Recently, I’ve been plagued with an injury while preparing to race the Ironman World Championship of triathlon in Kona, Hawaii. The injury is called “IT Band Friction Syndrome” and requires low-impact or non-weight bearing exercise to maintain fitness until the knee is pain-free (alternative, highly non-attractive option is to run through the pain and destroy your knee forever).

More and more people are finding an alternative workout by taking their running into the pool. Called water running, water jogging, or aqua jogging, running in the water is a great way to add mileage to your program without the impact of land running.

Water running in the deep end of the pool is quite advantageous as an alternative workout for run training. There are a few reasons why I schedule water running into an athlete's plan. One of the primary reasons is if the athlete has an injury that will not allow him or her to run on a hard surface.