The need for Ice

On sunday I went and rode the same ride as the previous sunday with Steve at the same time, slightly warmer and a hell of a lot windier. For what ever reason I cranked the pace into the head wind at 18-19 mp/h as I felt good and need a hard ride as I am racing this sunday coming up.
Had a slight easing off before approaching Shere, but once back climbing seemed to ease into an all out fast tempo till the top of climb which maxed me out, legs and heartrate, made my legs really sore and this two and a half hours into a sub six hour ride, kept the pace at normal pace but know a real effort on my part, strange it was the flat that was making me hurt. On the steep climbs of Leith hill from the south, Ranmore and Box hill I was fine, actually cruised up Box hill wondering if I should up the pace or not, in the end I settled on a steady pace, had a moment break at the top of Boxhill, plenty of cyclist out and about. The ride back into London via Hampton Court was OK, legs started feeling better.
By the time I got home and checked my New Garmin Edge 705 I had done 101.4 miles at 17.3 mp/h and 4988 ft of climbing in 5.49 hours.
Thought I was all OK, had a quick shower as I was trying to catch the F1 Grand prix on TV, had lunch and did some stretches while finishing the last of my Born recovery drink. About an hour later I was so sleepy and my legs were pinging, could see the muscles contracting all over my legs, also very hot legs, went to have a nap but to much heat from my legs so decided to fill the bath with cold water and chucked in some ice cubes for good measure, tentatively lowered myself in to just cover my legs, quite a shock but by taking my time and not making any sudden movements I was comfortable immersed in cold icy water, sat there for ten minutes, well until my feet got cold, legs had stopped feeling so over active and had cooled down which is what I wanted.
By about 6pm I was back to normal so washed the car, anyway today my legs feel great after such pain yesterday so the Ice bath works. not sure how often I would do this as I cannot allow my core to get cold as it will take forever to warm up again, luckily it was a hot day yesterday.
Other notes, max heartrate was 181 , managed 192 last tuesday while racing, average for the ride was 141 bpm.
Today I averaged 102 bpm and a max of 132 That's enough geekeness, will be racing at Crystal Palace tomorrow night all going well.