When I arrived on Oahu in the end of 2006, my plan was to swim, bike, run, and have fun for 6 months. The first week on the island I met two men who would have a big impact on my life Raul Boca and Tim Marr. I learned really quickly that the two of them embraced four disciplines: swim-bike-run-fun!
As a result of their incredible support, I found myself swimming, biking, and running almost every day. It was so much fun to explore Hawaii and connect with nature! However, my body was not accustomed to the amount of training I was doing. That is when they introduced me to a form of cross training called “aqua jogging”.
When you aqua jog, you run in the ocean where the water is deep enough that your feet don’t touch the bottom. That was it! The very first time I aqua jogged, I fell in love with it! I learned I could keep up with Tim’s pace more easily than I ever could on the bike or on a run. Best of all, after I finished aqua jogging my legs felt great, and not beat up as they often did after running on the road. However, I learned that aqua jogging is not easy. While it helps protect your legs, you can push yourself to get just as good of a workout as if you were running on the road.
Since my first introduction to aqua jogging as a fun alternative to conventional training, I have read more about the benefits of this activity and along the way improved my technique when running in deep water. I have also spoken with professional triathletes and elite runners that have been used this exercise for years, both as cross training, and during period of injury. Many elite runners shared with me how they used aqua jogging when injured to improve their fitness and to become faster and stronger runners. However, I noticed relatively few recreational athletes utilize aqua jogging as a workout.
A few of them told me that aqua jog is “boring”, or it is for “old ladies”, or they “prefer to swim or run” instead. I realized that they never really had someone teach them how to do it properly. So two years ago, I partnered with Raul to teach an aqua jogging class to any athletes who wanted to learn. We could spread the benefits of this exercise and also get fit ourselves!
We started calling our aqua jog clinic OCEAN RUNNING, because really that’s what we do! We are not just jogging in the water, we are running in the ocean! It provides a big fitness benefit with lots of smiles along the way.
Recently, ironman.com wrote an article about the benefits of aqua jogging for triathletes. You can find the article here: http://www.ironman.com/triathlon-news
some dreams are worth sharing…
Mariane
