Two-hundred meter freestyle is nearly equal to 800m run as far as time and energy systems. At Olympics and World Championships, swimmers may swim close to 200m freestyle world record in semifinals. How could we get that type of effort from 800m runners in semifinals?
Swimmers, they do more volume and you can’t talk while swimming or listen to music or watch the sunrise or really do anything fun. That must be incredibly boring.
Swimmers, they do more volume and you can’t talk while swimming or listen to music or watch the sunrise or really do anything fun. That must be incredibly boring.
how are we defining toughness? also, what type of athlete are we comparing? track sprinter v’s marathon swimmer doesn’t seem fair, nor does sprint swimmer v’s distance runner.
unanswerable as posed. as you get to elite swimmers, they get physically huge. 6'3 200 lbs and up. Ian Thorpe listed 6'6 229. Whereas elite runners they tend to get small. Point swimming.
Swimming is non-weight bearing, so there's something not very tough sounding about that. Point running.
You don't get to breathe for a lot of swimming, so that sounds painful and tough. Point swimming.
Swimming is seen as a bit 'private school', but so is distance running. Overall, distance running has the edge here.
What is up with the strokes? Decidedly not tough. Point running.
You could go on. But who cares? Do what you like.
When you're swimming you can't talk. That's the beauty of running. The freedom. And when you get good, you could run down a gazelle. Never heard of anyone swimming down a tuna. We're land creatures. Swimming's great though.
Swimmers, they do more volume and you can’t talk while swimming or listen to music or watch the sunrise or really do anything fun. That must be incredibly boring.
Your post is pathetic, off topic
I think it's very on-topic. The point is it must take more toughness to swim because it is even more monotonous than running. Thus swimmers must be tougher.
I coached collegiate swimmers for 41 years and dabbled with coaching runners (13:23 5K runner in the mid-80s and now in my retirement 30+ local distance runners), so I would like to make the case that "toughness" is a state of mind unrelated to an athlete's level of athletic level of performance. For example, my two "toughest" male swimmers were 20 seconds apart in their best times for their 200 yard races.
Comparing the "training efforts" of swimmers to runners is like comparing chickens to cows. The differences in environment and physiological requirements for athletic success in these two sports make most comparisons irrelevant.
Instead, consider that neither the professional runner, nor the professional swimmer (nor any professional athlete actually) is nearly as tough as the high school or college athlete who has to devote those extensive weekly hours of athletic training and competition on top of his/her academic and social responsibilities with only the "reward" of a ribbon, medal, trophy or "job well done" as their reward! That is what requires "real toughness".
Swimmers, they do more volume and you can’t talk while swimming or listen to music or watch the sunrise or really do anything fun. That must be incredibly boring.
Yes, but swimmers have the benefit of training in stable conditions in temperature-controlled water. Runners have to brave the elements and handle different types of terrain. Much tougher.
unanswerable as posed. as you get to elite swimmers, they get physically huge. 6'3 200 lbs and up. Ian Thorpe listed 6'6 229. Whereas elite runners they tend to get small. Point swimming.
Swimming is non-weight bearing, so there's something not very tough sounding about that. Point running.
You don't get to breathe for a lot of swimming, so that sounds painful and tough. Point swimming.
Swimming is seen as a bit 'private school', but so is distance running. Overall, distance running has the edge here.
What is up with the strokes? Decidedly not tough. Point running.
You could go on. But who cares? Do what you like.
When you're swimming you can't talk. That's the beauty of running. The freedom. And when you get good, you could run down a gazelle. Never heard of anyone swimming down a tuna. We're land creatures. Swimming's great though.
The ability, and a the frequency that humans out run or ever did outrun gazelles, is greatly greatly exaggerated.
For what it's worth (maybe nothing?): I coached a high school kid who was close to state champ in cross country, state champ in track and qualified for states in swimming.
He said they're both very tough but it's "harder"/more difficult to push to your limits in running.
That may be due to the buoyancy in swimming (?) and the fact that you're fighting gravity (so to speak) in running.
Two-hundred meter freestyle is nearly equal to 800m run as far as time and energy systems. At Olympics and World Championships, swimmers may swim close to 200m freestyle world record in semifinals. How could we get that type of effort from 800m runners in semifinals?
Four turn stagger for 800m run.
I think you recover faster from swimming partly because you're not "pounding" the ground with every stroke (stride).
Look at how many races an Olympic Swimmer can do in a day compared to an Olympic Runner.
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