Day 71 to 75 - From Cold to Exercise

Being at home after all the business travel is quite refreshing. And now the weather and the water temperatures are warming up I think my toughness regimen must move from cold water endurance to toughening up my body and muscular endurance. I will still do the cold water showers (as I have this week apart from 2 days when the water was so luke-warm that it was unpleasant - neither hot nor cold enough - so I added some hot water to it) but I will look for other opportunities to get into cold water situations (rivers, streams, ponds, ice baths, sauna cold pools etc.) which are likely to be colder than water from the tap.

As far as exercise is concerned I have been extending the distance I have been running over the past few days. Today it was close to 5 Miles on a mix of road, woodland paths and across farmland. There was a mix of up and down too, but nothing too extreme as far as inclines are concerned. The time was not that good - close to 1 hour but for the most part I did jog or walk at a fast pace. I did the majority of the run in shorts (no top) as the paths are public footpaths and there were people around. I even got a few hoots from cars when I was running without a shirt along the road!

I hope to mix the running with swimming occasionaly during the coming weeks. I don't know if I will find a cold water pool in my area but I will certainly try to find an outdoor one rather than an indoor one. If you know of one west of London let me know. Also looking for suggestions of places to go swimming in West London area (Tube accessible) during the week and/or to meet up with others with similar interests occasionally during the coming months. Suggestions welcome via mail and/or the comments section please.

I would like to find a running mate of similar ability so that it is not so boring and that will challenge me to do better (i.e. push me along a bit). So if you live on the west side of London along the M40 corridor anywhere between J2 and J4 and are interested in joining me for the occasional run please leave a comment and let me know.