While I work hard to stick to a training schedule and eat right, it’s pretty safe to say that I don’t do most of the other things necessary to keep myself healthy and injury-free. Excluding my attempts to get to a weekly yoga class, I hardly ever stretch. I use the foam roller only when things get really bad. And, until last Sunday (race report coming soon), I had never taken an ice bath post-race. Was I ever missing out on one of the best recovery tricks!!
After the DC Tri, which I am calling a successful failure, I took a nice, long ice bath, followed by a cold shower. Under normal conditions, I would probably run screaming from the cold, but anyone who raced last weekend knows Sunday was anything but normal conditions. It was HOT!!!
On Monday, I planned to stop by the DC Tri Club swim at Catholic University, but figured I’d kind of float around for a few hundred yards. Remembering St. Anthony’s in April, I figured I’d be sore for at least a week. Surprisingly, I not only made it through a 2,200 yard workout, but I felt great afterwards. Yesterday brought even more success when I hardly felt tired during a 40 minute hill run.
Could I really have avoided the post-race pain I’ve had in the past all of my friends are talking about and, if so, what can I do to replicate that experience? All I can think of is that ice bath. I’ll be trying it again in 2 weeks after the Philadelphia Women’s Triathlon. Hopefully, the hotel won’t find it too strange when I’m carting bags of us up to my room!
Hotels are the BEST places to take ice baths because they have ice machines! No need to buy ice