« Nothing Much | Main | Was it Worth it? »
January 12, 2008
The Things We Do
So I have to apologize to Marit. Because you see, it wasn't HER fault. But still, when I was sitting in the freezing cold ice in my bathtub this afternoon I was cursing her name. She merely told of her ice baths on her blog - she didn't force me to try it too. But I had to curse something. Because that water was soooooo cold. Mind numbing cold. Really, really cold. Colder than cold. Did I mention how cold that water was?
At least Marit gave some really good suggestions as to how to best go about the ice bath (thanks Marit!). Probably my favorite was the tip to drink something hot when in the ice. That worked wonders. And reading something while in there was good too although I was having trouble concentrating. One piece of advice I did not heed was to not keep your timer/watch within reach. I held my watch in my hand. Bad move. I think I looked at it about 100,000,001 times during the first 5 minutes. But I survived. And to tell you the truth, after that intial 5 minutes or so when your body is going through what I'm calling the shock phase, it wasn't so bad. Once you go numb what is there to feel? :)
But let me start from the beginning. First O and I went swimming this morning. And then I came home for my long ride. It was in the mid 30s so I went outside and had a pretty good ride! Still feeling out of shape but I did better than last weekend and my HR was much better too. And I rode in the hills again. I'll tell you - there are some big ones around here! I've really been enjoying it though because the hilly roads are all back in the country and while they aren't the best road surfaces there are NO cars out there. I did count 6 dead deer though. Yuck.
Regardless, I got home to find that O had already purchased the ice and it was waiting down in the freezer! What a great husband! We ate lunch first and then I prepared my hot chocolate while he prepared the ice bath. I wish I had a picture of O's face while he was pouring all the ice into the cold water. He was enjoying it far too much!
I'll admit. I wanted to cry at first. OH MY was it cold. I ice my feet all the time but sitting in it up to my waist - much different story. But after the first 5 minutes it wasn't too bad. I stuck it out until 20 minutes and then called it a day. Funny part was, O tried to just stand in it for a couple minutes to see how cold it was and he was crying in pain! No question why God gave women the job of giving birth. Men just aren't tough enough. :) In his defense, I think he just needed to give it a few more minutes and then he would have been through the worst of it and been just fine.
Regardless, to prove that I did indeed do this and I'm not making it all up, a few pictures of proof:
Ahh...the things we do...
PS In the pictures it doesn't look like the water is covering my quads, but I assure you, it is. Oh...it is. :) And I should have taken a post-picture to show how RED (as in BEET RED) my legs were!
Posted by beth at January 12, 2008 3:27 PM
Comments
You, my dear, are a ROCK STAR! Way to go. BTW - it looks as though you've got a ton more ice than I do...hard core! Love the hot cocoa, sweatshirt, hood, AND hat. You're right about the reading, though. Kind of hard to concentrate - I'll give you that. The good news, is that after the initial 5 minutes, everything goes numb. You sould be feeling "normal" in, oh, say a few hours. This is one of my new favorite pictures!
Posted by: marit c-l at January 12, 2008 4:07 PM
This is a freakin awesome post!!!!! OMG I love the pictures!!!!!
Posted by: Audrey at January 12, 2008 4:51 PM
OMG you are soooo a rock star!
:-) mary
Posted by: mary at January 12, 2008 7:02 PM
OMG you are soooo a rock star!
:-) mary
Posted by: mary at January 12, 2008 7:02 PM
Beth, you are a star. Talk about dealing with pain. I take my hat off to you!!
Posted by: Jeremy at January 12, 2008 8:02 PM
So cute! It will all be worth it (or it already is)!
Posted by: Meghan at January 12, 2008 8:19 PM
So my question is - does it make a difference? Was it worth it? Because that is a lot of hard-core and I hope it paid off...!
Posted by: Ness at January 13, 2008 9:17 AM
I think the mini-marshmallows are key! You look much colder than Marit, but maybe that is because she lives much further south than you...?
Posted by: Danielle at January 13, 2008 4:48 PM
It looks hardcore to take an ice bath with hoodie on :)) and a hat!
Posted by: chip at January 15, 2008 12:34 AM