I’ve been doing my OWS in the Columbia River, against the current. I’m curious does swimming against a current “count for more” than swimming in neutral water or with a current. I’ve actually been doing laps in a roped off swim area, and depending on the water level it’s taken me 4x longer to swim upstream than to swim the same distance downstream. So would, say, one hour of that kind of swimming, count for 1:15 in a pool or lake? Just curious and trying to make myself feel better I guess.
time-wise, swimming for 1 hour against a smooth current is pretty much identical to swimming for 1 hour in still water.
distance-wise, it is a little more interesting. for example, if you swim to a point physically located 1 mile upstream of your starting location, and then swim back the same physical distance to your starting point (so swimming downstream), even though you have the current against you one way but then with you the other way, you will end up swimming more than a total of 2 “water” miles (based on the total effective yardage swum in the water).