Marathon training - the ice bath. Running for a cause means learning runners' tips and tricks

The ice bath is a great technique to help runners avoid soreness
after a workout. (Photo: Ibarra)

The ice bath can ease all sorts of aches and pains.

Silicon Valley Teams in Training member, Jennifer Ibarra, offers this occasional Running for a Cause column to share her insights on what it takes to prep for a marathon.

 Our Team In Training group has now hit the midway point in  training--which can mean only one thing: higher mileage.

Yup, it's inevitable. If you are going to run 26.2 miles, you're going to have to get there one mile at a time!

Yesterday was our 16-miler, a distance that is now more than halfway to the ultimate distance we'll be running in just 8 weeks. People are always amazed that I can run a distance like that and go on about my daily routine in life the next day without much soreness or lingering effect.

But they are even more amazed when I tell them the secret of how that's possible: ice baths. 

The first time our coaches told us about this concept of an ice bath, it seemed as though they had grown two heads. Get into a tub full of ice? And stay in there for 10-15 minutes? Without screaming? How was this even physically possible?

For the next 3 1/2 years, I ignored this piece of advice.

Until one particular day during our winter season, I decided  to try one of these after our long run. I thought about those Polar Bear Club swimmers we often hear about, the ones who jump into a freezing lake or ocean to swim in the dead of winter. If they could survive--and do this over and over again every winter, then surely I could survive 15 minutes in ice intact, right? And then I heard my coaches' voices in my head: "If you think this is hard, try chemotherapy." Well, that did it for me, and I tried my first ice bath.

Much to my surprise, I survived. Much to my even greater surprise, I felt FANTASTIC the day after. I had gotten used to hobbling around the next day (sometimes even the day after), sore and achy and popping ibuprofen every few hours to ease the discomfort. After the ice bath, there was none of that! And I was officially convinced.

I still do ice baths after every long run (anything over 10 miles). I do this religiously, and I still cringe and grit my teeth when I get in the water--and yes, I do shiver all 15 of those minutes. But I wake up the next morning ready to do bound out of bed, and I know that the 15 minutes of ice was worth it.

Who needs ibuprofen?

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About Jennifer Ibarra:  Since joining Team in Training in 2005, Ibarra  has run in 8 half-marathons and 2 marathons.  She has raised over $7K for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and volunteers with Team In Training as a mentor.  Currently she is training for her third marathon in October.

You can follow her running adventures on Jen Keeps Running. To help seek an end to blood cancers, please consider contributing to Jen and Team in Training. Want to see a world free of cancer? Support a Team in Training athlete!

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• Leukemia & Lymphoma Society: Light the Night Walk
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• August 2009 Silicon Valley Fitness Calendar
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• Pew Study: health consumers using web in growing numbers
  

• Felipe Buitrago - 2009 Silicon Valley Bike Commuter of the Year

• Labor Day Run, AIDS Walk, Silicon Valley Marathon