Here is a recommendation for you:
On the topic of cold water swimming I think Lynn Cox’s book Swimming To Antartica is really informative and inspirational. She is, afterall, the modern pioneer in extreme cold water swimming. And from my impressions in the book, she has such a humble and positive personality. You’ll see great descriptions of what you might expect to experience as you dip into water colder than your half your mind prefers (if you’re in such cold water, obviously the other half of the brain had majority control!).
After reading it the question we may ask about her is: how much of Lynn is ‘freakish’ in her capacity to handle cold water, and how much is adaptation (body and mind) that any of us might imitate?
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On this blog you’re generally going to get stories of my experience and my perspective as a swimmer and a swim coach. My goal is to add it to the collective wisdom of our aquatic community. I don’t want to fill my blog with what you’ll get on others, but I certainly want to encourage us all to enjoy partaking a wider range of insight about swimming, and share links to people that add or improve upon my own.
Swimming, is essentially an experimental activity- maybe just as space walking is for astronauts. We’re all still learning how to do it better. So the more we get out there and experiment, the more we share, the better.
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About cold adaptation:
THAT is a super cool inspiring video! Thanks Christian!
I’ve got to go swimming now. 23 C is a hottub to that dude.