100% human written, no AI
1) Wash your face with cold water only!
-I’m totally 100% serious about this. if nothing else wash your face with cold water only between now and the race. In studies of cold/ice bath submersion for ankle sprains, the first cold exposure was ranked something like 8/10 in doscomfort. But each oen after that dropped quickly even with no change in the water temperature.
By days 3-5, plunging an ankle into ice cold water rated about a 3-4/10 in discomfort
Just getting yourself exposed to cold water makes a significant difference in how your body perceives the cold. It becomes just a sensation, rather than something uncomfortable. In turn, your stress hormones will be lower and the first 1 or 2 swims more enjoyable!
2) Start taking cold showers this week!
-Again, ‘m totally 100% serious about this. Once you get used to washing your face in cold water once or twice, go for the cold shower! You can start warm, and then go to cold when you finish or do it the other way around. or just go cold from start to finish!
Understand that your skin is a sensory organ. It’s feeling COLD not pain. But those pathways to your brain are shared, so dedicating time to this helps training your nervous system to expect some cold and that it is OK! It may spike your adrenaline briefly, but you’re much much much better having this happen at home where you can simply step out of the shower, than during your swim on race day morning!
3) Warm up before the swim
Physically warm up your body and muscles by doing land based exercise before you get into the water at all. You can do this with our without your swim gear and wetsuit on, but it’s easier to get your swim stuff on before you get sweaty. You will also retain the generated heat by having your swim layers (wetsuit for example) already on.
Do jumping jacks, burpees, a run up and down the parking lot several times and get your heart rate and breathing elevated. This gets blood circulating to your body, gets your heart exposed to the increased blood flow and competition hormones (adrenaline) that anticipate some exciting event is coming up and will help prevent the same heart rate / adrenaline spike from happening once you are already in the water
4) Bring a thermos of warm water
This one is hard too coordinate just right but bring a thermos of warm water with you and pour it inside your wetsuit just before you swim. Neoprine is designed to hold warmth on the inside of the suit, so a warm water bath can pre-warm the inside so that any cold water seeping in is less impactful.
Do you have any other tips for cold water swimming? Let me know what works for you or if any if these tips helped !!
