About 10 weeks out from Iron Man and picked up a troublesome knee injury - tried all the usual physio, ART. Acupuncture etc with no success and been thinking about trying water running for a couple of weeks. 2 questions - recall seeing a DVD or Book on the topic advertised in Triathlete a while back and can’t find it - anyone able to point me in the right direction?
Secondly how do you equate the time you spend in the water to that on the road - is it 1:1? For example if I am due an easy 60min run on the road what should I be doing in the water?
I think you can assume a ratio of 1:1, but be careful because it is harder to perceive your real effort when water running (you may go too easy). So use a heart rate monitor and check it from time to time to make sure you are training at the right intensities.
With that in mind, you can do all type of training stimulus when water running (i.e. intervals, …).
Not sure about DVD or book, but this isn’t really that complicated, so not sure you’d need any…
I’ve found that I am really able to maintain fitness over short periods of time using aqua-jogging when rehabbing’ an injury.
Wearing a HR monitor, I am usually able to keep my HR between 110-120 BPM. I use this as a guage to compare actual run effort out on the road. As this HR is about 20% from where I’m at during a base run outdoors, I equate 1 hour in the pool to my typical 40+ minute 6 mile run.
Not very scientific I know, but at my fitness/goal level, it’s close enough!
At 18 weeks out from CDA I had to resort to water running,and eliptical due to injury. I have been only been able to run for 3 weeks now(every third day due to pain). Pain is almost all gone now. Yesterday I ran my normal 6 mile course for a 48:40 with HR at 151.Before injury ran a 48:40 with HR at 147. So I have not lost much. It was my first pretty much pain free run. Also did a 2 hr run the past 2 weekends.
I deep water ran at first with those footie flotation devices. At 1:1. It was hard to get my HR up though so I would add a little eliptical if I had time. I also would do eliptical for 2 hrs. Afraid I was lose to much so if I did not water run I would do at least an hour on the eliptical. For long runs I did a 2 1/2hr eliptical on my 2 hr scheduled runs. At about 8 weeks out I was afraid I was losing strength,so for my water run,instead of deep water I would run up and down(laps)in a swim lane. At this point I was able to start running outside again but it was in the middle of my big weeks. For my 3 hour run I did 1 hour in lap lanes,1 hour outside then the final hour on eliptical. At this point when I could not run I would combine lap running with eliptical. Last weekend though sore I was glad I did a 2:10 run outside more for the pshyce than anything else. I was afraid the indoor training was not the same. As you can see from my sixmiler above I am only off by 4 on my HR for the same speed on the same course. I am glad I did not bag it. Oh,when lap running do not be suprised if calfs get sore.
Hope this all helps and was encouraging. I beleive in 9 days(race day)I will be fine. Though I may be a little slower,I do not think that will matter on the run of an IM.The aerobic engine is prepared and I think that is more important than speed,especially at mil 18+ Kenney
I hope you guys get through your injuries successfully. It occured to me that when you speak of HR in the water, I would think your HR would be slightly lower in water at the same effort, because of the increased venous return from the support of the water. But, you’re bound to be working your hip flexors more due to fighting the resistance in the water, and if that sends them into a lactate-producing state, you could be getting a slightly raised HR due to this lactate dumping into the bloodstream. I guess what I’m saying is, I’m not sure your HR in the water coresponds to the workload your normal running muscles are putting out when water running. I just don’t know how much use comparing the two HR’s would be…anyway, good luck with your rehabs, and your races!
There’s tons of anecdotal evidence that it works, too. Joan Benoit used DWR to stay in shape after her knee surgery, just before the 84 Oly marathon which she famously won. I used DWR last year with a calf muscle tear, didn’t run for 8 weeks except for the DWR, then did Boulder tri: in 2002 the run took me 42min, 2003 it was 45min and I was taking it easy, think I could have run 42 again if I’d been willing to risk it.
Yes, basically 1:1. I like to do it without any flotation, since I can work harder that way, but some think that it may affect your form to do it without the flotation belt.
There’s not much to learn, I wouldn’t bother with a book/dvd. Jump in the water and start running…
Yeah water running is not fun. I had to do it for a few months because of an IT band injury. For me it was hard to get my heart rate up, so the suggestions about using a heart rate monitor are good. I found the work out is able to keep up your cardio fitness, but you get back to running it took me a day or two to get used to the pounding on my legs again.