on but shoes, shorts, and a light jersey. All it would do would stress your body out and lower your immunity.
Swim OW (in a lake) all the time alone (no other choice for me) but tend to swim parallel to shore to avoid the boats but it does bring snakes, turtles, and other creatures into play more. Swam face to face with some type of big water snake the other evening and am not sure who was more surprised…we both went the opposite direction.
For training, you can use some neoprene socks and there are some gloves you can that aren’t thick give some protection in cold water. I think you can get them at Cabelas.com or campmor.com. Even latex gloves would help some.
I saw a guy at an ocean tri who had the deSoto polar cap–it seemed nice. He wore his goggles under, so that there wasn’t a leak problem.
ok, you keep wearing a full body kevlar suit so you can’t possibly sense the environment around you and get hit by a truck. jeez.
swimming in 40 - 50 degree water in wetsuits in THE OPEN OCEAN (gasp!) is done by tens of thousands of people every day. People surf in northern California, oregon, washington, jersey, maine, ireland, norway, new zealand in those temps on a regular basis. Where I live the water temp dips well into the 50’s every winter and I surf (along with tons of other people) for 3 or 4 hours straight wearing a 3-4 wetsuit, no headcover, air temp in the 40’s. you’ll live. These pics are from sweden. yes, that’s snow on the ground. tell Darwin we said “hi.”
Wetsuit, or no wetsuit, unless you are training for those antarctic record swims, I don’t think you are getting much “toughness” benefit from swimming in 55 deg. lakes in 55 deg. air.
That would be like trying to build toughness by going out bike riding in 40 deg. heavy rain with nothing on but shoes, shorts, and a light jersey. All it would do would stress your body out and lower your immunity.
Just my thoughts.
yes, it will make you tougher. learn that you can do it and it won’t kill you, then during your next race when some of these sissies on this board are racing against you and freaking out because the water is 65 degrees, you’ll swim right through it while they go call mommy. You’re on the right track, TB. Keep on chuggin’. the water won’t seem so cold after a few more tries.
One more happy thought for you. I used to live in Bozeman and do a lot of windsurfing in the lakes in SW Montana. As soon as they warm up, a lot of lakes have a healthy population of leeches. happy laps.
One more happy thought for you. I used to live in Bozeman and do a lot of windsurfing in the lakes in SW Montana. As soon as they warm up, a lot of lakes have a healthy population of leeches. happy laps.
sweet! tb, you BETTER swim while it’s cold!
“no cold open water swimming” types are mere mice compared to these guys. and they’re drinking cold beer. Petter och Lee skålar för seger!
I’ve done a fair amount of open water swimming (no wetsuit) sown to about 53 degrees. I surfed for years in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can not compare surfing and swimming. Surfing - your head/hands are always out of the water. My main problem with swimming in cold water is cold head and cold hands. Cold head I can get used too - once your face goes numb - its numb - though you tend to slur your speech when you get out…I’ve never worn a neoprene cap in swims but that sounds like a good idea. Numb hands can make it difficult to feel the water. I’ve never worn gloves - so can’t comment on that. I agree that its best to not swim alone though I swim/surf alone frequently…
Big question is why? I get a better work-out in a pool. Its nice to practice some open water swimming if you don’t have a lot of experience yet for many people the hardest thing is crowded open water swimming…which is hard to practice.
you’re mostly right, and by the time you suit up for a swim in 50 degree water, you gotta feel like you’re a pecker wearing enough condoms to keep you safe from courtney love. how far away is the nearest pool, lord of the leeches?
Thanks guys (all two or three of you) for the input. Triathletes are wusses in many ways and this is just one way to point out our wussiness.
You know, if I can’t get out (swimming in 55 degree water) for a bit longer I have no business “Tri-ing” north of 45 degrees N latitude, anyway. I guess 5 minutes in cold water could lead to 10 and so on. My first race of the year is in 2 days in BC and there’s no way the water is above 60 but we all have to suck it up and do it, so what am I complaining about? Hell, I’ve logged 100,000 yards in the pool since the first of the year, so I am a little prepared, swim-wise …
Open water training is like running 20-milers training for a marathon. No need to make it a habit, in fact it’s neither safe nor healthy, but it’s good to do it a few times before you race.
