In light of my ignorance about the effects and side-effects of various pain-relievers and anti-inflammatories, I came across a brief synopsis which is available at Running Free at the link below.
From my own experience I have shifted position several times on the use of Ibuprofen which seemed to work best for me. The main problem I found was that masking the pain prevented me from being able to perform within the normal range of effort as the normal guidelines I used were also masked and hence the danger of doing serious damage to muscles was greatly increased.
During a race there are many ups and downs – a constant cycling of energy and mood changes which provided the background upon which exhaustion is projected. In this state, a fruitful opportunity for self-transcendence, pain is, paradoxically,like a handrail that can allow you to move forward in a certain direction with safety. Remove the pain and you also lose the handrail. However there are going to be times when taking Advil would help. Sometimes if I had been pushing a little harder, then an hour or so before my main sleep break I would take 4-600mg of Ibuprofen. But I wouldn’t do this more than once or twice in a 10 Day unless I was having major problems and in the 3100 I have rarely used PK’s – it’s far better to find a solution to the problem or just deal with it until it heals. Having said that, some runners take PK’s everyday and seem to be able to perform at the level they are capable of racing. Know thyself is the mantra here.
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