Giving up running due to injury, will I enjoy swimming?

I would go with the cycling personally. I find that I can get a great WO on the spin bike, by riding at a moderate pace and a really good aerobic WO by doing hard intervals for 1 hour.

It probably will be a good workout but I don't think I can picture myself looking forward to doing that everyday.

"gave up running"

Means you also have to give up letsrun

I went to swimming (tried biking, but the prospects of crashing were too daunting). I found the swimming a bit of an acquired taste, to be honest, but mostly because my technique was pretty poor initially. (Well, that--plus you generally can't swim through a park or forest.) Even if you're highly aerobically fit for running, it does take a little while to develop swimming-specific fitness.

I would definitely recommend getting some swimming instruction/stroke correction. It made a big difference in my enjoyment of the swimming action (though swimming never felt as intrinsically good to me as running had). Even the ability to make fairly efficient turns makes a real difference.

Yes, you'll need to take lessons until you can swim comfortably. Swimming poorly isn't a very good workout - compare it to trying to work out while learning to ride a bike.

You'll enjoy swimming if you find training partners that are encouraging. Being a new swimmer can be pretty discouraging. Just remember that nobody cares how bad you are. Swimming is the greatest thing behind running. So many groups you can join as well. Masters swimming is just a different atmosphere - depending on the group, there are plenty of different ranges of ability - slow lane to fast lane.

Thanks. How about the mental aspect of it? Is it as bad as running on a treadmill? Seriously, what goes in your head while you're in the pool? Is it something that you looked forward to each day? I'm assuming it's not like running in that you're not really training for something unless you decide to swim competitively. Part of what made running interesting was the training aspect of it.

help me decide wrote:

Thanks. How about the mental aspect of it? Is it as bad as running on a treadmill? Seriously, what goes in your head while you're in the pool? Is it something that you looked forward to each day? I'm assuming it's not like running in that you're not really training for something unless you decide to swim competitively. Part of what made running interesting was the training aspect of it.

Once you get some lessons on technique and get pretty comfortable with swimming, I'd suggest hooking up with a masters' swimming group. If you like the training aspect, the masters' groups give you great interval training. Also, you might want to look into open water swimming during the warmer months--there are lots of races in a variety of venues--oceans, bays, lakes, rivers. Here's a link with a map you can click on to find local US Masters Swimming clubs:

Also you might want to check out

This link lets you search for swim events near you.

I try to keep my swim training up at least to some degree even when I'm not injured running--I'm injury prone, so this helps prevent injury as well as adds some variety to my training==and it helps to know there are racing opportunities.

If you're in NY, you might also want to check out NYCSwim.org. Lots of open water events available at that site.

To be honest, I didn't really like swimming. Even practicing with other people, you do very little talking. Most of practice was looking forward to the end of the next set, and then the end of practice.

Training is mostly interval workouts, which are hard, but you recover quickly. You don't get the wear and tear with swimming, so you can do a killer workout and feel perfectly recovered the next day. You basically do that every day, with maybe an easy practice before meets.

That said, it certainly can be fun. There's a lot of Master's swim groups around, and I'm sure all kinds of meets in the summer.

unlike running, you don't just go out for an easy 5 miles and zone out. every workout is like track practice.

you gotta have a goal in swimming or it will mentally kill you. but the nice thing about swimming is that there are 4 strokes and countless distances for each stroke so you can always find something to improve on.

find a local masters meet and enter it even if you don't know what you are doing. if you aren't a serious swimmer, you will likely come close to last in whatever you enter. that's not saying that you aren't any good but there are no 'joggers' in swim meets. but the people are great and it will encourage you to improve.

if you can stop thinking of swimming as the sport you had to take up because you can't run, you will like it. but if you can't get beyond this, you won't.

Join a swim club. I didnt read the other responses, but have you ever raced a crit? Those are fun as hell. I'm sure you have.

Keep running.

0/10

So it sounds like your basically doing the equivalent of a track type workout everyday? How much time did you spend in the pool?

I did 90 minutes a day, but was friends with some elite swimmers who were in the pool for a good 3 hours a day. They all quit in or immediately after college, though, and all the butterflyers have had shoulder surgery. An hour should be enough for a good workout, really.

Swimming differs from running in that it is a skill sport, not something that you can just 'do'. And as long as you get some lessons and practice, then you would benefit from it. If your knees are bad then cyclin may still hurt them.

Swimming, once you learn well enough, is wonderful. It is very relaxing, while you are doing a physical activity that is rhythmic in nature, it allows your mind to float away. I plan many things while I swim, there is nothing around to distract me, so I get alot of thinking done while I swim.

Give it an honest try.......I think you may like it. Three times a week is a good goal to shoot for.

It doesn't need to be interval style. Sometimes I'll just swim continuously at a normal pace. - and keep changing my stroke from backstroke, to freestyle, to breaststroke. You'll notice that you will be god-awful at butterfly if you are a new swimmer.

If you take working out seriously, you'll succeed and get the techniques down. Keep asking questions and figure out proper form. Watch youtube videos.

Yeah, there is less talking and most of the time you can't wait to finish a certain set so you can breath and talk to your friends. BUT you feel awesome when you get out of the pool rather than broken down like you do with running. Swimming is amazing. You won't feel like a swimmer until 6 months maybe. That is when I noticed I wasn't nervous or intimidated for masters swims anymore. Don't give up.