Full Body Ice Bath..

Doesn't that sound nice on a crisp, 60 degree morning! I know that is the first thing everyone would like to do at 6:40am. You could have a cup of hot coffee, and a nice sweet roll while reading the paper in your bedroom slippers, you could remain all tucked in your bed, snuggled in among the sheets for another hour or so, or you could do what we do, which is jump into a barely heated outdoor pool and immerse yourself in freezing water after you have heated your core temp up by doing a track workout. You could also yell, and grunt, and make other weird speaking in tounges-type noises as you attempt to jump up and down to warm yourself while cursing the pool cleaning people who took your indoor away for a week.

Ahhh...it's finally here. Tis the season for closed pools for cleaning. I hear it's an epidemic. Triathletes everywhere are wandering the country, searching for an open lane to quiet their mind and get their workouts done. The YMCA staff know only the nuts are left. That's us people. We are the ones who still get in the pool even when it remains at only 65-70 degrees, and is outdoors, and the howling winds are swirling before sunrise. Even the lifeguards looked at me in disbelief, "what is she doing, she must be crazy" was the look on their faces while they stood overlooking the side of the pool wearing three sweat shirts, two pairs of pants and a hood (ok, slight exaggeration, but you get the point). They were semi-warm, I was um.. not even close. I wanted to borrow one of the sweatshirts, and wear it in the pool - do you think that would hurt my drag factor? So what if I swam a 2:00 100. Instead, I just cut my rest intervals down to virtually nothing (20 seconds was way too long), and banged out as much of 4500 as I could possibly stand before my teeth started to chatter. After a run workout, I think a full body ice bath at the YMCA could end up helping me for my long ride on Thursdays. Ice is good, ice is our friend, but not for more than an hour. Tonight, we shall see! I made it into work at 8:34 so that was pretty good for me! I'll be heading out a tad bit early to get my last workout of the day done tonight.

When I thaw out, I'll let you know. For now, I have my heater on under my desk and my circulation still isn't working correctly. Saturdays workout may require busting out the wetsuit. I'm not above it. Don't doubt me!