Ice baths

the question has been asked by a few people whether I did the three days of ice baths.
The first question that has to be asked though is, did I earn them?
Based solely on how I felt at the end of the race, as if I could have given even more during the race, I think the answer is no, I didn't.
However... I ran a harder, faster, smarter race than I've ever run before and I definitely earned an ice bath for Sunday.
Monday, my legs were achy, not surprisingly, and I did the workout Mark assigned (45' of spinning on the bike) so i took the second ice bath.
Tuesday, I was still a little achy so, while maybe I didn't feel like I earned three days of ice baths at the finish line, I still felt like I needed it and maybe I did more to earn it than I gave myself credit for.
It's a funny thing to earn. 20 minutes in ball-clenchingly frigid ice water is not most people's idea of fun or a reward. Nor mine either to be totally honest. But there's a special significance to them, I usually take ice baths after a particularly intense workout or a race so even though they're not fun, there's an almost ceremonial quality to them that makes me look forward to them.