Anyone for Swimming in the Frigid Outdoors?
Does your bathing suit typically get packed in your suitcase no matter where you are traveling to? I have to confess that even though I travel almost every week, I do not even think about packing my bathing suit unless I’m heading to a warm location and on vacation.
Many women (and men) toss their bathing suit into their luggage no matter where they are heading and no matter what the reason for travel. Many use swimming as their mode of exercise while staying in a hotel. Me – I always pack my workout clothes. Whether I actually work out in my workout clothes, though, is not always the case. Most hotels I stay at have a pool … I just never think to use it. I need to rethink my workout strategy, as a good swim is a great workout.
I can understand getting into an indoor pool when the temperature is low, but this Floridian cannot at all comprehend getting into an outdoor pool If the temperature is below 75(F) degrees. So I was shocked to see not just one, not two, but many people in the pool in 20(F) degree temperatures today in Banff at the Fairmont Springs Hotel. The pool is heated, but the outdoor air is not! I was freezing cold walking outside in these temperatures all bundled up in a sweater, coat, scarf and glove. How could they be outside in just their bathing suit and a robe, walking through snow to get back to their rooms?
While I may start adding my bathing suit to my packing list, you will not find me in an outdoor swimming pool in 20 degree temperatures! I'm not sure about an hot tub either unless the outdoor temperatures about much, much higher!
How about you? Does your swimming suit accompany you on your journeys? And does snow swimming appeal to you?
While swimming is a great low impact exercise, swimming in hotel pools isn’t a simple as it seems. First the hotel has to have a pool (of course) then if it’s an outdoors pool is it heated? Will it be warm enough for you to swim or will it be rainy and miserable? You also need to check the pool hours, you might get back from dinner and find the pool is closed for the night.
I do take my swim suit with me whenever I travel, both for business and pleasure. Unfortunately, I find that the indoor pools are often so overpowered with chemicals that I end up with a rash. I understand the reason and need for the chemicals, but the levels are just too high for me in most indoor hotel pools. After years of traveling, I have learned to stick to the outdoor pools and the hot tubs. As for the outdoor temperature, I do enjoy a hot tub in cold weather, but it has to be hot outside to get me into a swimming pool.
Generally, the swimsuit goes with me and I adore swimming in a heated pool in the winter outdoors. There’s almost nothing that’s so bracing and makes my body feel totally Alive!
I’m headed to Tomsk, Siberia, Russia in Dec/Jan and the swimsuit goes, only hope I get a chance to use it.