Swimming

google swimming supplemental and see what comes up

The only negatives seem to be increasing bulk.

Which stroke is best, or does it not matter? Or is aqua jogging the right way to go..?

I swam on a club team for 10 years prior to really picking up running. It'll definitely work your upper body a lot more than running does, so naturally you'll get more strength up there. Aqua jogging may be your best bet. Even better, get one of those small parachutes where you can close the chute string to increase drag. You'll work the same muscle groups as running but with low impact, high resistance training. This is all assuming the pool you use doesn't have a shallow and deep end in the same pool. If there's a training pool that doesn't get much deeper than five feet, you're golden.

Do you think the upper body strength you gained from swimming helped you with running? A strong back and shoulders is necessary, was it too much do you think? The nearest pool has both a shallow end, as well as a deep end, plus lanes for lap swim, so it kinda has it all I guess you could say.

My college coach was nervous about me swimming in the summer run-up to getting on campus. I always treat cross training as supplemental, not complimental. As long as your motivation to cross train is to not take away from your mileage, you'll be fine. This is why a lot of triathletes (not all) don't excel at the three events because they can't focus on one. IMHO, swimming freestyle and backstroke will be great for increasing flexibility and endurance in your upper arms. Butterfly will build bulk because it's a power stroke - stay away. Breastroke kicking would do you good for keeping those hip flexors healthy. I had issues with hip flexors and increasing mileage.

Swimming, like running, has a causal relationship between pace and body shape. The thing I like the most about swimming is its dependence on core strength. It'll do good with your lower back strength, abs, etc. Butterfly uses a lot more upper body strength than is necessary in running. if you really want to swim, get in no more than 1,000-1,500m each session. Any more tha that, you'll start seeing a slight drop in running performance.

I took up triathlon because I had a lot of injury problems and overuse injuries when I was running-focused.

The benefits from swimming are pretty significant. I noticed better aerobic conditioning, better anaerobic strength, and better flexibility in my shins (a notoriously tight area for runners, as well as where I experienced a chronic stress reaction).

One benefit people may not realize is better breathing management.

Make sure your form is sound.

I'd say you could add three swims/week.

1) 3000

-500ez

-5x100 as 25k/50s/25k

-10x100hard with :15 rest

-1000 easy pull

2) 4000

-10x400 descend 1-4,5-8,hold 9/10

3)3300

-500ez

-5x100 as 25k/50s/25k

-10x200 with 1:00 rest

-300 ez cooldown

Thank you very much for your input, greatly appreciated!

I'll have to give the freestyle and backstroke a try soon. I usually do breastroke kicking ( not the best swimmer, and this comes easiest ) and I do think it definitely helps with hip flexor strength / flexibility, as well as butt.

I have also noticed that swimming makes everything more flexible and loose, especially shins and IT band.

Also when swimming is it mainly aerobic or anaerobic would you say?

I am not a fast guy by any stretch of the imagination in the water or in the pool, but after I started swimming, especially doing intervals in the pool, that I never get winded running. My legs die far before that happens.