Can I make gains using swimming?

ben thomas groups doing lots of gym doubles

looks like

short run or spin bike 10-30 min

pool sesh

sauna

pool running > swimming

Absolutely. Swimming will help with gains in your swim pace and fitness.

in my experience:

benefits of swimming = good warmup before a run, really flexes your ankles and shakes everything about without any impact forces - you are less likely to pick up niggling injuries. the swimming kick gives you a stronger upper leg, particularly quads and glutes - this is great for downhill running, you will fly past your competitors who won't be able to match your stride downhill (same with cycling). swimming in unheated pools makes your body burn energy to keep you warm even when you are not exercising, this is good if you swim in the evening because when you get home you will feel tired and fall asleep really easily - you will get the 8 hours of sleep you need more consistently.

negatives of swimming = if you have a weak core like me swimming will expose it because you are twisting the core continuously from side to side - you will get adductor, abductor strains and those things take a long time to heal. i have no evidence but think that you are more likely to pick up illnesses and viruses from the water that a bunch of other people have been swimming in, even if they do put chemicals in it every night. there are other things you can get like swimmers ear which can be painful enough to affect your sleep. and the chemicals in the water over time can erode your teeth, some pro swimmers wear special mouthguards to protect the enamel and their gums.

as far as general aerobic fitness is concerned. you need to keep the heartrate up which is difficult for people who aren't swimmers and who don't have a big upper body. you cant work hard enough for long enough to keep the heartrate elevated, your body just doesnt need enough oxygen because the muscles aren't strong enough. the best approach is to do intervals, say 100m at a time. slogging out 1-2k with a heartrate averaging 110bpm isnt going to do much for aerobic fitness, it's just going to burn calories.

there's definitely a place for 20-30 minute swims in a runner's schedule once or twice a week.

Absolutely! Highly recommend checking out Natasha Phillips training which is very swim heavy!

.

athleticsweekly.com

How they train: Natasha Phillips - AW

Dundee Hawkhill runner has broken into the GB junior team this year with 16:18.50 for 5000m

Link:athleticsweekly.com/performance/how-th...

Core and Breathing. Breathing??? Yep. Its a different type of breathing but it helps to train you in your control of the breath.

in order to get gains, you need to push pretty hard. sort of like cycling, easy swimming is pretty easy, especially if you have a great cardio base. but pushing hard instantly feels really hard, and finding the LT line is difficult in the early days. that said, if you can find it and ride it for 2-3 swims a week, i'd bet you'd see your running improve at consistent mileage. the beauty is that it's really low impact, no actual resistance/slamming, so not as bad an impact on the body as other cross-training activities. i've found it benefits my running more than cycling does.

Thanks guys! Ok, so I’m a bit confused on a couple things,

1. The Natasha article showed her swimming/biking multiple hours per day + her pastime. My question, what I referred to with Valby, is that I’m not sure if I could do that much, so is 3-4 1 hour sessions weekly enough to really make a difference (not only prevent injuries but help my running progress) or does it have to be some sort of lifelong/super high volume/intensity daily thing to really work?

Ill do it, but I really don’t want to ruin the quality of my runs, which is most important…

2. Also, would you mind advising me on this: is it better to do 100m repeat sets and get heart rate fairly high with a couple mins of rest, or a

fartlek like workout, where you sprint 25, easy 25, sprint 25, easy 25. end set

Don’t wanna overthink it too much, but the sprints will spike my hr very high for a short amount of time, while the 100s won’t be easy but will reach a lower peak heart rate, more consistently though

Swimming and running in the pool after morning runs helped me stay healthy while getting my mileage back up into the 50s and 60s after many years out.