I’ve been driving my bike 9.4 miles (15 km) since May 2004 to a nearby lake close to Victoria BC, Canada, to go swimming on a daily basis. I swim about 6 minutes before I return home on my bike. I’m going to do this throughout the year. The lowest water temperature I had to "endure" so far was 33.8 degree F (= 1 degree centigrade). Since I got accustomed to the cold water gradually, I have no problem whatsoever with it, as long as the lake is not frozen over… I believe I could stand the cold water for up to 15 minutes, but it would take much longer to warm up afterwards. The cold water makes me feel great, energized and fit. I dropped golfing in favor of my new routine which helped me to reduce my weight to 64 pounds (I’m 6 ft tall), which shows one does not need a lot of body fat to stand cold water! Since fingers and toes take a while to warm up afterwards, I bring a thermos with hot water to pour over those parts before I put on my shoes and mittens. And no, I don’t need flu shots and/or cold medications! 3 years ago I had open-heart surgery to get a valve repaired. Since then, this valve leaked a bit and the cardiologist meant there is a 25% chance that I need it replaced with an artificial one. I’m confident that my workout routine will make a new valve obsolete.
Norbert
Norbert
