Bugs, I don't know about helping running on days that are not the same day as swim day.

But for triathlons, you try to use the legs as little as possible during the swim to save the legs for the bike and the swim.

Breaststroke uses the legs a lot. When tri folk do the crawl, they use minimal kick to save the legs, just kick enough to keep your balance in the water.

Normal swimmers would use a lot more kick during the crawl, but they are only doing 50 meters to a few hundred meters and their day is done.

Tri folk are swimming anywhere from 400 meters to 2.4 miles and then biking and running.

For sure I'd suggest freestyle (crawl). Your kicking in free is more similar to running, and therefore it is a nice gentle workout to get the blood flow.

I OFTEN have swims the day after a hard(er) run/bike as an active recovery day. It's not a day off, but it is a lot easier day than normal and I find that the FOLLOWING day I have much more energy than if I had taken the day off. YMMV

if you are new to crawl, just start adding it in spurts. 4 laps breast, 1 free or something and work it up to 4 free, 1 breast, and eventually you can elim breast all together if you want.

I echo to issue about breast being hard on the knees. Remember, you just abused them the day before, now you are swinging them around at odd angles. Beware that combo.

When I was dealing with patella-femoral syndrome, my ortho actually told me NOT to do breaststroke. But I would assume it's ok unless you have some knee problem.

Three years ago I started swimming after I broke my foot (running injury of course!) I was doing side stroke so I could keep an eye on my kids on the beach.

This year, I have switched over to breast stroke. Mostly I did this as a transition to free style. I was comfortable with breast stroke, so it was a matter of getting used to putting my face in the water and remembering how to breathe.

Because I intend to start doing tri's, I am learning free style. It is a lot of work, and at this point, I don't find it enjoyable.

My coach has me on unlimited swimming. I've been doing 30mins about 4 times a week. It's easy on the legs and very relaxing. I do think it helps with my core. It certainly helps my arms look nice!

The only thing my coach has advised me against it doing a run followed by a swim. I have been dealing with a calf strain that just would not heal. A workout I found most enjoyable was going for a run at the beach (on the road), then hit the beach for a swim. He thought that could be irritating it.

How about an easy spin session on the bike...I think it might go a little farther for the "active recovery" that you are looking for after hard run workouts. You are able to engage the legs muscles and get some blood moving to them, it non-weight bearing, and you don't have to worry too much about further stress to your joints.

I think most triathlon training programs utilize freestyle swim workouts as active recovery for harder run/bike workouts....you still the aerobic benefits but using almost a completely different set of muscles.

quote:<HR>Originally posted by dragonsrouges:
Um... breastroke kick is not a natural movement, the knee joints aren't supposed to move like that<HR>

I don't know about that. Having taught kids to swim and having been around kids swim teams for a fair amount of my life, I can say that breaststroke kick is extremely natural for some people...to the degree that you actually have to teach some kids not to point their toes out and do a whip kick as part of their flutter kick. My kids' coach and I always joke about how good breaststrokers are just born that way because kicking any other way is foreign to them.

IMHO, the choice of whether to use it for recovery depends on how leisurely it's being swum. If done at a relaxed/easy pace, I don't see a problem. If done on timed intervals, long kick-only sets or some other aggressive pace, then it's probably not a good choice for recovery.

I don't know how old you are, but just be careful because breaststroke can be hard on your knees. I was a breaststroker and luckily never had problems, but I know people who did. As long as you aren't kicking really hard, you should be fine. It is also hard to get your HR up when breaststroking. It is technically a resting stroke, as is the elementary backstroke and the sidestroke. Unless you are swimming really fast (which I doubt), your HR is probably not aerobic while swimming breaststroke.

I do agree with others that freestyle might be a better stroke for cardio and other reasons. I am currently reading Total Immersion, and I highly recommend the book. It's about $10 at amazon. He shows you how to swim very efficiently. I really got it for DH because he is a sinker. I can't wait to start some of his drills to see how it affects my freestyle. I always hated freestyle (had to swim it in my IMs), and I think I know why now. I am a fairly fast swimmer, but I could be SO much more efficient. You could also do some backstroke, since the kick is the same as freestyle. Get the book and try it out and see what you think of freestyle then.

Kelli