Ice baths are fn cold! (Read 1676 times)

I usually reserve this for hard marathons. When I do use an ice bath, I get a couple large bags of ice from the grocery, some 40 lbs. I fill the bath with COLD water and then dump in the ice. I sit in it with a magazine or something to help distract me. It hurts for a few seconds, then this passes and I usually spend about 10 minutes soaking. I usually follow this with a warm shower (my muscles stay cold). I rarely use ice baths after long training runs because I run these at a lower effort and atop a large base of miles so that it does not hurt me much. The idea is to reduce blood flow and inflammation in your legs, which in turn reduces swelling and subsequent pain and stiffness. Do they work? I dunno.

I'm with Trent on this one except I didn't know that monkeys had access to ice . Save it for a long hard race. Only had one after my first marathon and haven't done one since. I don't need anymore shirnkage (for you Seinfeld fans). I use bags of frozen peas (Green Giants are my favorites ) to get at a specific area. I like this idea better than hitting the advil too hard to reduce soreness. Best advice I have is to go out and run the next day (very very easy) to get the bod moving. This works best for me. So for instance if I race a HM, I will run about 3 or 4 the next day at race pace + 3 or 4 mpm. It is slow and relaxing and just gets things moving. A little hair of the dog so to speak. Good luck

ibuprofen.

<rant> Hmmm. Pain and ice or Dialysis. Forever. I'll take pain. ----------------------------------- Blood flows into your kidneys in arteries. The arteries branch smaller and smaller until they are tiny little arterioles. These deliver blood to the microscopic unit in the kidney responsible for making urine, called the glomerulus. Those arterioles delivering blood to the glomerulus are called afferent arterioles. Those collecting the blood out the other side are called efferent arterioles. There are several hormonal mechanisms for making sure that the pressure head on the blood is sufficient so that you make appropriate urine even when you are dehydrated. Ibuprofen and other NSAIDs mess with the hormonal control over the arterioles and essentially causes the blood to stop flowing to the glomerulus. This can cause a sharp decrease in urine and in oxygen delivery to the kidneys. The latter can kill off kidney cells in great number. The effect of NSAIDS is mitigated by adequate hydration. If you are dehydrated, the protection is gone and the effect of the NSAIDS on the hormonal control over your afferent arterioles is gone. You can cause substantial and permanent kidney damage. Bad. When glomerular filtration is limited, your body may try several mechanisms to fix the problem using other hormonal systems. This combined with reduced renal function can cause a dangerous increase in potassium and a drop in your sodium. Also bad. ----------------------------------- You never know the day that your ibuprofen or other NSAID you take while running will cause renal failure, and it is not wholly dependent on hydration. The pain of marathoning and training can be expected. Why do you feel the need to stop that pain? Because you don't like it? Marathoning is supposed to hurt. I'm not talking about the pathologic pain of injury; if you have that, address the injury (rather than hiding it under some drug). I see way too many people in my practice and in the world who want to run but don't want to hurt while running. Sadly, it does not always work that way. Don't risk your health to hide the pain. Learn to accept it, to feel it flow through you, to guide you and teach you. Pain is not your enemy. Jeff, a local RA member, a 2:35 marathoner and professional philosopher (really) once wrote this: "For me, racing is not about overcoming pain. It's about as running fast as I can. The pain is just the way the body speaks to you, a side phenomenon. It's silly to try to overcome it or attack it. We talk about the "pain" of running as if it were a single phenomenon. Actually, in running as in life there are many different sorts of pains, and one can learn to distinguish these pains in order to respond to them differently. It is very rare that generating the sensation of "pushing through it" is the appropriate response to pain. My sense is that generating that feeling is just layering one type of pain on another." ----------------------------------- The standard nonprescription dose of motrin/ibuprofen/advil is 400 mg every 6 hours. Not 600 mg. Not 800. And certainly not 1000 mg. Sure, your doc may prescribe doses higher than 400 mg, but you are NOT your doctor (nor should you be, even if you are a doctor). The higher the dose, the greater the risk of injury to your kidneys, to your electrolytes and to your GI tract. </rant>

Not ibuprofen for life T. Jeez. I a'int no ignant. I rarely get DOMS. Why? I consume protein when I run long. Works wonders. Trent, I am going to get you the citation from the paper that tested this. Also, run the next day as advised.

I don't know if it is your protein or your base.

I really think it's the additional protein. I have suffered DOMS in the past following long runs or rides. This was, of course, when I would just consume carbs during the workout. I wish I had the time to pop on pubmed to look some stuff up. There is at least one paper out there that showed a double digit % increase in endurane in athletes using a protein/carb drink vs. carb or water alone. I think (although not entirely sure)the thought is the protein helps reduce muscle damage, thus increasing endurance. I have the citation to this paper at home. If that is true, then it makes sense recovery time would be less since there is less overall muscle damage at the cellular level. Pain would also be less as well, all things being equal. I do know it works wonderfully for me even at such an advanced age.

There is at least one paper out there that showed a double digit % increase in endurane in athletes using a protein/carb drink vs. carb or water alone.

Totally agree. But we are talking about post-run pain, not repeat activity (which is what the studies typically look at). And we agree on protein. We just get it from different sources.

But we are talking about post-run pain, not repeat activity (which is what the studies typically look at).

You're right. I need to reread the paper. I was attempting to extrapolate the data to create a working hypothesis of why I possibly suffer little if any DOMS. Either way, as long as I do not need to take an ice bath, I could care less as to why that is.