Brrrrrrrr

20 October, 2008 | 23:10

It's not all glamour after a big tournament win, apparently.

Less than 24 hours after walking off court a Masters Series champion in Madrid, Andy was back in the UK on a flying visit before heading off to Russia.

With the St Petersburg tournament already underway, Andy's fitness guys wanted him to get some important recovery work under his belt as the season heads to its climax.

So, no big fanfare back in the UK, just another early start, and a gentle 20 minutes on the exercise bike...

...nothing strenuous you understand, just a gentle peddle designed to get rid of the lactic build up in his leg muscles. It was that gentle the exercise bike should have had a basket on the front.  Seven miles under his belt, next stop was the ice bath.

In a classic case of 'once bitten, twice shy', they've realised that ten minutes up to your waist in seven degree water is slightly more bearable with neoprene socks...

Neoprene boots or not, nothing quite prepares you for the moment when you have to put your body - up to your waist - into the water...

...going in up to your waist leaves quite a lot of the body open to getting seriously chilled. Not for the faint of heart.

It doesn't help when the guy you're sharing the ice bath with gets in far too quickly and sends a frozen tidal wave up your back.

The faces tell you which one did that today...

There's a few clearly identifiable phases in the ice bath. Somewhere after getting in (phase 1) and screaming things like "will someone please say something funny to take my mind off this (phase 2), comes phase 3, which can be best described as trying to look like it's not really a big deal.

Which of course it is.

Once they get out after ten minutes, their legs are bright red, and ice cold to the touch.

The science of it all is that the cold forces the blood vessels to constrict, draining away the blood. Likewise, when they get out, their legs fill up with 'fresh' blood, helping to invigorate the muscles.

Doesn't stop them walking back to their cars looking like they've just ridden across the Sahara on horseback though.

Andy's off to St Petersburg early Tuesday morning.