I am now a week out from the Running From An Angel 50 Miler, and while I don’t suffer from any illusions that I am completely recovered I do feel pretty good. I have gone for a couple of walks and runs with only mild soreness, spent a few hours snowshoeing, and an hour and a half shoveling snow since I got home.

I also got my first professional massage a few days after returning home, and the massage therapist (Michael Gage from Maine Sports Massage) couldn’t believe that I had just run 50 miles. My muscles were all where they were supposed to be and were only mildly tight.

I think that I can attribute that to 2 things. First, I was well trained for the race. I also think that 2 products that I made use of after the race helped aid my recovery and have made the past week much more pleasant than it otherwise might have been.

Zensah Leg Sleeves

First, as soon as I showered after the race, I put on some Zensah Leg Sleeves and wore them for the next day or so. After my post-race nap, my calves felt fine, and they never ached or hurt at all, including while flying home early the next morning or during any of the walks or runs that I went out for this week.

The leg sleeves are basically compression socks that hold your calf and shin in place. They are a little difficult to get on, but they are very comfortable once you do. They aid in getting blood and oxygen to circulate through sore muscles, and keep moisture and bacteria away from your skin.

When I finished running, I spent about half an hour chatting with Jeri Ginsburg, who was the second woman to finish the race. I noticed that she was wearing a pair of the leg sleeves (they are purple in the picture at right) and asked her what her opinion of them was, as I hadn’t tried mine yet at that point.

“I had trouble justifying the cost, but they were worth every penny,” she said. If I recall correctly, she had had some major calf injuries and the leg sleeves allow her to continue running, including for 50 miles.

I am looking forward to giving them a try during some of my long runs in the next month or so, but whether I run in them or not I definitely plan on wearing them after any of my long races going forward just to help myself recover faster.

New Skin

Second, I put some New Skin Liquid Bandage on my blisters before putting shoes back on my feet.

I could tell I had blisters by mile 20, but they never hurt too bad. When I got my shoes off after the race, though, I had 4 pretty good size blisters that seemed to have a fair amount of air and liquid in them.

Not having anything sanitary to clean them up with if I were to pop them, I decided to just coat the outside of the blisters with New Skin.

The New Skin basically prevents the blisters from getting worse because nothing will rub directly against them. I didn’t even notice the blisters when I went out to dinner that evening, and never felt a need to take my shoes off on the plane the next morning. By Monday, 3 of the 4 blisters had basically gone away and the 4^th was much smaller than it had been and is gone now.

I never did bother to pop them.

The nice thing about using the New Skin was that I didn’t have to think about my blisters or limp around because it hurt to walk. The liquid bandage took a few seconds to dry, but once it did I basically just forgot about my blisters. I very rarely get blisters, but when I do they tend to be pretty bad so I am definitely going to be keeping this bottle on hand for my long runs and races.