All the craziness of the week paid off because today, I got to come up to Breck! Last year, I got to ride in Breckenridge before the Firecracker 50, but my race and travel schedule have been so busy I haven’t made it up to one of my favorite places to ride in Colorado! I got shivers as I saw the peaks and had nostalgic flashbacks of the Breck 100, Breck Epic, and various training weekends from last year. I’m excited for all the upcoming events this summer in Summit County!

Getting here was a little…. tedious. Even on Friday, I-70 was stop and go, bumper to bumper. I love living in the Front Range, but sitting in traffic to and from the mountains on the weekends is the price you pay.

I decided to take the day off of riding, and spend time with some retail therapy at the Outlet mall in Silverthorne. The Nike store is so cheap and my heart nearly broke in half when I saw the Adidas outlet was GONE.

I convinced Yuki to get in the freezing cold stream with me. Snow melt definitely makes the water COLD. It was fun, and I was definitely squawking as I got in. Brrrrrrr!

Trying to get in….

It hurts!!!

Cluck, cluck.

Why the heck would I sit in an ice cold river? My friend Nina taught me about ice baths several years ago, and when we travel to races together, sitting in a bath with about 14 pounds of ice is pretty standard, complete with a down jacket and hat. In my opinion, ice baths are GREAT for recovery. It’s painful for the 5-10 minutes that you’re in it, but it feels invigorating afterward – kind of like intervals! First, it’s a great anti-inflammatory. Think about it – when you have swelling, you put ice on it. Second, getting in freezing cold water causes your blood vessels to constrict. This effect sends blood out of the area. When you get out of the water, your body has to send new blood into your cold legs which can flush out toxins/lactic acid, and gives you fresh oxygenated blood.