You are reading a single comment by @knightlancer and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@knightlancer
Basically, what adroit said, but I'll give you my experience. I'm skinny and tbh a poor swimmer, but was talked into trying to harden up by swimming all year round. First time was October and I managed probably 15 minutes of head-in frontcrawl. But by January, was able to manage much longer in temperatures which were down to 4-5 degrees. Had a couple of hypothermic episodes, but mainly down to me trying to do more than I should.
I now swim all winter in the sea, and it's still bloody hard to get your head in when the water's below 8 degrees, but once you're in it's warmer than the world outside and can stay in longer than many people who are, to put it kindly, way better naturally built for winter swimming. I enjoy swimming less because of the challenge of getting fast, but more because of the fight with the conditions.
tl;dr - you get used to it.