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.
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.
What is your height/weight??? How many yards/meters can you swim in the pool for an hour swim???
Use moldable silicone earplugs, neoprene cap, cover all of that with a silicone cap or two. I swam Alcatraz with that setup and was comfortable. Keeping the cold water out of your ears as much as possible makes a big difference.
Yeah, I’ve been keeping my eye out on ebay. Buying a brand new thermal wetsuit isn’t in the budget.
What is your height/weight??? How many yards/meters can you swim in the pool for an hour swim???
I’m 5’5" and 115 lb. Yes, maybe putting on weight would help… My one hour aerobic swim usually covers 3200 m.
Use moldable silicone earplugs, neoprene cap, cover all of that with a silicone cap or two. I swam Alcatraz with that setup and was comfortable. Keeping the cold water out of your ears as much as possible makes a big difference.
This is one thing I haven’t tried, mainly because my ears never seem to be wet once I take my caps off. I’ll give this a try though. It’s cheaper than a new wetsuit.
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.
Dude that’s dangerous - but are you sure that the water temp is at 58 - 60F? Your description makes me feel the water is sub 50F, given that you’re already using wetsuit, neoprene booties, and neoprene caps. 60F is not really that cold that skin swimming is possible for hours. (I plan to build myself up to 6 hours in skin in such temperature in the coming winter)
What the poster above said. That’s about 14-15 degrees C, which wouldn’t be considered cold. I have swum down to about 11 Celsius (51F) in Spring and that’s just about bearable without gloves/booties etc. Although we’re all different physiologically.
Ultimately, I wouldn’t do anything that’s likely to cause you to get into trouble, especially if swimming alone.
My wife gets cold easy. When ever we used to do early season swims we would bring a thermos of warm/hot water and pour it into her wet suit. This bought her a lot of time.
Yeah, I’ve been keeping my eye out on ebay. Buying a brand new thermal wetsuit isn’t in the budget.
What is your height/weight??? How many yards/meters can you swim in the pool for an hour swim???
I’m 5’5" and 115 lb. Yes, maybe putting on weight would help… My one hour aerobic swim usually covers 3200 m.
There’s your answer. Not much body fat. I’m 5’10†123 lb I get light headed when the pool gets under 80.
Use moldable silicone earplugs, neoprene cap, cover all of that with a silicone cap or two. I swam Alcatraz with that setup and was comfortable. Keeping the cold water out of your ears as much as possible makes a big difference.
This is one thing I haven’t tried, mainly because my ears never seem to be wet once I take my caps off. I’ll give this a try though. It’s cheaper than a new wetsuit.
ROKA sells a thermal wetsuit
I would guess other companies do as well
Yeah, I’ve been keeping my eye out on ebay. Buying a brand new thermal wetsuit isn’t in the budget.
What is your height/weight??? How many yards/meters can you swim in the pool for an hour swim???
I’m 5’5" and 115 lb. Yes, maybe putting on weight would help… My one hour aerobic swim usually covers 3200 m.
**There’s your answer. Not much body fat. I’m 5’10†123 lb I get light headed when the pool gets under 80. **
Use moldable silicone earplugs, neoprene cap, cover all of that with a silicone cap or two. I swam Alcatraz with that setup and was comfortable. Keeping the cold water out of your ears as much as possible makes a big difference.
This is one thing I haven’t tried, mainly because my ears never seem to be wet once I take my caps off. I’ll give this a try though. It’s cheaper than a new wetsuit.
jkr83 and JackStraw13 - Are you guys male or female??? Not that it really matters but I am just curious, espec Jack at 5’10"/123. I mean, that is really thin for anyone M or F. That said, I do know a girl who swims at my pool who is 5’2.5" and 88 lb. Now THAT is thin.
In any case, ya, you both are very small/light to be doing cold water swims.
Make sure you wear ear plugs. I spent my youth and large parts of adulthood surfing in cold water. You don’t want to have to get your ears drilled because you didn’t wear plugs. Trust me.
I own Blue Seventy’s thermal wetsuit, and it does work. They blow them out at a discount from time to time, so keep your eye out. I know you are looking for other solutions, but just wanted to give you firsthand feedback on the thermal option.
Roka is having a Black Friday Sale. Last year I picked up a Maverick Thermal for a big discount and it’s kept me snug as a bug. I also use a HUUB hood. I think keeping my carotid arteries warm helps.
I also live where the water is cold before it turns to ice.
I found a couple of items that might be of interest. I haven’t tried either of those. Both look to be less than $100.
They also look interesting to wear for the between a wetsuit and no wetsuit water temperature.
Zone 3 has a neoprene warmth vest. It looks like a 2mm layer you can wear under a wetsuit. While likely not acceptable for racing could add a little warmth for training.
The other is an Orca Unisex Wetsuit Base Layer… again can be worn under a wetsuit if your wetsuit might allow that. It is a 0.5mm layer that could retain some heat.
What you have described sounds like your body getting cold and it being time to get out. You’re doing the right thing by not pushing it. I’ve been caught out in a lake before and in took me a few minutes to soft breaststroke around 30 meters to the edge to get out after my body refused to do front crawl anymore.
Cold water adaptation takes time and it’s always best to be cautious. Look at in the same way you would look at increasing training volume, with gradual increases in cold water exposure. As the temperature drops spend less time in the water. Air temperature also makes a difference. You can expect to feel colder sooner with colder air temperatures for the same water temperature. It’s normal to swim slower than usual in the cold compared to your summer OW speed. For safety, swimming with experienced cold water swimmers is always a good idea and swimming somewhere you can get out when needed makes it safer. Don’t swim on your own. Body fat does help but I’ve met very lean people who were ripped and swimming impressively fast times for 450m and 1km races.
I did three winters in a row swimming open water, the first two in a wetsuit and the third in a pair of jammers, goggles and a silicon hat. The coldest water I swam in none wetsuit was 3 degrees C which was cold for me. That’s not intended as a boast. I was the weakest swimmer in the group I was with for speed and cold water tolerance. Some of the swimmers swam ice miles (under 5 degrees C) and took part in international competitions in countries like Russia where the pool was cut out of frozen lakes. The year with no wetsuit I was working shifts and could swim two to three days open water a week consistently which helped. I don’t think I could have kept it up none wetsuit.without that consistency. I started in the summer without a wetsuit and carried on. If you want to adapt you can practice at home. I bought a large plastic tub, filled it with water, left it out overnight to climb in to help adapt to cold water shock.
I rarely swim open water now with a different job and miss the winter swims. Shift work was great for training but less so for family life.
Here’s my arm (and a tri relays hat) at a UK winter gala in December.
