Ice, Ice Baby

This is not my car. I repeat, NOT my car. Just a car I saw walking through a parking lot in Victoria recently on the way to ice my legs in the ocean. I had to take a picture of it because, well. . . I have never seen a vehicle so Hello Kitty-ed out before. In case you can't tell, those are Hello Kitty seat and seatbelt covers; there were also multiple themed stuffed animals in the back seat (not pictured). Talk about dedication.

My friend Lisa and I spent a few minutes laughing at this poor car owner's expense. We then jumped in our car and headed to the ocean where we bundled our top halves up in weirdly fashioned towel burqas, like so:

and edged ourselves into a freezing cold ocean to ice our legs so that people on shore could laugh at OUR expense. We were the ONLY ones crazy enough to go near the water, since the temps were hovering somewhere around the low 50s. Talk about dedication. At least the views were good.

Ice baths have become a fixture of my training these days. As someone who is extremely cold adverse, I'd much rather hit the hot tub than the ice bath or cold ocean. Unfortunately, the science is too good to ignore. Exposure to the cold first reduces inflammation, thereby limiting tissue damage. After the cold is removed, there is an increase blood flow which serves to both warm up the tissue and remove the "junk" that accumulates from cellular breakdown by more quickly moving it into the lymph system.

If that's too confusing, just remember 10-20 minutes of torture equals fresh(er) legs for the morning workout. Happy icing!