[Maribellin]

I actually just heard about the cold water strategy from an ultra-marathon running friend of mine, sounds miserable, haha. Well, I definitely have joint pain, (knees and lower back, a lot less ankle pain this time than in past times though), and to be honest, I didn't really do this for sake of exercise, It'd be way more effective if I just ran shorter distances every other day or weekly if I wanted exercise, but I'm fit enough for now (I should be working on my arms, really). This was just more to prove to myself that I could in the snow/ice and wasn’t really as sick as I’ve been acting with the minor cold that’s been bugging me (it helped too, yea placebo). Irresponsible, yes, but eventually I want to train for a marathon (probably to take next summer) and I kind of wanted to see what my starting point was. As far as my joint history, well, my knees have always popped when I bend them, and then randomly last year they would pop out of socket (that's what it seemed like, anyway) if I bent them all the way, and I'd have to physically force them with my arms out of being locked up before I could move my legs again. I never got around to seeing a doctor about it, and it started being less and less of a problem, to the point where it would just kind of pop out and back in when I'd bend my legs, but wouldn't lock up, and only cause minor discomfort. Then the problem went away entirely at the start of last summer (Ironically right as I came back from a break from iaido, maybe it helped?) and hasn't bothered me since. I think the knee and back trouble came just because I really wasn't in shape to do this sort of a run, and I was about ready to fall over after 16 miles, so forcing myself the rest of the way on nothing but spirit kind of led to my body complaining a bit; but I expect it'll heal up before too long. That's another thing, I've had back pain for several years now (pretty much since a friend decided it would be a great idea to jump on my back with alot of force) that just kicks in whenever I hold good posture for too long (it's usually pretty tired after iai, and from when I did kendo it would do it too), so I think it's just that problem that was exaggerated a bit with the run, not any new damage.

So if you’re out to build muscle, it’s really not better to cool down jog? (I couldn’t really jog after this, but I did hobble a few blocks home before I collapsed). So if I were to start training for a marathon, I’d obviously need to up my capabilities, as they’re a bit over 6 mi too short at the moment, would it be better to do cool down jogs afterward, or not? (Of course I do know that training for a marathon would be better done starting with smaller increments that wouldn’t wipe me out for so long afterwards). Sorry this has been such a lock post, I probably ought to work on being more concise… Thanks a lot for the feedback!