Ice Ice Baby

My GOD it was cold today. Not a day for cycling. As I was driving to the meet up point there was the most stunning sunrise, and I thought it was going to be one of those nice clear-blue-skied cold but not too cold sunny mornings. I was soooo wrong. The sun, having lured me into a false sense of security, promptly decided it wasn't going to come out to play today. Where it rose to I have no idea, because it definitely wasn't here!

We set off, me expecting I'd be ok, finally having bought a pair of winter gloves last week (£26.99!!) I expected I'd soon warm up. The ends of my fingers instantly went numb. And stayed that way until finally starting to come back to life after around 25 minutes. I began to sympathise with all the films I've seen where people have had frostbite. It hurts when your hands are cold, then you get the numb bit, and then comes the thaw. And the thaw aches and throbs so much that you want to just stay numb!

Started to try to drink, and I say started because that was the word. The drink in my bottles was so cold that my sensitive teeth couldn't bear it! I tried hugging the bottle to me to warm it a bit, but as I wasn't generating much heat anyway my body wasn't having that, it wasn't sharing, full stop. Apart from that, a little logic please. I'm freezing. Do I want to put something freezing into my body? No. Not the most appealing thought. So I put the drink back and tried not to think about it. (Particularly I tried not to think about the last time I went out for a long ride and didn't drink I ended up being rescued at the roadside, I HAVE to drink and eat regularly, or I crumble, simple as that, so listen up teeth, you've got to stop complaining and embrace the slush puppy) 

Rounding a corner, we had to stop at a railway crossing. I took the opportunity to take a picture for my visual log. (I'd put it on here if I knew how!)  Kept my gloves on, am not that brave. But I may as well have taken them off, because as we set off again my fingers had numbed for the second time, and this time my toes joined in, as did my shoulders and thighs! They were all having a right little 'we're cold' party! At least teeth had calmed down a bit and felt cosy.
From this point on, I could not get warm again. I flapped my arms up and down, did some hard efforts, Tucked one hand at a time under my armpit, but nothing worked. Most things I can cope with, wind, rain, heat, but I absolutely hate being cold. I'm one of the few people left in the country that still goes to bed with a hot water bottle. Yes, seriously. It's a fluffy one with dogs on it.
 I get really stroppy really quickly if I'm cold. My inner dialogue at this point went something like - ''What the hell am I doing? Why am I here? What kind of weirdo gets up at 6.30 to go cycling in the middle of *expletive deleted* January? I want to go home! I'm freezing, I want a cup of tea and a blanket! For *expletive deleted* sake, WHY did I want to do a stupid Ironman anyway?! What's the point? I could have done a sprint and been happy with that, then I'd only have to cycle for 2 hours, not 4! But no, I have to be different, I have to think I want to do it, so here I am now with body parts that feel like they don't belong to me!*expletive deleted* *expletive deleted* *expletive deleted*  *EXPLETIVE DELETED* !!! 
And that was the tame version.

Halfway round I was in extreme pain. So much so that when I bent my fingers it almost bought tears to my eyes. Someone kindly offered to swap gloves with me. The gloves were pretty much the same as mine, but they did have some of her heat in them, so for about 15 minutes I was given a break! But again the cold crept in and my hands froze. What the hell do people do on arctic expeditions?! At least I know that although I'm stupid enough to enter an Iron Distance tri, I will NEVER be stupid enough to go anywhere with bears and ice. No thanks, I'll leave that to Sir Ranulph.

Someone in the group then got a puncture, so the rest of us had to stop and wait. That didn't help much. But it did help with my neuroticism slightly. You see, in my world, bad things happen in threes. That's now three people who have had a puncture, so chances are I'm safe. Until the same person got another one further on, which messes my whole idea up. Someone else suggested that maybe I will get two as well, but at the same time. I knew when he was riding behind me, because I could hear pssssssss. The first time I did think it was my tyre and almost had a seizure, until I saw him laughing, and realised he was winding me up. I think he's just jealous because the puncture demon got him last week, and so far it hasn't got me, so I am obviously loved. Although it does haunt my dreams...
 I had a puncture dream the other night. I was in a race and my front tyre went flat. I hope that is not a premonition, but rather an indication of how much I'm obsessing! I need to chill out. You've heard the inner voice for cold, multiply by 100 for puncture!

For some reason today we only managed to cover 50 miles, and I wasn't happy with my fingers and toes for letting me down. I felt like I could have done more, and wasn't very tired. I'm keen to up my milage now, I want to prove to myself that I can do it. I was meant to have a 30 minute run off the bike, but as my feet didn't belong to me I wasn't going anywhere but the warm kitchen for a cup of tea. I fully expected to take my gloves off and my fingers to still be in there, but thankfully they were still attached. It took two cups of tea to convince me of that though. It's strange because usually I get warm very quickly, and I've never ever been cold on a ride! But for the last twenty miles or so I was shaking all over. Ooh..Just thought.. MAYBE it's because I've lost all my body fat and am now a lean mean triathlon machine? In that case I'd best have another piece of cake.

The things we go through for our sport... Apparently it's ''charecter building''. Mmm. I don't think I want any more charecter, I've got enough. So, wind last week, ice this week, what next week? Tsunami?
Off for a nice hot bath now.

Didn't enjoy all of today, but I know this will be fantastic to look back on, to remember the ups, downs, and inbetweens, and to be proud that I stuck at it. So I am glad I'm doing it. Even if a sprint would have been easier. :)