Cold water swimmers - anyone doing the polar bear/penguin challenge?

[PuddleglumtheMarshWiggle]

Full details here polarbearchallenges.com/
I've just signed up as a penguin. Although I don't wear a wetsuit I couldn't swim without my boots and gloves. I'm hoping for gold standard, 250m twice a month and a total of 1000m every month.
Would be good to have some moral support!

@PuddleglumtheMarshWiggle this looks great! Thanks for sharing.
I'm going to have to find a swimming group to go out with as my regular swimmers are off to sunnier climes for the winter, but it does look like there's one local to me
I'll definitely be a penguin, either gold or Antarctic, will have a closer read of the rules

@milkfromthesleepycow looks like it's just you and me then!
Where do you swim? I'm in London so swim in the Serpentine in Hyde Park. 1 circuit of that is 250m so it's easy to measure my swims. Last winter I was able to swim that distance every time so I think the gold standard is achievable.
I aim to swim twice a week, barring the occasional cold.
Hope all goes well for your swims

Thanks @PuddleglumtheMarshWiggle

I'm in the south west so it's the sea for me. My local spot has bouys out but I'll have to swim 400m minimum if I want to use them to calculate.
Have tried with Strava gps before and it was wildly inaccurate- at one point I was apparently swimming on the road 😂
I am a little worried that the weather / shift work patterns will mean that I fail to make the distance

Hyde park sounds lovely. Want to keep updating the thread for encouragement?

Oh I am tempted, I am trying to do ,y first year of swimming through, it may be a shoulders under and out person. Also in south west so it’s the sea, was in this afternoon and it was lovely

I had my pre-work swim this morning. 750m, that's 3 laps of the lido. Quite cold getting in but warmed up once swimming. Water temperature about 14 degrees.
Hyde Park is lovely to swim in but the club only has the use of the Serpentine from 5am to 9.30am. Nice for the pre-work swim but means an early start at the weekends. I try to swim twice a week and will aim to keep this up through the winter.
Plenty of swans and geese this morning, as always. But also a heron today, just standing in the water. As I swam past on one lap it reached into the water and brought out a fish, couple of gulps and swallowed it!

@FiveGoMadInDorset @milkfromthesleepycow
How's it going with the swimming? Water temperature is slowly dropping. So far, I'm still in just the swimsuit but it won't be long before I add the boots and gloves. That's the main reason I could never do the polar bear challenge.

Hi there, I’m in the south west of Scotland so sea swimmer… have only had a few dips this year but I would like to keep going… ill with covid though at the moment! Will have a look at the challenge but well done for getting in the water!

Sorry guys just seen this and would love to join in but probably won’t sign up officially but would love to join in a community chat.

I lake swim in skins with gloves and socks so penguin for me and easily swim gold level penguin each month.

Its interesting now it’s dropping 2 weeks ago we were in for 50 minutes and did 1250m last week 40 minutes 750m and Friday 20 minutes and did 500m

I think maybe 1 more week before the wetsuit comes back out. This week had the first cold chin feel since probably March.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/exercise/4039965-Cold-water-swimmers-including-sea-lakes-and-rivers?page=29&reply=120775236

This is also a good thread.

Hi @Billybagpuss Welcome to the group.
I had my pre-work swim this morning. Water temp was 12.5 degrees. Not too cold but quite windy. Almost waves in the Serpentine and a lot of spray in the face. Wish I'd worn goggles! Spent alternate lengths swimming on my back to avoid the spray. Standing in the shower after was also tricky as the wind was blowing the water sideways.
Only 2 weeks now to the challenge starting!

I chickened out today I went to DL outdoor pool but it did mean I did 1600m quite slow though as my arm was suffering from post covid jab ache

I'm a bit of a cold water swimming newbie but I'm quite tempted to join in. I swim in Kenwood Ladies pond and I have no idea how long it is though.

I've just signed up for the Penguin Challenge, I swim in Scottish lochs and really need something on my feet + gloves. Can I ask how you measure your distances?

I'm very much a social/leisure swimmer, swam all through winter last year, but for fun rather than fitness. I just love the cold water buzz and feeling of freedom in the water.

@Invisimamma I use Apple Watch but frankly it’s crap when it comes to open water especially if you don’t do a full on front crawl work out and do breaststroke or bobbing about chatting. I’m going to sell it I think and go back to garmin I’m considering the swim 2 or one of the cheaper forerunners.

issues I’ve had with apple. Our lake has distance markers so I always know roughly what I’ve done. Last week I did 500m it measured 34 (breast stroke) one day back in the summer I did 1500 fc and it measure 2800. The best was I did a small dip in our local river and according to the map I’d swam to a village 40 miles away so that was very clever of me I thought 😂

I’m in! Thanks for this, it looks really fun. I’m going to aim for Penguin Gold - like OP, I don’t wear a wetsuit but don’t want to swim without socks and gloves. This will be a real challenge for me - I’m used to swimming through the winter but am more of a dipper than a real swimmer, so 250m will be a challenge. I’ve got a waterproof Fitbit, or I guess I could just my OS map to estimate how far it is if I swim along the shore. I’m in South-East Scotland and usually a sea swimmer, but we’re living out of town right now and I’m swimming in a loch - bit worried about how much colder that’s going to get!

It’s my first year of OWS so have not yet swum through a winter.
I’m a penguin, I don’t wear a wetsuit (yet) but have socks and gloves to minimize Raynauds.
Keen to do silver but not sure I’ll actually manage 250m in depths of winter?

With a wetsuit I went down to about 0.3- 0.4mi last winter, typically lasting about 25 minutes. It was very estimated depending on my trip around the bouys.

I now set strava up to record on my phone's GPS in my tow float which is more accurate than my watch.

I like the idea of the challenge but my swimming habits are very prone to disruption by family life.

I'm just hanging out here, hoping some of your cold water swimming bravery will rub off on me.

I usually stop in November around 10 degrees water temperature (and that's in a wetsuit). If anyone wants to inspire me with what temperatures you swim at in winter, it'd be much appreciate - then I might be brave enough to sign up!

Having worked out that a circuit if the ladies pond is 250m I think I'm going to sign up for polar bear gold but definitely expect to drop down to penguin.

I’ve done polar bear penguin challenge for past two years, giving it a rest this year due to health, but still aiming for weekly dips.
On the topic of distance - I measured on land then had visual of where I was swimming to and from when in the sea.
I am in awe of people that do full polar bear - it’s nearly time to get out my winter gloves.
@hoorayandupsherises The coldest I’ve swam in is 7°, it’s more the outside temp that is an issue as the seas always cold going in, whether it’s 0°c or 20°c in the air.

I’ve pretty much always swam through winter. Not necessarily regularly when much younger, but now try once or twice a week. Just skins rather than wetsuit and swim shoes to avoid pain of pebbles. Wouldn’t want a wetsuit.

Hi all,
Good to see more people joining! I went for my swim this morning. Thanks to the weather warming up in the last couple of days, it was really quite pleasant. I'm in the sunny south east so, probably the best part of Britain for winter swimming. Water temperature today was 13 degrees. So no need for boots and gloves just yet.
@hoorayandupsherises - my coldest swim last year was 3.6 degrees. I think February is the coldest month. At that temperature I could only manage 5 mins. I'd go into work with thermal vest and leggings and Nordic socks under my clothes. Then I'd sit at my desk wearing ski jacket and bobble hat for another hour before I was anything like warm.
@OneHundredOtters - I've swum in the mixed pond on Hampstead Heath before, always been with my husband so it would be a shame to separate and swim in different ponds. A beautiful spot to swim in!
@Invisimamma - I love your watch! The idea of recording a 400 mile swim 😆

Keep going folks, we can do this!

Wetsuit/ skins depends a lot on if you just want to dip and can do it locally, or want more distance/ have more travel time.

There isn't anywhere local enough for me to dip in winter. I'll do river dipping in summer, but winter's a different beast. By the time I drive to a safe venue and pay, I want to last longer than 5 minutes, but I also like the recovery exercise aspect.
The time to get dressed in neoprene, and particularly strip afterwards when already cold is a downside though!

I got down to 5⁰C last year. It got colder but that was enough for stabby-glass-face 😂
I looked out for calm, milder days, that helped a lot. I managed to go each month, but only once/ twice per month by the time life got in the way.

Very interesting all! I have to say, I'm definitely aiming for wetsuit swimming, I already had it on yesterday and the water was 15 degrees, but I am a wee drive from the lake so I try to swim 1 km or more if I can (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it ...).

I've checked out the temperatures of the water in winter and it's between 2 and 8 degrees. Not sure looking that far ahead was a good idea ...

Did my first swim of the challenge this morning! Water was 13 degrees, just swimsuit and cap for now. Managed 750m.
It's quite common to see the Army out on horseback in the park, but today they were drilling with horses and carriages. It really looked wonderful. I'm trying to think what they could have been rehearsing for. Is it too early to rehearse for the coronation?

Not too early at all, I bet that’s what it is