Marathon Training —In the Water

The Resistance Water Provides Can Be the Shortcut to Recovery.

ater training for running is becoming more and more popular and is being understood as a greater benefit than people first thought. As people are training harder and longer for marathons or ultramarathons, aquatic training becomes increasingly important. The stress that the body takes from logging long, grueling miles is extremely taxing on the body. It has been proven that aquatic training can eliminate some of those long, unnecessary workouts that many people think they need day in, day out.

Aquatic training is extremely effective in helping prevent injuries that are associated with the constant pounding your body takes on long runs on asphalt. It also can help you improve your speed—and you thought you have done all you could. Aqua training gives you a different venue to focus your mind on setting a personal record. It can rejuvenate your motivation and your ambition.

BASIC NEEDS

So how do you get started on an aqua workout designed for running? The first step is very simple: find a pool! It can’t be just any pool, though. You need to find a pool that suits your needs. The first thing you need is a pool that is about 20 to 25 feet in length and about 4 to 5 feet deep. Shoulder depth is optimal, but until a way is found to adjust pool bottoms to a person’s height, you will have to go with whatever you have available that fits. It is also nice if the pool has an area where you can’t touch the bottom. The pool temperature should be somewhere between 80 and 84 degrees (ideally) and not above 90 so you will not overheat (Sova, p. 70).

Now that you have a pool, what are the other things you need? First is the obvious: a comfortable bathing suit. The next thing you need is a heart rate monitor, and, of course, it must be waterproof. A heart rate monitor is extremely important when you are in the water because it is more difficult to gauge how hard you are working, especially if you are not used to spending time in the

water. I have always said there is a difference between being in shape and being in water shape. Your speed in the water throws off your perception of how hard you are working. The water adds about 12 times more resistance than a good strong head wind (Sova, p. 43). Depending on what type of workout you are looking for, aerobic or speed work, you should be trying to train at 65 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate for endurance and 80 to 90 percent of your max heart rate for your speed workouts. Make sure you monitor your heart rate closely—you don’t want to become overheated.

You might want to bring along some optional things as well. Ankle weights can be very important. When running a long workout in the water, you want the bottom of your heel to touch on every stride. This is so that you don’t develop any ligament pain or tendinitis in your ankle, which can be extremely painful. Ankle weights will help you accomplish this in a comfortable manner. They also provide a little more resistance to help make your workout more intense.

Water gloves and water dumbbells can also help raise the intensity of your workout. We all know that you cannot run a race effectively without getting your upper body involved, and yet a lot of runners still neglect it. You will notice how important upper-body strength is when you are in the water. Remember that your legs move only as fast as your arms move.

An ordinary watch or stopwatch is also important because a lot of aqua training can be done like fartlek or circuit training, and a watch allows you to know when to work hard and when to relax.

MAKE A SPLASH

You are now all set to go. You are well equipped and perhaps even excited about your first aquatic workout. So what do you do next? You start by getting into the pool, of course. How you get in is up to you. I prefer the running cannonball approach because, if the water is cold, I don’t want to know about it until I have committed myself.

Let’s assume that you are now in the pool. You don’t want to act like a polar bear and just wallow around. Your water workout begins the same way it begins on land: by warming up. A warm-up can take a couple of different forms. The first is one that you are already used to—running. Start with an easy jog to get those muscles nice and loose. The other thing you can do is simply start swimming laps. If you are not used to being in the pool or swimming, it will not take you long to get winded by swimming. Be careful not to get into an anaerobic state if that is not your intention. I like to combine the two options by swimming a lap and then jogging a lap.

The next part of your workout is the same as your workout on land. Stretching in water is still important, but remember to stretch after you do a bit of jogging to

loosen up the running muscles. Do not be fooled if you are in warm water; you might not feel as though you need to stretch, because your muscles will already feel loose. Make sure you take the time to stretch out well. You can do the same stretches that you do on land, but you need to modify some of them. Obviously you are not going to bend over and touch your toes and hold that position. To substitute those important hamstring stretches, bring your knees, one at a time, into your chest and hold.

Another stretch is putting one foot in front of the other and doing a split. Putting your arms out at your sides will help you keep afloat. Calf and ankle stretches are extremely important as well. Just rotate your ankle around in a circle, making sure you rotate in both directions.

By now you should be all stretched out, warmed up, and ready to go. I like to run most of my workouts in a circuit manner, running or jogging for 30 seconds to a minute and then doing a specific movement for one to two minutes. Here are the specific movements I am talking about. You can do them in any order you feel is best for your needs. Many of these you will recognize as form exercises. When you do these in the water, you combine form with power.

TRAVELING EXERCISES

High Knees: Run by pumping your legs up and down in a fast-paced motion, trying to get your knees to hit you in the chest (see page 34). A common mistake in performing this motion is going for distance. You are not trying to move a great distance in this exercise. The turnover rate and the speed you are driving your legs upward are most important. It doesn’t matter whether you do not make it the full length of the pool. Remember to pump your arms. Fast arms equal fast feet.

Butt Kicks: Run so that your heels kick your glutes. You are not trying to drive or pump your legs up and down. You are working on improving your follow-through on the ending phase of your stride. Like high kicks, you are not going for distance, you are working on your turnover rate. Do not forget to pump those arms.

Grapevine (aka Karaoke): Stand facing the side of the pool and cross one foot over in front of the other, then reach out with the other foot and cross the first foot behind the other, alternating from front to back. There are two ways you can do this. First, use short, choppy steps in a fast-paced sequence. This will help develop foot speed and is very beneficial in other sports as well as running. Second, lengthen your stride and stretch as far as you can with your lead foot. You will definitely feel more of a burn in your abductor and adductor muscles.

Running Backward: You should also do this exercise in two ways. The first is to develop power. Run backward so that your feet stay in front of you, driving with those quads and hamstrings to the limit. Second, to help lengthen your stride, reach your foot as far behind you as you can with each step.

Striding (akaLongJump): This exercise helps you attempt to lengthen your stride. You are trying to move forward as far as you can with each step. Try to hold your form on this exercise, keeping your lead knee up as long as you can.

Bounding (aka High Jump): Just the opposite of striding, in this training technique you are trying to jump as high as you can with each step. I like to use the phrase “Get out of the water!” as a goal. Essentially, that is what you are trying to do: explode out of the water. Pretend you are a dolphin and you want to do a flip in the air. You have to get out of the water to do that flip. Again, you are not worrying about distance as much as producing power and trying to get up and out of the confines of the water.

Leaping: Leaping is a combination of bounding and striding. You are trying to maximize the form of both the previous two exercises. If you are running short on time during the workout, this is one that I do in place of striding and bounding. Try to keep optimal running form.

Skipping: It is the same exercise you did as a kid. When you are skipping in the water, try to explode out of it. It should be similar to the way you explode when you do the bounding exercise.

Gallop: A gallop is a locomotor movement where one foot constantly stays in front of the other. The back foot sort of kicks the front foot along. (Think of the

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Ted Veatch

knights in Monty Python’s Holy Grail.) Distance is your goal when performing this exercise. (Having someone nearby making galloping sounds with two coconut halves is optional.)

Sideways Running: Obviously we are going to be doing this in the water. I mentioned that I like to alternate running and the previous exercises in a sort of circuit-type workout. Running sideways works on those adductor and abductor muscle groups.

STATIONARY EXERCISES

Jumping Jacks: Here is one variation of the jumping jack that you might not be familiar with: alternate crossing your feet in front and behind each other as you jump.

Front and Side Line Jumps: Picture an imaginary line or find an actual line in the pool. Keep both feet together and jump back and forth over the line. Make sure you swing your arms to help you. Side jumps are performed in the same way except that you are jumping sideways over the line.

Cross-Country Skiing: Start with your right leg and right arm in front. Jump and switch to your left leg and arm in front before you come back down. A variation is stopping in the middle with your feet together and adding another jump. (See page 36.)

Leg Swings: Keep one leg straight and swing it as far in front and behind you as you can. Make sure you keep good posture the entire time you do this exercise. Do not lean forward or backward as you do this motion. This is going to help you strengthen your hip flexors and extensors. (See page 36.)

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Front and Side Line Jumps

Ted Veatch