training stuff
**Date**: December 27th **Time in water**: 1:35 (yes, a minute and thirty seconds) **Water Temp**: 36.5°F **Air Temp**: 45°F **Where**: Huntington Beach, Lake Erie, Ohio My brother lives a short 10 minute drive to a gigantic lake, so clearly I needed to get some swimming in while on a holiday visit. The forecast calls for rain tonight, so it was today or not at all.
Someone asked me today about these super short cold water swims, feeling like she wasn’t getting “exercise”. I told her I don’t think of this as exercise at all (although you do burn a bunch of calories rewarming). It’s a physical and mental challenge, it’s social hour, it’s a refreshing ice bath, but no it’s not exercise. That seemed to switch a light on for her, in the way she was framing the whole activity. It can feel like a huge waste of time; we meet at 10:30am, get ready for maybe 20-30 minutes, swim for 10-15 minutes, and sit around shivering for another 40-60 minutes. So basically I’m gone for for 2.5-3 hours for a 10 minute activity. Yeah if you’re trying to have an efficient work out, this ain’t it.
Date: December 16th
Time in water: 11:22
Water Temp: 42-44°F
Air Temp: 47°F, sprinkling
Where: Milwaukie boat ramp
Not much of note to report here; I wish I would have gone a few more minutes, but I was back at the start and it’s so hard to make myself go out again, both because it’s quite easy to end up swimming an extra 2 or 3 minutes further then you want, which can lead to a rough recovery, and because my body is telling me to get the eff out of the water. I was just starting to get the knives-in-armpits sensation, which I could have handled for a few more minutes. But better safe then sorry, so I had a smooth recovery in the mobile sauna.
**Date**: December 11th **Time in water**: 10:50 **Water Temp**: 42°F **Air Temp**: 50°F, raining, windy **Where**: Broughton Beach I sat at my desk at home, watching the rain hit in sheets on my window, and I checked every once in a while for an email or text saying the swim was off. Nothing. Well, this crowd is nothing if not tough, but we’ll see, I thought.
**Date**: December 9th **Time in water**: 10:06 **Water Temp**: 39-40°F **Air Temp**: 39°F, raining **Where**: Milwaukie Boat ramp Thank god for pop up tents. The rain had only just started when we arrived at 10:30am and began setting up the tent. We basically set up a living room, as the tent was fully enclosed; I brought chairs, we had a tarp, it was quite the cozy set up. As such, we decided to just stay in the tent post-swim rather then warming up in the mobile sauna (aka someone’s car with the heat on full blast). I was a little nervous about that, but I could always go into the car if needed.
**Date**: [December 1st](https://www.strava.com/activities/1995247668) **Time in water**: 13:56 **Water Temp**: 45-46°F **Air Temp**: 46°F **Where**: Broughton Beach Normally we swim mid-morning, but this day was a bit different, we met at the beach at 3pm. This was most people’s first time here, and I was happy to show it off. I always thought it was the perfect beach for cold water swims with its long, visible beach with a gradual entry, and clearly defined boundaries in the water that keep the boats out. It doesn’t hurt that it’s much closer to my house.