Ice Bath Recovery Party
Sunday, April 19th, 2009
I started off the day hanging out with @mangorunner @Runnermaniac and @CraigMacfarlane at the Boston marathon expo talking about using ice baths for recovery. After wandering around a bit and talking about race plans for the year I headed back home home for some lunch and a quick tempo run. Once I made it back home, I could officially call another hard two week training block done and in the books.
While I was filling up my tub with cold water and dumping in a few buckets of ice, I saw that Mandy and Miss Allycat have the same mindset and are jumping into a nice frozen bath of their own as well. I guess racing season is starting to warm up and everyone is getting into the same mindset! Eventhough we are all in different parts of the country, it was like I was having a little ice bath party knowing that my blogger buddies were taking the plunge too.
Last season I was a really big fan of hot epsom salt baths, but have officially converted to the dark (er… cold) side. Ice baths are WAY better. They are going to be a regular staple in my training now.
Icey Proof.
Want to see my “O” face?
The first minute are two is pretty rough, but once you suck it up and keep your body under water, it isn’t too bad and it actually starts to feel good. You know I’m a big geek, so I had to look up the science behind it. Apparently your muscles and blood vessels tighten and help get rid of lactic acid and other junk built up built up from workouts. I’ve been doing two 5-6 minute soaks with a few minutes to warm back up inbetween, then a nice warm shower after to avoid anything from getting too tight.
Here is a good article on ice baths that I found the other day. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6287210.stm
I think I may need to start using more ice though, because after my second soak I got a little too comfortable and was just hanging out and sucking down my favorite recovery drink, chocolate soy milk.
MMMmmmm. Soy milk. Cheers!
Tags: ice bath | Posted in Training Log, Triathlon | 6 Comments »
