Although that is a nice ideal, I believe that the most important consideration is to maintain your training intensity to the degree possible, and if your form isn t perfect, so be it. Regardless of your running form, your stride rate will be slower when water running because of the increased resistance of moving your legs through water. If you try to simulate land running too closely, your stride rate will be even slower. For that reason, don t worry if your leg isn t brought behind the body to the same degree as in land running. Find a happy compromise with decent form and a reasonable rate of leg turnover.
Some athletes move forward while running in the water and actually do laps during their workouts.
Whether you move forward or remain relatively still depends on subtle differences in body position. I recommend a relatively upright posture during water-running workouts. This will work your trunk muscles and result in only a slight tendency to move forward through the water. Gauging your effort You will not be able to achieve as high a heart rate running in the water as running on land. A study from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm found that heart rate is eight to 11 beats per minute slower for the same oxygen uptake when running in the water compared to land running.