So about a month ago I had read several articles about how compression gear could aid in muscle recovery. The only thing was that the articles seemed anecdotal at best and didn't have me convinced that it was accurate. So I decided to test it out on myself. My first post about it was 03/22/2017, then I did a follow up post after testing compression gear 04/08/2017.
To recap my schedule from my earlier posts:
The test will be as follows.
Run 1: 7 mile road run on pavement or concrete. No assisted recovery
Run 2: 8 mile trail run on packed dirt and mud. No assisted recovery
Run 3: 9 mile road run on pavement or concrete. Compression socks applied post run only.
Run 4: 10 mile trail run on packed dirt and mud. Compression socks applied post run only.
Run 5: 11 mile road run on pavement or concrete. Epsom Salt bath post run.
Run 6: 12 mile road run on packed dirt and mud. Epsom Salt bath post run.
So I have finished the final run. Now the final run was supposed to be a 12 mile run, but I ended up doing 13.3 miles as I thought about how Spartan Beasts were a minimum of 13 miles. So I decided to do more.
The only thing that might have thrown off the results of my experiment is that I did do a Leg strength day on Tuesday before. I figured I would have been recovered by Friday, but as the run was hard from mile 6 on so I clearly wasn't recovered.
To recap from my prior runs I was sore for several days post no assisted recovery runs. With the Compression socks post runs I had little to no soreness in the calf and feet the day after the run. Although I did have knee and hip soreness post 10 mile run.
Now for the longest two runs to date. After both runs I felt pretty sore by the end of the day. The soreness was from the waist down. I will say that after the Epsom Salt bath on the 11 mile run I wasn't all that sore the next day. A little sore, but nothing to bad. Although after the 13.3 mile run even with the Epsom Salt bath I was very sore come Saturday morning. The soreness was better after moving for a bit, but any time sitting for a while caused the soreness to return. Now the second day post run I will admit that the soreness has gotten quite a bit better. The soreness after sitting for a bit seems to have abated and mainly the soreness I feel is muscular in the quads, hams and calves. Very little joint soreness is felt. It seems that my prediction on the post from 04/08/2017 was mainly accurate. It seems that any recovery assistance is better the none at all.
In conclusion what I have learned and what I will do from this point forward on all long training runs is a combination of things. It seemed that Compression gear seemed to enhance recovery at the location of the compression only. Epsom Salt bath seemed to enhance recovery as well, but as the entire lower half of the body is covered in a bath it seemed to also be location dependent. Doing both might provide additional recovery, but the most important thing I learned was to not do a leg strength workout the same week that I am going to run 12+ miles.
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