A bit chilled

It's the winter timetable at Hatfield from today and so I wasn't in the water until nearly 09:30. It was a lovely autumn morning with the pond surrounded by a palette of orange leaves and the water still, almost glass-like. This would have been a perfect day for some photographs but I've not really worked out how to do that safety (for me, the wetsuit and the camera), although there's a method here, it doesn't feel healthy for the wetsuit! Walking in was a bit of a shock, distinctly colder than last week's evening swim even though officially there's been only 1 degree reduction.

After a little breast stroke faffing I got my face in the water and completed 1km. I set off to do another small lap but decided that the cold was getting to me, my hands were stiffening and somehow the chill was penetrating. Previously I'd just felt superficially cold, but after the half hour it was feeling different. So I headed back to the beach and teetered back to the cafe and changing area.

It's possible I looked very wobbly as an assistant was dispatched with me to 'make sure I was OK' whilst getting tired and dressed. After a coffee and walk around the cafe I felt almost normal but wished that I'd taken my DryRobe. It's been a waste of time carrying it back and forth over the summer but now I do need it.

The heated seat in the car warmed me through on the drive home. I think that it's mild and consistent enough to complement the hot drink and give core warmth - showers are best avoided after a cold dip.

Some hardy should were swimming without wetsuits ('skins') in training for an ice mile, but that won't be me for a season or two...

14 Degrees

The water was a claimed 14°C this morning although my watch recorded at a whole degree warmer. Really this is quite mild as open water swimming goes in the UK but it's a good 10°C than I was immersed in a fortnight ago. I was torn between acclimatising and getting cold, or just getting on with it! It's been a shame hat I was affected by a cough and cold that made swimming here unwise, until today, since my holiday.

I found a single lap a bit of a struggle due to feeling a little cold and also finding the Alpkit wetsuit hard work by comparison with the HUUB I've been using most recently. Having said that, the Silvertip was easy to get on and kept me fairly snug. As is so often the case my goggles were an irritation as they were perpetually misted up and some of the buoys had moved around due to strong winds over the last few weeks. I also managed to mess up settings on my watch and so don't have a true record of the swim pace. I think I kept pressing 'Start' rather than 'Lap'. The numbers don't really matter...

After the slow lap it didn't seem wise to go around again so finished off with a couple of small laps so that I knew I'd swum beyond 1km. Not a lot, but a step in the right direction.

Whilst driving to Hatfield I as slightly aware of my left shoulder, it's been more uncomfortable since being told there some impingement. I think that my minor injury was due to a combination of overuse during this training block when I've been trying to do some sprint lengths and insufficient roll to the right. As I tend to breath just to the right I have an asymmetric stroke with probably a biased roll. The article linked to earlier comments that injury risk is increased whilst fatigued so I am aiming now to keep good form throughout shorter sessions to try to counter this. The article also hows some exercises and I think I'll ask the physio about these.

Hatfield and Silvertip

At the end of last week I visited the new Alpkit shop in Hathersage to get an opinion of which size to chose of their Silvertip wetsuit. I'd had both a Medium and a Medium Tall sent in the post and felt that the Tall version suited me best. Ben in the shop agreed and so I left with a nice refund.

Today was the wetsuit's first test and the start of my new season and I went along to Doncaster where I first dipped my toes in last year. The water at Hatfield today was measured at 11.7°C which really did take my breath away as it crept through the zip. I had to do head-out breast stroke for quite a few minutes to settle my breathing and get used to the water, then a few face down strokes with eyes closed and eventually managed to get going. Once settled in I was content working around the small novice circuit at a steady (or slow?) pace. After 4 proper laps I could tell that my hands were getting stiff and the cold starting to penetrate deeply so called it a day.

Getting changed was the usual struggle of cold, stiffness and eventually shivers but I didn't take too long to reach the cafe for a hot drink. I was one of the first out of the water although a few of the others around me had certainly felt the cold!