Deep water running

Posted 02:51 AM, November 18 2005    

Coach I want to get one of your programs but I can not do the running. Can I ride more to make up for the lack of running? That is one of the typical questions I get from athletes with running injuries. My answer is that you can still run but do it in the deep end of the pool with a running vest on. Many people like to use the elliptical machines but the problem as I see with those is that you do not do much work on the leg recovery. It is almost like a bike workout. Also many of these have no stride length adjustment and I am just not sold on them. But guess what my wife wants for Christmas. You guess it. She wants an elliptical machine. Go figure.

I have water ran quite a bit over my athletic career. Back in Houston Texas in the 80’s the local high school had the top high school female cross country runner in the state. She was always water running at the pool I swam at. So one day I asked her about it. She was very nice and she showed me how to do it. It was very hard to do. We did not use a vest back then. There were no vests readily available for purchase as there are today. So that is how I learned. I learned without a vest. Needless to say goggles were not optional. I was sinking a lot. The workout was hard. Try it sometime.

Now days deep water running is very common. I just heard my club will start a deep water running class for runners. That is a good thing because deep water running is really boring. Company will be a big plus.

The key to deep water running is to maintain proper running form. Keep an upright body position and your leg and arm motion should be similar to running. Flex your ankles during push off. Many people turn deep water running into lap swimming. It is not how many laps you can do. It is about proper running form. If you maintain proper running form you will then maintain you running fitness while you let your injuries heal. Did I say injuries? Oh yes. Most people that water run are injured. Why else will they submit themselves to such torture? But seriously; if you can somehow integrate water running into a running program you will be so much better off. It is a way to do more running volume without the pounding.

One year in the early 90s, I pulled something in my groin at a track workout two weeks before my A race. At the time this was the Bay State Triathlon near Boston Massachusetts which was an Ironman Qualifier. All my hard training was done. So all I had to do was taper and race. All my running for the last two weeks was done at the deep end of the pool. I ran an easy 15 minutes on the road the day before the race and crossed my fingers. There were 4 Hawaii slots available for men 30-39 which was a 10 year age group. For some reason the race director thought that would be better. I was happy as I was in my early 30’s at the time and felt like I could beat anyone in the 35-39 age group that was racing that day except Jeff Cuddleback. Jeff is perhaps the most talented age grouper in the world. Until this year he held about 3 or 4 different Ironman world records. So basically there were 3 spots available since Jeff was too fast and was going to take one. I never saw Jeff during the race so I guess he beat me out of the water. Once I got on the bike I had a great day and rode the entire ride with some guy that I finally dropped late in the bike. I was told I was in third position off the bike. Now came time for the run. My strategy was to take it easy on the first loop of the two loop run. That seem to work and that one guy I rode with on the bike caught up to me and looked strong so I let him go. He was very nice and we chatted for a bit. Now I was in fourth place. That was the last Hawaii spot available. So I kept trucking along at a somewhat medium effort. Finally with three miles to go I heard footsteps. Oh no. One guy went by and I checked his calf. Sure enough he is in the 30’s age group. Right behind him was another guy. Yep you got it, he was in the 30’s. But wait, there is one more. No way! There was a group of three guys going by me. There goes my Hawaii spot I though. But after another mile those three guys were just running and looking at each other about 20 yards ahead of me. This is when I though. Well it is time to put up or shut up. I can get these guys. So I picked up the pace and started running the street tangents. The road was very curvy and the three guys were not running the tangents. I ran by all three with ½ a mile to go way on the outside going hard. Only one guy decided to give chase and I did not want to sprint. My sprint stinks so I had to go very hard early to take the sprint away from him. I beat him to the line by three seconds. I got the final Hawaii spot. Since I had not run the road for nearly two weeks I was totally sore and wasted for almost two weeks but water running saved me.

Well, If you have not guess it by now. I am water running. I decided to take at least a week off running because the hamstring strain I had a few weeks ago is just not getting better. I can still swim and ride and lift (no hamstring curls) without much pain. I will let you know how it goes in my next post.