In order to swim comfortably in the bracing waters of Lake Michigan, I gear up in layers.
1) Tyr jammer swimsuit
2) ONeill 13 Ounce Thermo-X Short Sleeve Crew designed to keep my “core” warm
3) A full body wetsuit
The final cold water accessories are a neoprene swim cap, neoprene booties, and neoprene diving gloves.
This is the gear set up I use for swimming in 50F – 56F (10C – 13.3C) water. The only other items I add to this are my swim goggles as well as petroleum jelly to use on the exposed areas of my neck and face.
Once the water temperature exceeds 56F (13.3C), I “pare down” my equipment accordingly:
57F – 62F (13.9C – 16.6C) – Eliminate the gloves, booties, and neoprene cap (use latex swim cap)
63F – 68F (17.2C – 20.0C) – Eliminate the thermo shirt and consider switching to a “farmer john” or “shortie” wetsuit
69F+ (20.5C+) – Eliminate the wetsuit
Let me emphasize that these are guidelines that I formulated based upon my personal experience with cold water swimming. Other people might have different temperature thresholds, and they might very well be comfortable swimming without a wetsuit at much lower temperatures. Indeed, there are multiple factors that influence one’s cold water tolerance such as age, gender, body fat%, and overall physical conditioning. However, this is a good benchmark if you’re just starting out. You can always adjust upwards or downwards once you get more exposure to varying water situations.
Okay. You’ve worked on your “inner game.” You’ve identified the value or values that are providing the motivation you need to override all instincts of self-preservation and jump into a cold body of water. Now let’s get to work…
The first area that you will have to manage will be your reaction to a sudden exposure to cold water. Basically, your initial entry into cold water causes a “gasp” reflex followed by a period of hyperventilation and a slight feeling of panic caused by a sudden increase in heart rate and blood pressure. This is an automatic response that you can minimize or eliminate with the right amount of preparation. And trust me on this – you definitely want to avoid this if you can.
I made the mistake once of jumping into an innocent looking swimming hole in northern Arizona only to be rudely reminded that 80F outside temperatures have NO EFFECT WHATSOEVER on icy mountain stream water temperatures.
The immersion shock was so forceful and instantaneous that I literally inhaled a lungful of freezing, mossy water. Don’t let this happen to you!
There are basically two ways to minimize immersion shock:
1) Make sure that you are wearing cold water swim equipment that is appropriate to your own specific physiological needs
2) Take a progressive cold shower prior to your swim
I’ll expand upon the first point in a separate post since it’s a very detailed topic. As far as the second point, though, that’s pretty straightforward:
Progressive cold shower technique:
About 30-45 minutes before your scheduled swim, start out your shower at your regular preferred temperature. After 2 minutes of this, adjust the water temperature downward until it is just slightly below a comfortable level. Stay under this water for another 2 minutes and make sure you expose every part of your body. Keep repeating this process as you adapt to each slight temperature change.
You will soon reach a point were the water temperature becomes uncomfortably cold and you begin to shiver. Force yourself to stay under the water for at least a minute, and focus on exposing every part of your head and your torso to the shower spray.
As you step out of the shower, you will likely be shivering. Dry yourself off and put on some warm clothes. Over the next 15-30 minutes, your body will readjust to this “priming” and your immersion shock will be minimal, if not absent altogether.
This is an excellent technique that I have used time and again with great results. When I did my last swim in San Francisco Bay, I had no immersion shock whatsoever. While a few other swimmers shrieked upon hitting the water and shivered miserably while we were treading water waiting for the start signal, I was able to focus on the swim without any distractions at all. And that’s a much better way to start out your event!
In two of my previous posts, I outlined the clinical/scientific criteria and conditions relevant to hypothermia. However, there are no absolutes in any open water swimming situation. Not only is the outside environment highly variable, but so is your own internal physiology and mindset.
The truth is that you have a highly dynamic and uncategorizable nature that is constantly adapting to a highly dynamic and uncategorizable environment. And the key, therefore, is to maintain an astute awareness of both so you can optimize your physical and mental state to flourish in your chosen environment – which in our case is an open body of water.
Notice the use of the word “flourish.” Why is this significant? Because you don’t sign up and train for a swim event in Lake Superior, San Francisco Bay, or the English Channel out of a nihilistic desire to harm yourself (if you do, however, please do not attend any of my scheduled swim meetups). You undertake these challenges because they somehow feed some core value of yours.
So what is it? What value (or set of values) defines you and compels you to spend your limited resources of time, money, and energy on this and on any other area of your life? You may not have given this much thought up until now, and that’s okay. But you need to develop some focus in this area, because your values provide the “cognitive override” you need to persevere when your dynamic external environment becomes less than comforting – or even adversarial.
If you need some help getting started, here’s a “stream of consciousness” list of values that you might have in your life. This is by no means all-inclusive, just a sampling of values that may be at work in your psyche. Some are based on achieving pleasure, while others represent pain that you’re seeking to avoid (or vindicate). In either case, they provide the “why” for all of the choices you make in your life:
- Achievement
- Adulation
- Adventure
- Anger
- Community
- Competence
- Confidence
- Control
- Curiosity
- Embarrassment
- Envy
- Excitement
- Failure
- Fitness
- Freedom
- Fulfillment
- Growth
- Health
- Humiliation
- Inadequacy
- Independence
- Inspiration
- Integrity
- Joy
- Loneliness
- Making a difference
- Outrageousness
- Power
- Recognition
- Resentment
- Respect
- Role model to others
- Spirituality
- Vindication
The Great Lakes are one of the most spectacular natural wonders of our world. The word “lakes” is actually a misnomer. These massive bodies of water are essentially inland seas with tides, currents, whitecap waves, and – yes – even shipwrecks. They contain approximately 18% of the world’s surface freshwater, which is second only to the polar ice caps. They are wondrous in both size and beauty, and they are a resource worth preserving.
Today is World Water Day. Take a moment to reflect on how important clean water is to all of us and how lucky we are to live where we do.
On September 16, 1967, Chicagoan Ted Erikson swam from the Farallon Islands to the Golden Gate Bridge. The 31.5 mile swim took Ted 14 hours and 38 minutes to complete:
What’s particularly amazing about this feat is not the distance – other record holding swimmers have done much greater lengths. And it’s not the 50F-60F temperatures – other intrepid souls have braved much colder water.
It’s what was in the water:
Whenever you find yourself hesitant to venture out to one of our earlier swim meetups, I want you to revisit Ted’s video and keep a few things in mind:
- You will be wearing a wetsuit
- You will not be swimming for 14+ hours
- You will be finished with your swim long before it gets dark
- You will not be swimming in the open ocean, completely vulnerable, in an area chock full of predatory fish the size of (no exaggeration) a Chevy Suburban.
Through a complex physiological process known as thermoregulation, we humans are able to maintain constant core body temperatures internally despite the many temperature fluctuations in our external environment. However, this is not an absolute phenomenon. Ongoing exposure to extreme temperatures will eventually overwhelm the body’s ability to maintain an ideal body temperature of 37°C (98.6°F). In the case of cold temperatures, this “cascade” roughly follows this process:
37°C (98.6°F) – Normal body temperature, which varies between about 36-37.5°C (96.8-99.5°F) 36°C (96.8°F) – Mild to moderate shivering (it drops this low during sleep). May be a normal body temperature. 35°C (95.0°F) – (Hypothermia) Intense shivering, numbness and bluish/grayness of the skin. There is the possibility of heart irritability. 34°C (93.2°F) – Severe shivering, loss of movement of fingers, blueness and confusion. Some behavioral changes may take place. 33°C (91.4°F) – Moderate to severe confusion, sleepiness, depressed reflexes, progressive loss of shivering, slow heart beat, shallow breathing. Shivering may stop. Subject may be unresponsive to certain stimuli. 32°C (89.6°F) – (Medical emergency) Hallucinations, delirium, complete confusion, extreme sleepiness that is progressively becoming comatose. Shivering is absent (subject may even think they are hot). Reflex may be absent or very slight. 31°C (87.8°F) – Comatose, very rarely conscious. No or slight reflexes. Very shallow breathing and slow heart rate. Possibility of serious heart rhythm problems. 28°C (82.4°F) – Severe heart rhythm disturbances are likely and breathing may stop at any time. 24-26°C (75.2-78.8°F) or less – Death usually occurs due to irregular heart beat or respiratory arrest
(Source: Wikipedia)
Bottom line: hypothermia sets in when your core body temperature drops below 35°C (95.0°F).
Researchers and medical professionals have further subdivided hypothermia into stages of severity. However, our focus during our lake swims will be on effectively managing that “gray zone” that exists between normal “yikes this water is cold” non-hypothermia swimming and actual first-stage hypothermia. The next post on this topic will examine this in greater detail.
Let’s say you had the misfortune of falling overboard during a boating outing in the middle of Lake Michigan. Assuming that you were wearing your normal clothing, the following chart gives an approximation of your survival time given various temperature scenarios:
Hypothermia Chart
IF THE WATER
TEMPERATURE (F) IS:
EXHAUSTION
OR UNCONSCIOUSNESS
EXPECTED
TIME OF SURVIVAL IS:
32.5
Under 15 Minutes
Under 15 – 45 Minutes
32.5 – 40.0
15 – 30 Minutes
30 – 90 Minutes
40.0 – 50.0
30 – 60 Minutes
1 – 3 Hours
50.0 – 60.0
1 -2 Hours
1 – 6 Hours
60.0 – 70.0
2 – 7 Hours
2 – 40 Hours
70.0 – 80.0
3 – 12 Hours
3 Hours – Indefinitely
OVER 80.0
Indefinitely
Indefinitely
There are two things to note with regards to this chart:
1. These scenarios do not factor in swimmers who are wearing cold water gear such as wetsuits or neoprene caps.
2. The type of open water swimming we engage in does not involve sub-50F temperatures.
The natural conclusion is that, while swimming for 20-40 minutes in 50F – 60F water may not always be the most comfortable experience, it isn’t really a dangerous one.
This is the first in a series of posts that will focus on cold water swimming. I will be covering a number of areas specific to this topic including gear recommendations, what to expect in the water, and – yes – even hypothermia. Hopefully, by taking some of the mystery out of cold water swimming, we can learn to enjoy this experience safely and without apprehension.
If you’re currently planning your endurance sports season, the 2008 Golden Gate Bridge Swim is one event you might want to consider. It’s organized and conducted by Pedro Ordenes, an open water swim veteran/legend and one of the neatest fellows you’ll ever meet. Pedro coaches swimmers of all levels and regularly organizes Alcatraz crossings in the Bay area.
I did this event in October of 2007, and it was a real blast. There were only about 30 swimmers, so it wasn’t a “mass of lemmings” scenario in the boat or in the water. As a result, I was able to really get to know all the swimmers, most of whom are local residents who train with Pedro. They are a really fun group of people, and that more than anything else made this one of the cooler events I have ever done.
Here’s a video clip of the event (and you can see yours truly at 2:18 – showboating as usual):
So if you’re looking for a great event to keep you motivated this summer, you can’t get much better than this! But since it’s limited in swimmers, I’d look into registering within the next 60 days.
Around July of 2007, I noticed that my 3-year-old wetsuit had developed a small tear at the bottom edge of one of the legs. Over the next few months this tear expanded until I had a sizable rent in the suit of about 3 inches. Since there was nothing wrong with the rest of the suit, I opted to try to repair it myself. I found and followed these instructions from the eHow website on this topic:
Things You’ll Need:
* Neoprene Cement (I used Aquaseal)
* Heavy Sewing Needle
* Strong Thread Or Dental Floss
Step 1:
Large rips, or rips along seams, need to be sewn closed. Use strong thread or dental floss and a heavy sewing needle. Hold the two sides of the rip together and use a spiraling stitch to sew them together.
Step 2:
Coat both sides of the newly sewn rip with neoprene cement to make it watertight. Neoprene cement can be purchased at surf and dive shops.
Step 3:
Small cuts and rips can be sealed using only neoprene cement. Hold the rip together and coat with cement. Apply to both sides. Let dry for 10 minutes and apply a second coat.
Date: Sunday, April 20, 2008 Time: 6:00AM Location: “Chessboard” area about 600 meters north of Oak Street Beach Swim plan: 10-20 minutes of low exertion swimming depending upon the temperature/weather Notes: We’re way early in the season, but I thought I’d throw out a tentative date for our first meetup. I won’t candy coat it for you – the water will probably be very “brisk” to say the least. I’m expecting 50F – 55F (10C – 12.5C), which is pretty much the lower limit for what I consider to be safe swimming. I’ve seen some brave souls swim in this temperature range without a wetsuit, but I’m certainly not one of them. So I’d recommend you pack the following:
- Cold water gear (wetsuit, booties, neoprene cap, neoprene gloves, thermo shirt, petroleum jelly)
- Towel
- Post swim warm-up clothes
- Bike lock
- Hot tea or coffee
Stay tuned for further updates as we get closer to the date.
