You know the feeling. You wake up the day after a brutal race or workout and feel like you've been hit by a truck. Your muscles are screaming and walking down stairs like a normal human is next to impossible.
So why are you so sore? Our take, and the gear to help you bounce back quicker, after the jump.
Click over to my story, "Recover smart," in OFFduty for tips on how to beat next-day pain, plus the recovery gear (top) that we love the most.
I'd been thinking about recovery gear since seeing some of these items at the Outdoor Retailer show in January. Since then, I've tried to focus on recovery by making it a larger priority in my training.
My ultra group is one large pack of crazy, and we run between 6 and 10 ultra-distance races each year. So far, my year has included a 50k race in mid-February and two 50ks and a road marathon in March. I treated each as a training run for my goal race: the Bull Run Run 50-miler this Saturday.
I knew with such a tight schedule -- and the fear of overuse injury or overtraining -- that I wouldn't make it to the 50-miler without a quality recovery plan.
I've been taking all of our experts' suggestions seriously, some of them religiously (2XU's Refresh compression pants = priceless). By following all the tips we've listed, I've cut my recovery time from about a week to just two days for the recent four races.
And now? Except for a very annoying battle with allergies, I feel completely fresh and ready for the 50-miler this weekend.
Sara Davidson is an ultrarunner and our resident women's gear destroyer.
