We had just finished the 10 hour swim and were enjoying our recovery week with easy swims in the lake when a Colorado team we knew flew out to Dover to swim an English Channel relay (http://www.milehighchunneltoppers.com/blog/) and completed it successfully in 10 hours and 48 minutes. The concerning part of their swim was the water temp was a chilly 53F (12C) at the coasts but an even colder 50F (10C) in the middle. This was just a little over 3 weeks away from our tide opening and the water was still that cold! Eliz and I realized that it had been 6 weeks since we had swam in temperatures that cold and it was only for under 2 hours versus the 12-14 hours it will take us to cross the channel. The current temperature of our favorite training lake was already above 72F (22C). Eliz's Endless Pool at about 8000 ft (2438m) was climbing into the 63F (16C). The 10 hour swim gave us confidence we had trained well enough for the distance, now we started panicking about our cold water training. We started shifting our plans to get in as much cold water as our schedules would allow.
First thing we did was reduce the number of days we planned to swim in the warm lake which was climbing toward 77F (25C). The coldest water we had time to drive to during the work week was Eliz's Endless pool so we planned to hit it 3 days a week. As the temperature of her pool was raising to 63F (16C), we even tried bringing bags of ice up to cool the pool down. It would drop it a couple of degrees but it would warm back up quickly afterwards. It was a losing battle. On the weekend, we drove up to the lake that the Colorado relay team was training in that they reported to be 55F(12C). Unfortunately, it had warmed up in the two weeks since they trained in it and it was now 67F(19C). This lake was theoretically the coldest local lake we had. We realized to find colder water, we would have to be willing to travel much further the next weekend, the last weekend we had before traveling to England.
After reviewing our options on places to go, we decided to go to the top of Cameron Pass to a set of lakes up there. It was a bit risky since we did not know the temperature of the lakes that high up (9000 ft or 2743m). These lakes are directly feed from the local snow melt and frequently are just above freezing. Our plan was to try to get a 3 hour swim but we were aware that if the water temperature was in the low 40F (4C), it would be difficult to swim that long. We prepared for cold with Eliz's husband coming along with a camp stove to warm up water and plenty of warm clothes. We planned to get off the lake by 7am so as not to attract the attention of the local forest rangers and to avoid any fishing boat traffic. With our goal of a 3 hour swim and the nearly 2 hour drive to get there, we meet at 2am to drive up. As I was leaving the downtown area to meet Eliz, I was having to avoid the drunks leaving the bars and the DUI checkpoints. It was a little surreal. When we got to the Chambers lake, we measured the water in the 54-55F (12C) range, perfect for training. We jumped in the cold water and for the first time in weeks we experienced all the tingly side effects of entering the cold water. When it came to feeding time, we climbed out of the water to get our water bottles of warm feed. In hindsight, we realized that we had gotten lazy with the speed of our feeds and hung out in the cold high altitude air for a bit too long and got chilled. Shortly after the hour mark, Eliz started pulling away from me as she picked up the pace to re-warm and I started my cold water slowdown. It had been so long since I experienced this, it psyched me out and I got out at the 1:40 mark. Eliz held in there until the 2:30 mark. It was a bit disappointing and scary considering we were just 2 weeks from our tide opening. Once we got back to town we made plans to do it again on Sunday.
After our swim, a cold front moved in with clouds and rain. As we got to Chambers lake on Sunday, we found that the water had dropped about 2 degrees to 53F (12C). We got in with more mental resolve to handle the cold better. The swim went much better without the mental battles of the day before. We got out after 1:20 due to a combination of achieving our primary goal and a group of fisherman were loading boats into the lake. We did get the usual weird stares as we got out of the water next to the group of fishermen wearing winter jackets to ward off the cold high altitude air. Our primary goal was to get over the mental battles and to realize that we should be able to regain most of our cold water training endurance with a couple of swims in the cold Dover water. To achieve more cold water endurance would not be something we could do in the last week before we left but in gaining more seasons of cold water swimming. Our training was now complete and it was time for the taper!
No comments:
Post a Comment