Swim Training in the Winter.

You could buy a beater wet suit and practice for spring open water swims. (Brr....).  I've seen folks at my pool wear full-length suits or even tights with the feet cut off, for added warmth.  I tend to drop my swimming mileage over the winter, and boost it with other cross-training activity (downhill skiing, cardio/pilates/yoga, Spinning classes, etc.).

aye, get a wetsuit. my local pool isn't heated either in the winter and after a rain the temperature drops to under 50 deg.

it's good training!

of course i'm in CA. i've only once seen ice on the puddles here during the last 12 years.

hehe, well I saw ice this morning
That's a good idea guys, I never even thought of that. All I know is that it's freakin colder everday and it takes like 500m just to get warm enough I can settle into a groove. I'll keep going, I would rather be cold than have to wait for a lane!
-J

Thank goodness for indoor pools at the YMCA and Gold Gym.  Gold is building a new gym 2 miles from work and it has a pool.  I can't wait for it to open in December.  The pools are all heated.  Too bad for you guy that can't swim year around.  I will be doing laps with snow on the ground out side.

Our pool is an outdoor and heated.  Althought they haven't turned on the heater yet and it has gotten pretty cold here at night.

this is my first year doing triathlons and I will only have one race that will be wetsuit legal. So I purchased a wetsuit anyway rationilizing that I would use it quiet a bit in open water swimming during the winter time.

The gym I go to has an indoor pool that is heated.  I think the pool is too warm sometimes.  I hope less and less people wont be using it this winter. 

I love living in California!

I will never complain about having to swim indoors in the winter time again. Ours is heated to about 80!

78° 365

My indoor pool was closed today. Venture any guesses ? Yep that's right... heater maintenance.
-J

well, hopefully they get this one heated, because where I live, I'd have to commute more than an hour to get to the next nearest one...
-J

Yeh rub it in all you warm weather folks, here in Michigan we had a snow storm last week. Thats right second week of October and we have snow and ice. Thank God for the Y

There's a Y pool around Washington, DC that is outside and heated. I've swum in it as a guest once in the winter. It was the oddest experience. First of all, you have to get out there wearing just a bathing suit. Its not really that bad, but it just feels wrong to walk out a door into 20 degree weather without a coat. Then you have to find the pool. Since its covered in fog, you can fall right in before you realize it. Then you get in, which is great, but every time your arm comes out for a stroke, the contrast between the air temperature and the water temperature is outlandish - its not what you are used to, like looking at a negative. Then you have to get out of the pool, find your towel and get back in the building. Locks of hair actually froze as I was making it to the locker room.

I did my workout that day, but I never forgot how strange the whole thing was. They say there are lots of Europeans who use the pool and they are accostomed to it, and even enjoy the contrast. Now that I think of it, I had to share a lane that day, even tho there are two indoor, heated pools at that Y.