Aquajoggingrunning #2

I’ve kind of teased people about “Aquajogging” before, and I commonly say to my triathlete friends (about swimming): "When runners are injured they send us to the pool”

Well, that’s precisely what has happened to me. It is what it is, and if I'm going to have any shot whatsoever at running a sub 3 marathon in Boston, I need to do what needs to be done.

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And I never thought I’d say this, but if done correctly, this Aquajogging running thing can be a hard ass workout. The team today had a workout called Julia Rollers. It comes out to about two sets of 20 minutes of hard running for 1 min on, 1 minute recovery over a rolling hilly course.

I mimicked their workout, sort of.

• 10 minute warmup with the (floating) belt on.
• Then 20 minutes of 1min ON 1 min OFF without the belt. This kicked my butt. It was brutally hard to stay afloat by just running in the water for that many sets of 1 min! (I'm not talking waterpolo frog kicking… but actual running in the deep end.)
• Then I did 5 minute recovery with the belt.
• Then 10 more minutes of 1 on 1 off without the belt.
• Then 5 minutes easy with the belt on.

I was seriously exhausted by minute 56 and just wanted the hour to be over. I had ZERO energy left in my legs and actually, my arms were pretty darn tired too.

All in all, a great workout.

Will these things help me until I’m fit to run again? I have no idea, but I’ll keep cranking away at them…. HARD.

I do want to apologize for any teasing or mocking that I may have done about Aqua-jogging to any friends in the past. When done correctly and as an intense workout, 60 minutes of Aqua-Running is very hard.

But if you’re just going to float and walk around while chatting, like the ladies that were a few lanes over, then, it’s not a workout, and I’m teasing away!

I can see myself doing this from time to time when healthy. It's actually nice to be in a heated pool, outdoors, in the early morning darkness, in near freezing weather!

Hat's off to Aqua-running!!!