Taking the Plunge

I have heard people talk about taking ice baths after a particularly long run, and have even seen photos, but I never thought I'd give it a try. The only things I like cold are my drinks and my ice cream. I haven't like the cold since I got frostbitten as a child.

But yesterday, I thought I'd give it a try for two reasons:

1. The inside of my right ankle has been a little cranky after longer runs
2. After almost every run, my upper back between my shoulder blades will sweat for up to 2 hours. Ridiculous. I wondered if an ice bath would reduce my body temp.

So after yesterday's 7-miler, I filled the tub with cold water and went to the freezer for a load of ice. I have to admit it wasn't really all that bad. I didn't load it with 5 lbs of ice or anything but it was plenty chilly.

The result? Excellent. No back sweats. And my legs, knees, ankles, everything below the waist feels great. Even at yoga this morning my body felt more open.

I read the other day that sugar can cause inflammation in the body. Since sugar is one of my favorite food groups..what? Sugar isn't a food group? Maybe not on your food pyramid, but it's the bottom layer on mine, followed by chocolate, dairy, fruit and more chocolate.

I noticed after eating about 25 chocolate chip cookies last weekend, my knees were sore two days later, so maybe there's something to this sugar thing.

I thought for a second about giving up sugar but the ice baths seem a lot easier.

Oh, and by the way, the run was great. I tried to relax more and slow down to a 12-minute mile. Worked beautifully. The key really is relaxing.

Spring is in the air

I got home from work 45 minutes early today for reasons I won't bother to go into, but it meant I could get a run in before I taught a private lesson. I was so stoked to run. It was finally sunny and finally in the 60s. Woooo-hoooo!

My enthusiasm was a little dashed when I realized that my Garmin was almost out of juice. In fact it lasted about 2.5 miles before it died. I'm still not sure how that happened. I had just charged it.

I thought I'd try to get 3 miles in and I'd have been happy with that because I kind of overdid it a couple of days ago. I'd aggravated a muscle, tendon or ligament in my hip at yoga class and still decided to finish my run even when I started to feel a twinge with every step.

So today it was still a bit tender and I wasn't sure what it would do when I actually began to run. I had a feeling before I started -- even with the hip issues -- that today was going to be good. The weather was just too perfect.

I started by running the first mile with no walk break and felt good. I took a 30 second walk break after the first mile and then ran even faster the 2nd mile. The Garmin died during mile 3 but I had planned ahead and brought another watch. I'm not positive about times, but I think I ran Mile 3 in 10 minutes and Mile 4, well that was more a cooldown mile and that was about 10:45 with a 30 second walk break.

I was happy with the times too even though my heart rate was high again.

All in all -- AWESOME. It's amazing what a spring day can do.

Lap 1: 10:40
Lap 2: 10:33
Lap 3: 10 (approx.)
Lap 4: 10:40 (approx.)

Ave. HR/Max HRt
Lap 1: 165/175
Lap 2: 171/178
Lap 3: 172/178 (only half-mile before garmin died)
Lap 4: no garmin