Did my first real bout of tethered swimming this week while on vacation at a lake house this week.
I was originally going to do regular swimming but I knew from last year at this house that swimming virtual laps is kind of annoying as there is a lot of boat traffic, and I always worry that I'm going to get too near one of them (even though odds are low.)
Instead, I bought a cheap swim tether from Amazon with a belt connecting to elastic tubing to a loop. I put the look on one of the metal posts on a small boat dock that came with the house, and off I went swimming!
For the first 20 minutes if felt strange. It wasn't because the swim pull was affected - it's just that after being used to going FORWARD with regular swimming, you actually feel like you're going BACKWARDS even if you're just staying in place and not being pulled back by the tether. Fortunately, that goes away completely after 15-20 mins.
I've now spent 3 hours total in 30-60 min sessions with the tether over the past 4 days. My conclusion - it's definitely legit! It's swimming, just in place. It can actually be kind of fun and challenging to find a point on the floor ahead of your current spot, and crank up the effort to get up to it and stay there. With the cord I bought, there was no bouncing - when I swam harder, I gradually moved forward smoothly - it wasn't like I jerked forward then back them moment my stroke slowed. The elastic tether seems to hold potential energy well to smooth it out.
The worst part (which is pretty bad, unfortunately) - it's mind numbingly boring. 60 minutes seriously seems like it takes forever even when I'm mixing it up with intervals and sighting drills to break up the workout.
I can also compare it to a Vasa (I wrote a ton of reviews on the Vasa 2 years back); I'd actually say the Vasa is slightly better in terms of not being bored and really focusing on the muscular endurance - it's a lot easier for me to go long on the Vasa than it is on the mind-crushingly boring swim tether - in part because I can watch TV on the Vasa (and still go pretty hard) and in part because of the pace/watt display.
But for anyone who's stuck with a tiny hotel pool or lake situation similar to mine, 20 mins hard on a swim tether is pretty good stuff, and if you can do more, you can def hammer yourself for improvement.
(The swim tether also works great for water running, even though I'm more than a bit skeptical on how well that translates to real running - I wrote a post on that yesterday)
I was originally going to do regular swimming but I knew from last year at this house that swimming virtual laps is kind of annoying as there is a lot of boat traffic, and I always worry that I'm going to get too near one of them (even though odds are low.)
Instead, I bought a cheap swim tether from Amazon with a belt connecting to elastic tubing to a loop. I put the look on one of the metal posts on a small boat dock that came with the house, and off I went swimming!
For the first 20 minutes if felt strange. It wasn't because the swim pull was affected - it's just that after being used to going FORWARD with regular swimming, you actually feel like you're going BACKWARDS even if you're just staying in place and not being pulled back by the tether. Fortunately, that goes away completely after 15-20 mins.
I've now spent 3 hours total in 30-60 min sessions with the tether over the past 4 days. My conclusion - it's definitely legit! It's swimming, just in place. It can actually be kind of fun and challenging to find a point on the floor ahead of your current spot, and crank up the effort to get up to it and stay there. With the cord I bought, there was no bouncing - when I swam harder, I gradually moved forward smoothly - it wasn't like I jerked forward then back them moment my stroke slowed. The elastic tether seems to hold potential energy well to smooth it out.
The worst part (which is pretty bad, unfortunately) - it's mind numbingly boring. 60 minutes seriously seems like it takes forever even when I'm mixing it up with intervals and sighting drills to break up the workout.
I can also compare it to a Vasa (I wrote a ton of reviews on the Vasa 2 years back); I'd actually say the Vasa is slightly better in terms of not being bored and really focusing on the muscular endurance - it's a lot easier for me to go long on the Vasa than it is on the mind-crushingly boring swim tether - in part because I can watch TV on the Vasa (and still go pretty hard) and in part because of the pace/watt display.
But for anyone who's stuck with a tiny hotel pool or lake situation similar to mine, 20 mins hard on a swim tether is pretty good stuff, and if you can do more, you can def hammer yourself for improvement.
(The swim tether also works great for water running, even though I'm more than a bit skeptical on how well that translates to real running - I wrote a post on that yesterday)
