Icy to Dull the Pain, Hot to Relax It Away

Newest addition to the 'Things Rebecca Never Realized Didn't Exist Outside of the US' list: IcyHot.

My weekend hiking was wonderful, scenic, hilarious, and exhausting.

And it tore. up. my. thighs.

High steps up and down a mountain are tiring when you're actually in shape, and killer when you're in 'shape'. I keep thinking to myself 'oh, I'm totally in shape, I'm doing well' until I do something like this past weekend in Gairloch and realize that holy crap my shape is not actually shape.

It was a good thing that I didn't have anything planned for today because the thighs were not having it. So while out loud I'm going to blame my lazy day on the fact that I opened my blinds and found rain and clouds and wind and general dreariness, let's not fool ourselves and give credit to muscle aches where credit is due.

The solution to muscle aches when I was at home was the glory that is IcyHot. Why decide whether you want hot or cold when the miracle of modern chemistry allows you to have both? Apparently they haven't gotten on this train here in the UK because the 30 minutes today where I was outside of my flat consisted of me in the Boots staring at the aisle, looking back and forth between the hot and cold gels near the ibuprofen wondering 'but where's the IcyHot' or at least the UK equivalent of both in one tube. It doesn't exist. The girl at the till just shook her head as I'm coming up and setting down my goods and looking despondent. How was I supposed to choose between hot or cold when I'm used to having it all?



Cold won out. If I had to choose between yelping at the cold gel or the prickly red skin that comes with warming creams, I'll just yelp and get it done with.

Of course, this also means that I look absolutely ridiculous as I wander around my flat with a sweatshirt, thick wool socks... and shorts so that the gel can dry on my thighs without getting all over pants. Yes, I realize that I have one odd area exposed and that normal people in a cold flat in cold Scotland would have on proper trousers, but it's either be warm or be less sore. The sore is winning out at the moment.

Note to self: Next time someone asks what they can put in a care package... IcyHot.