Running. Does it help your swimming or is it an interesting diversion? A lot of people here seem to cross train with running. (Some are obviously triathletes). USS teams now have their swimmers running. But does running really help swimming?
For me, I'm not so sure. I think it helps a bit on the cardio side and may build leg strength. I do it to tighten everything up, because I like being outside and it gives my shoulders a break. But I'm not sure I wouldn't be better off with more pool time if my body could take it.
I'll try to add a bit of actual science to the discussion to offset the folklore.
These guys found no transfer between swimming and biking or swimming and running in elite triathletes. The triathletes were swimming 5 hours, bking 8 hours and running 3 hours per week on average.
On the other hand, studies in untrained inividuals have found training cross over from anything and everything, pills, strength training, running, wishful thinking (no I'm not kidding) etc. So the question becomes how trained are you? For maters swimers, that answer varies widely even within the same year. I could probably be considered untrained in January and highly trained in August, a scy swimmer would probably have the opposite profile.
Another part of this not mentioned is simply mental health. At certain times of the year a break from the black line is very helpful.
I'll try to add a bit of actual science to the discussion to offset the folklore.
These guys found no transfer between swimming and biking or swimming and running in elite triathletes. The triathletes were swimming 5 hours, bking 8 hours and running 3 hours per week on average.
On the other hand, studies in untrained inividuals have found training cross over from anything and everything, pills, strength training, running, wishful thinking (no I'm not kidding) etc. So the question becomes how trained are you? For maters swimers, that answer varies widely even within the same year. I could probably be considered untrained in January and highly trained in August, a scy swimmer would probably have the opposite profile.
Another part of this not mentioned is simply mental health. At certain times of the year a break from the black line is very helpful.
