181. Ice Ice Baby

25th July 2014, GI Jane Bootcamp, Sittingbourne

This Viking does not do cold water. It's just not my cup of vodka.

As a child, I didn't even go in the water sprinklers on hot summer days and I most certainly would not go into chilly Nordic Sea water like most lunatics back home. The only time I'll contemplate getting in any other water than in my bath tub is potentially in a tropical sea.

But as I am a Viking, expectations are high on me to cope with these things. Mainly because I've made myself Viking ambassador of the world and will promote our toughness to anyone no matter how little interest they're showing.

Favourite Viking tale to tell happens to be about the saunas in winter. These beautiful outdoor pier saunas made for sweating and beer drinking with the expectation of jumping naked into the ice cold water outside when it gets too hot. Yeah I talk about them, but don't for a second think I'd ever do it myself. I'd never get that hot.

I did however figure it was time for me to deal with cold water - apparently it's good for your skin and exceptional for you muscles. Or some sadist is just trying to trick us all into suffering by spreading rumours like that.

So here I was, about to have my first ever ice bath and what better time could I have chosen. Hot day with the sorest muscles known to man following about 400,000 squats in the day. This is at least what I tried telling myself. Did. Not. Help.

When faced with the giant ice bucket I was suppose to hang out in for the next five minutes, every instinct in my body told me to run. Or actually, it was telling me to find a good place to hide since my ass and thighs would probably have self detonated had I attempted more running. I fought these instincts, and queued up to the bucket of doom.

I wish I would have picked a more graceful outlet for my determination to have an icey soak. I can barely get into bed without tripping and falling in face first - how I'd get myself into this bucket was a mystery to me.

But I did get in. Scraped my knee, splashed water all over the instructors and ripped my top, but I did get in. And it was not pleasant once in there. Contrary to what I had been told before getting in it was not refreshing, it was not relaxing and it most certainly did not relieve the pain. So it turns out, I have spent all these years avoiding cold baths for good reason!

Needless to say, I am not doing that again.

No I love it in here. Really.