At last the snow has (mostly) and the temperature has risen a bit above freezing, so it was an opportune time to start the next phase of training for Tough Guy.

In case you are unaware what Tough Guy is look here.

Three of use decided to go on a cross country run, locally and then test our clothing in the River Thames.  The run was through the woods and fields locally which are either very muddy or still totally frozen with a mixture in many areas.  The River Thames on the other hand is quite full and very very cold!

So if you happened to be near the Thames in Cookham earlier today and saw three runners, suddenly detour into the river, run in, run about and then swim for a bit, that was us. 

Strangely after a couple of dips (I bottled the request of full submersion, but credit to Giles and Pete) the water didn’t seem quite so cold.  However our nuts thought differently and must have shriveled to the size of frozen peas.  It seems like the extremities have a better sense of water temperature than we did.

We have discovered that thermal rash vests (used for surfing in cold water) are remarkable good at retaining body heat and will come in very useful for the event in a couple of weeks time.