Last week I read a story on the BBC about the dangers of swimming outdoors in the winter. Some of my work colleagues even joked with me about it, I didn't think much about it. I even had a bit of a laugh. A few days later, rather ironically I thought, I got to personally experience the dangers of the cold.
To set the scene, it was Saturday morning and I'd gone down to the lake for a swim. After the swim we were heading down to Swansea to see our nieces followed by a quick visit to some of our friends. I kind of needed to get off quickly after the swim as there was a lot to do.
I started to put my wetsuit on; I know, something slightly unusual for me, and once I'd pretty much got it on I made my first mistake. I'd forgotten to put the zip together before putting it on and rather than ask someone to help I spent the next few minutes trying to sort it out behind my back. Needless to say it didn't work so I started to take the wetsuit off so I could fix my mistake.
My second mistake was, when I decided I couldn't be bothered putting the suit back on. I hate wearing wetsuits so much I just couldn't face putting it back on again. Now I'm fine swimming in these temperatures without a suit, and while 5 degrees is cold (yep 5 degrees C) it is something that I can deal with. After 3 rather cold laps, I still felt ok. By ok I mean that my hands and feet were almost blocks of ice but this is fairly normal. I found out that most people swimming 'skins' had gotten out and I thought I'd do another lap as I'd intended to swim at least 1km that morning. Not to mention that I'd have done more laps than anyone else there without a wetsuit (remember that competitive streak I've mentioned in other posts).
That's when I should have stopped, after my 4th lap, but rather than doing so I decided to push myself. I ignored the fact that at the end of the last lap my arms and legs were starting to really sting with the cold and I made my biggest mistake. I went for another lap.
1.5 km sounds so much better than 1.2km. It's nearly 1 mile, there is actually an event you can do called the ice mile. You have to swim a mile (well the clue was in the name) in water that is below 5 degrees. Why not, I only had to swim another 300m loop. Get some more practice in. Do significantly more laps than anyone else there. Only a few minutes more, couldn't have that much of an effect on me.
Anyhow, half way round that last loop I knew I'd made a mistake. My stroke started to go wrong, I lost speed and I didn't really know why. I headed back to the beach, at a slower speed than I normally would and got myself into the changing room. Once I started to get changed, I really started to shiver. I don't mean shivering like you normally shiver. I mean full body shivers that you can't stop. I walked in to the club house and I think I must have been pretty white because in the space of about 10 seconds I had people round me putting extra layers of clothing on me, getting me sat down, pointing what I can only describe as a small jet engine at me in an attempt to warm me up. I was given a cup of tea that I didn't dare try to drink for fear of spilling it, I would have thrown it all over the room with the violent shakes that were coursing through my whole body. The tea was split in to two mugs, so that I could drink it and even then it was all I could do to stop it soaking everything and everyone near me.
Anyway an hour or so after getting out of the water I finally stopped shaking. While I'm slightly embarrassed by the fact this happened to me I'm actually glad it happened when and where it did. For starters, it happened at the lake, where there were people around to look after me, where there was tea (how typically British) and a small jet engine that wouldn't look out of place on the back of the batmobile. If I'd have been on my own or somewhere without a warm place to sit in and warm up, I could have been in real trouble.
Anyhow, the moral of the story is: know your limits and choose your time and place wisely if you are going to explore them. Thank you everyone who looked after me, I really appreciate it and I'll be a bit more careful next week.
If you want to have a look at the BBC article you can do so by using this link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30415315
To set the scene, it was Saturday morning and I'd gone down to the lake for a swim. After the swim we were heading down to Swansea to see our nieces followed by a quick visit to some of our friends. I kind of needed to get off quickly after the swim as there was a lot to do.
I started to put my wetsuit on; I know, something slightly unusual for me, and once I'd pretty much got it on I made my first mistake. I'd forgotten to put the zip together before putting it on and rather than ask someone to help I spent the next few minutes trying to sort it out behind my back. Needless to say it didn't work so I started to take the wetsuit off so I could fix my mistake.
My second mistake was, when I decided I couldn't be bothered putting the suit back on. I hate wearing wetsuits so much I just couldn't face putting it back on again. Now I'm fine swimming in these temperatures without a suit, and while 5 degrees is cold (yep 5 degrees C) it is something that I can deal with. After 3 rather cold laps, I still felt ok. By ok I mean that my hands and feet were almost blocks of ice but this is fairly normal. I found out that most people swimming 'skins' had gotten out and I thought I'd do another lap as I'd intended to swim at least 1km that morning. Not to mention that I'd have done more laps than anyone else there without a wetsuit (remember that competitive streak I've mentioned in other posts).
That's when I should have stopped, after my 4th lap, but rather than doing so I decided to push myself. I ignored the fact that at the end of the last lap my arms and legs were starting to really sting with the cold and I made my biggest mistake. I went for another lap.
1.5 km sounds so much better than 1.2km. It's nearly 1 mile, there is actually an event you can do called the ice mile. You have to swim a mile (well the clue was in the name) in water that is below 5 degrees. Why not, I only had to swim another 300m loop. Get some more practice in. Do significantly more laps than anyone else there. Only a few minutes more, couldn't have that much of an effect on me.
Anyhow, half way round that last loop I knew I'd made a mistake. My stroke started to go wrong, I lost speed and I didn't really know why. I headed back to the beach, at a slower speed than I normally would and got myself into the changing room. Once I started to get changed, I really started to shiver. I don't mean shivering like you normally shiver. I mean full body shivers that you can't stop. I walked in to the club house and I think I must have been pretty white because in the space of about 10 seconds I had people round me putting extra layers of clothing on me, getting me sat down, pointing what I can only describe as a small jet engine at me in an attempt to warm me up. I was given a cup of tea that I didn't dare try to drink for fear of spilling it, I would have thrown it all over the room with the violent shakes that were coursing through my whole body. The tea was split in to two mugs, so that I could drink it and even then it was all I could do to stop it soaking everything and everyone near me.
Anyway an hour or so after getting out of the water I finally stopped shaking. While I'm slightly embarrassed by the fact this happened to me I'm actually glad it happened when and where it did. For starters, it happened at the lake, where there were people around to look after me, where there was tea (how typically British) and a small jet engine that wouldn't look out of place on the back of the batmobile. If I'd have been on my own or somewhere without a warm place to sit in and warm up, I could have been in real trouble.
Anyhow, the moral of the story is: know your limits and choose your time and place wisely if you are going to explore them. Thank you everyone who looked after me, I really appreciate it and I'll be a bit more careful next week.
If you want to have a look at the BBC article you can do so by using this link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30415315