Long-time lifelong runner here. Reduced my run mileage a lot around April, and managed to mildly strain my Achilles during a race 2 weeks ago, badly enough that it limits my running to < 4 miles right now before I have to stop because of it.

I'm on a family vacation right now at a lake-house rental, so I took the opportunity to bring a swim tether (belt attached to a latex stretch cord with a loop) to do some stationary swimming, as the last time I came here, I was looking forward to doing longer distance swims, but turns out the boat traffic on the lake is heavy enough that I couldn't go more than 40m out without worrying about them, and would always feel like I was going too far out.

I decided this would be the perfect time to try out water running, for real. The swim belt tether works great attached to the metal small boat dock they have and I found that wearing my actual running sneakers was helpful as the ground is rocky and uneven. The lake is nice because you can control depth from shallow to all the way over your head as you want, unlike pools, which in my area are inevitably too shallow.

I've now done 3 hours of water running, and I gotta say - I'm really skeptical it's all that the youtube videos and coaches make it out to be. I'm sure I'm doing it right as well - good posture, good hip drive like sprinting, and good fast cadence. I can get myself huffing and puffing into my red zone in less than a minute, but the lack of impact is so bizarre for running that I can't imagine that this would work as a true running substitute. At best, it'll preserve what cardio you need for running if you push hard in the water, and it definitely trains your hip flexors (that raise your knees) better than land running. But when was the last time your hip flexors were the limiting muscle in your chain of running muscles? It barely touches the quads and calves and glutes needed for fast running compared to the load required on roads.

At least thus far, it seems to me that straight-up cycling would be a much better alternative than water running, unless you're a highly competitive pure runner that is trying to avoid quad/glute muscle buildup that you might get from cycling a lot.

I'm trying to reconcile my views and experience with the large volume of positive reviews of water running out there, but right now, water running seems like a giant waste of time as a triathlete who can cycle as an alternative. I certainly would expect to totally suck at running on the road if I took 3 weeks off road running and just water ran; I'd predict it would be nearly as close to as if I took those 3 weeks entirely off and did aerobics classes for the cardio benefit.

I can't believe the stories i've heard of how some women elite marathoners just water ran when they were injured and immediately came back just as fast - they MUST have been running on the road as well but with less volume than their normal 100+ mpw.

Despite all this negativity I have toward water running, I've got at LEAST 7 hours more of water running this week with the same setup. My 6-year old daughter loves playing in the lake and I'm on daddy duty watching her for most of the time she's out there - and she wants me to be in the water (or else she starts sulking); I usually play with her for 1-2 hours and then water run 1-2 hours while watching her at the same time - water running does work well for child watch multitasking if your kid can at least swim on their own.

comments and experiences with positives and negatives of water running welcomed here!


(As an aside that will probably be for a later thread - tethered swimming seems legit to me. It's crazy boring, and you get this weird sensation of actually going backwards for the first 15 mins even if you're not, but it works for sure. In my order or preference though, it would be pool, then Vasa, and then as a last resort, tethered swimming.)