More Swimming Tips for Runners! — Runners Love Yoga

This blog is basically a way for readers to more easily find my “swimming tips for runners” which I posted over Instagram through the summer of 2020! Here, I recapitulate those tips, expand upon them, and offer a few more suggestions for how to incorporate swimming into your run training. By the way, you will also find an earlier blog post on the same topic HERE too. (The previous blog post includes a section on aqua jogging and aqua jogging form, so if you are most interested in that rather than straight up swimming, refer to that one first!)

Without further ado, here are two sections of swim tips for runners: the first is for beginners looking to get started who may not have any swim background at all, and the second is for those with some swim background (you were at least on a swim team in high school, for example).

BEGINNER SWIM TIPS: (expanded from this post linked here!)

Storytime: once upon a time, when I was younger, I was not good at sports at all to the shock of my very athletic parents (my dad played baseball at Harvard, my mom was a scholarship gymnast at WVU back when women almost never got athletic scholarships, GO MOM!). I have vivid memories of my dad trying to throw a football at me in the park: “keep your eyes OPEN, Ann Margaret!” (😂) I was scared of Duck, Duck, Goose because I always ended up in the “stew pot” and was nearly always picked dead last in gym class, where I was frequently given a C by the teacher. You get the idea.

Enter swimming, my first sport. When I was 11, my mom thankfully listened when I begged her to get me extra swim lessons. This started a lifelong love for the pool. In addition to yoga, swimming has been invaluable to me as a crosstraining tool for my running. I would not have qualified for the Olympic Trials Marathon without all of my swimming!

I know most runners don’t have a swim background like I do, so here are my tips for GETTING STARTED:

1️⃣ Technique matters! If you have never had formal swim training (or even if you have!), nothing will beat the aid of a good eye to help you fix your form. Find a coach or master’s team where someone can watch you in person to correct your stroke. Be patient with yourself here.
2️⃣ Take your time to learn all 4 of the strokes. This also makes practice more interesting!
3️⃣ Do not just swim without stopping. This is where a team environment can be helpful, as you learn the structure of a swim practice and what that entails. A swim workout consists of sets of different distances on specific time intervals.
4️⃣ Get equipment: goggles, cap, kickboard, pull buoy, paddles, & fins are your basic essentials. These may be available at your pool (but if not I recommend @arenausa!). You can get by with just goggles and cap to start, but the extra gear allows you to focus on just your kick, just your pull, etc.
5️⃣ Start small: even a 20 min. swim a couple times per week will really add up over time.

I think it is important to additionally note here that—especially for beginners!!—even a little bit in the pool can go a long way. Try subbing in a short pool swim for your days that you double for running, and you may find you recover a heck of a lot faster.