Into hot water

I've started biking most weekends with a group from work but last weekend I was out on my own as they were away. Taking on our normal route of about 95km to a reservoir and back I had a couple of dumb ideas. Firstly I thought that I'd go as fast as we normally do of course forgetting that by myself I'd be pushing all the work at the front which by definition was where I always was going to be. Secondly I normally set off at 5.45am to meet the others 14km away where they like to start at 6.30am. This is a rather painful time to get out of bed even with Alex's help to wake up. But being by myself I thought a more relaxed start to the day was warranted so rolled out an hour later. What I didn't really factor into these two facts was that I'd be into the heat of the day quicker and being slower than normal I'd be there for longer. This made for a tough ride and I got home as the first wisps of cramp promised a much harder future if I kept it up.

Once home I went through my normal routine of sitting down in a heap with a bright red face to amuse Alex before going for a cold bath to stretch out my leg muscles. Cue mistake number three for the day, our taps have no 'hot' 'cold' markings on them and I cheerfully filled up the bath with hot water. Normally jumping into a cold bath is not much fun but actually is ok once in so I'm developed the technical of jumping in as fast as possible and taking a couple of sharp breaths as various parts of my anatomy react. What I am saying is that foolishly I do not just dip a toe in the water to test the temperature but go at it running. This does not end well when you fail to notice the scalding hot water you thought was ice cold!

Several lessons to learn here!