Cross Training Questions - What kind of swimming should I do as cross training for track and cross country?

What kind of swimming should I do as cross training for track and cross country?

I run high school track and cross country and got the idea to start swimming before school every morning when it starts to warm up for some cross training. How much should I do and will this even help me?

Public Comments

long distances of any stroke will hlp u as long as u dont stop and u should feel tired just like u r runnung expect in the water.. i hope this makes sence!!
Basicaly if you are a begining swimmer you can start slow Ill put down a basic workout that you can use and all you have to do is increase the distances and decrease the rest as you improve * note unless it specifys a stroke assume Freestyle AKA front Crawl) and meters and yds are for all tenths and purposes interchangeable 200m warmup nice and easy in a 25m pool its 8 laps 1:30 rest 100m sprint 1:00 rest 100m IM (25m of all four strokes, butterfly back breast freestlye in that order, if you cant do a lap of one of the strokes substitute it with something you can do) 20 seconds rest 200m kick with kick board (this is active rest, it is ment to bring your heart rate down so take it easy) 40 sec rest 300m pull with pull bouy (little peanut thing that goes between your thighs) no rest 200 cool down nice and easy if you have to stop, stop for 40 seconds at a time only drink gatorade or cherry juice to replenish electrolytes after workout and ONLY drink a little water during workouts There you have a workout also you can search for more or e-mail me for more workouts
Your detail spoke of "warming up," not cross training. And you're particularly interested in warming up for running. I'd kick. It's going to get the blood to the legs, but, unfortunately, swimming sends it the muscles you'd use were you to run backwards. The up-side is that they're going to be the large muscles and therefore improve your ability to handle oxygen debt. How much? You're not going to push the muscles enough to develop them noticeably. You're just trying to warm up a little. I'd do a couple of hundred yards -- maybe as much as five hundred. See how it works. If you cramp up, maybe use swimming as a warm up once in a while just to vary the routine. Remember you're interested in running, not swimming. Most swimmers tend to develop their upper body and work their legs to increase their body's ability to compensate for oxygen debt. To be sure they get propulsion from their legs, especially in breast and fly. Look at the off-the-wall kicks in free and back -- dolphin kicks get them almost half a pool before they start using their arms and revert to flutter kick. If you're interested in cross training, having worked in a profession in which I had to do that under rather adverse conditions for about 15 years, I'd recommend distances of about a mile, and push it. I've worked with some triathletes with the last couple of years. Due respects to the coaches posting, but you're not even interested in swimming competitively. But it would be a good idea to get some stroke coaching. Any idiot can develop workouts. Heck, you can get them on the internet. But unless you can swim efficiently, all the miles you put in in the pool are going to be miles pretty much wasted. First, work your way up to swimming a mile in less than half an hour. For swimmers, 20 minutes is slow. But you're not trying to be a swimmer. You do that by swimming miles. Just go to the pool and swim for half an hour. Doesn't make any difference if you can only do one length at a time and rest. Count your laps. It doesn't make any difference how few you do the first day. Next day increase that number by as many as you can -- but each day, try to increase it by at least one lap (2 lengths). What are you shooting for? A mile is 36 laps of a 25 yard pool, about 33 laps of a 25 meter pool, and 17 laps of a 50 meter pool. Yeah, I know 1/2 of 33 is 16-1/2, but swimming an extra length is better than getting out and walking back to the other end of the pool. Now there's a point where it will become imperative to develop an efficient stroke. Find a good stroke coach. A good coach doesn't just plan workouts and meet line-ups. He or she is one with a good kinesthetic sense an a good understanding about the physics of swimming, and one who can develop those abilities in a swimmer. Some coaches and some swimmers have it. If you have it and develop it, you will continue to improve -- you'll get stronger and faster -- on your own. If you either don't have it, or don't develop it, you'll get stronger, but your times will level off -- and you'll have to expend an inordinate amount of energy to improve them. Second, the best thing I'd suggest would be to find a lake and mark off a quarter mile along the shore. Swim the distance 4 times (one mile), then get out and run the distance 4 times (one mile). Repeat three times for six miles. Shoot for two hours, then, when that becomes easy (less of a torture), an hour and a half... then try to complete a run-swim-run-swim-run-swim-run in that time (7 miles). I doubt you're going to get another mile swim in that time, but maybe another quarter or two. Transitioning between the exercises is what's hard. You're going to come out of the second run wondering if you're going to survive. Want to go nuts... work up to 10 miles in 3.5 hours. If you can do that, a half triathlon should be a walk in the park. You can ride a bike, can't you? ;-) Then, when you graduate, check out the SEALs.
it depends on how much you can handle, swimming about 3-4 100 [4 laps back and forth] freestyle should help. be careful with butterfly - if you don't know what you're doing you could potentially hurt yourself.
swimming really helps your endurance and especially youre breathing. if you swim a lot you will be able to not lose as much air when you run. in an hour we probably do like aboutt 6 500s (20 laps) which equals altogether about 120 laps. one 500 will probably get your heart rate up already.