By Coach Brendon

Having had several minor injuries over the time that I have competed in triathlon and running (18 years) and having tried water running while recovering, I wanted to know just how effective water running is compared to biking for maintaining running ability? What types of injuries can water running be useful for?

Firstly, what is water running? Well basically it is a 'running action in deep water'. The key to running is to mimic land running as close as possible or as specific as possible.

How do you 'do' water running?

The Action...

A: Bend your leg at the knee and draw the knee up and forward. Kick your foot out (like kicking a door open). Remember not to over stride. Try to reach as far as you usually would when running fast.

B: With you leg now straight, draw your leg back (Pretend that you have mud on your sole and are trying to scrape it off). Repeat step A

Common mistakes include leaning forward (making it easier), not using a straight leg to pull back and no bent leg on the 'recovery'.

A water belt holds the athlete above the water and decreases the effort which can be exerted to the point where it may not be of much benefit. A study by Richie and Hopkins (1991) found that deep water running without a belt showed that a high level of exercise intensity could be achieved by competitive well-trained runners. While other studies, that have used water running belts, found a significantly lower intensity compared with land running.

What I would recommend to anyone wanting to start water running is to use a water belt until you get technique correct and then to run without the belt from then on.

If you are using a heart rate monitor remember that the effect of the increased ability to cool your body in water is a reduced heart rate at a given intensity - i.e. heart rate will be lower, I have found that my heart rate is similar to that of my cycling intensity heart rate (10-15 beats lower for the same intensity compared to land running).

OK, the intensity is high enough but what about specificity?

A study by McKenzie and McLuckie (1991) found that a three week training programme of running in water did not result in a statistically significant change in maximal oxygen consumption or lower extremity concentric muscular strength and endurance in well trained male runners.

When compared to running on land there are probably some draw backs such as lack of eccentric contractions in deep water running (the contractions of muscles after they hit the ground and lengthen under tension), eccentric contractions cause a larger training response in muscles.

This non-weight bearing exercise allows water running to be useful for athletes with injuries affected by weight bearing such as 'shin splints' and stress fractures of the lower extremities, injuries of the Achilles Tendon such as tears and tendonitis and other injuries aggravated by weight bearing activities.

Steve Irvine (10th at the Auckland Ironman 1993) arrived from Canada at the beginning of January with an overuse injury of the achilles tendon. So I persuaded him to mix land running (50km/week) and deep water running (3 hours) for the 8 weeks before the race. He ran his best time ever for the marathon - 3 hours 1 minute! Previously he had become injured and had reduced his running and increased his cycling. His previous best run was 3:15.

OK so if you are injured should you water run?

Triathletes could increase cycling, or swimming. If you are a good runner relative to your swimming or cycling, you may even benefit from this! If your running is not as strong as your swimming or cycling then I would definitely look at water running. For runners the options are water running or take up some cross training, like cycling or mountain biking. Water running is going to be more specific for runners but some people find it tedious, so a small amount is OK.

If you become injured during the season then you should consider water running. This happened to me before the 1993 New Zealand Ironman, I mixed water running with land running. I would typically run for 75-90 minutes on grass and then go to the pool for a further 60 minutes of water running (that's as much as I could mentally undertake). I ended up running a 2:58 marathon and finished 6th, it certainly helped me, it could help you.

Click here to return to the Articles page