Any aquajoggers out there? (Read 573 times)

Any experience, info or good tips?  I've got to keep moving.  I still have hopes of a half marathon in April and a marathon this summer or fall.  

I've just started pool running myself. I have a tibial stress fracture so spending a lot of time cross training. I have only gone a few times, but here is what I have learned.

- It is a good workout.

- But I still feel like a idiot.

- I fight boredom by doing a lot of interval work. Or by reading the signs on the walls over and over and over.

- Try and keep your running form as close to normal as possible.

- I think you can technically do it in place, but I tend to drift forward so I just go up and down the pool really slowly.

- Don't get sucked into senior citizen social hour... not conducive to getting a good workout.

- Put on your best bad-ass face... then the floating seniors and obnoxious children will stay out of your way for the most part. 

Good luck.

I've just started pool running myself. I have a tibial stress fracture so spending a lot of time cross training. I have only gone a few times, but here is what I have learned.

 

- It is a good workout.

- But I still feel like a idiot.

- I fight boredom by doing a lot of interval work. Or by reading the signs on the walls over and over and over.

- Try and keep your running form as close to normal as possible.

- I think you can technically do it in place, but I tend to drift forward so I just go up and down the pool really slowly.

- Don't get sucked into senior citizen social hour... not conducive to getting a good workout.

- Put on your best bad-ass face... then the floating seniors and obnoxious children will stay out of your way for the most part. 

 

Good luck.

 I have to work on my "bad ass"  face.  So far I've only managed a deranged weirdo look.  They kids are still spashing me, the seniors give my pitiful looks and the lifeguards pretend not to notice how foolish and awkward I am.  Things will get better when my new gear comes in the mail.  I bought aqua socks to keep my purple aqua resistence boots from chaffing my ankles and a matching purple ladies size belt!  My H2O waterproof iPod cover arm band is big to fit around my thigh.  Can I wear my Garmin heart monitor?  I will be the height of pool fashion for 2010!  By summer everyone will be doing it!  

Most of the hard workouts consisted of something like;

5 or 10 minute 'warm up'

x sets of (a few minutes hard + 1 minute easy)

5 or 10 minute cool down

For the "few minutes hard" it would range from 2 minutes to say 5 or 6 minutes. The number of sets varied all the time, but progressively increased. Alternating between the easy days was just non-stop moderate effort water running. This is the most boring and time goes by real slow.

I think the cardio aspect of this workout, and the muscle development is substantially better than biking or the elliptical. 

The way I coped with the stares was to leave my contact lenses out!  I'm as blind as a bat, so I couldn't see people around me staring!  It worked quite well.  I felt dorky, too, but I knew I had to do it (I had achilles tendonitis).  It was better than nothing.  Good luck!!  How long will you have to do it?

An hour and 20 minutes yesterday.  Honestly, I did get sucked in by the geriatric social group the last 20 minutes. They are interesting folks!  I found a calculus tutor for my son and a women that is going to show me some of her fancy boiled wool hats that she makes.  Extended my workout 20 min chatting with them.  

 There's a gero group that is in our pool every day at noon.  They chat with each other, but are kind of possessive and not that thrilled when others join them (but since they are in a lane reserved for pool running, it makes more sense to join them than to get in the way of swimmers).  The cross country team is in the pool at certain times of the year.  They take over prime swimming lanes with no sense of embarrassment. I never joined them, but felt better about my work outs when they were around.  The best companions I've found have been injured x-country runners.  I ended up working out with two different x-country women who were consigned to the pool -- they were fun to talk to, and we did interval workouts together.  I could have never done that on land, but since speed isn't an issue in the pool, it was fun. 

To break up the monotony of it, I usually combine the running with various other exercises for toning, strengthening, etc.  I do lunges, kick backs, high knees, frog jumps, etc.  I try to make each workout a full hour or more with most of it running.  Some days I do 30 minutes of running, then 30 minutes of other exercises.  I can usually push myself hard enough to feel a bit like Jello when I get out of the pool.  Do a little online research for other exercises, or ask the lifeguards at you pool, or if you are comfortable with it, ask some of the geriatric crowd.  Many of them take water aerobics classes and can give you some good ideas.  Again, you may look like a bit of a dork, but you'll get a good workout.  I think I was the most toned during my stress fracture recovery & I attribute most of that to my pool time.

Good luck and hope recovery goes well for you.