Coach says track is pointless if I swim.

Your coach is right. I had a teammate that swam in the winter, never did very well in track, and got injured often when he tried to step up the mileage after swim season. It affected his progression in cross country as well. The best runners have to train over the winter if they want to improve and compete. Considering your school doesnt seem to have history of fast runners, it’s understandable that you may not realize this. This isn’t the 90’s anymore.

Also, it’s obvious you’re from Indiana, not too many other states still have a four round postseason and call the 3rd round semi-state.

I agree with your coach. My kids who choose to swim over the winter do not make the 4 year progression that similarly talented kids who run over the winter do. They also deal with lower leg issues at much higher than average rates than the kids who run year round, in my experience. I tell kids who want to swim or do other sports for a season, "That's fine, but understand that the kids you are beating now will be beating you next year. If you are OK with that, I'm OK with it." Some kids just like being on the team and don't care that much that they never become their best version of a runner.

If you decide to swim, I would suggest making sure you get out and run 3-4 days a week as well, including a long run one day each week, as well as some hill reps and strides. Then you might be able to come out for track and avoid the fitness build up and lower leg injuries.

What does that even mean, “won’t be truly competitive”?

You aren’t going to the Olympics and you aren’t going to be challenging for any kind of d1 win in track or XC, much less even be able to run for a d1 team in the first place.

Do what you like; do what you want to do.

If you like running better, and have any desire to run competitively in college then you should consider quitting swimming and start running year round. I would say you have the potential to drop as much as 20 seconds off your 3200 time if you run rather than swim this winter.

Do what makes you happy, but know that you'll likely continue to stagnate in running if you don't commit to it full time. Best of luck.

wow interesting answers..... I swear I have seen many people talk about the winter break being good for kids.. Allie Ostereider played basketball, and I remember a semi recent article from running times or something that talked about the benefit of girls taking the winter off and doing another sport... seems that this would also leave more room for improvement when they got to college. Is the break beneficial more for boys than girls??

Another agreement with your coach. You take a little time off after cross country and then start running for track. If someday when your competitive running days are behind you, you want to be as overall fit as you can possibly be, then do some swimming, but if you are training to be a runner, then run.

Your swim coach would tell you the same thing about not swimming year round. It is not exclusive to track/cc.

Now if you have the time to swim and run during the winter, your running will benefit from the additional aerobic gains from swimming.

I experienced seeing kids only run cross country, go out for swimming, and then skip the track & field season because they did not like the track & field coach.

These swimming kids were able to run fast early in the season, get injured, and then they would catch up later after their minor injuries heal. I think that what you want to do is to do some running as part of your swimming regimen and perhaps pickup the intensity of your running as track & field approaches. If you swim twice a day why not make one of them a running workout?

Swimming can be a good cross training tool but too much of a good thing and then abruptly switching to something that is harder on the joints is not going to work.

You might also start your track & field season a bit easier than the rest of the folks. You will be ahead of those who did not run during the winter cardiovascular-wise. You could do extra work in the pool early in the season as supplementary work. Communicate this to your coach and see what he thinks. I wish that I was a better swimmer and could do it that way all year long.

Your legs do need the pounding for running, but getting away from it is good for recovery!!! Ryun, Snell, Prefontaine, Shorter, etc. did not know about recovery the way we do now. Many world class distance runners do a lot of cross training. Garrett Heath bikes, Nordic Skis, and he has spent time doing water exercises as well. He does that even when he is not injured! Heath was a multiple All-American at Stanford, still runs sub-4 minute miles, and was a state champion high school runner and skier.

It is a mistake to say that running and swimming cannot help each other. It's how we do it that matters. But be nice to your coach...communicate!!!

By the way your times show you have excellent potential as a runner. It takes time to be an "over-night sensation!"

Why don't you swim but try and do a few days of easy running. Then when track starts you won't be completely out of it.

Bonkers wrote:

If you like running better, and have any desire to run competitively in college then you should consider quitting swimming and start running year round. Do what makes you happy, but know that you'll likely continue to stagnate in running if you don't commit to it full time.

The swimming is definitely holding you back. Swimming is okay, as a supplement, but you're replacing 1/3 of the year with it, which not only detracts from your training, but also interferes with it, as the muscles and training are entirely different.

You're quite talented for running, but haven't committed to it, and that's what's holding you back. You're trying to go two different directions, and that's not possible, so you should make a choice to doing one or the other. Skipping track would just set you back more, and strengthening (???) instead of track even more.

The choices are (1) commit to running, or (2) just do it all for fun and do everything, but realize you're not going to be as good as you could have been.

Fulton J. Sheen wrote:

Ryun, Snell, Prefontaine, Shorter, etc. did not know about recovery the way we do now.

Good lord.

Sounds like a very solid base for triathlon. If you can run and swim, the bike is the easy part. No talent required really, relatively speaking.

I had T&F hs teammates who swam. Two of my hs T&F teammates club swam for and swam for high school. One of my high school T&F teammates who swam ran XC. I was not a high school swimmer but I swim now more than I run. If you quoted your high school track & field coach correctly, he's wrong. It's not pointless to participate in track & field if you swim. If you 100% swim with no running in the winter, you will be a more fragile runner than someone who runs. Forget the "we" statement. You said: We don't do strength training in swimming. In order for you to do well in track & field, you need to run ten to fifteen miles a week. I am sure there are no S&D practices on Sundays. Run five to seven miles on Sundays. Run three or four miles two other days a week after practice. You may say you are too tired after S&D practice. The first step is always the hardest. Swimming is so different than running. Running fifteen miles a week won't be that hard.

I completely agree with this says "the muscles and training are completely different."

No the muscles are the same. Yes the training is different.

This is tricky.

First, I am a big proponent of multisport development, but there comes a time where it is okay to specialize in one sport if YOU WANT to do so. Junior year in high school is a fine time to specialize. That does not mean that you cannot do some swimming during the winter but maybe not on the swim team.

It comes down to what you want to do and what your goals are.

Galen rupp swam. Extra time in the pool builds aerobic abilities. You can simulate track workouts in the pool. It's a 4:1 ratio for run:swim effort when you look at world records it's a linear stat across the board. 400m run is like 100m swim

luv2run wrote:

This is tricky.

First, I am a big proponent of multisport development, but there comes a time where it is okay to specialize in one sport if YOU WANT to do so. Junior year in high school is a fine time to specialize. That does not mean that you cannot do some swimming during the winter but maybe not on the swim team.

It comes down to what you want to do and what your goals are.

Specialize to what end? There is no professional future for someone running 17 in xc and less of a future with his swimming times. Why specialize? For all but the very best these sports are for personal enjoyment. Why not do both and have fun at both and be the best one can be while doing both?

john utah wrote:

luv2run wrote:

This is tricky.

First, I am a big proponent of multisport development, but there comes a time where it is okay to specialize in one sport if YOU WANT to do so. Junior year in high school is a fine time to specialize. That does not mean that you cannot do some swimming during the winter but maybe not on the swim team.

It comes down to what you want to do and what your goals are.

Specialize to what end? There is no professional future for someone running 17 in xc and less of a future with his swimming times. Why specialize? For all but the very best these sports are for personal enjoyment. Why not do both and have fun at both and be the best one can be while doing both?

He ran 16:30 as a sophomore while skipping a third of the year. I don't think it would be a stretch to suggest that he could get well under 16 minutes with a reasonable amount of improvement and year round training. That will be appealing to a number of D1 schools.

john utah wrote:

Specialize to what end? There is no professional future for someone running 17 in xc and less of a future with his swimming times. Why specialize? For all but the very best these sports are for personal enjoyment. Why not do both and have fun at both and be the best one can be while doing both?

I see this with the swim & dive even more. Swim & dive coaches want track & field participants to quit track & field and to club swim all year. Kids who swim and run often improve 6% to 8% a year in both. HS kids who focus on one sport often improve less. Unless one is good enough to compete at World Championships/Olympics straight out of high school, such as Jim Ryun, Katie Ledecky or Jessica Diggins, participate in two or three different sports in high school. In Minnesota, I saw so many boys specialize in hockey from age of five. The best MN hockey player over the past 45 years, Phil Housley played three sports in high school.