How to Refresh Legs?

Weekly Updates from Runner's World Online 06.17.2005

Editor's Advice

"To reduce muscle soreness try an ice bath. Fill your
bathtub with 6 inches of water, dump in a tray or two of ice cubes, and
slither in. Make sure the water covers any place most likely to feel tight
after a long run. Stay in for 5 to 10 minutes. You'll feel a noticeable
difference in your muscles the next day."
-Amby Burfoot, RW executive editor

RW Needs Your Help

WANT A FREE RUNNER'S WORLD T-SHIRT? All you need to do is
fill out our brief survey about a fun, unique, or inspiring race you
recently ran. If you convince us that this race deserves coverage in our
Race Roundup section of the magazine, we'll publish your report, and you'll
receive a free T-shirt. The survey only takes a few minutes to complete.

Please note: For our upcoming Race Roundup, we are
specifically looking for races that take place between June 9 and July 8. We
welcome reports on all races, but are especially interested in hearing from
runners who participate in the following races: Lake Placid Marathon, Alaska
Run for Women, George Sheehan 5 Mile Classic, Mayor's Midnight Sun Marathon,
Captain Christopher Scott Cash Memorial 5K (Maine), Firecracker Run (East
Moline, IL), Volkslaufe (Frankenmuth, MI), and Grandma's Marathon.

Click Here

(Some computers may have difficulty processing the survey.
If you have trouble, e-mail Katrin McDonald at [email hidden]
and the questions will be provided to you.)

Brought To You By

Be your best! Achieve results with the Runner's World
online Personal Trainer! Whether you're a beginner or advanced, training for
an event, or want to stay in shape during the winter months, we have a
training program for you. Designed by Runner's World editors, each program
includes weight-training options.

Learn more now!

Training Talk

"Besides helping you stock more fuel in your muscles, the
right diet will increase your body's ability to handle the lactic acid that
accumulates. It will also interact with various neurotransmitters in your
brain, helping you feel less fatigued."
-From Eat Smart, Play Hard by Liz Applegate

You can buy this book here

This Week's News

Canadian 400-Meter Star Decides There's No Place Like
Home:
Few sprinters hone their skills while remaining in Canada,
but Tyler Christopher has the third best 400-meter time in the world this
year. And he's doing it all in Edmonton.

Online Training Popular With Coaches And Runners:
[censored] Beardsley, Jeff Galloway, and Hal Higdon are just a
few of the well-known coaches who are reaching more runners than ever before
through online coaching. "E-mail is so efficient," says Galloway. "It works
better than any format other than hands-on."

Weekend Races

Saturday, June 18

Wasatch Front 10K, Salt Lake City, UT

George Sheehan 5-Mile Classic, Red Bank, NJ

Sunday, June 19

Kona Marathon, Keauhou-Kona, HI
Half-Marathon, 10K, 5K

Alfred Ronaldson Memorial 5K, Staten Island, NY

In Our Forums

What kind of socks does everyone run in?

Share your stories here

This Week's Superstar: Maurice Greene

Maurice Greene, the 2000 Olympic 100-meter gold medalist
and 2004 bronze medalist, edged Shawn Crawford, 10.08 to 10.10 seconds, to
win the 100 at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York on Saturday. Greene, who'd
won the 100 at the 2004 Olympic Trials, was the world champion in the 100 in
1997, 1999, and 2001 and doubled with a 200 victory in '99.

Read more about Maurice here

From Our Sponsor
Introducing Women's Health magazine!

New from the publishers of Runner's World is a new
magazine especially by and for women: Women's Health.

Women's Health is packed with the information you crave on
health, fitness, fashion, beauty, careers, relationships, and more. If
you're looking for practical, reliable information on how you can be fitter,
smarter, sexier and just plain better, it's finally here.

Act now and get a free gift with your free trial issue!

Words That Inspire
"I think what I represent is achieving what you want in
life. It's a matter of attitude. Some people have a negative attitude, and
that's their disability." -Marla Runyan

The Inside Scoop
Check out our new travel forum, where travelers come
together to discuss and talk about running-travel issues and news with
fellow travelers from around the world.

Click here

Subscribe Today

Father's Day Special
Dad's special day should be nothing short of fantastic, so
surprise him with the gift of fitness from the world's leading provider of
running information, Runner's World magazine! Sign up NOW through our
exclusive online offer. It's the perfect Father's Day gift that provides
motivation for a lifetime for healthy active living.

Click here for the details

Extr@ Unsubscribe
To unsubscribe from the Runner's World Extr@ newsletter
click here.

To change your email address, you must first unsubscribe
from your original email address and then rejoin here.

For additional help/questions, please visit our help
pages.

www.runnersworld.com I unsubscribe I privacy policy

Customer Service Dept.
33 East Minor Street
Emmaus, PA 18098

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

My legs are always tired to some degree.

Is there any techniques, tips or tricks I can use which will help
restore fatiged muscles?

Over and above the obvious solutions of adequate rest and sleep, what
are you doing?

Quoted message said:

My legs are always tired to some degree.

Is there any techniques, tips or tricks I can use which will help
restore fatiged muscles?

Less high intensity exercise.
Massage:
take a box, a chair or something. lay down,
have your legs on the box/chair in two right angles, so that
all muscles feel relaxed and can be shaked, pressed and whatever.
The high position will help to remove waste products in muscles
Apply a gel that improves blood circulation
Sauna
Whirpool
Recompensational training (walking or very low intensity
running/cycling)
(also for circulation)

hth,

chris

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

My legs are always tired to some degree.

Is there any techniques, tips or tricks I can use which will help
restore fatiged muscles?

Over and above the obvious solutions of adequate rest and sleep, what
are you doing?

Review your training to see what you are doing too much of and make
adjustments. Better yet give us some brief background and describe a
typical week or two and tell us when your legs feel tired.

BTW, rest is what makes you stronger. Rest is your friend not the bad
guy.

-DF

To some degree, this is 100% normal while in training. They should feel
much fresher if you take a day off.

One thing that made me feel better was to do some pool running or even just
hang my legs in the water after a run. It doesn't restore them, but I
always feel really relaxed - and I think being relaxed when fatigued gets
you recovering faster.

Dave

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

My legs are always tired to some degree.

Is there any techniques, tips or tricks I can use which will help
restore fatiged muscles?

Over and above the obvious solutions of adequate rest and sleep, what
are you doing?

Ice. Paula Radcliffe (top female marathon runner) takes an ice bath
after every training session to speed the recovery process. Not a lot
of fun but I have used it when doing really heavy training and works
extremely well.

[email hidden] wrote in message
<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

My legs are always tired to some degree.

Is there any techniques, tips or tricks I can use which will help
restore fatiged muscles?

Over and above the obvious solutions of adequate rest and sleep, what
are you doing?

Your normal running speed might be slightly to fast. I had the same problem
as you in previous years, with tired legs all the time. This year I've done
2 things differently and I think they both help.

1) Normal runs kept to 70% of Max HR, even if it requires walk breaks. If
it's very hot I let it go a bit higher.

2) Targeted eating of carbs before, during and most importantly after
exercise. Since I've been doing this my legs feel satiated the rest of the
day, and less tired when running. Whenever possible, I drink sports drink
about 30 mins before a run, during the run, and after I drink a post-workout
recovery drink, and eat extra carbs - lowfat pretzels or something. A bit of
protein will help in sports drink and also during the post-workout meal. Eat
at least 1/4 to 1/3 of your daily calories around the workout like this and
you're legs will feel much better. If you run is one hour, this "meal" can
be 400-500 calories, if 2 hours, it can be more - 600-700; you have to
experiment to see what works best. There is supposed to be a metabolic
window surrounding exercise during which the muscles will replenish glycogen
stores more rapidly, etc.

-Tony

Run Lo wrote in message <[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Weekly Updates from Runner's World Online 06.17.2005
Editor's Advice
"To reduce muscle soreness try an ice bath. Fill your
bathtub with 6 inches of water, dump in a tray or two of ice cubes, and
slither in. Make sure the water covers any place most likely to feel tight
after a long run. Stay in for 5 to 10 minutes. You'll feel a noticeable
difference in your muscles the next day."
-Amby Burfoot, RW executive editor

An ice bath can be really helpful after a grueling long run or when you
overdo it in a race or in training. I don't know about it curing generally
sore legs, but it will speed the recovery from races for sure. I normally
use 2 store-bought bags of ice, and stay in the tub until it all melts, then
wait another 5 mins. I'd guess that takes about 20 mins.

-Tony

Quoted message said:

Over and above the obvious solutions of adequate rest and sleep, what
are you doing?

I find chronic leg fatigue to be a symptom of worn out shoes,
especially if the shoes are more than 3-4 months old.
New shoes can be a magic sometimes and feel like heaven.

Doug Freese said:

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

My legs are always tired to some degree.

Is there any techniques, tips or tricks I can use which will help
restore fatiged muscles?

Over and above the obvious solutions of adequate rest and sleep, what
are you doing?

Review your training to see what you are doing too much of and make
adjustments. Better yet give us some brief background and describe a
typical week or two and tell us when your legs feel tired.

OK - I have taken the last two weeks from my log which is probably
typical. Most work days I commute to work, shortest route is 7km, in
the summer I like to dissapear into the forest for an 1.5 hours on the
way home at least once a week. The commute to/from work is often at an
easy pace, if I feel good I will push it and/or take a longer route. I
aim to do one long run per week currently this is 13k and I have just
started doing 400m intervals once per week. Normally a swim session
will be a steady 2k in 35 min and also include a quick 20+ min weights
session at end.

Fri Bike 7km, Run 8km, Bike 7km
Sat Rest
Sun Run 13km, Bike 10km
Mon Run (9 x 400m), Bike 2 x 10km
Tue Bike 7km, Swim 2km, Bike 7km
Wed Bike 7km, Run 7km
Thu Swim 2km, Bike 7km
Fri Bike 2 x 7km
Sat Run 7km, Bike 2 x 7km
Sun Bike 7km, Swim 2km, Bike 3 x 7km
Mon Bike 3km, Run (6 x 400m), Bike 3km
Tue Bike 7km, Swim 2km, Bike 7km
Wed Bike 7km, Run 7km, Bike 7km
Thu Bike 7km, Swim 2km, Bike 7km
Fri Bike 7km, Run 7km, Bike 7km

Quoted message said:

BTW, rest is what makes you stronger. Rest is your friend not the bad
guy.

I do force myself to take rest when I feel particularly fatigued which
will probably involve a rest day followed by a couple of easy days.

Quoted message said:

-DF

I've heard recovery periods increase with age.
When it gets more than 24 hours it accumulates
until you have a rest day.

Some older runners advocate every other day schedules
with longer runs.
I personally find take a rest day too soon makes me jumpy.
I suppose one could switch to another exercise on off days
to reduce this.

"Rookie" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Ice. Paula Radcliffe (top female marathon runner) takes an ice bath
after every training session to speed the recovery process. Not a lot
of fun but I have used it when doing really heavy training and works
extremely well.

Meb K. also does so, by wading in a cool stream after sessions.

Quoted message said:

My legs are always tired to some degree.

Is there any techniques, tips or tricks I can use which will help
restore fatiged muscles?

Over and above the obvious solutions of adequate rest and sleep, what
are you doing?

Don't forget to add adequite diet to your list. You don't say how far
you are running so it is difficult to give a diagnosis.

However when I run longer than one hour I pay close attention to
getting protien within an hour of finishing. Additionally the recovery
period your legs are going through are peak absorption time for carbs.
I suggest you investigate diet more. There are lots of sports/recovery
aids out there. Each one has its plusses and minusses. A bit of
investigation and testing should get you on the right track.

Hope this helps,
Andy

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

However when I run longer than one hour I pay close attention to
getting protien within an hour of finishing. Additionally the recovery
period your legs are going through are peak absorption time for carbs.

Good point. My coach said he followed the results of a study that
showed eating after the most intense exercise, the body recovered measurably
faster. The study showed that eating an easily digestible, healthy
carb-based food within 15 minutes provided maximum benefit. Just 15
minutes - for a track workout, that's even drinking some fluids and eating a
banana before the cooldown run.

Dave

Rest.

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

My legs are always tired to some degree.

Is there any techniques, tips or tricks I can use which will help
restore fatiged muscles?

Over and above the obvious solutions of adequate rest and sleep, what
are you doing?

The feeling of tired legs might be due to waste products created during
exercise stored in your muscles. They will normally disappear with time
due to blood circulation. The process can improved with light exercise
(this does not increase waste products but there will be an increase
blood flow), massage or ice bath. During an ice bath the blood vessels
will narrow and squeeze out all waste products. When you get out of the
bath there will be new, fresh blood streaming into your legs which will
help additional cleaning. If an ice bath is not available you can use
cold and hot showers. Warmth alone from sauna, hot-tub or warm shower
will not help as much since it will just increase the amount of blood
flowing to the legs, but it won't squeeze out the blood which happens
with the cold. During the ice bath make sure to move the water around
because the water close to your skin will warm up. I usually empty all
ice-cubes from the freezer into a cold water bath and stay in it for
15-20 minutes and then step under a warm shower.Feels great!

3Hank said:

The feeling of tired legs might be due to waste products created during
exercise stored in your muscles. They will normally disappear with time
due to blood circulation. The process can improved with light exercise
(this does not increase waste products but there will be an increase
blood flow), massage or ice bath. During an ice bath the blood vessels
will narrow and squeeze out all waste products. When you get out of the
bath there will be new, fresh blood streaming into your legs which will
help additional cleaning. If an ice bath is not available you can use
cold and hot showers. Warmth alone from sauna, hot-tub or warm shower
will not help as much since it will just increase the amount of blood
flowing to the legs, but it won't squeeze out the blood which happens
with the cold. During the ice bath make sure to move the water around
because the water close to your skin will warm up. I usually empty all
ice-cubes from the freezer into a cold water bath and stay in it for
15-20 minutes and then step under a warm shower.Feels great!

Hi,
I find that going from hot to cold 3 times, works best for me after a
hard workout and stretching. I also agree with recovery workouts that
are very mild that increase healing.

The hot or warm works to open up the area, increase blood flow and
circulation, and then the cold reduces the swelling.

I try to take about 10 minutes to 15 in the hot then 5-10 in the cold
and repeat this three or four times, ending in the cold and then a warm
shower.

It helps if the hot is not too cool and the cold is not cool. It works
best with a greater range of temperature.

I have read where people go into very cold streams, and this helps for
me as well. But I think the heat is also important, so you could use a
hot water bottle while you take a short nap or while watching tv,
followed by ice, 3 times.

They have also found out recently that swelling is an important part of
healing, so if you take anti swelling products you may be increasing the
healing and the healing time.

Good luck.

Quoted message said:

They have also found out recently that swelling is an important part of
healing, so if you take anti swelling products you may be increasing the
healing and the healing time.

this should say "increase the healing time required, and decrease the
healing taking place if you take anti inflamatories."

David Geesaman said:

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

However when I run longer than one hour I pay close attention to
getting protien within an hour of finishing. Additionally the recovery
period your legs are going through are peak absorption time for carbs.

Good point. My coach said he followed the results of a study that
showed eating after the most intense exercise, the body recovered measurably
faster. The study showed that eating an easily digestible, healthy
carb-based food within 15 minutes provided maximum benefit. Just 15
minutes - for a track workout, that's even drinking some fluids and eating a
banana before the cooldown run.

Hi Dave,
I completely forgot, yes eating a high carb snack followed in the next
hour or two by a high carb meal is very helpful. I also like Endurox. I
find the 4 to 1 ratio of Carbs to Protein, very helpful.

Quoted message said:

Doug Freese said:

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

My legs are always tired to some degree.

Is there any techniques, tips or tricks I can use which will help
restore fatiged muscles?

Over and above the obvious solutions of adequate rest and sleep, what
are you doing?

Review your training to see what you are doing too much of and make
adjustments. Better yet give us some brief background and describe a
typical week or two and tell us when your legs feel tired.

OK - I have taken the last two weeks from my log which is probably
typical. Most work days I commute to work, shortest route is 7km, in
the summer I like to dissapear into the forest for an 1.5 hours on the
way home at least once a week. The commute to/from work is often at an
easy pace, if I feel good I will push it and/or take a longer route. I
aim to do one long run per week currently this is 13k and I have just
started doing 400m intervals once per week. Normally a swim session
will be a steady 2k in 35 min and also include a quick 20+ min weights
session at end.

Fri Bike 7km, Run 8km, Bike 7km
Sat Rest
Sun Run 13km, Bike 10km
Mon Run (9 x 400m), Bike 2 x 10km
Tue Bike 7km, Swim 2km, Bike 7km
Wed Bike 7km, Run 7km
Thu Swim 2km, Bike 7km
Fri Bike 2 x 7km
Sat Run 7km, Bike 2 x 7km
Sun Bike 7km, Swim 2km, Bike 3 x 7km
Mon Bike 3km, Run (6 x 400m), Bike 3km
Tue Bike 7km, Swim 2km, Bike 7km
Wed Bike 7km, Run 7km, Bike 7km
Thu Bike 7km, Swim 2km, Bike 7km
Fri Bike 7km, Run 7km, Bike 7km

That's a lot of day's without rest or recovery.
I saw your post that you take rests when you feel fatigued, but I think
it is important to take recovery days and rests before you are fatigued
or close to exhaustion. I can't really do much if you do not agree with
my sentiment on this issue or follow up with rest and recovery days (2
different things).