Channel Swim 14: Guest Post! An outsider dips their toe in to the world of cold water swimming
Barney is part of the Novice Triathlete team and has written a number of articles, including an in depth look at raising your FTP with structured training. Having watched him bury himself with the London-Edinburgh-London (look it up if you’ve never heard of it, it’s insane) and shared other massive challenges, he’s been a fantastic pillar to lean on whenever I know I’ve bitten off a bit more than I can chew. He’s hugely improved his swimming over the last year, racking up big distances and massively increasing his speed, but although he’d shared most of my previous winter swimming he has not been trying to acclimatise over this year. He joined me this weekend giving cold water swimming a try again and has shared a different viewpoint below.
Getting sucked in…. again
I imagine there’s a similar sinking feeling for many people when one of your close friends, relatives or partner says they have something important to tell you.
I have known Stu long enough and been involved with enough of his hair-brained challenges to know that what he was about to tell me was going to be related to his next idea rather than some devastating health news. Before he had even started to talk I had already guessed what it was going to be.
‘I’m thinking about swimming the Channel’
Now normally when he comes up with such things the next thing out of his mouth is
“Fancy it?”
This is generally followed by me either saying “Yes” immediately or going away and chewing on the cost, commitment and logistics of it before I generally also come back with a “Yes”.
This time though was different. This time the answer was:
“Hell, no!”
And that leapt out of my mouth before he even asked the question. Though to be fair I am not sure he was ever going to ask it. This is a very personal challenge.
The follow up discussions over the coming weeks also resulted in me quickly ruling myself out of being part of the support crew on the boat as I know full well I would spend the whole trip throwing up over the side and being worse than useless.
Instead I offered to support him in whatever way I could in the build-up. So far, that’s not been much other than keeping up to date with his progress and making lots of encouraging noises at any vaguely appropriate moment.
However, that was about to change. On his way back from his first swim at Guildford Lido he rang me and asked if I fancied it the following weekend. A temperature of 11C and probably getting warmer for the following week meant it seemed manageable with a wetsuit. I have swum in 13-14C with just a wetsuit and once done a few minutes in 7.6C water with the addition of a neoprene skullcap and some booties.
Once again, I said “Yes”.
How much am I going to regret this?
This was why, at 9:25am on the first Saturday in March and I am stood in my wetsuit alongside Stu and a couple of other hardy regulars all just in swimming costumes waiting to get in.
Decisions still to be made at this point included;
- Neoprene skullcap between the 2 swimming caps? This was something that had worked well for me in the 7C swim.
- Gloves?
- Boots?
- Borrow Stu’s waterproof earphones?
- Go home without getting in?
After serious consideration, I opted for a ‘No’ to all of them. I wanted to see how I did with just the wetsuit.
Well, 2 lengths and 100m in I decided to stop and put the gloves on.
It was cold getting in but it did not feel too bad. I had splashed my face and submerged myself before setting off to get the body used to it as much as possible. The 2 swim caps prevented any ‘ice cream head’ and though my feet were cold my only concern were my hands.
With the gloves on (and no idea how Stu ever got those things on his much larger hands), I got back in and then spent the next 45 minutes ploughing up and down the same wide lane a trunks wearing Stu was in. We were swimming at exactly the same pace. As I initially started 1 length behind him, we ended up crossing in the middle of the pool every length. That’s possibly the only time that’s ever going to happen.
The pool got busier.
I’d estimate at its peak there were around 25 people spread across the 5 lanes they had open. The ratio of Males to Females seemed about 50/50 and the wetsuit wearers were about 20%. There were a lot of very good and clearly hardcore cold water swimmers there. I had felt comfortable fitting in with only some occasional problems with my breath intake resulting in me swallowing more water than I would have liked.
I thoroughly enjoyed the clear water and outside environment, and even the cold.
Recognising when I have an issue
After about 40 minutes I started getting an issue with some seepage into my googles. After trying and failing to fix it on the run I eventually stopped about 45 minutes in to try and sort it. As soon as I touched them, they went completely loose. I pulled off my top swim cap, took the goggles off and started to faff with them. They just didn’t seem to want to stay tight on my head.
It was at this point that Stu rocked up and asked if I was OK. I explained the issue briefly. He said I was doing well and was on for 4km in the session at the pace I was going. At that he turned and pushed off. But I could tell by his face he was a little concerned.
I sorted the goggles and pulled the second swim cap back on and turned to face the water. I took a breath and realised my arms were shivering. I did a quick body check. My legs were also shivering.
Up until then I had felt comfortable, knowing I had covered a little over 2km I was planning to aim for 3km. I had even toyed with the idea of doing that and then getting out, stripping off the wetsuit and gloves and trying 2 lengths in just trunks.
But now I was concerned about continuing in the wetsuit.
As the shivering continued, I called it. I ducked under the lane rope and walked up the steps and quickly out of the pool, making sure Stu knew I was out. 10 minutes later I was back at the poolside dressed in all my clothes and wearing Stu’s spare DryRobe and a woolly hat.
And I was shivering.
30 minutes later, after I had drunk all of my hot chocolate and Stu had finally had to get out as the session ended after 90 minutes nonstop I had finally stopped shivering. They were not massive uncontrollable shivers but just constant low-level ones.
I was very glad I had called it when I had.
Stu threw on his DryRobe, got changed and nonchalantly headed back to the car. With heated seats and temperature set to max, only a few minutes later the few shivers he had suffered from had completely vanished.
Apparently, the lifeguards had mentioned the pool temperature had dropped to 10C and the group consensus had been that might also have been rounded up slightly.
Though I was pleased with my effort, both in terms of consistency and handling the conditions I was seriously impressed by all the people that swam without a wetsuit. A huge variety of shapes, sizes and capabilities; acclimatisation is obviously key to be able to handle this.
Once again Stu was one of only 2 people in for the whole ninety minute session and he was the only one without a wetsuit.
Its amazing to see what the human body is capable of handling.
The next big hurdles are his 6-hour qualifying swim in two weeks followed by the Guildford 12-hour event in a month which will see both of us returning to the Lido in April. Stu will do all the swimming I will be his support crew – luckily with no boat involved.