Ah, alluring alliteration! (Sorry, I had to)

By far my biggest struggle with winter training is the swimming. Unfortunately there is an extreme lack of public year-round pools in my vicinity, a large total of 2. One is indoor while the other is outdoor.

The indoor pool is nice-ish and 25 yards in length. However, their hours do not work with my schedule at all. I use to be a member but, because of the scheduling issue, I cancelled it.

The outdoor pool, whose facility I am presently a member of, is very nice. Couple of drawbacks are its length, which is 18.5 yards, and the fact that it is outside. Now, this pool is heated to 85F. However, that does nothing for the cold air one will be exposed to upon placing any part of your body out of the water.

I haven’t done any swim training in 1.5 months and it is killing me. I know I am losing progress so I really want to, and need to, get back to training. It’s definitely more will power than anything, at least until the air temps get into the 30s. I don’t believe a wetsuit is needed and honestly, based on my scuba experience in very cold climates, they don’t do much to prevent coldness once you are out of the water.

I have seen various versions of warm changing robes that could alleviate this problem but I haven’t decided if I want to pull the trigger. Based on reviews they are great when transitioning out of the water, whether it is on race day or training. In particular I am looking at the USWE Robe (Not affiliated in any way, shape or form). It’s currently on sale thanks to the holidays so I may just bite the financial bullet. If I do I will post an update and review here.

So, dear readers, do you have any thoughts or recommendations on this?