So I've accepted I'll be out of running for another 3 months and have been in the pool with my aqua jogger a couple of times....so far so good!
What workouts should I be doing with the AJ though? How long should I do it for and what intensity (have come off 50 mile running weeks so need some full on aerobic exercise!)? Any tips to relieve the boredom?
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Errr - I borrowed a second aqua jogger from someone and me & an also-benched clubmate would just aqua jog round the deep end of the pool for an hour together gossipping - which I think replaced the "social club run" bit of our normal training schedule!
I've been aquajogging for a while now, as I'm benched with a hip injury. I've been doing it with a club-mate and, as Fido2Dogs says, it's good for chatting and keeping up the social side. But I also find that doing it with someone is good for keeping each other going/ not feeling so silly by yourself.
We often do little sessions in the middle, like 1 min hard, 30 secs recovery, progressing to 2 mins hard, 45 secs rec. Total of an hour, including warm up and warm down - sometimes longer periods of 'tempo' effort. Gets the legs working, although it never fully makes up for not running. We haven't tried to do it very seriously, as I know I have a long while to wait before I can return to running (having already been out for 1.5 years, after doing hard marathon training).
There was a useful article with some suggested sessions here: http://www.runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=6032&PageNum=3
Good luck with your recovery.
Thank you! I have 2 very kind friends who have been accompanying me (despite not being injured!) so have been doing the chatting, just felt maybe I should be 'pushing' myself ha ha, training for an aqua jog marathon or something....
About to read that article, thanks
What worked for me was:
Remaining in the deep end and doing short 'lengths'
I did mainly 'speed work' focusing on 6 minutes of going all out with one mi ute recovery- found this kept me thinking about my form and keeping me focused
I did 'long runs' of up to 2 hours - but found these incredibly dull after a while......
It's really hard to get your heart rate up doing this, but everyone seems to say that.
I found doing 'shorter, littlier' strides made it harder than bigger ones.
I kept myself upright at all times and made sure I wasn't leaning forward (not sure if that's right, but worked for me)
I fully recommend aqua jogging, I think the speed work really helped too as I was faster when I eventually got back to land running.
Hope it works for you!
I felt a right twit the whole time - you're very lucky to have people who will do it with you!
Thanks kaffeeg, I've did an interval session the other day, 5 mins hard then 1 min recovery and did 8 reps I felt that worked well, and you're spot on about 'form', I've researched this online and makes big difference.
Also would recommend a waterproof MP3 player to anyone else contemplating this - really helped me when I did 90 min long ;'run' in the pool.....
but found these incredibly dull after a while...... It's really hard to get your heart rate up doing this, but everyone seems to say that. I found doing 'shorter, littlier' strides made it harder than bigger ones.
If you look at the aquajogger website there is an article on 'form' that I found very helpful. It's pretty straightforward once you get going.
http://www.aquajogger.com/blog/?page_id=375