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:
Former Member
Aurora, you're in Chicago?
let me know any time you want to swim in the lake and want company. I want to keep up some cold water swimming as much as possible. I know of groups on the North and South Side that swim in the cold.
I have not done the channel, but aspire to in a few years. I have done some fairly long (3 - 4 hour) cold water swims in the low to mid 50's..
I think Rob's point about pace and burning calories is the most important factor I have found in acclimating to the cold temps. Training to that may run against the objective of gaining weight, but its more important. Next to that, I would seek out waters with significantly colder temperatures to train in. I have found that training in water 5 - 8 degrees colder for significant distances turns the temperature issue into a non-issue.
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. Has anyone used it and feel like it has worked far better?
Ear Plugs. make sure you cover the ears well and fill them up with something to keep them sealed. Watch out for too much caffeine in that coffee.
I agree, Lynne Cox book is amazing and might give a lot of good insight into how she managed cold water swimming. www.lynnecox.org/index.htm
Good luck in your training for the English Channel! Wow!!! Wishing you the best in your 6 hour swim coming up! :)
thanks swimflyfast about the coffee I will try to cut that out. I do drink to much of it and Chicken of the sea I am in the Chicago land and I swim on fridays at Ohio street @ 5:30 so if you ever want to join me I would so love the company as my coach swims @ 5am and then has to start his open water class that he teaches, so I do 2-3 hours and soon more. It gets hard when its cold and nice to have someone to keep you going! Also on Wednesday and Sat I swim at Gilson beach farther north @ 5:30 and do a couple hours so if any of those work for you I would so so love to not be alone.Thank you so much everyone for your kind words and thoughts and very helpful info!!:):)
thanks swimflyfast about the coffee I will try to cut that out. I do drink to much of it and Chicken of the sea I am in the Chicago land and I swim on fridays at Ohio street @ 5:30 so if you ever want to join me I would so love the company as my coach swims @ 5am and then has to start his open water class that he teaches, so I do 2-3 hours and soon more. It gets hard when its cold and nice to have someone to keep you going! Also on Wednesday and Sat I swim at Gilson beach farther north @ 5:30 and do a couple hours so if any of those work for you I would so so love to not be alone.Thank you so much everyone for your kind words and thoughts and very helpful info!!:):)
Is that 5.30am? :)
I'm an hour away (possibly less at that time), but make it in early occasionally. Also sick of swimming alone, and have become the queen of the 1 mile workout! haha
I can see that it is hard to get someone to swim with you for a few hours, but maybe you can a few friends to do a "relay" and have them each swim a segment?
yes this is at 5:30am I am so sick of swimming alone too so if you want to get in a good couple miles I would be so happy to have a swim buddy! I asked my coach if he knew of anyone I could do my long swims with and he said he thought it every unlikely that someone would want to swim for hours. I was sad. Just shoot me a message then you want to come and we will swim!! things have gotten better though because my friend paddles with me some times so it helps to take my mind off being cold. I finely got in a almost 4 hours straight swim its amazing what some company can do to keep you going! so I am in!!Thanks chicken of the sea for wanting to join me!!
yes this is at 5:30am I am so sick of swimming alone too so if you want to get in a good couple miles I would be so happy to have a swim buddy! I asked my coach if he knew of anyone I could do my long swims with and he said he thought it every unlikely that someone would want to swim for hours. I was sad. Just shoot me a message then you want to come and we will swim!! things have gotten better though because my friend paddles with me some times so it helps to take my mind off being cold. I finely got in a almost 4 hours straight swim its amazing what some company can do to keep you going! so I am in!!Thanks chicken of the sea for wanting to join me!!
I'd love to swim for hours! Am not doing great in cold water at the moment but we'll see. I'm about a 30 minute mile in open water.
When are you going next? That's a 4am (if not earlier) wakeup for me, but damn well serves me right for not living near the lake :)
thanks your the best though I think you would be fine! I can take it easy! yeah u are way out but we will find time to hook up at some point I would love to swim with you. yes getting kids off to school and stuff is so hard. I hope to meet you have a great day!!!
