As I have been training for middle distances, my mileage has increased as expected. When I sat down to write down my training schedule, I wrote the word ICE next to each run that was longer than 8 miles. I had heard from one of my BRFs, Real, that 8 miles was the distance that brought out the aches and pains during trains. Anything more than 8 miles and you really feel it. However, Real trained for her first half-marathon during the summer and raced it in the Fall. I’m training for Spring races in the Winter. The thought of coming in from a frosty (20-40 degrees) run and getting into an ice bath just didn’t fly with my brain. The last thing I wanted after running next to an ice covered lake or pond was to come home and get into ice water. No way, not me!
In February, I started doing runs longer than 8 miles but did I ice bathe after? Nope! I ran 9 miles the Saturday before my birthday. On my birthday, I had a therapeutic massage. The masseuse commented on how tight my calves were. She is a runner herself and spent extra time getting the knots worked out. I ran the RRCA 10 Miler a few days later to celebrate with no ice bath. Then, my mileage dialed back a bit for a few weeks.
Fast forward to this month, I ran 9.5 miles 3 Saturdays ago and 10.3 miles last Sunday. Following both of those runs, I came in and took my warm shower. I wore my ProCompression Marathon socks to recover. I made sure to stay hydrated, paid attention to the macros and micros of my diet, etc so that I would recover well. However, for most of last week my calves were TIGHT! My speedwork was more like slow-work. My 7 mile easy run was cut short to 5 miles. I did Bikram Yoga on Friday with the hopes that the heat and the stretching would help. It didn’t.
So this Saturday’s long run of 10 miles – the last long run before the Cherry Blossom on my schedule – was BRUTAL!!! Instead of my calves loosening up after the first few miles, they felt tighter. I do 1:1 run/walk intervals. I mostly walked the last 3 miles. I finished in my worst time ever since February. I knew it was time to embrace the ice bath.
If you haven’t taken an ice bath before, check here for some Do’s and Don’ts. I climbed in to my tub filled with cold water, sat down and winced. I stayed in for a little over 10 minutes. When I climbed out and warmed up, not only did my calves feel better but aches in my hips which I had only just begun to realize existed were gone as well. Even more important to me as a hysterrunner, the aches in my lower abdomen around my incision which I have felt since I started running again were also going away. I thought that they were a permanent ache to deal with. Turns out they too were just muscle aches due to running! I’m a believer – cue The Monkees!
Have you ever taken an ice bath? What do you do to recover from intense effort?
