Has anyone tried soaking in ice bath after a run? Does it really help from feeling stiff and sore the following day?

I do this after long runs. It's not ice per se -- I use the garden hose in my driveway.

After the Hagg Lake 50k in Februrary, I went and stood in the lake for awhile. I had very little soreness after the run.

-Jim

I am now a firm believer in soaking in cooler water after a long run.

After the three miler, I went home and just kind of laid around. I was sore, stiff and miserable for two days. I am out of shape, but I knew I wouldn't be able to go for 26 weeks feeling like this so I talked to others and did some reading.

After the four miler last week, I did the following:

- walked around the neighborhood for a while before driving home
- drank a ton of Gaterade (I love that stuff)
- "dunked" in a cold water bath and massaged my legs
- took a couple easy strolls with my dogs
- took a shower with cooler water on my legs
- iced up Saturday evening while watching tv
- stretched some easy yoga poses
- took two ibuprofens and slept like a rock

I woke up Sunday a.m. feeling like I was ready for the marathon!

I did a similar thing after Bay to Breakers last year in SF: went and sat down in the Pacific. What fun!

I plan to start ice baths (or the garden hose) this week.

I do the ice bath thing after marathons and I believe it reduces leg soreness over the next couple days -- just get a bag or two of ice, throw the ice in a tub and fill with enough water to totally submerge your legs. It can be a challenge getting in ... okay, it's *miserable* getting in and I probably say some unrepeatable things when I do it ... but it's not so bad. As with other icing I think you only need to do it for 10-12 minutes to get the benefits.

I don't bother with it for anything except for runs over 20 miles but I suspect it would be beneficial after just about any run. It's one of things like consuming cod liver oil -- anything that unpleasant *has* to be good for you, right?

Note: it's pretty funny if you travel to a marathon and stay in a hotel with lots of other marathoners... you'll see lots of them shuffling from their rooms to the hotel's ice machines, using the ice bucket to fill up the tub ... sometimes they are even still wearing the mylar blanket they got at the finish line.

Ahh, the glamour of marathoning....