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.
Treadmill running is approximately :24 seconds per mile slower than the said pace the readout gives you. The treadmill is actually doing some of the "foot on the ground" work for you so it takes much less effort.
Okay, I know I'm going to get blasted for that.....but it is true! :afraid:
Funny you should mention this because I recently found out that my favorite treadmill at the Y was reading out a pace that was .3 mph SLOWER than what it was actually doing. Some of the diehards apparently figured this out.
I imagine the studies have been done that show the amount of time to run a certain mph on the treadmill is slower than running at the same speed on the road. The thing that can make the treadmill challenging, however, is that when you run on the road, you aren't consistently on pace. If you are looking to run say a 7:00 minute mile on the road, you will run slower than this at some time during the mile and faster than this at some time during the mile. If you plug a certain mph on the treadmill, however, you don't get the variance. Not being able to vary your speed over the course of a mile is what I find challenging.
Of course, on my HIIT workouts, I'm always varying the speed, so I'm not sure it really matters.
Frankly, I find it much easier to run 38 to 40 second 200 meter sprints (11 mph for each 200 during an 8 x 200 workout) at the track than on the treadmill. If I'm able to consistently run 10 mph on the treadmill, I can go 11 mph at the track. Not that this is fast or anything, but it gets the HR up. I'm not a big fan of going all-out on the treadmill either. My worst wipeout on land has been when I lost my footing on the treadmill while talking to somebody as I was running fast on the treadmill. Tore up my knees worse than any bike wipeout I've ever had.
Generally, I don't think long distance running and competing at short distances in the pool go together too well. I'm sure there are a variety of reasons. I ran track (800, 1 mile, 2 mile) and swam my last two years of high school. I found that the build for me to excel in running did not work well for my swimming at all. My fly really went down the tubes.
On the other hand, after running cross country in the fall my junior year of high school, I saw some pretty big drops in my 200 free and 500 free in the high school championship meet in February. What was interesting was I was spending less time in the water because of the running. I'm not sure, however, that I could attribute the drop to running. It may have been a mental thing. In other words, since I had learned to "hurt" for 2.5 miles of running, a 200 or 500 in the pool that once seemed intimidating now seemed much easier.
Treadmill running is approximately :24 seconds per mile slower than the said pace the readout gives you. The treadmill is actually doing some of the "foot on the ground" work for you so it takes much less effort.
Okay, I know I'm going to get blasted for that.....but it is true! :afraid:
Funny you should mention this because I recently found out that my favorite treadmill at the Y was reading out a pace that was .3 mph SLOWER than what it was actually doing. Some of the diehards apparently figured this out.
I imagine the studies have been done that show the amount of time to run a certain mph on the treadmill is slower than running at the same speed on the road. The thing that can make the treadmill challenging, however, is that when you run on the road, you aren't consistently on pace. If you are looking to run say a 7:00 minute mile on the road, you will run slower than this at some time during the mile and faster than this at some time during the mile. If you plug a certain mph on the treadmill, however, you don't get the variance. Not being able to vary your speed over the course of a mile is what I find challenging.
Of course, on my HIIT workouts, I'm always varying the speed, so I'm not sure it really matters.
Frankly, I find it much easier to run 38 to 40 second 200 meter sprints (11 mph for each 200 during an 8 x 200 workout) at the track than on the treadmill. If I'm able to consistently run 10 mph on the treadmill, I can go 11 mph at the track. Not that this is fast or anything, but it gets the HR up. I'm not a big fan of going all-out on the treadmill either. My worst wipeout on land has been when I lost my footing on the treadmill while talking to somebody as I was running fast on the treadmill. Tore up my knees worse than any bike wipeout I've ever had.
Generally, I don't think long distance running and competing at short distances in the pool go together too well. I'm sure there are a variety of reasons. I ran track (800, 1 mile, 2 mile) and swam my last two years of high school. I found that the build for me to excel in running did not work well for my swimming at all. My fly really went down the tubes.
On the other hand, after running cross country in the fall my junior year of high school, I saw some pretty big drops in my 200 free and 500 free in the high school championship meet in February. What was interesting was I was spending less time in the water because of the running. I'm not sure, however, that I could attribute the drop to running. It may have been a mental thing. In other words, since I had learned to "hurt" for 2.5 miles of running, a 200 or 500 in the pool that once seemed intimidating now seemed much easier.
