Ice Bath Record

The Snow is still lingering in the garden - sufficient to get enough of it to get 6 or 7 bucketsful to fill a bath and top it up with cold water.  The water out of the cold tap is at +8.5C but when combined with the snow the water drops to 0C and makes the perfect Ice Bath. (The thermometer in the pictures under-reads by 0.5C).

Having done this yesterday with no  ill-effects I thought I would do the same again today but with more snow and extend the time I was in the water for.  I set a timer on the edge of the bath for 10 minutes and plunged in.

Today was not as daunting as yesterday.  I managed to do the whole 10 minutes with no problems and think I recovered better than yesterday too.  I had my hands in the water the entire time and although they were stiff and tingling they seemed not to be as cold afterwards.   Sure, my skin was numb and quite red at the finish but that also feels good as does the shivering during the rewarming period.   I think I like the really cold water better than +9C  or above!

There is a long (but boring) video of the whole 10 minutes just to prove that it is possible on my Youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/tremendimouse/videos?view=0&flow=grid).  You can see the countdown timer in the top right which I set after I got in and which runs the whole way through.

I would appreciate any comments you may have.