At what point is the temperature of the water too hot for effective training for you? I’m not sure what the temperature is at my pool but I’m starting to think it’s too warm. I plan on measuring today and will report back.
I am extremely water temp sensitive. I found I hit my best around 79-80F, 81-82 I can tolerate, anything above that, my splits severely drop and I start to suffer heat exhaustion in the pool. YMCA pools are notorious around the country, being at 83-86F. I normally swim with the team in 79F, but travel for living and swim around the country, all over, and encounter variety from ok to plain dangerous with people mostly being oblivious to it.
I do not wear wetsuit in anything over 72F, I just race in a tri suit or a swim skin at that point.
Living in Florida I have had to tailor my swim workouts from say May to September to early morning. Even with aerators it’s too darn hot by 10 am. Heck our pool right now is bordering on too hot as I got out of the pool early from feeling a bit dehydrated yesterday. Note I take a 20 oz insulated Polar bottle to boot!
In the summer when I can only hit the pool in the afternoons I just do drills and get out in under an hour or I will feel nauseous the rest of the day regardless of fluid intake.
+1 YMCA pools are horribly overheated. Anything above 81 and I burn up the second half of a 3-4000 yd swim.
The pool I swim at is usually around 78 or so. Cool at the start but I like it, the lakes here are always cold because they are reservoirs, so I have to be able to tolerate cold.
Today it was 82 and I was sweating when I got done and just blah. I swam my best TT though, so maybe my muscles like it, but the rest of me thinks it sucks.
the pool i usually swim at is straight chlorine and constantly at 83f (the new geothermal system rules!), so that’s where my benchmarks are from. it’s not ideal, but it’s familiar.
since it’s closed for maintenance this week, i went to the other rec centre in town. pool is a salt-chlorine mix sitting at - no kidding - 88f. it was all i could do to get through 100m at a time - like swimming in soup, and my times were abysmal (moreso than usual, that is).
have one more swim in that junk tonight, then i can hit the YMCA on saturday morning. you know you’re in dire straits when you’re really looking forward to swimming at the Y!
cheers!
-mistress k
Our pool is maintained at 84-86 degree’s! It is a treat to go somewhere that is 80 or less. Much hotter than that just breaks me down. It has been up to 89 and I did my “warm up” and just left.
Most gyms (YMCA, Gold’s, etc.) keep their pools at 84^ or warmer in order to accommodate their older clientele who insist the pool is too cold (typically only after dipping in their toes). Pools set up for clubs or teams will tend to be closer to the sub-82^ range…or such has been my experience.
I seem to recall American Red Cross guidelines that lap pools should not exceed 82^. Gyms, quite obviously, ignore this.
I swim in an outdoor pool in SoCal, they try to keep the water temp 80-81. I like it.
A few degrees makes a pretty big difference for me. I sometimes get a direct measure of this if I show up early for a masters practice and warmup a bit in a separate pool that is kept a 3-4 degrees warmer (maybe 85 vs 81). I generally will just do some light kicking as a warmup because any real workout feels bad and slow at that temperature. Feels great when I finally hop in the pool kept at the right temp for laps.
The NYSC (Deer Park NY) keeps their pool at 85 degrees, but…
They turn off the heater at night (around 9 pm) and then turn it back on about 6 am. They do this because all the older swimmers show up in the evening for some reason (water aerobics, water dancing, etc) and they encourage the competitive swimmers to show up in the morning. So, if I go after work the pool is really hot and crowded. If I go at 5 am before work the pool is the correct temperature and empty.
Tough choice. I don’t swim after work anymore.
I agree hot water is miserable but what temperature is too hot to run or bike? HTFU There was a team in the 70’s that sent a lot of people to AAU Nationals and they swam in a therapeutic pool that was in the high 80’s. They worked out for only an hour per day because that was all they could take but it was also all they needed.
Swimming competition rules generally state pool water temperature should be between 79 and 81 for competitions. That is where any pool used for serious training will be if the coaching staff has any control over the temp. You don’t have to get too much over 80 before it starts to suck if you are cranking out big yards over a few hours.
I guess the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
The pool I swim in is often too cold! My long swims (~90’) are miserable and I often leave with blue hands and feet and shivering like crazy… it takes me a good 15’ under the hot shower to feel good again… I guess that is because this pool was designed for competition… It’s absolutely great for racing and for doing shorter intervals but for long workouts is painful sometimes… I live in Wisconsin and to be honest, in the winter, I don’t look forward to swimming at all, but I do it anyway…
My local pool reports 79 average which seems amazing given the high blue hair representation. This is ok, but much higher and I’m cookin’.
I agree hot water is miserable but what temperature is too hot to run or bike?
Ask Fran Crippen’s family that question.
Normal water temperatures here in the summer in my ‘unheated pool’ are somewhere between 85-89F. I end up structuring workouts to do a ‘cool off’ every 750-1000 yards to try not to unsafely overheat.
Interesting question, the way you phrased it I take to mean, at what temperature are you better off going home?
That’s a complex question that involves options. Like do i have a different pool to go to tomorrow that won’t be as hot?
If it’s a one-time deal, I’d say 88 or so. At that point I’d pask it in and go home and wait for the heater ot be fixed or something.
Cooler than that i can do something even if it is only easy drills or something.
wow, now I don’t feel so bad about the pool I use that is 83 degrees (plus or minus 1.5 deg). I have a tough time when it is 83 or hotter. The pool my masters team swims in is around 78-79 degrees (76 deg the last couple of weeks due to broken heaters) and is perfect for a tough workout.