It's hard to breathe in cold water!

I just figured out why the swim my first tri back in March (water temperature in the high 50's)was so incredibly hard. I thought that it was just being tossed around a bit by the waves that made it so difficult for me to catch my breath when I finally made it past the breakers.

Now, I know that at least part of it was due to the temperature and not giving myself time to acclimate to it.

Since my dismal performance during that swim, I've been going out at least once a week for an ocean swim. Normally, this consists of meeting a group of people, walking down the beach about a mile, slowly making it out past the breakers, hanging out for a while in calmer water to get used to the temperature and then swimming a mile.

Today, I met a group from the LA Tri Club that were doing more of a ocean racing skills type thing. They set up 2 cones on the beach about 250 yards apart and placed a buoy about 250 yards out. We started at the first cone and ran into the water, fought past the breakers, swam around the buoy, back to shore, ran out around the other cone, then ran down the beach to the start cone, took a couple minutes rest, then started again. I did 4 loops. I think some of the faster people did 5.

The water temperature today was around 60. No one got in the water prior to the start. During the first loop, I was out of breath the entire time. Everyone agreed was talking about not being able to breathe. People were saying things like "I couldn't figure out why I was having such a hard time out there." Some couldn't even put their faces in the water. The other loops were so much easier because we were used to the water temp.

From now on, I will always try to get my head in the water and swim to try to acclimate my body to the cold before the start of a race. I don't know if this would make as much difference in warmer water. I didn't have this problem in a lake swim in another tri with temps in the mid to high 60's.