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I found out the hard way in Wanaka last January that I'm quite sensitive to cold water.
I'd had a few open-water practice sessions but had put the shortness of breath down to swimming harder than I would in a pool, because you don't have any visual indication of how fast you're going. In hindsight I know that's not much of an explanation because I hadn't exactly been swimming hard.
I'd also had a practice swim in the lake a couple of days before the race. I don't remember having any breathing trouble but I do remember going out and buying some neoprene socks as soon as I could. The water was apparently 14 or 15°C and that's not very nice when you're used to a 27°C pool.
So on race day it was a bit of a surprise when I put my face in the water and immediately started hyperventilating so badly that swimming was not possible. It took me more than 5 minutes to get that under control (I remember the women ripping past me - they started 5 mins after the men).
It took a bit of mental fortitude to continue with the swim but I made it around the course and was eventually able to complete the race.
Fast forward and now I'm wanting to be better prepared for the cold water.
I did a bit of research on cold-water shock and found that it's fairly common and there are a few things you can do to help but it was mostly race-day techniques for warming up. I wanted to see if I could either minimise the problem or avoid it entirely by a process of adaptation.
In the week before the Rolf Prima Half Ironman I got a plastic bowl and filled it with tap water then dunked my face in. Sometimes I'd add ice to get the temperature down to around 15°C. This was enough to trigger the hyperventilation and I was able to confirm that breathing out hard with your face underwater overrides the breathing reflex and helps to bring it under control in a few minutes.
I did this once a day and found that I only had problems for the first two days. After that, no issue. So I was confident that I'd be OK in Lake Hood (I think it was about 18°C at the time).
On race day I found myself hyperventilating again - I suspect that having my whole body immersed in cold water makes things worse. But with the breathing exercise I was able to get that mostly under control before the start. I just wish I'd had longer to warm up after the briefing as it still took about 10 minutes to feel comfortable. The compression of the tri suit & wetsuit won't have helped either.
Since then I've taken things up a notch. My new cold-water adaptation method is as follows:
- Get into the shower
- Turn the water on
- Suffer until the water starts to warm up: make sure I keep moving around so I'm not just cooling one part of my body
- Turn the temperature down and it as cold as possible during the rest of the shower
We have a mixed-pressure system here so I'm not able to quite run it 100% cold, but I keep it set to where it's just above the point where the water reduces to a trickle.
That one's very effective but is taking a bit longer to get used to. For the first week or so I wasn't willing to put my head under immediately as breathing was difficult enough. (On the first day I even felt a little light-headed due to the shock response.) Now I'm able to get my head in pretty much straight away. It's still not much fun, especially on a hot day, but it's not as unpleasant as it was.
The upside is that I'm using a lot less hot water and the bathroom isn't steaming up. But I know that the cold water is warming up with the season. I have noticed that rain makes it cooler which is interesting. I've given thought to getting a camping shower and throwing some ice in it but don't really have anywhere to hang it.
I was hoping to see a result to this adaptation at the Swim Lake Hood event but I caught a mild cold a couple of days beforehand and had to withdraw. Nothing to do with all this cold water I'm sure!
Because of the cold I've put the shock tactic on hold and allowed myself a little warmth in the shower.
I'll be travelling to Wanaka a few days earlier this time around and I'm planning to have at least once swim per day in the lake - maybe two. Just short swims, enough to get used to the water. And on race day I plan to get into the water a bit sooner so I can do some warming up.
