when i swim in the lakes or ocean with water temperatures below 55F, with a wetsuit, my feet and toes are so cold they hurt the whole swim. anything you can do, with the exception of booties which are not legal and don't do a whole lot anyway?
My vote on that would be to stay on the shore or go to a pool.
Cold water OW swimming is a great example of Survival of the Fittest. We humans were obviously not meant to swim in cold water. If we need to add 40/50lbs (as I saw a future Catalina Channel swimmer is doing) to be safe temp-wise in the water, that is a clear sign that staying out is the smarter choice. We don't see any eskimoes swimming in Alaska.
I swam OW on my own up in Maine last summer in just a speedo and had similar pain/numbness issues for most of my 1+ mile swim as well. I didn't have a thermometer, but I imagine the temp was in the upper 50s. Going forward, I'm going to try to get a reading and stay out of the water if it is too cold for me.
Find a temp you can handle, and my recommendation is to stay out if the temp is too cold for you.
Why not contact "grumpy tuna," who seems to be a race director (organizer?) for Alaska and knows lots of cool things?
I'd be concerned about chilled blood returning to the heart. Presumably a wetsuit helps.
when i swim in the lakes or ocean with water temperatures below 55F, with a wetsuit, my feet and toes are so cold they hurt the whole swim. anything you can do, with the exception of booties which are not legal and don't do a whole lot anyway?
Here is a neat site, GoMoos, on Maine's ocean waters, including an index for telling when whales will calve (it's based on data gathered in various places, such as Portugal). I've never known Maine waters to be anything less than frigid, but apparently they sometimes are, and this can be predicted a year in advance, from a different index turning positive or negative.
www.gomoos.org/.../step1.html
