Did my first aqua-jogging today, and was curious:
aqua jogging for 12 minutes is semi-equal to what?? Running for 12 minutes? The distance I aqua-jogged (200yards)?
how effective (if at all) is AJ’ing for keeping/maintaining running fitness?
is it normal to feel like you are leaning forward A LOT while AJ’ing?
I felt like I was just spinning my wheels, with no resistance…similar to spinning on a bike in the easiest gear. Normal?
Thanks everyone.
I have done the deep water running thing at Doug Stern’s Triathlon Training Camp in Curacao where I am headed in about two weeks.
I thought it was a great aerobic workout, very difficult, and also replicated the running motion. I’m not sure about this, but It didn’t seem like it did too much for strength training.
It seems like it would be great for someone who has a minor, nagging injury.
My utterly unscientific guess is that, if you are going really hard, 1 minute of water running kind of feels 1 minute of running on a treadmill pretty hard, at least I guess…
One thing for sure, deep water running in Curacao in 90- degree sunshine will be a lot better than running on the treadmill tonight here in Dearborn where it is, like, 10 degrees out right now. 
I did my fair share of aqua jogging a few months ago, as I came down with some shin splints. From the research I did on the 'net, I found that aqua jogging time does not equal running on land time. I read that you need about 3x as long in the pool to get a “similar” workout.
That said, I assume you’re jogging in the deep end? With or without a floatation belt? You don’t necessarily have to cover distance in the pool. I did most of my jogging making a small circle in the deep end.
I used a belt the first time, and that was the last time. It depends on your body composition whether or not you really NEED the belt, but I found that the workout was much more intense without it. At first, without the belt, I thought there was no way I’d last 5 minutes. But I quickly built up to a 2hr “long run,” sans belt–talk about BORING.
How effective is it? It can be very effective. Being a research scientist, I couldn’t help but dig into the scientific journals. I found several scientific articles (not websites, but the source articles) about aqua jogging. Without remembering the details, I can tell you that those athletes who aqua jogged to try to maintain fitness were able to do so, while other experimental groups ran and rode bicycles.
As far as form in the water goes, I found myself taking slower, longer ‘strides’ for most of my runs. When doing intervals or quick runs, I have a much faster turnover. My stride would look like I was climbing stairs under water…rapid knee pumping, up and down like a piston.
So, if you don’t feel any resistance, likely you’re going TOO slow and too easy. It’s hard to get your HR up in the pool. That’s one thing I quickly found out about aqua jogging–that you can definitely lolly-gag around and not feel anything. So no, I wouldn’t say it’s normal for it to feel that easy.
Try some intervals, ladders, etc. 1 min hard, 1 min easy, 2 min hard, 2 min easy, etc etc. Those should definitely get your heart pumping and maybe some feeling in your legs, especially your quads. Let me know if you have any other questions…hope this helps…GOOD LUCK!
Question - in your training logs, for aqua-running time, you’d enter 60 minutes, what would you put down for distance “run”?
Nothing. IMO, there’s no real way to equate aqua jogging to jogging on land. I consider it another form of x-training, so it has its own category in my log book. Good luck.
aqua jogging, done in correct way is much more intensive for your cardio-vascular system
the fwd position is normal, choose a small belt
good for resistance:
some weights on your legs (ankles)
very good: a light clean raceshoe like asics elite racer oder nike mayfly (getting some water in, but not getting to heavy) on your feet increases weight and resistance
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I’ll second Kai’s advice on the shoes. I usually take an old pair of running shoes that I no longer run in and use those. The added weight and resistance makes all the difference in the world. If you use something that is too heavy and drown, I didn’t tell you to use them 
Very effective. For sure. Last season, I had a class 4 ankle sprain from trail running. It looked like tennis ball was sticking out of my ankle. Anyway, it took about 10 days before I was able to actually apply any pressure. All I did was water run 3x/week for 60 minutes. This went on for 5 weeks. I was so worried that I was going to loose fitness, but I was right on when I came back. Cardio wise, I was solid, if not stronger. the weight bearing aspect took a little getting used to. but otherwise I felt that water jogging is emensly effective.
just to add my two cents to the mix…
I think that if you are really working hard, that there is close to a 1-1 ratio of time in the pool to time on land. So for a 60min pool workout, I’d probably put 4.5-6 miles down in my log depending on my perceived effort. If you think that is too generous, go with 3-2, so a 60 min workout would be like a 40min run. (for me, at my 10min/mile it works out to about 4 miles)
aqua-jogging (or hydro-track if you want to feel more high-tech about it) is very effective at increasing cardio fitness, training your running muscles and not creating the pounding injuries associated with lots of running.
If you are leaning forward, you are actually making the workout easier. The reason it is difficult is that the more of your body that is up and down in the water, the more resistance you have. The more your body planes out (like swimming) the less resistance. My hydro-track (fancy name huh?) coach always instructed us to try to be straight up and down in the water, shoulders over your hips.
If you think you are just spinning your wheels, try lengthening your stride. I found that if I really focused on long strides, it would work my legs harder. The other thing to think about is to remember that in running there is a push-off near the end of your stride. In the pool it can be easy to forget this and give your legs a break by just bringing them forward after they hit the bottom of your stride. Try concentrating on going ALL the way through your stride (think of doing butt-kickers or similar action) and see how your legs feel. On the other side of things, try doing high-knees and see what that does to your hip flexors!
Other suggestions: Turn your hydro-workout into an interval workout when it gets boring. By this, I’d suggest going to the deep end of the pool and just do laps back and forth on the short sides (wall to wall, not wall to shallow end). Try pushing yourself hard for 1min, then easy for 1min in a set of 5 (so the excercise takes 10min). Then, try pushing at a moderate pace for 5min and easy for 1min, then back again for however many sets you want. Think of any running workout and you can do it in the pool, it just takes a little adaptation.
I really enjoyed my hydro-track sessions, in the ‘I think I’m going to keel over any second’ sort of enjoyment. One thing to note, since you are in the pool your HR will not and should not go as high as it would on land. It should be about 10% lower for a perceived effort level than it would be on land due to the cooling (hopefully) effect of the water. Pushing yourself hard, you shouldn’t go too far over your land-based LT, however your body will still be working much harder than your HR indicates.
Good luck, and have fun training!
Josh