How to swim in 90° water???

RE: How to swim in 90° water???

Bill Sive — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 12:54:45 GMT

Elaine is correct remember Fran Crippen. I worked out a few days earlier this year in a 90 pool. It completely drained me. There was an age group swim club who did their practices in the pool. They must have been used to the temperature as it did not seem to bother them. I kinda felt sorry for them because any meet they would go to the pools would be freezing for them. Just repeating what everyone has said. Take it easy and hydrate yourself. If you get tired stop and rest.

RE: How to swim in 90° water???

Celestial — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:23:30 GMT

I would hazard a guess that most of us over 50 trained in hot pools when we grew up. The answer (in Houston) back in the 1970's? We swam very early in the morning, and then 12 hours later if we did doubles. So, if you are able to swim at 5:00 in the morning, that will be your answer - the water naturally cools off over night. That being said, it seems like the older I get, the more perfect the conditions have to be for a good workout - if its over 86F, I can barely get in 2000. Best wishes.

RE: How to swim in 90° water???

Former Member — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:40:50 GMT

If you showed them how much they were paying a month extra to heat the pool to 90 they might fix it quickly. They are probably paying at least double to keep it that warm.

RE: How to swim in 90° water???

smontanaro — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 11:52:33 GMT

There's also the added heat stress. Might increase the chance of a heat-related health problem (heat exhaustion, etc). Not saying it's going to happen, but if such an issue were to occur and their insurance company found out they had a correctable problem, said insurance company would likely be none too happy.

RE: How to swim in 90° water???

Former Member — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 10:24:22 GMT

There's got to be a manual over-ride on the heating system and the custodian/maintenance man should simply turn off the heater until the new part arrives and just leave the filter/chlorination system running. In addtion to creating hell (figuritively and literally) for the swimmers, they're running up a huge energy bill and it sounds like the operators don't have any mechnical apptitude either.

RE: How to swim in 90° water???

Former Member — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 09:53:56 GMT

Swimming in 90 degree water? What comes to mind is backtroke intervals. Say 100 yards on 6 minutes. With a cold beer balanced on your belly.

RE: How to swim in 90° water???

rxleakem — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 09:44:33 GMT

Agree: hydration before and during the swim, plus generous rest is key in hot water.

RE: How to swim in 90° water???

Elaine Krugman — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 09:40:21 GMT

I know, I know, I'm being a bit wimpy, but the warmer temp just really saps the energy out of me. No, you are NOT being "wimpy". Remember what happened to Fran Crippen? 90 degree water is just plain dangerous for anything but noodlers. :afraid:For drill work and long, slow swimming, ok; but speed work? Fuhhhgetaboutit! :agree: Be sure to listen to your body. If you start feeling bad, STOP, get out, cool down, and hydrate. Don't be macho and keep going or you may not keep going much longer...

RE: How to swim in 90° water???

funkyfish — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 09:31:42 GMT

Thanks all for the responses. I know, I know, I'm being a bit wimpy, but the warmer temp just really saps the energy out of me. I guess I got some confirmation that I'll have to adjust my intervals and rest periods accordingly. Oh well. Think I'll still hit the cool pool at least once in a while because it's fun to hit it hard every so often. I just hope the 'heat wave' is indeed a temporary situation, we'll see I guess… :banana:

RE: How to swim in 90° water???

pmccoy — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 09:18:54 GMT

A couple summers ago, they were putting a new roof on the pool and we were sent to the outdoor pool. A string of 95+ degree days with several days going over 100 quickly had the pool over 90 degrees. One day, the pool temp got to 93. We dealt with it by hydrating more, taking longer breaks in between sets and not going quite as fast as we would in a cooler pool. After a couple weeks, your body does acclimate some but it probably won't if you alternate days with a cooler pool. We usually do 4000 to 4500 yards a day in 800 to 1200 yard sets. I don't remember dropping the yardage but we did adjust some intervals due to the excess heat.

RE: How to swim in 90° water???

__steve__ — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 07:57:02 GMT

If you showed them how much they were paying a month extra to heat the pool to 90 they might fix it quickly. They are probably paying at least double to keep it that warm.The > 90⁰F pools around here are unheated in the summer months, one of them has coolers working but water is still in the high 80's.

RE: How to swim in 90° water???

__steve__ — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 07:30:58 GMT

It's like running in hot weather, it will be slower and need more fluids. You can get acclimated to it

RE: How to swim in 90° water???

Patrick W. Brundage — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 07:30:01 GMT

My snarky answer is to load the water bottle up, suck it up and swim. On an only slightly-less-snarky note, many swimmers in AZ pools in the summer time with less-than-adequate chilling systems will often train in 86-88 degree water with air temps well over 100. I definitely DO NOT recommend it, but you can adapt to it in a number of ways: Liberally use the aforementioned water bottle, Recognize your max speed / times will suffer, Limit your length of time in water On a more serious note, though: Try to get to that other pool and do your HARD & AFAP stuff there; use the hot tub ... err ... other pool for drills and recovery Don't swim alone in those conditions: have a buddy or alert the lifeguard if you're really going to push yourself

RE: How to swim in 90° water???

Elaine Krugman — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 06:08:02 GMT

Swimming in 90 degree water? What comes to mind is backtroke intervals. Say 100 yards on 6 minutes. With a cold beer balanced on your belly. And, lose the cap, have your water bottle standing by at all times and hop out for cold showers. :agree: Caps retain heat like crazy, so when our pool temp. is increased for the noodlers in the winter :bitching:, I have to lose my cap after warm up. And, I hop out to run cold water over my head to cool myself back down. :chillpill: