Ice Baths

I'm sorry. I can only laugh when I write this one. I laughed at my coach when he told me these things were MANDATORY!! For those of you who know me REALLY well, I HATE the cold!!! HATE IT!! I hate being cold more than anything. So when this crazy notion of voluntarily getting into a bath tub full of not just cold water, but ICE... I could only laugh. Little did I know that ice would be my new best friend:(

So, what is an ice bath and why do you need it? Ice baths are the quickest way for your body to recover after an intense workout (several hours - for me, over 12/14 miles of running). Essentially, when you sit in a bath tub full of ice and water it helps the vessels in your legs shrink up and drain out the blood... when you get out of the ice, the vessels fill back up with 'new' blood helping your recovery time and soreness become a lot less.

They are not, by any means fun, but they work miracles.

I've tried every short cut from standing at the end of the shower and letting cold water run on them to just icing portions of my legs... but nothing works like the ice bath!! So now, my Saturday ritual is as follows:

6:45 - meet up with the team for our long distance run of the week
10:00-noon (depending on length of run) - finish my run
12 noon - stop at the Shell by my house... pick up TWO bags of ice and a Powerade (Mountain breeze)
12:15 - Head to the bathroom turn the heater on and get it nice and toasty.
12:20 - still in my running cloths - hop in the tub, plug her up and start filling her up with cold water.
12:25 - once the water is over my legs, the water is turned off the TWO bags of ice are poured into the tub
12:25:10 - LOTS OF SCREAMING!! (I hate the cold, remember)
12:35/12:40 - the ice is almost melted, my toes are purple and the ice bath is over
12:45 - nice long HOT shower:)

It's quite funny. Painful, but funny. Garrett really gets a kick out of it... especially the screaming. I think it's payback for years of harassment!!

Finishing versus Not Finishing

This weekend I ran my very first 1/2 marathon. That's 13.1 miles. Exactly half of what I'll be running in April. I ran in the Annual Tom King Gupton Dodge Classic. It was totally cool. I was a little antsy, being my first longer distance race. I had run the distance, and more, before, but not with 1500 other people. It took me 2:19 (that's 2 hours and 19 minutes), finishing about in the middle of the pack... 800 and something I think it was. Which considering I've only been a runner, technically, since November, I'm dang proud of myself. With that kind of time on my hands, it's hard to not let your mind wander (which is good, it blocks out the pain). Here are a couple of things I pondered...

For those of you who know me at all, I'm what some might classify as competitive. I have a mild obsession with being first and being the best. In ways it's a good thing, it other ways it's just plain annoying. I mean, I can remember racing Garrett to the front seat of the car. Racing to see who could be out the door first, up the stairs first... Any time I felt a mild sense of competition, I got that knot in my stomach... weird I know. But, seeing people finish this 1/2 marathon in half the time it took me, made me ponder to my next topic...

If I had to say, the one thing this whole training experience has taught me... second place isn't always the first loser and despite what Ricky Bobby says, "if you're not first you're last." The only person that will beat me, is myself. I realized that there is no way in hell I'll ever WIN a marathon, a 1/2 marathon or even a 5K. I may run in 100 of them, but the chances of me taking home the loot are slim. The odd thing, it doesn't bother me at. I'm fine with it. The simple fact of beating my own personal best record is the most important to me. It makes me wonder why I hadn't gotten into this long distance racing a long time ago...

I might, however, beat the Olympic gold medalist at putting on their shoes:)

Until next time...