I am doing the English channel next Sept 2011. I am trying to get a good handle on the cold water thing. So this is what I have been doing but if anyone knows of other tricks I would love to know what they did to prepare for the English channel cold water.
At the moment I take a cold shower every day and 2 times a week sit in a bath full of ice. I live close to lake Michigan and right now the temp has been around 56-64 I have been doing no wet suit. I am up to a 2 hour swim in the cold but have to do a 6 hour cold water swim this Oct. At about two hours my feet lose feeling and my hands too. I can feel my core start to really get cold.
I have used may things to keep warm on being Vaseline did work just got my goggles all messed up, Crisco has done ok. But I am think of getting some Lanolin but dont know if it will be better. Has anyone used it and feel like it has worked far better?
The other thing is my Coach and I are going to set up a floating raft ancoared down and us it for a feeding station. I was thinking of putting a jug of hot water in there to pour over my self. Has anyone tryed this? I want to do hot liquides but my coach said the last guy he trained for the channel had hot tea and he cramped up. Wonder in if that was just him or because the water is so cold with the hot it Shocks your body. My coach told me to not worrie this will all come in time but I have 2 months till my 6 hour swim in 60 or less water temp and it is freeking me out. So any one that knows of some tricks please post them!!!! thanks Aurora :coffee::coffee:
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donal, i always enjoy reading your posts. the swimmers that train at sandycove have an impressive success rate and i'm pleased to say that i had the pleasure of meeting a few each time i've been to dover. i'm also pleased to say that ciroen (i hope i spelled that correctly) and i got to swim the channel together on sept 1... our escort boats within view of each other for the final hours, and the american and irish flags are flying together at our current varne ridge residence.
regarding extra weight: i have spent most of my adult life between 157 and 163 pounds. at 5'11", i would consider that "lean". i added a bit of weight, and was hovering around 180 pounds in preparation for my channel swims. it seems to be mostly around the belly area... at least that is where i notice it, and along with training in colder water whenever it was available, made for a very comfortable 14 1/2 hours in the channel.... water temps 60-62 degrees.
i applied channel grease to the usual areas prone to chaffing and also to my neck, shoulders, and back. i agree that the insulating qualities of said grease are marginal at best, but i have experienced a beneficial "wind breaking" effect and will continue to apply to areas that might be exposed to a cool breeze during long swims.
donal, i always enjoy reading your posts. the swimmers that train at sandycove have an impressive success rate and i'm pleased to say that i had the pleasure of meeting a few each time i've been to dover. i'm also pleased to say that ciroen (i hope i spelled that correctly) and i got to swim the channel together on sept 1... our escort boats within view of each other for the final hours, and the american and irish flags are flying together at our current varne ridge residence.
regarding extra weight: i have spent most of my adult life between 157 and 163 pounds. at 5'11", i would consider that "lean". i added a bit of weight, and was hovering around 180 pounds in preparation for my channel swims. it seems to be mostly around the belly area... at least that is where i notice it, and along with training in colder water whenever it was available, made for a very comfortable 14 1/2 hours in the channel.... water temps 60-62 degrees.
i applied channel grease to the usual areas prone to chaffing and also to my neck, shoulders, and back. i agree that the insulating qualities of said grease are marginal at best, but i have experienced a beneficial "wind breaking" effect and will continue to apply to areas that might be exposed to a cool breeze during long swims.
