What do I need to know about keeping myself healthy when swimming outdoors in a warm pool with warm air temperatures? Today was my first, outdoor swimming workout in a 25 meter pool. Usually I swim 3,500 yards, 4-5 days/week in a very well maintained indoor pool but have just moved from Virginia to Saudi for several months. Should I have special goggles, wear sunscreen and most importantly should I adjust the intensity of the workout with more rest between sets, and extra water on the side? (I should have checked for flags before doing backstroke, ouch!)
What Bill said ^^^^
Try SolRx44 (find it on Amazon) for a waterproof/failproof sunscreen. Great stuff that's not nasty sticky and it holds up well in tropical sun.
Goggles - depends on what time of day. Early morning, or early evening smoked goggles. During middle part of day polarized goggles.
Sunscreen, yes. You may want to wear a rash guard, or other type of shirt you can swim in for additional coverage from the sun.
Stay hydraded, not to the point of being overhydraded. Definitely have your favorite sport drink handy.
Use a body wash with a good built in moisturizer.
No need to adjust your workout, unless you feel you need to. Depends on how intense the heat of the day is.
Do what I try to do in the heat of the Arizona sun - swim in the dark. If you have access to pools before the sun rises, that will be your coolest & best time of day to swim. After the sun goes down will be hotter, but you won't have the extra burn of the sun. While I've never had a problem with not enough salt, a lot of runners in the desert I know use salt pills.
Thank you all for your advice! Just to be clear, does warm water affect the swimming workout? (My daughters are loving it and stay in the pool the entire time I practice that never happened in our pool back in VA.) Enjoy the day!
Just to be clear, does warm water affect the swimming workout? Above a certain temperature, it can be dangerous, depending upon your intensity. I definitely cannot push myself as hard as I want once the water gets above 82/83 degrees F.
Thank you all for your advice! Just to be clear, does warm water affect the swimming workout?
Above a certain temperature it will, but I think you'll find your body can acclimate to a point. Just be sure to keep drinking throughout the workout and definitely back off if you feel like you aren't able to maintain your body temperature.
You can buy a pool thermometer pretty cheaply. Temperature below 83 Farenheit are fine for almost all work outs. 83-86 are OK for most moderate work outs,but you may need shorter distances and longer rest. Above 86 can get you over heated pretty easily,so definitely shorten your distances and increase your rest.
That is a good idea. The last couple days the water temp. has been a tad cooler, not a lot, but if it remains consistently warm I will do try this. Thank you.
