How being a multisport athlete can enliven your swimming

Athlete Jennifer Strong McConachie shares why being a multisport athlete has improved her strength and stamina in the water, and helped her discover new wild swims

I have always been a multisport athlete. From my early days as a triathlete, starting competition at age seven, to youth sports where I was both a swimmer and a runner, to going on to college to compete on the crew team, I have always used other sports to complement my swimming.

By far the most useful sports I have found to help my swimming are weight training and running. I found that when I was strong out of the water from lifting weights, I was also strong in the water, with more power and speed gained from strength training.

I have also always used swimming and running together, in synthesis, one helping the other. During my age group swimming days, when I would come back from cross country running season, I was able to jump in the water and pick up where I left off. Running allowed me to build my cardio and endurance base outside of the water so that later, I could dive in and not miss a beat.

Whole body workout

Today, I still use swimming and running as a base for all my other sports and sport combinations. Swimming offers a lower impact way than running or biking to interval train and give a whole body workout. It also acts to elongate my muscles, allowing them to stretch and lengthen after long, pounding runs or rough rides. Similarly, the endurance lessons learned on long runs translate into the pool for distance open water and marathon swims.

Even more so, I like to use swimming in my multisport workouts, where I combine two or more sports into one outing that I concept, create and design.

For example, to celebrate a birthday one year, I made open water swimming a key element of a run/swim/run/kayak/mountain bike birthday multisport event.

I woke up before dawn and ran six miles to my swimming lake. Once at the lake I swam a mile across the lake and back, as the sun rose on the horizon and welcomed the cool green morning. Fresh out of the water, I pulled my socks and running shoes back on to run again, this time eight miles, that quickly warmed me up from the early spring waters. The run took me to my next location, a kayak put in spot on the river for an 18 mile paddle downstream toward home. The final piece of this four-sport multisport outing was a mountain bike ride to round off the time and distance goals of the day.

Each segment of the multisport was human powered and worked with the water available to me on my local route close to home.

Swimming in the middle of a long day of endurance sports was an added challenge as well. The swimming portion of this day, while shorter than the others, was one of the most mentally demanding ones, as I braved the cold water and the focus it demanded.

A quiet moment

The beautiful thing about it, however, was that swimming in the middle of my run, and my long multisport energised me for the obstacles ahead. I enjoyed the space to think, reflect, and have the quiet of my own mind to meditate, solve problems and just exist in the present moment. Swimming requires that pure in the moment-ness that is hard to capture with the claims of modern life. It is one of the things that continues to draw me to the sport through the years, no matter my phase of life. I seem to always need the water and the healing calm it brings.

A surefire way to start your own multisport like this would be running or biking – whatever type of bike you have – to your own swimming spot, swimming indoors or out, and then running or biking home. Another multisport way to add complementary sports in with your swimming would be creating your own triathlon day with your favorite self-propelled water sports.

For one three-sport multisport day at an area lake, I combined stand up paddleboarding, swimming while towing the paddleboard, and then swimming prone style on top of the board for prone boarding.

Plan an adventure

A few other sport ideas to add here in the right conditions include swimming to an island or beach for a hike and swimming back or trekking with your SUP board on your back in a backpack to your water destination. SUP yoga, working out on a SUP board with TRX bands attached to a tree or other structure for resistance training, or a beach Tabata workout are other fun water varieties to pair before or after a swim, as well as SUP river surfing and any kind of boating or paddling, using the options available to you at your location, such as rafting, canoeing, rowing or kayaking versions.

I use these types of combinations to get me swimming and in the water in new ways that allow me to enjoy the elements longer as I change my sport options.

Being a multisport athlete and swimmer allows me to discover wild swim routes, explore and play in the world around me as I find the water and the peace that it brings.

Jennifer Strong McConachie is the author of ‘Go Multisport: Add Fun, Challenge & Exploration to Your World’, available at amazon.com and Waterstones.