As a regular cold water swimmer, I’ve been pretty irregular. To the extent that I’ve only been in a lake or the sea twice this year; once at the start of the year and we were still in the Christmas holidays so it doesn’t really count.
My second time was this morning, Fran went last night so technically got started before me.
Fran also
swam for longer, although in my defence she wore a wetsuit and her lake was 15°C, I wore speedo’s and the lake was 11.7°C.
I felt every minute and every degree of that temperature too. I’ve been in the cold bath a couple of times per week but only for a few minutes.
The lake was technically warmer but was a completely different experience and all because I fell out of the habit of doing it and lost my tolerance / cold fitness.
It’s been a theme for me this week.
I started back at Jiu Jitsu on Tuesday and did a little bit of Jitsu fitness, some drills and situational sparring. I haven’t been for 8 or 9 weeks due to my face surgery and then breaking my thumb.
The result of that break was even light work felt exhausting, my thumb is still healing thankfully so I didn’t have a proper spar. I don’t think my lungs would have coped.
I’ve been active, lots of walks and a few strength training sessions per week but fitness is very specific to what you do.
If you do some cardio and a bit of strength training, it will make most life activities easier. Getting in a cold lake and having your pyjamas folded while you’re still wearing them takes sport specific work and consistency to improve.
If you are working on a specific goal and not sure if you
are doing the right thing to get ready for it, we’re here to help.
Darren “shiver” Checkley