Reading up on deep water running its been concluded that it has the capacity to increase both anaerobic and aerobic endurance boosting vo2max and lactic acid tolerance. Such results are present in afew of the links below.
https://physiotherapy.curtin.edu.au/resources/educational-resources/exphys/00/deep_water.cfm
https://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/deep-water-running.htm
My theory is whether it would be beneficial to move tempo based sessions into the pool considering the fact that pool running is able to maintain the aerobic fitness level of endurance runners. In this regard a good amount of work can be put into developing that 30% aerobic contribution for a 400m athlete without the added impact.
If pool running was the only training used i can obviously see how there would be alot of physiological shortcomings with purely pool running. If one was still participating in 4 track based sessions per week an athlete would be developing rythm, speed endurance, power etc.
Therefore apart from the development of the aerobic energy system I wonder what the added advantage of land based tempo is, when this energy system can be effectively developed without the added impact.
(As a side note i feel that another added advantage is that tempo running in deep water works at a higher cadence whilst not fatiguing the body as much, which is a plus for speed)
