Sandycove Island

For those of you with an interest in the wild and/or long distance swimming check out the Sandycove Swimmers site. It’s where a lot of Irish swimmers practice for both the Channel and other long distance swims. A rough mile out and round the island. The temperature changes and so does the sea, depending on which bit of the island you’re swimming by; and you get to see way beyond the end of your arm – unlike mucky Dover Harbour.

If you like the Emerald Isle and swimming, pop down for a swim on your way by. There will, likely as not, be some friendly soul swimming around and you’re just south of Kinsale; apparently (though I’ve yet to be convinced) the culinary capital of Ireland. And there’s a lovely pint of Murphy’s to be drunk in The Tap…and ghost stories too.

cold tolerance – some variables

Been reading various papers on line about cold acclimatisation. It seems there is a consensus about a few things -

• You can acclimatise to cold by regular exposure. This means that you both get used to it by changing your mental attitude to being cold, but also that your physiology changes. You activate your brown fat reserves.
• Brown fat is found in plentiful amounts in babies. For various reasons they shiver less, so need something else to keep them warm. Brown fat activates and burns calories to generate heat. It was thought that adults lost their brown fat, but apparently we have reserves in our upper bodies and neck. Which are activated by cold exposure.
• Insulation works. Having some other fat helps to keep you insulated, but…
• Keeping fit. The fitter you are the better you system works – especially by thermogenesis. The body both generates and loses heat.
• As you acclimatise you tolerate lower temperatures and so start to shiver at lower temperatures.
• Surface area to mass matters. Stockier people with relatively shorter legs and arms get colder less quickly.
• You can get too cold and die. It’s called critical hypothermia. If you’re shivering, you’re not hypothermic.

It seems the ideal combination is to exercise in a progressively colder environment, be relatively fit, be a short-arse and have some body fat. Kind of reminds me of the body shapes on view at Dover Harbour beach each year! The other important thing to remember is that these are variables and one size doesn’t fit all. Thankfully.