Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast

1 年前

（基於 PinQueue 指標）

We are the Löw Tide Böyz (Chipper and Chris), a Swimrun team based in Northern California and we're on a mission to help grow the sport of Swimrun in the United States while striving to make it as accessible, inclusive, and diverse as possible. On our podcast we share our love for the new-ish sport of Swimrun and interview race directors, athletes, and other cool people in the space all the while chronicling our own training and racing adventures and having as much fun as possible in the process.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 8 Jun 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Dr. Yael Schonbrun

Welcome to episode 179 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We have a MEGA show for everyone this week. Joining us in Studio G for a discussion on “the Swimrun relationship” is clinical psychologist, author, and all-around amazing human, Dr. Yael Schonbrun. This was a great conversation about partnership, values, and so much more and we can’t wait to share it with all of you!

But first…

Training Update

Unlike our “training is moving right along with swimming and running as we barrel towards X” that we usually share, this past weekend we stayed on land and ran the Marin Ultra Challenge 50k in our extended back yard of the Marin Headlands. It was a fun day running in the mountains working on nutrition, pacing, meme ideas, etc. while putting in a big day on our feet in prep for ÖTILLÖ.

Shoutout

This week we’re shouting out to dryrobe for sponsoring the show last month. It was a blast to get to check out their new dryrobe Lite and we encourage everyone to check it out. We’ll be rocking ours at Casco Bay later this Summer in case anyone wants to see these awesome pieces of kit up close.

Wisdom Nugget of the Week

If you can’t imagine it, you can’t have it. – Toni Morrison

Feats of Endurance

We haven’t done this segment in a few weeks so we’re giving out two awards this week.

First up is Sacha Bergerhausen for posting a Swimrun workout in the town of Frickenhausen, Germany. Safe to say that anytime anyone posts a workout from Frickenhausen that there’s a good chance of winning an award.

Our second award goes to Luke Hutchins for completing the Unbound Gravel 200 (formerly called The Dirty Kanza). Don’t know what this is? Well, it’s a 200 mile gravel bike race that takes place every year in Kansas and it’s a beast of race. Strong work on that!

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Now for the “news.”

We’re kicking off this edition with another edition of our ad hoc series, Race Director Reports, with our friend and race director Nicolas Roman about this year’s EX Swimrun Super Sprint, EX 23 Long and Short events. We loved his enthusiasm and vision for what’s possible with Swimrun since we first interviewed him back in 2021 and as you will hear, he’s still super stoked!

In other news, there were a slew of Swimruns taking place all over Europe. In Sweden, Jonas Colting’s Boras Swimrun took place and looked like a good time was had by all. In Portugal, the Tâmega Swimrun (which we recently highlighted in a course preview episode) a.k.a. the first ÖTILLÖ Merit race in Portugal went off without a hitch and literally all the photos look epic! Finally, over in Spain Swimrun Costa Azahar looked as magical as ever.

Here in the United States, the Bellingham Swimrun is taking place this weekend in beautiful Bellingham Washington. There’s still time for folks to get their flights together so if you were waiting for the last minute, now’s your time to shine! (Also make sure to check out our course preview episode for this local gem of a race.)

Finally, here in California we only have one Swimrun (why? Great question!) and it’s in Folsom on July 29th. We’ve said it before, but if we want to grow the sport in the U.S. we need to show up to the races. So come join us for the Folsom Swimrun for this fun/beginner-friendly event. Need additional incentive? Use the code LTB10 to save 10% off of your registration.

That’s it for this week. Reach out to us if there’s any Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Show Business

We had an idea for an episode called “When Life Imitates Memes” and we want your help! Did a dog literally bite you in the butt during a race? Did you think that something poked you in the water only to realize that it was your partner’s paddle? You get the idea. All you have to do is send us a DM or email with an audio clip of your funniest/weirded Swimrun experience for a chance to get it shared on that forthcoming episode.

We’re already planning for Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay and wanted everyone to pencil in some dates and times on their calendars. First, on Saturday, July 7th at 10:00am, we will be co-hosting a shakeout Swimrun with Ark Sports, dryrobe, Wild Swimrun, and Team Envol at East End Beach. Also on July 7th at noon, we will be hosting our second annual LTBz Patreon luncheon before we all head over for packet pickup. Finally, on July 8th, we will be hosting our Third Annual Post-Race Party at a location TBD but likely the same place as last year. Stay tuned for facebook event invites in the next few weeks.

Dr. Yael Schonbrun

It was so great to talk with Yael. She’s a wealth of knowledge on all things relationships and it was cool to get her take on what makes for great Swimrun partnerships. We talked about all kinds of stuff in this conversation and it’s safe to say that teams and solo Swimrunners alike will take away a lot from her wisdom.

We encourage everyone to sign up for her newsletter, Relational: The Art and Science of Connections here.

Enjoy!

~~~

That’s it for this week’s show.

If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star rating and review since that’s the best way for people to discover the show and the sport of Swimrun. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, and on YouTube. Check out our website for Swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much more. Also make sure to check out our meme page @thelowtideboyz on Instagram. If you have any suggestions for the show or questions for us, send us a dm or an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com. Finally, you can support our efforts on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 8 Jun 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Vivobarefoot Hydra ESC Shoe

Welcome to episode 178 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We have another edition of Gear Talk with Annie and Brooke of the Swimrun Labs this week. In this episode we discuss the newest Swimrun shoe to hit the market, the Vivobarefoot Hydra ESC. This minimal shoe packs a lot of features in a small package. (Spoiler alert: we all thought it was amazing!) This shoe is an upgrade from the Tempest ECS that Vivobarefoot released a few years ago and we share our thoughts on this beautiful piece of kit.

It was unanimous that we all thought this shoe was amazing. While it requires a user to be comfortable with barefoot/minimal running, the fit, grip, and ground feel was second to none. The gang gave the shoe between 4.5 and 5 pull buoys.

Enjoy!

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star review. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, and on YouTube. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback and/or suggestions. Finally, you can support our efforts on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 1 Jun 2023 07:00:00 +0000

ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship Course Overview Pt 1 w/PJ Michel

Welcome to episode 177 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We’ve got something new for everyone this week. As we start wrapping our heads around gearing up for another ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship, we thought it would be helpful to do a deep dive into the course and share a more granular course overview. We will be splitting the course overview into three parts. For this first episode (of three) we will be breaking down the course from Sandhamn to the start of Nämdö.

Joining us for this discussion is our friend Pierre-Julien Michel. He’s a super experienced Swimrunner, has raced ÖTILLÖ three times, and he gave us some righteous advice before our World Championship last year that was super helpful.

Before we get to the deep dive, this episode is brought to you by the new dryrobe lite.

We want to introduce you to the brand new dryrobe Lite. The dryrobe Lite is the latest cutting-edge innovation from the makers of the original outdoor changing robe. Spoiler alert: it’s awesome!

What makes this new dryrobe so cool? Well it’s made using repreve fabric and 37 recycled bottles. It’s also super packable compared to its more “substantial” original dryrobe. What else makes it cool? It looks dope!

The dryrobe Lite is available now from dryrobe.com.

Go further with dryrobe Lite!

With that, let’s get right to our discussion about the first third-ish of the legendary ÖTILLÖ course.

Enjoy!

~~~

That’s it for this week’s show.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 25 May 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Swimrun 101: Swimrun Gear

Welcome to episode 176 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

Welcome to the latest drop in our ad hoc Swimrun 101 series. This edition is all about Swimrun gear. We will break down the essential pieces of the Swimrun kit and give you our latest thinking on what you need to have a great Swimrun experience in both training and racing. While we can literally talk about this stuff forever, we will do our best (no promises) to keep it to our best wisdom nuggets.

Gear are the most common questions that we get in our inbox and DMs. We figured that we should put all of our advice on gear in one place and here we are. Without further ado, here is our gear breakdown. Make sure to check out our website for way more details on all things gear.

Goggles:

Use whatever open water goggles tickle your fancy. Optimize for goggles designed for open water since that’s what you’ll be swimming in during Swimruns.

Pull buoy:

Use one. Use as large a buoy as you can handle. Use one in training and racing. We love the Ark Sports Keel series of pull buoys but there are a bunch of brands making mondo pull buoys for Swimrun.

Swim Paddles:

This is a very nuanced topic but we recommend using paddles for Swimrun. We have an entire episode dedicated to this that we recommend that you listen to for our best thinking on swim paddles.

Wetsuits:

We would argue that this is the most important piece of the Swimrun kit and the one worth spending some money on to help ensure that you have a positive Swimrun experience in training and racing.

We know that we usually say that you can use an old triathlon wetsuit and keep it very economical for your first Swimrun. But it’s been pointed out to us that folks doing that these days is pretty unrealistic. So our new blanket advice on wetsuits is to, at the very least, rent, borrow, or buy an entry level wetsuit for training for your first race. Lots of places to do that but at this point there are a lot of good/great entry level suits that won’t break the bank…plus all those free sources are still in play.

Check out our gear talk episode on wetsuits for way more detail on the subject.

Undergarments:

The one item that we definitely recommend is using a Kangaroo top/bra for storage. Several brands make these now and some come with added thermal qualities for cold races.

This is another area where it’s very individualized and a lot of room for nuance. Make sure to check out our Gear Talk episode all about Swimrun undergarments.

Socks:

Our advice is pretty straight forward here. Use thin, high polyester content, thin, low water absorption/retention socks and you should be fine. We prefer knee high socks for a tiny bit of insulation but mostly for protection from nicks and scratches from transitions, foliage, wild life?

Shoes:

Our blanket statement still applies here from our original Gear Talk episode about shoes. See what trail shoes you already have in your stable that might fit the bill and Swimrun in those to start. Fitting the bill would be ones that have good grip, drain well, and don’t get waterlogged.

Miscellaneous gear:

Finally, there are a lot of little bits/miscellaneous gear that rounds out the Swimrun kit. Here’s a list of items we consider essential:

Tether (teams only)
Collapsible Cup
Soft Flask
Strong hair ties
Waterproof storage for electrolyte tabs/keys/etc.

We hope that you find this info helpful as you embark (or continue) on your Swimrun journey. One of the beauties of this sport is that there is no one right way to do anything and there’s plenty of room for exploration and testing. Embrace that beauty but keep track of what the majority of teams are doing and you’ll get your kit sorted out.

Enjoy!

~~~

That’s it for this week’s show.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 18 May 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Bellingham Swimrun Course Preview w/Brent Molsberry

Welcome to episode 175 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We’ve got a fun episode for everyone this week. Joining us to do a deep dive on the Bellingham Swimrun is race director Brent Molsberry. This local event in northern Washington is perfect for beginners and seasoned Swimrunners alike and we touch on everything you need to know to put this race on your list…we even let you know which real estate agent to use if you’re planning on moving to Bellingham.

But first…

(Chipper to read)

We are super stoked to announce that this course preview episode is sponsored by dryrobe.

We want to introduce you to the brand new dryrobe Lite. The dryrobe Lite is the latest cutting-edge innovation from the makers of the original outdoor changing robe. Spoiler alert: it’s awesome!

The dryrobe Lite is available now from dryrobe.com.

Go further with dryrobe Lite!

Training Update

The training continues as we barrel towards Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay in early July. In other training news, Chris has officially graduated from the remedial swim program that he was on and is henceforth onto “big boy” swims for the rest of the season.

Shoutout

This week we’re shouting out everyone that showed up for our Lake James Post-race zoom party. We had a good group of folks and it was fun/harrowing to hear the war stories of race day and get a ton of training tips from the likes of Marcus and Beek, Trista and Amy, and The Dierksens.

Wisdom Nugget of the Week

You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do. – Carl Jung

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is friend of the pod Alex Sheen for strava-ing walking around during the coronation that took place last week that you may have heard about. Good stuff!

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Now for the “news.”

The Lagoa Swimrun is set to take place this weekend in Portugal. As will all of Swimrun Portugal’s events, this one looks amazing with warm water swims and views for days. As with most of their events, they have distances for everyone including a kids race, which we love!

Our friends at Swimrun del Bilancio recently announced their race date of June 4th for this year’s event. The race takes place in Barberino di Mugello in the Tuscany region of Italy close to Florence. The race offers two distance options, but most importantly, did we mention that this race takes place in Tuscany?

In ÖTILLÖ news, the company announced that they are revamping the World Championship points ranking system. Starting this season, the first 30 World Series teams of each category will be awarded with points, where the winning teams will earn a maximum of 60 points. In addition, you can earn 50% of the points by finishing in the top 30s of an ÖTILLÖ Merit Race. Based on all accumulated points that you collect during the 2023 season, the best Swimrunners of the new ÖTILLÖ Ranking will earn a spot for ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship 2024. Besides the podiums of the World Championship in 2023, there will be no direct qualifications for ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship 2024.

The ÖTILLÖ Ranking will immediately be implemented but only count for the qualification of ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship 2024. If you still want to qualify for this year's World Championship, you can earn a direct spot at this year's World Series Races, qualify through a ÖTILLÖ Merit Race, or apply for a Race Director Choice as in the past.

That’s it for this week. Reach out to us if there’s any Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Show Business

Swimrun season has either already started or is about to start for most folks in the U.S. and that means getting your kit sorted out. If you’re looking to unload or load up on some new gear, make sure to head over to our Swimrun Swapmeet on FB and help or be helped by your fellow Swimrunners to make sure you have what you need for your event.

Bellingham Swimrun Course Preview

We mention it often that to grow the sport of Swimrun in the U.S., we need more local events that cater to beginners looking to try the sport…get their shoes wet, so to speak. Bellingham Swimrun is just such a Swimrun and it’s a gem. Joining us for this course preview is Brent Molsberry. He’s a previous guest of the show, friend of the pod, race director for Quest Races and Ödyssey Swimrun, Sophie’s Dad and Annie Molsberry’s husband. In this conversation, we get an overview of Bellingham Washington, why it’s such a great location for Swimrun, we share the name of the best real estate agent in the West Coast, get a course preview of both their long and short course distance events, and so much more.

If you’re interested in Swimrunning in early June in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, Bellingham Swimrun is for you! Register at questraces.com.

Enjoy!

~~~

That’s it for this week’s show.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 11 May 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Team Dark Wave

Welcome to episode 174 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We’ve got a great one for everyone this week. Joining us in Studio G are one of only three mixed teams from the U.S. heading to Stockholm in September for ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. Formerly known as Team Dr. Evil & Dr. Strange, Nargus Harounzadeh and Ben Paxton are now called Team Därk Wäve. This was a fun conversation and we can’t wait to share it with all of you.

But first…

We are super stoked to announce that this episode is sponsored by dryrobe. Yes, you heard that right. Somebody is sponsoring the show and we are here for it!

We want to introduce you to the brand new dryrobe Lite. The dryrobe Lite is the latest cutting-edge innovation from the makers of the original outdoor changing robe.

Developed with high-performance eco fabrics, the dryrobe Lite is super lightweight and easily packable in a stuff-sack that measures just 38cm (15 inches), making it the perfect changing robe for exploring remote locations, or for athletes traveling to events where luggage space is a premium.

One of the key features of the dryrobe Lite is a waterproof outer, which is made using 100% REPREVE® recycled polyester.

With dryrobe® having recently become B Corp Certified, the dryrobe® Lite is made using a minimum of 37 recycled plastic bottles which is awesome.

The dryrobe Lite is available now from dryrobe.com and is priced at £280 or $350.

Go further with dryrobe Lite!

Training Update

Casco Bay is just over two months away and we are really looking forward to our upcoming training block as we dial everything in for the big day. This means Swimrun practices will start making their weekend appearances soon!

Shoutout

This week we are shouting out our newest Patron on Patreon, Daniel K. from Sweden. Thank you so much for the support of our brand of super niche content.

Wisdom Nugget of the Week

Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right. – Henry Ford

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winners are all of our Strava friends that raced Swimrunman’s Gorges Du Verdon this past weekend including, but not limited to, Sabina, Alexis, Astrid, Remi, and Jean-Louis.

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Now for the “news.”

As Chipper mentioned, Swimrunman’s Gorges Du Verdon took place over the weekend and it looked by all accounts to be another awesome event put on by Swimrunman and a great way to kick off the Swimrun season in France.

Want to score a free pair of the brand new Vivobarefoot Hydra ESC Swimrun shoe? Then you’ve come to the right place! We’ve partnered up with Swimrun.com and Vivobarefoot to do a cool giveaway. All you have to do is post a picture or video of you going outside and being active (preferably doing Swimrun things) on Instagram and tag @vivobarefoot, @swimruncom and @thelowtideboyz for your chance to win. Folks have until May 31st to post and tag. Winners will be announced on June 1st.

That’s it for this week. Reach out to us if there’s any Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Show Business

This is the final reminder that we are hosting a virtual Swimrun Lake James post-race party/meetup to get everyone’s race report on how the day went. Join us on Zoom on Sunday May 7th at 6pm ET for a casual virtual meetup to chat about all things Swimrun.

Team Därk Wäve

It was so much fun to chat with Nargus and Ben. Their origin story is amazing and their journey to ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship is just as amazing. In this conversation we talked about how they met, when they decided to put the World Championship in their sights, and how they are preparing for the big day in September. They are an easy team to root for and we look forward to seeing them at the races this year.

Enjoy!

~~~

That’s it for this week’s show.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 4 May 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Swimrun Lake Race Recap w/Team Water Buffaloes

Welcome to episode 173 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we don our alternate personas of “The FOMOBUSTERS” as we recap this past week’s Swimrun Lake James. We’re almost positive that if you weren’t at the race, that your FOMO level was off the charts and we are here to help! Joining us to recap the event are Matt Skavnak and Pat Lowam, A.K.A., Team The Water Buffaloes. It was their first time racing Lake James and we’ll re-living all the sights and sounds of this classic Swimrun.

But first…

Training Update

The training continues. We’ll be engaging in extracurricular feats of endurance the next few weeks but other than that, you can find us at the pool and on the trails.

Shoutout

Our shoutout this week goes out to everyone that raced Swimrun Lake James. We love this race and everything that it does for the sport. If we want the sport to grow here in the U.S. we have to support the races that are leading the charge and we need to keep showing up. So thank you for showing up!

Wisdom Nugget of the Week

Don’t let fear put your dreams to sleep. – Stevie Wonder

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Rob Dick. He’s a local Marin County man who is also ½ of Team Gin and Tonic and he crushed the Belgian Waffle Ride this past weekend. Don’t know what that is? Well, it’s only one of the coolest gravel bike races around and a worthy feat of endurance. Strong work Rob!

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Now for the “news.”

Starting in the bummer department, Swimrunman’s Grands Lac De Laffrey will not take place in 2023. We will miss that diabolical vertical Km at the end of the long course!

In happier news, Swimrunman’s Gorges Du Verdon is taking place this weekend. This event offers three distance options, including an “Ultra” ÖTILLÖ Merit Race distance. (Tier 3 so only ranking points are available.) This will be the first race of the year for a lot of folks and we can’t wait to see the photos and videos on the internets.

In product news, the forever popular (and forever out of stock) Ark Sports Kangaroo tops are back…sort of. If you want to score this amazing piece of kit (and one that we would highly, highly recommend), head on over to Arksports.com to preorder your top. The site states that they expect to get them back in stock in May and will be mailed straight away after that.

That’s it for this week. Reach out to us if there’s any Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Show Business

We are experiencing major FOMO to be missing this year’s Swimrun Lake James so we thought we would host a virtual post-race party/meetup to get everyone’s race report on how the day went. Join us on Zoom on Sunday May 7th at 6pm ET for a casual virtual meetup to chat about all things Swimrun.

Swimrun Lake James Race Recap w/Team Water Buffaloes

It was great to chat with Matt and Pat. They’ve been Patrons on Patreon for a while now and it was super fun to talk shop with them. In this race recap, we cover the whole experience of Swimrun Lake James, quell FOMO, and talk about what the future holds for two buddies trying to get to ÖTILLÖ. This was a super fun conversation and it got us super stoked for the season!

Make sure to check out their blog at https://thewaterbuffaloes.blogspot.com/. Also, Blogspot is still a thing!

Enjoy!

~~~

That’s it for this week’s show.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Hokey Cokey Swimrun Course Preview

Welcome to episode 172 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

In this show we are doing a course preview of the only U.K. ÖTILLÖ Merit race: The Precision Fuel and Hydration Hokey Cokey Swimrun Roseland. We seem to have backed into a cool theme for this month so we’re just going to go with it. We asked Mad Hatter Sports Race Director, and former guest of the show, John Yelland to help us give you a comprehensive course preview of the race. Spoiler alert: it’s a great one!

Let’s get right to it!

Intro to Mad Hatter Sports and The Hokey Cokey Swimrun

John was cool enough to share everything we needed to know about the event. His intro description of what athletes can expect on the course seemed very accurate as well: “holes, stones, trees, stumps, and steps.”

Getting to Cornwall and the Roseland Peninsula

John shared with us how to best get to Cornwall and it’s important to note that the area books up fast in the Summer so lock in your travel plans early. The base of operations is in Mevagissey and that town is about 250 miles from London-area airports.

The Race

The stats on the Roseland Swimrun is 36km with 28km of running and 8km of swimming over 21 total swim legs. The race has a SWIFA score of 23% which is pretty cool as well. (This is EX Swimrun’s term for percentage of swimming in a Swimrun. Check out Episode 72 and 129 to hear all about it)

John shared his leg by leg breakdown which, along with the online course map, really paints a solid picture of the adventure that awaits Swimrunners. As before, there’s no sugar-coating that the race is a challenge…and that’s why we like it!

Our Thoughts

This event is everything that is great about Swimrun. It was designed to offer a challenging experience, while taking advantage of the natural beauty and terrain of the Cornwall region. We love the attention that was paid to make this adventure what it is and think that this is a worthy ÖTILLÖ Merit race for those seeking to quality for The Swimrun World Championship.

Make sure to check out the Mad Hatter Sports website and use the code LTB20 which is good for 20% off any of their Swimrun events.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star review. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, and on YouTube. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any questions, feedback, and/or suggestions. Finally, you can support our efforts on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Transcape Swimrun Race Recap w/Team Tethered Since Birth

Welcome to episode 171 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we go “down under” for a race recap of this year’s Transcape Swimrun. Joining us on this walkabout are special guests Fatima and Roxan Maestro, A.K.A., Team Tethered Since Birth. Fatima and Roxan are twin sisters, great humans, and super stoked on Swimrun so when we saw that they raced the event on Strava, we knew we had to get them on the show to get their race report. The event took place on March 11, 2023 and they share all the sights, stings, and sounds of their experience in Western Australia.

But first…

Training Update

Training is in full swing and the “work” is getting done.

Unfortunately, it’s looking like Sunriver Swimrun won’t be happening due to…wait for it…permitting issues, so we will be refocusing on Casco Bay in July and will be engaging in random feats of endurance before then to get ready.

Shoutout

This week’s shoutout goes to Mario Fraioli (previous guest on Episode 30 of the show) and Dr. Justin Ross. Mario recently had Dr. Ross, a sport psychologist on his podcast, the morning shakeout, and we highly recommend that folks check out that episode which was all about mental training as a key component of physical training. Solid gold stuff!

Wisdom Nugget of the Week

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” - Aristotle

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Marvin Mitschulat for posting an epic looking skiing day on the slopes of St. Anton am Alberg in Austria. We’re not skiers but 33 miles of skiing in 15 runs seems pretty epic to us!

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Now for the “news.”

Swimrun season in Brazil starts this weekend with the Hero Swimrun taking place on April 15th. This event offers 5 different distance events including a new 23km long course that takes athletes through 17 beautiful beaches in the coastal city Armação de Búzios, which is about 160kms east of Rio de Janeiro. You can learn more about the Hero Swimrun and race director Fabian Iskandarian on Episode 61 of the show.

It’s almost Swimrun season here in the U.S. with Swimrun Lake James taking place on April 22nd. They still have slots available so if you’re able to go, we would highly recommend this event. You can learn more about the event race director Kristen Jeno on Episode 65, listen to our recap of the 2021 race with special guests The Swaggy Zaddys (Marcus and Lee) on Episode 69, check out our course preview on Episode 113, and/or listen to our 2022 race report on Episode 121.

That’s it for this week. Reach out to us if there’s any Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Show Business

Transcape Swimrun Race Recap w/Team Tethered Since Birth

It was great to chat with Fatima and Roxan. As we mentioned at the beginning of the show, when we found out that they raced Transcape Swimrun, we knew we wanted to have them on to share the tale. The Transcape Swimrun is a 26.5km point-to-point course with 22km of running and 4.5km of swimming. In this conversation we chatted about how the twins found Swimrun, the genesis of their idea to race in Australia, and got their race report of their experience. They are great and we loved living vicariously through their adventure.

Enjoy!

~~~

That’s it for this week’s show.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Tamega Swimrun Course Preview

Welcome to episode 170 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

In this episode we are sharing a course preview of Swimrun Portugal’s Tâmega Swimrun. This event offers three distance options including an ÖTILLÖ Merit Race distance, which is new for 2023, plus some events for kids. We’ve been a fan of Swimrun Portugal Series since episode 35 where we interviewed series director Bruno Safara and his events have been on our list since we learned about them. For this course preview we get help from local race director Sergio Moreira who shares with us all the details for this amazing event.

History of the Tâmega Swinrun

The first edition took place in 2021 and it is a wild story of getting final approval for hosting the event two weeks before it was set to take place. As they say the rest was history. In 2023, the race was granted Merit Race status and Michael and Mats were instrumental in bringing the first merit race to Portugal.

Getting to the Tâmega Swimrun

The race takes place in the Rio de Moinhos region of Portugal and is about 50km east of Porto. Porto is the closest airport to the race and there are a lot of major airlines that fly to that airport. Fun fact: according to google maps it only takes 10 hours to walk to Rio de Moinhos from Porto.

Once in the Rio de Moinhos region, there are restaurants, vineyards and lots of activities for the whole family.

The Race

As we mentioned at the start of the show, this event offers three distance options: a 16.4km Individual Sprint course, a 30.4km “Standard” course, and 42.4km “Marathon” course. The Marathon course is an ÖTILLÖ Merit Race.

All three courses are point-to-point style and center around the Tâmega River. This is a challenging landscape with lots of hills.

Our Thoughts

First of all, a huge thank you to Sergio for helping us put this course preview together. His energy and love for Swimrun is infectious and everything about this event speaks to his desire to put on the best race he can.

This event features what is best about Swimrun: the ability to explore a new region while moving seamlessly through nature. This race was already on our bucket list but it has definitely moved up. Registration is open now for this year’s event.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star review. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, and on YouTube. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any questions, feedback, and/or suggestions. Finally, you can support our efforts on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 6 Apr 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Matt Dixon

Welcome to episode 169 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We are graced by greatness this week on the show! Joining us is the legendary triathlon coach and founder of Purple Patch Fitness, Matt Dixon. We’re serious…he’s our guest this week! This was an awesome conversation about training, life and balance and we can’t wait to share it with you.

But first…

Training Update

Queue the air horn! Chris is back in the pool! It wasn’t pretty but it’s safe to say that the Böyz are back to our regularly scheduled training!

Shoutout

Our shoutout this week goes out to Andy Scherding. (Keep this name in mind for later in the show) He recently donated to our Wild Swimrun Wild Youth Initiative fundraiser and we really appreciate his support to help get more women and girls into the sport of Swimrun!

Wisdom Nugget of the Week

“Always do what you are afraid to do.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Tony Portillo. He ran the Hat 50k in Maryland over the weekend in what he self-described as “gloriously muddy conditions” plus took over an hour and twenty minutes off of his 50k PB. Strong work Tony!

Bonus award to friend of the pod Will Ramsey for running the Terrapin Mountain 50k a few weeks ago. It was a beastly looking course with over 7,000” of climbing over the 31 miles. Way to be!

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Before we get to the news we have a special race director report from our friend and Race Director of EX Swimrun Nicolas Roman with a preview of their 2023 events.

Now for the “news.”

In the bummer department, on our last TWIS we shared a new race announcement for Swimrun Whistler. Well, fast forward a few weeks and now we are sharing that the race is being postponed until 2024.

Swimrun is indeed a rollercoaster of emotions because we have a new race alert to share! Swimrun Cape Cod is a new event taking place on Cape Cod in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. This is a point to point race through some of the inland ponds and it looks great. The race date is Sept. 16 and they are offering two distance options (a short course and a super short course) for both teams and solo athletes. A long course will be added in 2024. If that wasn’t enough, sign up and use the code LOWTIDE to save 20% off of your registration!

So we’re still net plus one in the Western Hemisphere Swimruns department.

Over in the UK, Swimrun Coniston announced their 2023 race date. The Full and Sprint course events will take place on Sept. 24 in the “wild and rugged UK landscape” of Coniston. We believe that the courses will be similar to the now defunct Breca race that used to take place in the area.

Staying in the UK, “The Original Welsh Swimrun,” Love Swimrun Llanberis, is scheduled for June 17th and will offer a 6km sprint course and a 16km long course. According to their website, both courses are tough so make sure to check out that event!

If you happen to be in the UK a week before Swimrun Llanberis, head on over to Nene Park, Peterborough in Cambridgeshire for As Keen as Mustard’s event on June 10 and 11 offering everything from an intro friendly 5km to sporty 39km Swimrun distance options. They are calling the 39km event the “Hot Mustard” distance and we’re here for it!

Looking for other Swimrun events to race? Check out the UK-based Swimrun.com’s race calendar that breaks down events by country. Jon and Fred are doing an awesome job building out their website and it’s chock full of great content for beginners and seasoned Swimrunners alike.

Finally, are you looking for a Swimrun partner and wish there was an app to help you find someone? Some of you might remember us talking about a Tinder for Swimrun app called Swimder all the way back on Episode 4 of the podcast that we thought someone should develop. Well, fast forward 3 years and Nicolas Remires of Envol Coaching is doing just that! Luckily it’s called Swimrun Connect which is a much better name than Swimder. Check out his gofundme campaign and help crowdsource the new app that he is developing.

That’s it for this week. Reach out to us if there’s any Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Show Business

Make sure to check out our YouTube channel to see our latest video all about the Pull Buoy Simple Mount. We explain why we like this setup for Swimrun and include DIY instructions for making your own.

Matt Dixon, Founder of Purple Patch Fitness

It was so great to catch up with Matt Dixon. We both have a long history with Purple Patch Fitness and it was fun to chat with Daddy Dixon about his athletic roots, his evolving coaching philosophy, Swimrun training and so much more. This is definitely a “get your notepads out” conversation.

You can learn more about Purple Patch Fitness and all of their offerings on their website. Make sure to check out the Purple Patch Podcast as well for weekly wisdom from one of the best in the business.

Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Swimrun 101: Solo Swimrun w/ Adrian Cameron

Welcome to episode 168 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We have an extra-special episode this week. Joining us for our latest installment in our Swimrun 101 series is Adrian Cameron to discuss solo Swimrunning. Adrian is a super experienced Swimrunner in the solo category and we asked him to educate us (and you) about the solo category. He helps us break down what to expect during a solo Swimrun, what training and gear considerations should look like, and what races in the U.S. are good for beginners or folks new to the category.

This episode is chock full of wisdom nuggets. Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 23 Mar 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Bali Hope Swimrun Course Preview w/Race Director Tom Hickman

Welcome to episode 167 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We’ve got something special for everyone this week. We are sharing a course preview for the Bali Hope Swimrun that is taking place from September 27-30 in Indonesia. If you’re like us and thought “you had us at Bali” then you're going to love our conversation with race founder Tom Hickman.

But first…

Training Update

Training is starting to ramp up and Chris is about to start swimming again! We also recently made a pact, after a particularly wet and wild trail run on Sunday, that our weekend long runs/Swimrun trainings would be non-negotiable and would take place rain or shine. #nodogging

Shoutout

This week we’re shouting out our newest Patron on Patreon, Daniel Kernell. We really, really appreciate your support!

Speaking of Patreon, we recently hosted our first Patron meetup of the year and we had a great time chatting with everyone. Thank you all so much for taking the time to join us. It definitely got us super energized to keep putting out Swimrun content for everyone! And Dave, make sure you’re keeping your fingers pointing towards the bottom of the pool during your pull phase.

We also have a bonus shoutout to Marc Stettler. About a month ago we gave a shoutout to the Country of Switzerland for making it into the top 10 in terms of downloads. Marc reached out to let us know that he was likely personally responsible for this since he downloaded our entire back catalog of episodes so that he could binge listen to the show. Strong work and bless you!

Wisdom Nugget of the Week

“The only zen that you find on the top of mountains is the zen you bring up there.” - Robert Pirsig

Feats of Endurance

We haven’t had this segment in several weeks so we have a list of recognitions to give out. In no particular order:

Miriam Fendler for running her first marathon
The Maestro Twins for racing the Transcape Swimrun in Australia
Roxy Visser for swimming 11k yards from Rottnest Island to Perth (Western Australia)
Bronwen and Greg Deirksen for posting workouts from Puerto Rico
Derek Rosner for posting workouts from Puerto Rico

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Now for the “news.”

We will keep this edition short because we have a great course preview coming up.

There have been a couple of new race announcements in the past few weeks!

Mönacö Swimrun (tip of the hat for the double umlaut) recently launched and plans on hosting their first race in the Principality of Monaco in 2024.

Swimrun Whistler also recently announced their inaugural Swimrun scheduled for July 16th in British Columbia, Canada. Registration is open now. Also, Yay! More Swimruns in the Western Hemisphere!!

Over in the Canary Islands, Swimrun Series Canarias have opened registration for their Tenerife Swimrun (May 6th) and their Gran Canaria Swimrun (June 10th). Both these races look spectacular!

If only we lived in Europe and/or had unlimited sources of income!

That’s it for this week. Reach out to us if there’s any Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Show Business

Stay tuned for some upcoming YouTube videos on Swimrun Training and a comprehensive DIY for our Pull Buoy Simple Mount setup. Make sure you’re subscribed to our channel and, if not, smash that subscribe button.

Bali Hope Swimrun Course Preview with Tom Hickman

The Bali Hope Swimrun is a unique event. Taking place on the island of Lembongan in Bali, this small event is big on its community impact and reverence for the beauty of the region. It’s also SouthEast Asia’s original Swimrun.

It was great to chat with Tom to get the origin story for this race as well as get an overview of the race weekend, the course, and the charitable impact that it makes. It is so cool that events like these exist and we encourage everyone to check out the Bali Hope Swimrun website and consider adding this race to your bucket list. (It’s already on ours!)

Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 16 Mar 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Gear Talk w/The Swimrun Labs: Adidas Terrex Speed Ultra Trail Shoes

Welcome to episode 166 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We have a new edition of Gear Talk with Annie and Brooke of the Swimrun Labs this week. In this episode we do a deep dive into the shoe that we can’t stop recommending: the Adidas Terrex Speed Ultra Trail. We geek out on the shoe as well as talk about the other shoes in the Terrex line that we have tried and rank it all at the end with everyone’s favorite Pull Buoy Rankings.

It was unanimous that we loved this shoe. It was light and responsive, a non-issue in the water, and even allowed for prancing. Five pull buoys were awarded by everyone and we can’t recommend these shoes enough.

Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 9 Mar 2023 08:00:00 +0000

Swimrun 101: Swimrun Training

Welcome to episode 165 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we have another installment in our Swimrun 101 series. In the episode we share our thoughts on Swimrun training…thoughts formed from our many conversations with coaches, athletes, and our own training and racing experience. For this episode we break up our discussion on Swimrun training into three distinct training categories: physical fitness, fueling and hydration, and mental preparation.

Why are we doing this?

We’ve noticed in our own training what has helped us show up to the start lines confident for the challenges (known and unknown) and we’ve developed a pattern or rhythm to our training, with the help of our coach, to get prepared. We obviously don’t know or claim to know all there is to know about endurance training but we’d had a lot of guests on the show that do. Make sure to check the show to get hyperlinks to our interviews to the coaches and experts that we’ll be alluding to during this episode.

Anyway, we hope that you find our musings on training helpful.

Physical Fitness

Swim Training

We’ve found that building a giant base of swim fitness leads to better race experiences and that the base helps increase your run fitness in the process. We think that de-coupling your swimming so that it is something that is always happening in the background at least 2-4 times per week will get you more than ready for any Swimrun outside of something like the One Water Race.

There are a ton of resources out there to improve your swimming but at the very least any organized Masters Swim group will help get you on the path.

Run Training

When it comes to training for the run portion of any Swimrun, we’ve found that getting specific to both the distance and terrain in your training is the best approach. If your upcoming race is super hilly, then you know what to do. Remember that a Swimrun that has 17 miles of running doesn’t mean that you need to be able to bang out 17 miles in one shot before race day. Since the run sections are broken up, you’re usually able to get by with shorter runs in the lead up. Obviously, the fitter you are on the run, the “easier” the race will feel and the more fun you’ll have out there.

Strength/Cross-Training

We all know that we need to do more strength/stretching/yoga/cross-training. Our approach is to start small and try to be ultra consistent. Keep nailing the fundamentals and you’ll soon build the habit and see the results on race day.

Swimrun Training

Nothing simulates Swimrun better than a good’ole Swimrun practice. When you’re new to the sport these sessions are integral for you to learn the technique of Swimrun and work on all the little things that take up time during a race such as dealing with the tether, cabbing down, etc.

We’ve found that as we have gotten more experienced in the sport these sessions are less about making sure that we have all the mechanics down and more about working on intensity and pace. We definitely do less Swimrun practices that we used to but we’ve developed the muscle memory for what works for us.

Previous LTBz episodes about Swimrun training:

Mike Olzinski (EP 3 and EP 108)

Nicolas Remires (EP 14 and EP 126)

Nate Helming (EP 17)

Mario Fraioli (EP 30)

Gerry Rodrigues (EP 32)

Coach Jim Lube & Megan AMA

Ville Enburgh

John Stevens (EP 46 and EP 124)

Joe Friel (EP 115)

Fueling and Hydration

Gut Training

Just like anything else in Swimrun, you need to adapt to the unique challenges that these events can present. One of the biggest is fueling and hydration. Practicing what you will do on race day and having a nutrition plan in place is instrumental to maximizing your race performance on race day. Just as one would plan how they would tackle a difficult Swimrun course, you should also plan what you will do fueling wise.

This is definitely a place where we feel that we have learned a ton as a team. We feel so lucky to have been able to work with Precision Fuel and Hydration and it’s no coincidence that our race performances have improved as a result. We highly recommend checking out all the free information that they offer and start working on your fueling and hydration training for your next Swimrun.

Practicing Race Day fueling During Swimrun Training Sessions

This is a moving target that practice is key to nailing your strategy on race day. Just as you wouldn’t show up at a Swimrun without at least going through the paces a few times in your gear, practicing your strategy for race day is just as important.

Note that this is a moving target and as you get fitter, your fueling needs will evolve.

Previous LTBz episodes about Fueling and Hydration:

Andy Blow (EP 25 and EP 118)

Abby Coleman (EP 120)

Mental Preparation

Getting ready for the adventure of Swimrun isn’t just about being physically ready for the challenge, it is also about being mentally prepared for what lies ahead.

Get Aligned on Goals

Swimruns are great adventures that will test your body and mind. Whether you are racing solo or as part of team, getting aligned on what your goals are is key. Susie Moonan recommends that athletes be able to answer the question of “why?” Why are you doing this race is a great way to crystallize what you're hoping to get from the experience and this will help you if/when you hit a low point during a race.

Be Realistic

What does success look like? Or what should it look like? If you can go into a Swimrun with clear expectation on what success looks like you will be way more likely to find what you’re looking for in the sport. Swimrunning well is its own skill so don’t expect to be an expert at it your first time out.

It has taken us years to get to the point where we feel like we know what we are doing…and we still take wrong turns sometimes.

Embrace the Ambiguity

Similar to being realistic, embracing the nature of Swimrun is also key to having a successful race. Distances aren’t exact, aid stations may not be where you thought they were, and the weather can change rapidly. At risk of sounding totally tautological The more prepared you are for the randomness that you will experience during a race, the less of a mental challenge it will be when random things happen.

Previous LTBz episodes on the Mental Side of Things:

Susie Moonan (EP 54 and EP 122)

Brad Stulberg (EP 88 and EP 164)

Summary

So in summary, we think Swimrun training should look something like this:

swim consistently at varying intensities;

plan your run workouts to simulate the type of terrain and course that you will be racing;

do enough Swimrun practices so that you are comfortable with your gear and the mechanics of Swimrun transitions;

train your gut and start practicing your race day fueling and hydration well before race day; and

think about why you’re racing Swimrun and line up your goals and expectations accordingly.

This is our best thinking on what Swimrun training, on a straight-forward level, should consist of. That being said, we highly, highly recommend that listeners interested in taking their performance to the next level to look into coaching resources such as Envol Swimrun, Tower 26, Simcoachen, Purple Patch, and TOT Endurance.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 2 Mar 2023 08:00:00 +0000

Mastermind Class on Effective Teamwork with Brad Stulberg

Welcome to episode 164 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

Partners month concludes with something extra special for everyone. Joining us in Studio G for a masterclass on effective teamwork and the power of shared purpose is none other than Brad Stulberg. Brad researches, writes, and coaches on the characteristics that underlie sustainable excellence. No gimmicks or “hacks.” Just what works. So let’s get right to it!

In this masterclass Brad discusses his 5 tenets of effective teamwork that Swimrun teams can use to develop amazing partnershings:

Drop the ego

Make good decisions

Play to your strengths

Appreciate what frustrates you

Trust + tension = Productive Cohesion

Brad’s book, The Practice of Groundedness, is available now and his forthcoming book, Master of Change, will be published this September. You can follow Brad on Instagram and Twitter.

Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 23 Feb 2023 08:00:00 +0000

Team Landshark

Welcome to episode 163 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

Partners month continues with a team that is near and dear to our hearts: Team Landshark, a.k.a. Sarah Monk and Matt Murray. They are based out of Colorado and we love their positive vibe and sense of wonder for what is possible with Swimrun.

But first…

Training Update

No major training updates this week other than Chipper signed up for a 50k in March while Chris is ramping up to guide his blind cousin at the Eugene Marathon in April.

Shoutout

Our shoutout this week goes out to our friend Sean. You might know him best as Monk 1 of the Team Swimrun Monks. Sean recently announced that he and his wife are expecting their first child this Summer. Mazel Tov!

Wisdom Nugget of the Week

“Uncertainty is the test of trust, become comfortable with it.” - Mark Allen

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Markus Runssel. He ran the Sollentuna Winter Half in Sollentuna Sweden over the weekend and finished in 2nd place made all the more impressive by his left spike breaking after the first 1k of the “running on ice” portion of the race. If the name sounds familiar, he is ½ of Team German Sparkle Party. Check out our interview with them on Episode 152 of the show.

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Now for the “news.”

The Swimrunning world was stunned this past week by the news that ÖTILLÖ co-founders and race directors Michael Lemmel and Mats Skott were stepping away from the company after 17 years. Soon after the news broke, Swimrunners from all over the world began paying tribute to their legacy and impact both within the sport of Swimrun and their environmental work.

A few days after this announcement, ÖTILLÖ issued a press release stating that Staffan Björklund will act as the new race director for the company. According to the release: “Staffan’s experience in the Swimrun sport is extensive. He worked at the very first ÖTILLÖ event in 2006, won ÖTILLÖ Utö in 2013, and raced ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship, seven times.”

While it certainly feels like an important chapter in the history of the sport that we all love is ending, we remain hopeful for the future as this new chapter begins. As it always has been, it’s up to all of us to continue what Michael and Mats started 17 years ago and work with Staffan and the rest of the team at ÖTILLÖ and keep growing our community.

Finally, on a programming note, we are planning on interviewing Staffan for the show soon so stay tuned for that conversation.

That’s it for this week. Reach out to us if there’s any Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Show Business

Partners month is being supported by our friends at Precision Fuel and Hydration. Make sure to check out their free online race nutrition planning tool to help you prepare for race day. Need hydration and/or fuel to go along with your new shiny plan for race day? Click on this link to save 15% off of your first order.

Team Landshark

Sarah and Matt are the best. We love their enthusiasm for Swimrun and their positive vibes. In this conversation we chatted about their Swimrun origin story, the magic of their first event at Orcas Island, got some solid gold partner tips, and a lot more. We loved this conversation and know that you will as well.

Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 08:00:00 +0000

Team Monkey Sea Monkey Run

Welcome to episode 162 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

It’s Partners month and this week we have the newish team of Sarah Keiffer and Viv Mroz, a.k.a., Team Monkey Sea Monkey Run. To say that these ladies have caught the Swimrun bug is an understatement! After racing Ödyssey Swimrun Orcas Island with the Traverse Fitness crew, they signed up for Swimrun NC soon after, and just qualified for ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. Their energy is infectious and we loved this conversation.

But first…

Training Update

No major training updates this week other than now that we know what we will be doing in early September, the rest of our training calendar will be falling into place accordingly.

Shoutout

Our shoutout this week goes out to the 8 U.S. teams that qualified for Worlds. Our hope is that as the sport continues to grow here in the states, that more folks will put ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship on their bucket list of must-do events. Huge congrats on qualifying and happy training!

Wisdom Nugget of the Week

“Inner peace, then outer results. Not the other way around.” - Mark Allen

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Kathryn Meinhardt. She recently posted a solid 10,000 yard swim and wore her new Löw Tide Böyz swim cap. Basically making it an automatic win but also a stout feat of endurance in its own right.

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Now for the “news.”

In Sweden, Koster Swimrun announced the date of this year’s event. Or should we say dates…because this event is a three day experience with athletes arriving on Sept. 22nd to take a ferry to the Koster Islands from Strömstad, racing on the 23rd and returning home on the 24th. Included in the price are 2 nights lodging, 2 breakfasts, 2 dinners, and Kristian’s fish soup at the finish line!

Down in Portugal, Swimrun Portugal’s Azores Swimrun is scheduled for March 4th and looks to be another awesome event.

Over in France, Swimrunman’s Gorges du Verdon race is taking place on April 30th and offers 4 distance options including a 66km Ultra distance which is also an ÖTILLÖ merit race for those of you who care about that sort of thing. The Ultra distance is also considered one of the hardest Swimruns in the world for those of you who care about that sort of thing.

Finally, here in the United States, the first Swimrun of the year will be on April 22nd at Swimrun Lake James. We loved this event when we raced it in 2022 and are bummed to be missing this year’s edition.

That’s it for this week. Reach out to us if there’s any Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Show Business

Partners month is being supported by our friends at Precision Fuel and Hydration. Did you know that they offer a free online race nutrition planning tool to help folks prepare for events? The best part is that they have a dedicated Swimrun category. Check it out and get prepared for race day. Need fuel for race day? Click on this link to save 15% off of your first order.

Team Monkey Sea Monkey Run

Viv and Sarah are great. It seems like destiny that they found Swimrun and in this conversation we chatted about how they got started, how they trained from afar (Sarah in Colorado and Viv in NYC), and what their plans are for the future. Note: we recorded this episode before they found out that they qualified for ÖTILLÖ, so it’s extra cool to be able to release this episode so soon after Swimrun Christmas. If you’re not super stoked after listening to this conversation, go ahead and check to make sure you have a pulse.

Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 9 Feb 2023 08:00:00 +0000

Team Strömgren

Welcome to episode 161 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

First, happy Swimrun Christmas for everyone vying for a slot to the 2023 ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship!

We are officially kicking off the third edition of Partners Month, wherein we highlight one of our favorite aspects of Swimrun: teams! First up this month are Annika Westin and Marie Anderzén, A.K.A. Team Strömgren. We’ve been following these ladies in our Strava Club for a long time and we were lucky enough to finally meet them in person in Sweden last year. This was a great conversation and we can’t wait to share it with you!

But first…

Training Update

The base building continues and Chris’s existential dread from not being able to swim for about another month is causing him anxiety. Despite that, we’re looking forward to training together more often on land until Chris finally is back in the pool/ocean.

Shoutout

Our shoutout this week goes out to the country of Switzerland. They recently cracked our top ten list for downloads by county and we’re for it. We will hopefully be “there for it” in Engadin in 2024.

Wisdom Nugget of the Week

“Rest is honoring your body and its need to repair physically. It is also essential for recharging your emotional and spiritual batteries. It is the partner to work. When joined together these two powerful forces create magnificence in life.” - Mark Allen

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is our friend, previous guest, and Kanchō Bōy Addison. He posted a magical snow running adventure from his native Boulder and it looked…magical! Keep up the good work buddy. (Check out the Kancho Boyz interview from last year’s Partners Month on Episode 110 of the show.)

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Now for the “news.”

There’s really only one piece of news for the week and that is the results of the ÖTILLÖ Ranking Selection for this year’s Swimrun World Championship were announced today. Congratulations to everyone that qualified! For those that just missed out, don’t lose heart. We’ve heard a bunch of stories of teams getting the call/email that a slot opened up for them as late as July and August.

In meme news, there will be a lot of memes posted on the LTBz account today so head over these for all the hilarity.

Finally, want to join us for a great tune up race for ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship? Then sign up for Ödyssey Casco Bay in July 9th. For our European listeners, consider this our invitation to you to plan a trip to America and experience the best of U.S. Swimrunning. Plus, there’s a post-race party hosted by a certain team whose name ends in a “z’.”

That’s it for this week. Reach out to us if there’s any Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Show Business

Partners month is being supported by our friends at Precision Fuel and Hydration. We’ve been using their products for years and swear by them. Their website is a wealth of information on all things hydration, fueling and training and they offer free consultations with their nutritionists to help you dial in your plan for your upcoming event. Want to see what all the fuss is about? Use the code in the hyperlink to save 15% off of your first order.

Team Strömgren

It was so much fun to chat with Annika and Marie. We only got to chat with them briefly in Sweden and it was great to get their Swimrun origin story and chat about their adventures as a team. We love their enthusiasm and think that everyone will get some wisdom nuggets from their team approach.

Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 2 Feb 2023 08:00:00 +0000

Jason Magness, Bend Racing

Welcome to episode 160 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we have an exclusive first look at the new Sunriver and Elk Lake Swimruns happening this year in Bend, Oregon with race director and adventure racing legend, Jason Magness of Bend Racing. This episode isn’t a course preview but we get into all the cool details that will make any Swimrunner check to see what flights are looking like after this interview.

But first…

Training Update

If it wasn’t official before this show, it is now! Our first race of the season will be Sunriver Swimrun on May 7th. Our training will start ramping up accordingly but for now it’s all about building that base.

Shoutout

Our shoutout this week goes out to our newest patron on Patreon, Greg. He is racing Swimrun Lake James in a few months and ÖTILLÖ Utö a few months after that. Happy training and thanks so much for the support!

Wisdom Nugget of the Week

New segment alert!!!

(Long story, short: In 2014, Mark Allen (6x Ironman World Champion) wrote a book called The Art of Competition where we published a ton of inspirational quotes coupled with amazing photography. My son recently found this book and has asked us to read it to him. My wife thinks that the quotes read like endurance fortune cookies and here we are. We’ll be sharing one each week, hope you find them thought provoking and not totally cheesy.)

“Beating an opponent at their game is tough; Beating them at yours is not.”

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is our friend Miriam. She is half of Team PB and Bananas and is training for her first marathon that is taking place in just over a month. Over the weekend she logged a 30k training run and it was her longest run ever to date. Strong work!

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Now for the “news.”

Swimrun Australia has announced that their Sydney East Swimrun will be taking place on April 29th. This race was last held in 2019 and was canceled the last few years due to COVID. We’re happy to see it back but whatever you do, do not look at the course maps. They are 100% guaranteed to give you FOMO!

Anyone want to head over to Bali for a Swimrun? (It’s a rhetorical question) The Bali Hope Swimrun is happening on September 30th. The course is 22.5km and features a boat jump start and swim to shore which is always an awesome way to start a Swimrun.

Uruguay Swimrun’s La Paloma Swimrun is fast approaching on February 5th. We love seeing events taking place in South America and are hoping to have someone from Uruguay Swimrun on the show soon to chat about the growing scene over there.

Finally, Swimrun Christmas, A.K.A. ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship ranking selection announcement day is just a week away! Best of luck to everyone vying for a slot at the O.G. Swimrun that started it all.

That’s it for this week. Reach out to us if there’s any Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Show Business

Do you love our brand of super niche content? If so, there are two ways that you can help us get more people into the sport of Swimrun. First, take a moment to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or a rating on Spotify. These actually help new people discover the show and it allows us to justify to our wives why we need closets full of pull buoys, wetsuits and stuff. Second, consider supporting our efforts on Patreon. Your support helps us “keep the lights on” and fund the new stickers that we give away at events. Our patrons get bonus discounts on LTBz merch, access to zoom meetups, and receive random gifts from us at random times.

Jason Magness, Bend Racing

In case the name sounds familiar, we recently had Jason on the show as part of our One Water Race recap series in episode 147 with Team Bend Racing. Besides being an adventure racing legend, Jason is a race director that organizes awesome adventure races. This year, he is adding two Swimruns to his list of events. In this interview, we chatted with Jason about what inspired him to create two new events, we get an overview of both the Sunriver and Elk Lake events, and chat about why new events are so important for the growth of the sport. This was a super fun chat and we hope to see a ton of folks in Bend Oregon later this year!

Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 08:00:00 +0000

Gear Talk w/The Swimrun Labs: 2023 Orca Swimrun Wetsuits

Welcome to episode 159 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We have a new edition of Gear Talk with Annie and Brooke of the Swimrun Labs this week. In this episode we share an exclusive interview with Orca Product Designer Iñigo Pereda and the gang does a deep dive into the 2023 Orca Swimrun Wetsuit line. Also, pull buoy rankings are back!

Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 19 Jan 2023 08:00:00 +0000

Amanda Nilsson

Welcome to episode 158 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We have a great show this week. Joining us in Studio G is the one and only Amanda Nilsson. She is one of the world’s best Swimrunners and is just an amazing person. We had a great chat (it was her first-ever podcast interview) and we can’t wait to share our conversation with all of you.

But first…

Training Update

Over the past week, California has been experiencing a rain-pocalypse and it’s been hard to rally to train outside in the torrential rains and gusty winds. Luckily, we’re still at the beginning of our first build phase of the year so there’s plenty of time to get after it.

Shoutout/Feats of Endurance

We’re doing a combo this week to shoutout our friend, Henrik Forssell, for both doing a Swimrun…in January…in Sweden but also for doing at least one Swimrun a month for 27 consecutive months!! It’s at once genius and insane to get out there in Stockholm year round. An impressive feat for sure and worthy of us making him the second inductee into the LTBz Feats of Endurance Hall of Fame. (Amber Ferreira is the other inductee) Congrats buddy!

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Now for the “news.”

Hero Swimrun recently unveiled a new logo and announced the date of this year’s Swimrun: April 15, 2023. If possible, make your way to Rio de Janeiro and report back! By the way, you can learn more about Hero Swimrun and its founder Fabio Iskandarian on Episode 61 of the show.

Swimrun Portugal has shared their 2023 race calendar. They will be putting on 7 races this year starting with their Azores race on March 4th and closing the season with their Madeira race on October 15th. By the way, you can learn more about Swimrun Portugal and its founder Bruno Safara on Episode 35 of the show.

Last, but not least, As Keen As Mustard Events has set their four races for 2023. They are also putting on a “Mustard Training and Kit Testing” event on June 3rd at Sibson Lake in the town of Stibbington. This is such a great idea to get folks new to Swimrun to try things out outside in a supportive environment. Good stuff! By the way, you can learn more about As Keen As Mustard and the mother/daughter duo, Nicky and Chelsey Bailey, on Episode 56 of the show.

That’s it for this week. Reach out to us if there’s any Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Show Business

We have a lot of new people listening to the show so we wanted to share some of the resources that we have for folks just getting into the sport. On our website we have gear guides, DIY tutorials, episode summaries, LTBz swag and a lot more. You can also check out our Youtube channel for videos on all kinds of stuff. On Facebook, we have a Swimrun Swap Meet for selling/buying/borrowing Swimrun gear. Finally, make sure to check out our instagram meme page @thelowtideboyz for (nearly) daily hilarity, mini-gear reviews, show announcements, and other random stuff.

Amanda Nilsson

It was so great to chat with Amanda. She’s an incredible athlete and hearing how she improved her swimming to match her amazing running was super inspiring. In this conversation we chatted about how she found Swimrun, where she finds her intense drive to compete, what it’s like to race with some of the best Swimrunners in the world, and a lot more. We say this a lot but she is so easy to root for and we look forward to seeing her Swimrun exploits in 2023.

Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 12 Jan 2023 08:00:00 +0000

2022 World Champions: Team Ark Swimrun Hugo and Max

Welcome to episode 157 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

Happy New Year everyone! In our annual tradition of setting the bar way too high for ourselves, we have a great show lined up to kick off 2023. Joining us this week are the 2022 World Champions and the only Men’s team to go undefeated in every event of the ÖTILLÖ World Series. Of course we are talking about none other than Hugo Tormento and Max Andersson, A.K.A., Team Ark Swimrun Hugo and Max. This was a super fun conversation and we can’t wait to share it with all of you.

But first…

Training Update

We’re still in off-season mode but our race calendar is starting to come together and it looks like our first Swimrun event will be in May at Bend Racing’s new Sunriver Swimrun in Bend, Oregon.

Shoutouts

In our Gear of the Year Awards episode with the Swimrun Labs we put out a call for gear ideas that don’t exist yet and we got some awesome responses. We will save the details for the next edition of Gear Talk but we wanted to shoutout some of the folks that had great/creative/violative of the laws of physics/genius ideas.

In no particular order: shoutouts to Katie, Pepe, Brendan, Henrik (a.k.a. Swimrun Pappa), Naomi, and Matt.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s Feats of Endurance winner is Vlad Caireac. He posted a workout from his native Moldova. He is our first Strava Club member from this Eastern European country and we’re here for it! Thanks for joining the club.

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club (which just passed 500 members!!!) and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

We are going to get back into the swing of things for this segment but wanted to share a quick update on our plans for the show in 2023.

Last year we focused a lot on our own Swimrun journey to ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship with our Countdown to ÖTILLÖ series and while we are planning on heading back to Sweden this year for another bite at that apple (if we re-qualify), we aren't planning on emphasizing our personal journey as much. Rather, we are re-focusing on helping grow the sport and showcase why we think that the sport is so great and why everyone with any propensity for swimming and running should try it. In that vein, we will be producing more "course preview" episodes for races on our bucket list, since living vicariously is the best we can hope for given our family and work responsibilities. We will also be producing more content specifically for beginners that we will be featuring in our IG and YouTube feeds.

Now for the “news.”

In the bummer department, Ödyssey Swimrun recently announced that their Coastal Dunes race which was scheduled for early March was forced to be canceled due to permitting issues. All registered participants have been notified.

In other (non-bummer) Ödyssey news, they have opened registration for all their 2023 events which include Casco Bay, Mackinac Island, Orcas Island, and Austin. If that wasn’t enough for you, registration for all their events is 30% off through the month of January!

Time for a short PSA: As someone who’s worked in the endurance space for almost a decade I can tell you that putting on races, and especially Swimrun events, is a painstaking and expensive process with very little guarantee of success early on and most races are, in effect, crowdsourced by registration revenue. Registering early (and often) helps make sure that the events that we know and love keep happening year after year. Moral of the story, register for your Swimrun events early, save money, and help race directors put on amazing events.

Over in Sweden, ÖTILLÖ announced that their Isles of Scilly event will not take place in 2023. They also mentioned that a new race destination will be announced in like 100 days from now. Our investigative team is hard at work trying to figure out the destination and so far we are pretty sure that the event will be in the Northern Hemisphere. More details forthcoming on that!

In other ÖTILLÖ news, registration for the 2023 ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship via Swimrun ranking points is open! The registration window is open until January 20, 2023 and teams will be informed on February 2nd (Swimrun Christmas) on whether they will be spending a 9 months obsessing about the Stockholm Archipelago.

Finally, want to hang out and train with one of the best Swimrun coaches in the world? Nicolas Remires of Envol Swimrun is hosting a training camp at the Playitas Resort on Fuerteventura from January 30-February 6th. Just google the location and you’ll want to attend. Reach out to Envol Coaching for more information about that camp.

Show Business

As you heard at the beginning of the show, the people have spoken and apparently we are the winner’s of Swimrun.com’s 2022 Maven Award (for Individual(s) who have widened participation, awareness and growth of the sport.) Thank you to everyone that voted, we are truly humbled that our brand of super niche content has an audience and that people find it helpful.

The 2022 World Champions: Team Ark Swimrun Hugo and Max

What can we say about Hugo and Max that isn’t inundated with superlatives? They had an incredible 2022 Swimrun season where they won every race that they entered, set the course record at ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship in a commanding fashion, and all the while being great ambassadors for the sport. In this conversation we chatted with them about how they teamed up, how they trained and managed to prepare for a busy racing season, we got mini-race reports from their World Series races and, of course, discussed their record-breaking performance at ÖTILLÖ.

As we mentioned at the outset, we may have set the bar too high for ourselves…

Enjoy our conversation with Hugo and Max, reigning World Champions and all around amazing human beings.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 5 Jan 2023 08:00:00 +0000

Gear of the Year Awards w/The Swimrun Labs

Welcome to episode 156 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We’ve got something special for our last episode of 2022. Joining us in Studio G are Annie and Brooke from the Swimrun Labs to co-host our first ever “Gear of the Year” awards. These aren’t your usual awards and we don’t have anything close to the usual award categories. Check out the show to see what gear we loved in 2022, what gear made us go “huh?” and what gear doesn’t exist yet, but should.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 29 Dec 2022 08:00:00 +0000

LTBz Fireside Chat 2022

Welcome to episode 155 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This is our third annual “Fireside Chat” where we take a look back at 2022 and look forward to 2023. This year has been epic on so many levels and we are filled with gratitude for the love and support of our families, friends, Patreon members, brand sponsors, and fans of the show. Our brand of super niche content will continue unabated in 2023. Thanks again for your support all year!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 22 Dec 2022 08:00:00 +0000

Team Envol Spam Fika

Welcome to episode 154 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we have the second of our three “year in review” episodes to look back on what has been by all accounts an epic year of Swimrunning. Joining us this week to talk about their amazing year are the American super team of Marcus Barton and Kawika Tarayao, A.K.A. Team Envol Spam Fika.

In this conversation we chat about how Beek and Marcus teamed up (spoiler alert: Nicolas Remires was involved,) how they trained while in different time zones, their diabolical race schedule leading to (and through) ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship, their awesome performance yielding a top ten finish at the World Championship, and what the future holds for them. It was so cool to see their development as a team throughout the year and we had a blast cheering them on. We expect continued excellence from Marcus and Beek as they take on 2023 with the same enthusiasm.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 15 Dec 2022 08:00:00 +0000

A Year to Remember with Team Adorkable

Welcome to episode 153 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

It’s December and we are starting the first of three “year in review” episodes to look back on what has been an epic year of Swimrunning. Joining us this week to talk about their amazing year are our friends Trista and Amy, A.K.A. Team Adorkable. If you haven’t been following their exploits this year, well no worries because we recap their 2022 adventures.

In this conversation we chat about the lofty goals that they set for themselves, their build to ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship, what it’s like to be Swimrun celebrities being featured in this year’s hype film by our friend Rasmus, and so much more. Trista and Amy are everything that is great about Swimrun and we look forward to continuing to follow their exploits in the coming year!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 8 Dec 2022 08:00:00 +0000

Team Dryrobe A.K.A., Team German Sparkle Party

Welcome to episode 152 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we have a team that we met in Sweden and instantly vibed with. Joining us in Studio G is Team dryrobe/German Sparkle Party: Fabian Eberhard and Markus Rössel. These guys are stud Swimrunners and great ambassadors for the sport. This was a super fun conversation that you won’t want to miss!

But first...

Training Update

The training update is that there is still no training update. Yay!

Shoutouts

Our shoutout this week goes to Lars Risberg. He is the lucky guy that won a set of custom LTBz-designed Frank Paddle Pro paddles last week. Congrats Lars!

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Victor Rosado. Victor is a previous winner and he’s definitely cracked the super advanced LTBz selection algorithm by posting workouts in Puerto Rico over the weekend.

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

Show Business

Speaking of dryrobe…we are super stoked to announce that they are our newest supporter. We are looking forward to working with them next year on some cool content and will be doing some fun contests so stay tuned for all that.

Team dryrobe/German Sparkle Party

It was so much fun to chat with Fabian and Markus about their Swimrun journey. As we mentioned at the outset, we met them in Sweden a few months back and felt that instant connection of Swimrunners that take the sport seriously but not themselves. In this conversation we chatted about how they found Swimrun, got a recap of their ÖTILLÖ experience and what is up next for them. We hope that you’ll enjoy this chat as much as we did.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 1 Dec 2022 08:00:00 +0000

One Water Race Recap: Part IV w/Team 4

Welcome to episode 151 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we have the final installment of our four-part series recapping the inaugural One Water Race. Joining us for this episode is the winning team comprised of Swimrun royalty Kristen Larsson, Daniel Hansson, and Adriel Young. We get into all the details about what it took to win the inaugural event so you won’t want to miss that.

But first...

Training Update

The training update is that there is no training update! We’re enjoying some unstructured time off from training and it’s glorious.

Shoutouts

Our shoutout this week goes to Katie Tobin. She sent us a DM that she’s loving the podcast and we’re loving that she’s loving the podcast. She’s planning on making her Swimrun debut in 2023 and is looking for a female to partner with at events. If Nicolas Remires can’t work his magic, we’ll humbly try to help.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Rococo who posted a coastal Swimrun workout on the Brittany Coast in France over the weekend. It looked like a cool route for sure!

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

We’ve got a short one for everyone this week.

Ever dreamed about racing a tropical Swimrun on an island off of the coast of Africa? Well if you haven’t, now you will! Swimrun Réunion took place over the weekend and the island and the event looked magical. Congrats to everyone that raced!

While it’s a bummer that Swimrun season is practically over in the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere is like “hold my beer.” Over the weekend, Torpedo Swimrun hosted their Cape Swimrun event in South Africa. Dubbed “Africa’s Original Ocean Swimrun” this event looked intense but super fun!

In other news, Wild Swimrun recently announced that their first camp for 2023 will be on the beautiful island of Mallorca. The camp will take place from March 23-26. We expect this camp to fill up fast so head over to their website to sign up!

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Show Business

Have you been getting bombarded with “Black Friday” emails even though it’s on another day of the week? So have we and while we think it’s slightly annoying we thought that we might as well jump on board. From now through the end of November, use the code BLACKFRIDAYHASNOMEANING to save 15% on everything in our store.

One Water Race Part IV: Team 4-Sweden and Australia

What an honor to get Kristen, Daniel, and Adriel on the same show! The only one missing was the team’s boat driver (and OG Swimrunner himself) Johan Hasselmark who couldn’t make it at the last minute. At this point, anyone who listens to this show enough knows that Team 4 won the inaugural race but there is so much more to the story than the 47 hours that it took them to traverse the entire Stockholm Archipelago. In this interview, we chatted about their preparations, trepidations, and aspirations going into the race and got a flavor of their epic race experience. This was an eye opening conversation about how some of the best Swimrunners in the world conquered this grueling event. Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 24 Nov 2022 08:00:00 +0000

Micro-influencers Chip and Chris

Welcome to episode 150 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We have something special for everyone to commemorate our 150th episode of the podcast. In this episode, we hand the reins over to the one and only Lars Finanger to host the show. His guests are the esteemed Swimrun micro-influencers, Chip and Chris. Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 17 Nov 2022 08:00:00 +0000

Ödyssey Swimrun Austin 2022 Race Report

Welcome to episode 149 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

It is done! We just got back from Ödyssey Swimrun Austin for our fifth and final race of the year and on this episode we are sharing our recap of one of our favorite events on the U.S. circuit. This was our third time racing Austin and it’s become a tradition to close out our year in Pace Bend Park. The positive Swimrun vibes were omnipresent all weekend and it’s safe to say that fun was had by all.

We finished this year’s Long Course in 3:14:16 which was good enough for 2nd Place Men’s Team (16 minutes behind 1st Place) and 6th Overall (including Long Course Solo athletes.)

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 10 Nov 2022 08:00:00 +0000

Katie Knight

Welcome to episode 148 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We have something special for this week’s show. Joining us in Studio G is the amazing obstacle course racing, ultramarathon running, CrossFit games competing, Swimrun World Championship finishing and all around amazing human being: Katie Knight. Her story of how she got to ÖTILLÖ and raced with the one and only Nicolas Remires is amazing and we’re stoked to share it with all of you.

But first...

Training Update

It’s race week! Our last Swimrun of the year is just around the corner and we are super stoked to be closing out the year (for the third year in a row) at Ödyssey Swimrun Austin. Hope to see you all there!

Shoutouts

Our shoutout this week goes to Braden Bell. He reached out to us earlier in the year to let us know that he was going to train to race his first Swimrun, and after putting in the work and being an early beneficiary of the “LTBz Gear Loan Program,” we will be lining up in Austin. We’re stoked for him and know that he will have a blast!

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is friend of the pod, Brooke Fallon. She ran the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington D.C. over the weekend and finished with a great time. (You can learn more about Brooke by listening to Episode 114 of the show where we interview Brooke and her daughter, Samantha, A.K.A. Team Fearless Fallons.)

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

We’ve got a short one for everyone this week.

Swimrunman recently announced the dates for their 2023 events. They will be hosting 3 events in France and all offer multiple distance options, ÖTILLÖ merit race points, and epic locations.

Speaking of ÖTILLÖ, they are hosting their final race of the year this weekend on the island of Malta. If you want to learn more about this race, check out Episode 98 for a race recap show with one of our favorite teams/humans, Bronwen and Greg of The Boston Wetsox.

Finally, are you looking to upgrade your swim paddle game? (That’s mostly a rhetorical question.) Make sure you head over to frankpaddle.com to pre-order a set of their Pro paddles. We love these paddles and love the attention to detail that goes into every set. Need more of an incentive? (Another mostly rhetorical question.) Everyone who places a pre-order will be entered into a drawing to win a set of paddles that have been custom painted by the Löw Tide Böyz. Yeah, we know. Wild!

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Show Business

Join us in Pace Bend Park for an LTBz/Wild Swimrun shakeout Swimrun/FIKA on Saturday, Nov. 5th at 11am at Camp Tex Lake where packet pickup and the start/finish will be for Sunday’s race.

Katie Knight

It was great to chat with Katie. She is an amazing athlete and a great ambassador for everything that she does. In this conversation we discussed her athletic background, what the World’s Toughest Mudder entails, and how she found herself at the start line of ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship in early September. She was featured in this year’s hype movie so make sure that you check that out to get even more details on her Swimrun journey. This was an inspiring conversation and we know that you will love it and much as we did!

Katie owns her own coaching business called Knighttimetraining.com and listeners can find her on Instagram.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 3 Nov 2022 07:00:00 +0000

One Water Race Recap: Part III w/Bend Racing

Welcome to episode 147 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we have the third installment of our four-part series recapping the inaugural One Water Race. Joining us on this episode is the entire Team 3 - USA, A.K.A. Bend Racing. We’ve never had so many people on one podcast and we’re here for it! Joining us are team captain Jason Magness, Tim Gorbold, Renee Metivier and Chris Wright. Folks in adventure racing circles are certainly familiar with Bend Racing and it was great to chat with them about their race experience.

But first...

Training Update

Our 2022 Swimrun season is almost over but not before going out with a bang and a couple of Yeehaws! at Ödyssey Swimrun Austin in two weeks. We will be doing some “training” but mostly trying to keep things steady until race day.

Shoutouts

Our shoutout this week goes to friend of the pod and previous guest Rick Mann. He recently suffered a heart attack during a training ride a few weeks ago. Our thoughts are with him and his family as he continues to recover…which appears to be going great since he’s already crushing monster swims in the Atlantic Ocean like he used to.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Glenn Wilko. He finished second in the Oceania Adventure Race on the Gold Coast of Australia over the weekend and it definitely looked like a feat of endurance. It took him (and his team) 25.5 hours to complete the 114 mile course with over 19,000ft. of elevation gain. Strong work!

Bonus shoutout to our friend Danny “Da Monster” Dvinov for finishing in 12th overall (out of 2,900 participants) at Ironman California. He continues to live up to his nickname!

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

We’ve got a short one for everyone this week.

ÖTILLÖ Cannes is in the books and the conditions were a repeat of last year, i.e., awesome! Congrats to Hugo and Max for keeping their season win streak alive as they head to the last ÖTILLÖ race of the year on the island of Malta in a few weeks.

Speaking of Cannes…make sure that you check out the race film by our friend Rasmus on Youtube.

The week after Cannes, the 6th edition of Swimrun Cote D’Azur took place up the coastline in France. The race conditions looked amazing and we love that they have three distance options that make the event as welcoming and inclusive as can be. We are dreaming about flying out to do both races back to back in the near future.

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Show Business

Join us in Pace Bend Park for an LTBz/Wild Swimrun shakeout Swimrun/FIKA on Saturday, Nov. 5th at 11am at Grisham Trail near where the cliff jump will be. We love hosting these shakeouts and this one is going to be extra special because we will have some special guests joining us including Bill and Chrissy, A.K.A. Team Mr. and Mrs. B, and Alex Sheen who are flying in from the U.K. for the race.

One Water Race Part III: Team 3 - USA

It was great to get Team 3’s race report. As we mentioned at the beginning of the show, Bend Racing is legendary in the adventure racing world and we learned why. In this conversation we spoke about how they got their team together, how they approached training, and got a detailed race report of their experience on the Archipelago. This was an emotional conversation since no one likes talking about DNF’s but we loved their candor and humility. Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Swimrun NC Race 2022 Report

Welcome to episode 146 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we have recap our penultimate race of the season: Swimrun NC. Race directors Herbert, Jan, and Jeff put on an amazing event and the positive Swimrun vibes were in ample supply at Hanging Rock State Park in Danbury, North Carolina. This race was so much fun (and so hard) and we’re stoked to share our race report for this “unique” event with all of you.

Swimrun NC is taking a year off but will be back in 2024. We highly recommend that folks check out this event. We will definitely be back!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 20 Oct 2022 07:00:00 +0000

One Water Race Recap: Part II w/Rob Preston

Welcome to episode 145 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we have the second installment of our four part series recapping the inaugural One Water Race. Joining us for this episode is the captain of Team 8 - Australia, Rob Preston. Team 8 surprised a bunch of folks with their second place finish and Rob shares his team’s journey with us.

But first...

Training Update

It’s race week! We are super stoked to be heading to North Carolina for SwimrunNC and hanging out at Hanging Rock State Park.

Shoutouts

Shoutout and thank you to our newest Patron on Patreon: Kathryn Meinhardt. Thank you so much for the support Kathryn and best of luck on your upcoming Ironman. She’s also part of the Brazen Racing crew so bonus shoutout just for that!

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Kate Klein. She ran the Chicago Marathon over the weekend and did great. It was a good “tune up” for Ödyssey Swimrun Austin that she’ll be racing next month.

Bonus award goes to the recently crowned 2022 Ironman World Championship Age Group 40-44 Winner Jana Richtrova. She crushed it out there!

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

We’ve got a couple of updates for everyone this week.

Swimrun season is winding down in the Northern Hemisphere and we are officially bummed out about that…but also excited to see the season end with some top notch events on the schedule.

Last Sunday, the Madeira Swimrun took place in Portugal. Race director and former guest of the show Bruno Safara definitely knows how to put on a Swimrun and this event looked spectacular.

Swimrun Portugal has just one more race on their schedule for 2022 so make sure to check out their Azores Island Swimrun on October 30th.

ÖTILLÖ Cannes is happening this weekend in France and if the race conditions are anything like they were last year, well participants are in for a treat!

Here in the States, there are just two Swimrun events left for 2022 with SwimrunNC taking place this coming weekend and Ödyssey Swimrun Austin on November 6th.

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Show Business

One last reminder: if you’re racing SwimrunNC, make sure to join us for a shakeout Swimrun at 3pm after packet pickup to do some final gear checks and scope out a bit of the course. Plus there will be fika at the end. Get all the info on FB here.

One Water Race Part II: Rob Preston

It was so great to chat with Rob about his team’s experience at the One Water Race. Team 8 - Australia had an awesome race and Rob really helped paint a picture of what it took to finish in 2nd place. In this conversation we chatted about why he decided to put a team together, how they trained, and what it was like being out there for 49 hours and 52 minutes. Rob is an adventure racing legend and it was cool getting to know him and now introducing him to all our listeners. Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 13 Oct 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Maria Rohman

Welcome to episode 144 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we welcome back the co-founder of Wild Swimrun and all around amazing human being, Maria Rohman. Hard to believe that the last time we had Mia on was all the way back in episode 10 but she’s back to share all the latest news at Wild Swimrun and her thoughts on how to inspire the next generation of Swimrunners.

But first...

Training Update

SwimrunNC is a little over a week away! Not sure we’ll get a Swimrun practice in before the race but we’ll definitely be hitting steep hills to get ready for the terrain.

If you’re racing SwimrunNC, make sure to join us for a shakeout Swimrun at 3pm after packet pickup to do some final gear checks and scope out a bit of the course. Plus there will be fika at the end. Get all the info on FB here.

Shoutouts

This week we are shouting out Chipper’s buddy Nate who finished the Run Rabbit Run 100 miler. It took him 31ish hours to complete the grueling course that had over 16,000ft of elevation gain. He also got stung by bees during the race! Strong work señior!

Feats of Endurance

This week’s Feats of Endurance winner is Rob Balucas. Back in 2015, Rob was in a serious bike accident in Marin County while training for his first 70.3 triathlon and was paralized from the waist down. In the year’s since he’s racing a bunch of Ironmans, is involved in the Challenged Athletes Foundation, and basically goes around inspiring people all day. Fast forward to today…at the time that this podcast is released Rob is racing the Ironman World Championship in Kona for the first time! Best of luck and we’re rooting for you!

Bonus shoutout to Helen Wikmar who is also racing her first Ironman World Championship today!

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

We’ve got a super short update this week.

The Troll Enez Swimrun took place in France over the weekend and this ÖTILLÖ Merit Race did not disappoint. Shout out to friends of the pod Matthieu Poullain and Eugenie Plane for winning the mixed division and coming in 2nd overall on the 50km course. (In case anyone hasn’t gotten their mind blown today…they finished with a bonkers time of 4:32!) Speaking of the course, the race takes place in the Gulf of Morbihan in Brittany. I looked up this location on the internets and I have three words for our listeners: “inland sea archipelago!”

Coming up next weekend is ÖTILLÖ Cannes and I can already feel the FOMO levels rising. Last year’s race was every Swimrunner’s dream and this year it looks to be no different. BTW, they still have slots available so if you’re feeling like Swimrunning in the south of France next weekend, by all means let us live vicariously through you.

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Show Business (the segment formally called Updates)

This week’s episode is all about the positive vibes that make Swimrun such an amazing sport and community. Help us grow this community by considering donating to the Wild Swimrun’s WILD Youth Initiative. This initiative helps fund women and girls to attend one of Wild Swimrun’s awesome camps. Since episode 10 we’ve raised enough money to fund two scholarships and we are close to funding a third. Head over to lowtideboyz.com and scroll to the bottom to donate to this amazing program.

Maria Rohman

It was so great to catch up with Mia. We’ve kept in touch since we met her and Fanny Kuhn in Catalina and it was great to see her in Sweden a few weeks back. We asked her to come back on the show to talk about how to introduce kids and families to Swimrun and get an update on all things Wild Swimrun. This conversation had all the feels and one again reaffirmed to us that Mia is one of Swimrun’s greatest ambassadors. We know you will love it as much as we did. Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 6 Oct 2022 07:00:00 +0000

One Water Race Recap: Part I w/ Thomas Ogander

Welcome to episode 143 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

On this episode we are doing something new and starting a four part series to do a proper recap of this year’s inaugural One Water Race. If you don’t know what we’re talking about, the One Water Race is a 250km (200km of running and 50km of swimming) adventure race across the entire Stockholm Archipelago. Joining us for Part I we welcome back to the show Co-founder and Race Director, Thomas Ogander to get his race recap of this truly epic event.

But first...

Training Update

Training for SwimrunNC is on! We are dialing back the swimming from our 6,000yd Tuesdays and our 4 hour Swimrun Saturdays and will be hitting the hills. Fun times!

Shoutouts

This week we are shouting out our latest Patrons on Patreon. A huge thank you to Chris Wright, Liz Baugher and Matt Skavnak for your support. We really, really appreciate it!

Feats of Endurance

This week’s Feats of Endurance winner is Caleb Baity. Over the weekend he won the Psychoactive Last Runner Standing race in Huntersville, NC. This race is 1.25 mile loop course where athletes just do loops until…well you can figure it out from there. Caleb ended up running 48 laps for a total of 60 miles! Strong work!

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

We’ve got some fun updates this week.

As Keen as Mustard hosted their Grafham Water Swimrun in Huntingdon UK this past Sunday. Shoutout to Jonathan Littlewood, Fred Newton, and Alex Sheen for strong performances! If you’re in the UK and looking to try Swimrun, definitely check out this race series. You can learn more about it on Episode 56 of the podcast where we interviewed the mother/daughter race directing duo of Nicky and Chelsey Bailey.

Moving across the channel to France, Swimrun de Carcassone took place and it looked like a blast. Shoutout to friends of the pod Matthieu Poullian and Nicolas Remires who were at the event.

Now moving north, the Koster Swimrun took place and dare I say that we have added another race to the bucket list. Similar to ÖTILLÖ, athletes took a ferry to the Koster Archipelago (Sweden’s only marine national park) on Friday, raced on Saturday, and took a ferry back to the mainland on Sunday…after what looked like a solid breakfast. A lot of heavy hitters were are this race including Adriel Young and Max Andersson, who won the Men’s division, Desirée Andersson and Anna Hellstrom won the Women’s division, and Annika Ericsson and Fredrik Granström won the Mixed division…while repping for Kraken Swimrun.

Moving east-ish, the 5th edition of the Swimrun Urban Challenge Dusseldorf took place and the turnout looked great! We love these easily accessible Swimrun events to help lower the barrier to entry for folks curious about the sport.

Finally, in other Swimrun-related news, friend of the pod and amazing Swimrunner Sabina Rapelli has launched her own coaching business called No Limit Coaching where she will be working with Swimrunners, multi-sport athletes as well as disabled athletes and older adults. We are super stoked for her and wish her all the best! You can learn more about her coaching offerings at nolimitscoaching.ch.

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Show Business (the segment formally called Updates)

We recently surpassed 100,000 downloads and with our new milestone we have some new stickers to giveaway! Our friend Sebastian, A.K.A. @the_radberg designed the sticker and we’re super stoked to share it with you all. If you want a free sticker or two, head over to lowtideboyz.com/stickers and fill out the form. These are going like fresh Kannelbullar so don’t delay if you want a free sticker.

One Water Race Part I: Thomas Ogander

It was great to catch up with Thomas Ogander after he made his dream of putting on the One Water Race a reality. When we first chatted with Thomas about the event back in Episode 104, we knew that this event was going to be epic. Fast forward almost 10 months from that conversation and we have the race in the books, a movie about the event will be released soon, and plans are underway for next year’s edition. In this conversation we chatted with Thomas about what it was like to go from ideation to execution of the race, what it was like on the ground, and what he plans on improving for next year. His passion for Swimrun, preserving nature, and epic feats of endurance shine through in the interview and we know that you will get your minds blown as much as we did. Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 29 Sep 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Team Old Man Speed

Welcome to episode 142 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

On this episode we share our last ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship-related conversation for a while. Joining us this week are friends of the pod Lars Finanger and Andy Blow, A.K.A. Team Old Man Speed. Like the band in Blues Brothers where a motley crew of musicians come together for one incredible show, Lars and Andy teamed up to put on a Swimrun performance. Spoiler alert: they had a great day on the archipelago a few weeks back and it was great to chat with them about how the race unfolded for them.

But first...

Training Update

Training is still in the “do what you feel like doing” stage but we foresee a mini-build coming soon for our next race, SwimrunNC, taking place in just four weeks. (If you’re racing SwimrunNC, make sure to check out our course preview episode.)

Shoutouts

This week we are shouting out Sheila and Team Flying Squirrels. She is Chipper’s Mother in Law and has been a die hard supporter of us since we started the show. Dare I say that no other family member has listened to as many shows as she has? Anyway, it just so happened that she was in Orcas Island this past weekend on vacation and heard that there was a Swimrun happening from Team Flying Squirrels on the ferry over. In a classic Sheila move, she asked them if they had heard about the Low Tide Boyz! Rock star!

Feats of Endurance

This week we have two Feats of Endurance winners: First, Abby Rose (a previous winner) just swam the Pailolo Channel over the weekend, an 8.4 mile swim from the island of Maui to the island of Moloka’i. Second, Steve Henn wins with just an epic Strava title, “Morning ride to Aphroditie’s temple,” while on vacation in Greece. Strong work all around!

Bonus shoutout to everyone that raced Ödyssey Swimrun Orcas Island over the weekend. The FOMO level was extremely high. That first swim though!

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

We’re keeping it short this week.

One of our favorite races, Ödyssey Swimrun Orcas Island, took place over the weekend and the weather looked amazing. For more details on how the race unfolded, we have another edition of Race Director Reports with Ödyssey co-founder and today’s guest, Lars Finanger. Enjoy!

Yes, join us at Ödyssey Swimrun Austin to close out the USA’s Swimrun season. We can’t recommend this race enough. It’s great for first-timers and experienced Swimrunners alike.

Over in Europe, Italy held their Aquaticrunner Solo Swimrunner “World Championships.” It looked like a great day out there. Special shout out to friend of the pod, Christian Götz, for a stout second place finish in the “non-italian” division just a few weeks after racing ÖTILLÖ.

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Updates

Check out our latest episode of Gear Talk with Annie and Brooke from the Swimrun Labs where we breakdown our gear choices at ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship, what we wish we had done differently, and so much more.

Celebrations are in order! A few weeks ago we surpassed 100,000 downloads and we are honestly humbled that so many folks have checked out the show. When we started this thing, our mission was to help grow the sport of Swimrun but that does not happen without the support of all the fans that have been tuning in for our brand of super niche content. Thank you so much for sticking with us!

A new milestone means new stickers! Our friend Sebastian, A.K.A. @the_radberg designed the new sticker and we’re super stoked to share it with you all. #nospoilers If you want a free sticker or two, head over to lowtideboyz.com/stickers and fill out the form.

Team Old Man Speed

When a couple of amazing athletes (former pro/could still be pro triathletes) decide to race ÖTILLÖ together and then name themselves Team Old Man Speed, you roll your eyes a bit but you don’t have to be a couple of amateur journalists like the Löw Tide Böyz to know that there’s a good story there. Both previous guests of the show, Lars and Andy love Swimrun and jumped at the chance of racing together…once their wives said that it was ok. In this conversation we get their race report on what was an amazing day on the Archipelago while chronicling their decades long friendship, and sharing a lot of laughs along the way. This was a great chat and we know that you will love it as much as we did. Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 22 Sep 2022 07:00:00 +0000

ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship Gear Recap

Gear Selection Recap for ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship.

Welcome to Gear Talk with our friends Annie and Brooke from Swimrun Labs.

In this episode, the gang catches up about all things…ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. We discuss the gear selection choices, how the race went, and so much more. Annie and Brooke ask most of the questions but this conversation goes beyond just gear. Enjoy!

That’s it for this week’s Gear Talk show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions, and/or meme ideas. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Team Stena Recycling

Welcome to episode 141 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

While we are physically back in California, we are very much still basking in a Swedish glow from last week’s ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. To keep those vibes going, we are joined on the show this week by Helena Sivertsson and Ulrika Eriksson, a.k.a. Team Stena Recycling. Helena and Ulrika are amazing athletes, multiple time World Champions and winners of this year’s race while setting a new course record (and veritably smashing the old one) in the process.

But first...

Training Update

It’s nice to be able to say that there is no training update this week. We took a much earned chill week but will start setting our sights for our next race, SwimrunNC, happening in a month. (BTW, this is the last year that this ÖTILLÖ merit race is taking place. There are still some race entries available so sign up and join us at Hanging Rock State Park in October!)

Shoutouts

This week we are shouting out our spouses. We know that we shout them out at the end of every episode but they really went above and beyond handling everything at home while we were in Sweden last week. It’s not easy to have to hear us talk about Swimrun all the time AND be away for races and we thank them for supporting us on this wild journey.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s Feats of Endurance winners are literally everyone that lined up at the start of the World Championship last week. Just getting to that start line required hard work, dedication, and courage. We see you and we’re stoked to have been able to share the day with you.

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

We’ve got a couple of updates for everyone this week.

There are a lot of great events happening this weekend!

Here in the U.S., one of our favorite races, Ödyssey Swimrun Orcas Island, is happening on Sunday. This race is awesome and the location is truly magical. We’ve said this before but if you’re the type of person that waits until the last minute, well now is your time to shine…and sign up. Make sure to use the code LOWTIDEBOYZ to save 15% off of your registration.

Over in Finland, the Folkhälsan Swimrun is taking place on Saturday. We keep hearing awesome things about the vibes at this event and definitely plan on racing it one of these years. Maybe next year?

In Spain, Swimrun Madrid is hosting their Swimrun El Atazar on Sunday. The location is about 45 minutes north of Madrid and looks dope. The race organizers are expecting over 300 Swimrunners from all over Spain and abroad so that is awesome! We definitely want to learn more about the Spanish Swimrunning scene so stay tuned for a future episode about that.

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Updates

Two new videos over on our YouTube channel. A Cabbing down overview, tips, and step-by-step guide and an overview and first impressions of the new Ark Sports Utö Air Sleeveless Wetsuit.

Check out our Gear Talk: Quick Hits Reels on our IG. We’ve been getting great feedback on these, so let us know if there is anything you want us to cover on that front.

Are you enjoying the show and want other people to find it and the sport of Swimrun? Well, consider leaving a review for the show on apple podcasts or rate us on spotify. This is the best way to help new people discover the show and it helps us look good. It only takes a minute and it means a lot to us.

Team Stena Recycling

What can we say about Helena and Ulrika? They are amazing athletes and it was so great to chat with them about their incredible performance at ÖTILLÖ. Even more incredible is that they teamed up on the way to the race after both of their original partners had to back out due to illness. In this conversation we talked about their racing background, got their race report, and discussed how to get more women into the sport. They were awesome and we think that you’ll love this conversation as much as we did.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 15 Sep 2022 07:00:00 +0000

ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship 2022 Race Report

Welcome to episode 140 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

“From LFG to WFD (We Fucking Did it!)”

Welcome to the Löw Tide Böyz, a Swimrun podcast. This is episode 140 of the show.

In this episode, we will be sharing our race report for the 2022 ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. This race our A-race to end all A-races and delivered on every level. In short, the race was amazing and it was the experience of a lifetime. We had a great day on the Archipelago and only deepened our love for the sport of Swimrun and the Swimrun community at large.

Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 8 Sep 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Countdown to ÖTILLÖ: 0 Months Out

Welcome to episode 139 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This is the final installment of our “Countdown to ÖTILLÖ” show where we discuss our journey to the start line of the 2022 ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. Well, the race is finally here. When this show is released we will already be in Sweden drinking Fika and finding slippery rocks to run on before heading to Djurönäset for the pre-race briefing. We have a lot of people to thank that helped us get to this point and we want to share some of the amazing pro-tips that we have received in the course of these Countdown episodes and over the years.

But first…

We want to give one final giant thank you to our supporters Ödyssey Swimrun, Frank Paddle, and Precision Fuel and Hydration for helping make this show possible. Make sure to use the code “LOWTIDE22” to save 15% off of your first order from Precision Fuel and Hydration. Use the code “LOWTIDEBOYZ” that is good for 15% off of your registration for any and all of Odyssey Swimrun’s 2022 events. Finally, Frank Paddle’s new paddles are out now! Definitely check those out if you’re interested in the latest evolution in carbon fiber swim paddle technology.

How’s the Body? How’s the Mind?

Safe to say that we both feel ready physically and mentally for the race. We are looking forward to sharing the adventure on the Archipelago and it is wild that the race is here after so many months!

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP PRO-TIPS

We are blessed to have been able to have so many great guests on the show to share with us their insight about the World Championship and we wanted to summarize some of the best tips that we got for everyone racing…or considering trying to quality. We’ve added hyperlinks to the shows mentioned in case anyone wants to listen to the complete interviews. Let’s get to it!

Oscar Olsson: Episode 85

On the longer runs, you know you’re getting to a swim leg when the gravel road ends. (Good time to start cabbing up)
Take a gel before starting the pig swim
Strobe lights at the first swim and the pig swim
Also, “take a fucking gel!”
Get moving after the pig swim to warm up and shake off the hard swim
Tether on the long runs
Definitely cab down for the ORNÖ run
The last swim before UTÖ can be tricky, spend an extra five seconds to get a sense of the current before going in

Marika Wagner: Episode 105

Enjoy the sunrise on the first swim

Diane Sadik: Episode 112

Eat every 30 minutes
Switch up leading swims early on to stay warm

The Swimrun Monks: Episode 122

Eat a lot.

Jenny Ramstedt: Episode 112

If you have a chance, running the island of ORNÖ outside of race is a good idea to get a sense of what the terrain will be like (knowledge is power pro tip)

Anna Lundberg: Episode 118

Namdö cutoff is the one to pay attention to
Get your suit on and organized before going to the breakfast on race morning

Bill Lankford: Episode 109

Bring a bag/luggage with wheels for your stuff because carrying a bag the day after the race will be tough

Jonas and Lars Ekman: Episode 116

Visualize minimizing your transitions to save time on race day
Do the race before you think you’re ready for it
Pace your swims in the first third of the race and try to find feet to draft off of

Ville Engberg: Episode 119

Watch out for the swim after the pig swim because that one is usually cold
Try to find a good pack to swim with early on
Don’t worry about not running on the first few islands

Nicolas Remires: Episode 126

Don’t try to memorize every leg. Instead think about the race in terms of five sections and learn the features of each section from aid-station/cut-off.

Andy Blow: Episode 118

Don’t go to the breakfast on race morning. It’s a mess. Instead bring whatever food you will eat with you so you don’t have to deal with that.

Jonas Colting: Episode 131

Don’t worry about doing a warm-up run before the race. Relax on the ferry and avoid the anxious energy: Use the first run as the warmup.
Do work and get through the swims

Susie Moonan: Episode 122

Take a moment to look at your partner and be present during the race
When you feel low, Remember why you are doing the race and focus on the belief that you can do this!

See you out there!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 1 Sep 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Gordo Byrn

Welcome to episode 138 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we welcome endurance legend Gordo Byrn. Gordo is a coach, stud endurance athlete and happens to be the only American to ever win ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. He won the event in 2010 with partner, and fellow endurance legend, Jonas Colting, and we go into all the details of their epic day on the Archipelago.

But first...

Training Update

We just finished our last big week of training with some major pool swims, 4-hour Swimruns, and lots of trail running. With ÖTILLÖ just 11 days away as of this episode’s release, we are feeling pretty good about stuff and are as ready as we’re going to get.

Shoutouts

This week we are shouting out to all the teams racing the One Water Race. More on this race later in the show but rest assured that everyone who lined up at the start is more than worthy of a shoutout.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s Feats of Endurance winner is Aaron Morrison who posted a surprisingly not-chilly Swimrun practice from Juneau Alaska over the weekend. Thanks for proving that if there’s a place to swim and a place to go running nearby, Swimrunning is possible!

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

We’ve got a big update for everyone this week.

In Norway, the epic Rockman Swimrun took place. This race looked as amazing as ever with some incredible photos that you can check out on their fb page. We asked Race Director, Thor Hesselberg, to share his race director report with us so enjoy this latest installment of Race Director Reports.

We also have some exclusive reporting to share about Rockman. In 2023, the race will introduce an Experience distance to go along with their ÖTILLÖ merit race distance.

In France, the also epic Swimrunman Laffrey (the race with the wild vertical kilometer to finish the world series distance race) and it looked like a perfect day for a super hard Swimrun. We love this race for a lot of reasons but especially because the event offers distances for all ability/desire levels from a ÖTILLÖ merit race distance all the way to a kids Swimrun.

In Sweden, there were some fun local Swimrun events that took place including the Skatås Sjöar Swimrun and the Immeln Swimrun. It’s so great to see these local events and it reminds us that these types of events is how the sport grows so make sure to support your local events by either signing up or volunteering.

By the time this show is released, teams will have finished, or will be close to having finished, the inaugural One Water Race. This event is easily the toughest/longest Swimrun event on the planet with a total distance of 250 kms and 50 kms of that being swimming! We promise to have a lot more coverage about the event and teams participating in the next few weeks once we are back from Sweden. In the meantime, check out our interview with co-founder and race director, Thomas Ogander, on Episode 104 of the podcast.

Here in the states, Ödyssey Swimrun Mackinac Island is happening this coming Sunday, August 28. If you’re the type of person that waits until the last minute, well now is your time to shine…and sign up. Make sure to use the code LOWTIDEBOYZ to save 15% off of your registration. This is the second edition of this race and we are bummed that we won’t be out there this year.

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Updates

We have an update for our LTBZ x SWE meetup on Saturday Sept. 3 at 18:30. Thank you to everyone that DM’d us with suggestions on locations. We are planning on posting up at the rooftop bar area of Tak Bar (you can go to tak.se to get location info.) We hope to see you all there!

Special bonus shoutout to Chet for the recommendation.

Gordo Byrn

We have to give a special shoutout to Lars Finanger for connecting us with Gordo. It was so cool to go back down memory lane with Gordo about his ÖTILLÖ experience. Even though it was twelve years ago now, his memories of the event are as crisp as ever and it was obvious that he had an amazing experience racing with Jonas Colting. In this chat, we talked about his endurance background, how he found his way to ÖTILLÖ and how he’s seen the sport evolve since his race back in 2010. We loved this conversation and know that you will as well. Enjoy!

BTW, check out Gordo’s blog that he’s been updating every week for almost 20 years at feelthebyrn.blog.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 25 Aug 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Team #batmansparents

Welcome to episode 137 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

Joining us on the show this week is the wife and husband duo of Liz and Jacob Gilden, A.K.A. Team #batmansparents. They are a power couple out of Virginia and are headed to Sweden for their first ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. This was a really fun conversation and we’re stoked to share it with you.

But first...

Training Update

We got in another solid week of training. We had some interesting scheduling challenges though. We ended up doing our Saturday-scheduled mondo Swimrun practice on Friday afternoon so Chris could prepare for his son’s 3rd birthday party. We have one more biggish week of training and then we’re two weeks away from ÖTILLÖ.

Shoutouts

We’ve got a mondo shouting out to give this week to the awesome crew at Traverse Fitness in Denver Colorado: Rob, Sara, Kellyn, Jane, Kate, Timmy, Sarah and Ben, Josh, Chris, Avery and Vivian. Rob Dm’d us a few months back and told us that he was bringing a big crew of people to Ödyssey Swimrun Orcas Island to do their first Swimrun. All in all, 22 athletes are making their way to Orcas Island. Awesome…we know! Anyway, we offered to do a Zoom call with them to answer any questions that they might have and we had that call this past weekend. We had a ton of fun chatting with them and we are so stoked for their adventure. They will all do great and we can’t wait for the post-race Zoom call to get all the race reports from them!

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Tobias Rop of Team Max Mockermann. Life was imitating “art” when he posted a Swimrun workout from Bled, Slovenia where there’s a baller lake with a castle on an island that we used in a meme a while back. Look at the show notes for the link to the meme. Strong work Toby.

Check out episode 57 of the show to learn more about this awesome team out of Germany.

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

We’ve got a short update for everyone this week.

In Sweden, the Juniskar Swimrun took place this past weekend and it looked like a warm day out there.

Also in Sweden, the popular Ångaloppet Swimrun happened on Saturday and Sunday and it was great to see so many kids racing with their parents. There we also Swimrunners racing in Speedo’s which isn’t something you see every day. (Looking at you George Bjalkemo!)

Down in South Africa, Torpedo Swimrun have announced their “Spring” race schedule of Torpedo Val de Vie on October 30th and Torpedo Cape Town on November 20th. They will have seven race distances over the two weekends so plenty of options for everyone.

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Updates

We are starting to get our plans together for Sweden and wanted to let everyone know that we are going to host a meetup on Saturday Sept. 3 in the evening at a bar/coffee shop/restaurant in Central Stockholm. Come out and say hi whether you’re racing ÖTILLÖ or not. We’ll post more details as we fine tune them. On that note, if anyone has a suggestion for a location, send us a DM.

Team #batmansparents

It was great to chat with Liz and Jacob. We loved their energy and candor about their build to ÖTILLÖ. It’s always interesting for us to hear Swimrun journeys and theirs is a sweet one. It started as a way for them to get to do events together and now they find themselves at the doorstep of the original Swimrun. We loved this conversation and know that you will as well!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 18 Aug 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Team We Be Family

Welcome to episode 136 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

In this show we catch up with Rick Mann and Kris Corbett, A.K.A., Team We Be Family. We’ve been following Rick’s endurance exploits on Strava for years and learned that he was racing this year’s ÖTILLÖ Engadin with his niece Kris. We’ve been wanting to get this team on the show and figured we might as well get a race report for an adventure that is high on our (long) bucket list. This was a great conversation of their epic challenge in the Swiss mountains.

But first...

Training Update

It’s been a while since we’ve had a “regular” show but at this point everybody knows what is looming ahead of us on September 5th. We’ve been putting in the work and have a couple more weeks of building before the taper begins. So expect long swims, long runs, and long Swimruns are in our near future.

Shoutouts

This week we are shouting out our newest Patrons on Patreon. Big, big thank you to Maikal Gaedker, Tracy Sesselberg, Sarah Estrella, and Chris Wright for your support. We really appreciate it and stay tuned for something special in your mailbox as a token of our thanks to you and all our Patrons.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Victor Rosado. Victor not only posted multiple Strava workouts from Puerto Rico, but his workouts were literally in Chris’s hometown of San Juan and near his ancestral neighborhood of Ocean Park.

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Welcome to the LTBz news desk!

We’re keeping it short this week because we’ve been on vacation.

Since we last had a TWIS, ÖTILLÖ Engadin and ÖTILLÖ Gothenburg took place. Both races looked amazing/challenging/epic. Keeping true to their 2022 world class form, Hugo and Max won both events and are primed for great things at the World Championship next month. Also true to form, and adding further evidence that she is the greatest Swimrunner of her generation, Desirée won the Women’s division in Engadin with her partner Amanda Nilsson and the Mixed division in Gothenburg with her partner Alex Berggren (2nd Overall) despite a pretty wicked fall and faceplant on a rock.

Speaking of ÖTILLÖ Gothernburg, our friends Marcus Barton and Kawika Tarayao, A.K.A. Team Envol Spam Fika were at the event and finished in a stellar 10th overall and 6th place Men’s team. We asked them to share with us their adventure so here’s a special bonus guest race report of their epic day. It’s also a mini-master class on tactics for navigating such a transition heavy race.

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Updates

Looking for some of the slickest/only Swimrun casual gear out there? Then make sure to head over to our online store for all your LTBz merch including shirts, hats, beanies, stickers, etc. As a bonus, merch may or may not have supernatural powers, case in point: our friend Sarah B. had podiumed every Swimrun that she has entered since buying her LTBz shirt. (She’s two for two!)

Team We Be Family

It was great to finally have Rick and Kris on the show. As we mentioned at the beginning of the show, we’ve known Rick and Kris for a while and first met them in person at the inaugural Ödyssey Swimrun Austin. We asked them to come on after their recent epic ÖTILLÖ Engadin adventure. It was so cool to see a team from Florida and Dallas respectively show up at one of the hardest/hilliest Swimruns out there ready for the challenge. While they were literally the last finishers of the World Series distance, they had an awesome day and we’re stoked to share their first-hand account of a race that has been near and dear to our hearts since we started flooding Instagram with cow memes.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 11 Aug 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Countdown to ÖTILLÖ: One Month Out

Welcome to episode 135 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we have the final edition of our “Countdown to ÖTILLÖ” show where we discuss our journey to the start line of the 2022 ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. In our quest to leave no stone unturned, we have Helen Wikmar, CEO of ARK Sports to talk about all things gear (one of our favorite topics) for the big day.

But first…

We want to give a big thank you to our supporters Ödyssey Swimrun, Frank Paddle, and Precision Fuel and Hydration for helping make this show series possible. Make sure to use the code “LOWTIDE22” to save 15% off of your first order from Precision Fuel and Hydration. Use the code “LOWTIDEBOYZ” that is good for 15% off of your registration for any and all of Odyssey Swimrun’s 2022 events. Finally, Frank Paddle’s new “PRO” paddles are out now!

How’s the Body? How’s the Mind?

We are both feeling good heading into our last month of training for the WC. We’ve been putting in some big days in the pool and on the trails and we’re getting our kits dialed in for the race.

Mentally we are both in a good place. Nervous for the unknown because there’s no denying that it is a big day but we’re looking forward to the amazing experience, come what may.

Helen Wikmar

It was great to have Helen back on the show to talk about gear considerations for the World Championship. She’s raced the event 2.5 times (one DNF) and has a ton of experience as both a Swimrunner and as the CEO of Ark Sports. She shared with us her best thinking on how to approach gear selection for the race and gave us her recommendations of what to wear. In the end, it’s a very individual decision but over indexing on not being cold seems like the best advice.

Just like that, we’re only a month away from a race that we’ve been dreaming about for many years. Thank you to everyone that is rooting for us!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 4 Aug 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Casco Bay and Folsom Swimrun Gear Breakdown

Welcome to Gear Talk with our friends Annie and Brooke from Swimrun Labs.

In this episode, the gang catches up after several months since the last show and go through their various gear choices for Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay and the Folsom Swimrun.

Since this was the first show in a while there was a lot of new gear that was discussed, including the new Ark Sports UTÖ Air, KORP, and VIGG suits, the VJ Ultra 2 shoe, the Adidas Terrex Speed Pro Trail shoe, Frank Paddle Pro Carbon Fiber swim paddles, and Two Toms Body Shield.

Stay tuned for future Gear Talk episodes!

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 2 Aug 2022 07:00:00 +0000

TBF Folsom Swimrun 2022 Race Report

Welcome to episode 134 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

Right on the heels of last week’s Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay race report show…we have another race report for this past weekend’s TBF Racing’s Folsom Swimrun. This was our 10th Swimrun and our first with our collective families present to share in the experience. We went in with zero expectations for this inaugural Swimrun and we experienced a really fun, well-organized event that we really enjoyed. (Also, we won the long course team division, so that was cool.)

Folsom Swimrun offered two distances: a short course that was around 4 miles total and a long course that was around 8 miles total. There were a lot of first time Swimrunners which was great to see and even a team composed of a guy and his dog. (They won the short course race) We opted to race the long course and our plan was to try to Swimrun at tempo as much as possible. It was a fun way to race for sure and in the end, we finished in second place overall and first place in the teams division.

Overall, this was a really fun event and we have to thank Bill and the rest of the team at TBF Racing for setting up a great course for their first ever Swimrun. We hope that they continue to put on Swimrun events since we believe that local, approachable events are the best way to get folks to try the sport in a low-stress setting. Finally, we want to give a big shoutout to everyone that showed up on Saturday for the race! Hope to see you all at the next one.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 28 Jul 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay 2022 Race Report

Welcome to episode 133 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We’ve got our second race report of 2022 to share with everyone this week! We just got back from Portland Maine after racing the sixth edition of Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay and we’re super stoked to share all the details of our third pilgrimage to the original U.S. Swimrun.

It was a great weekend from the moment we arrived and it was amazing to meet so many new Swimrunners and reconnect with old ones at our LTBz Patreon lunch, Ödyssey’s bib pickup, on the ferry to the race start, and at our post-race party.

The race itself was another level up for us. Our goal was to focus on keeping a steady effort throughout and be mindful of our nutrition and hydration on what ended up being a pretty warm and muggy day on the islands. We’re happy to report that we felt like we achieved our goal and had a ton of fun out on the course.

Our finishing time was 4:34:52, which was good for 5th place overall, 4th place mens team. Probably a better measure of our improvement was that our finishing time was a little over a half hour faster than our 2021 finishing time of 5:10.

This event was a blast and we plan on continuing our annual pilgrimage to Portland for this race next year. A huge shoutout to Lars, Aaron, John and Brent of the Ödyssey team for putting on a great event and for setting the vibe tone right from the start of the weekend all the way until the last finisher crossed the finish line.

Congrats to everyone that toed the line and hope to see you all again next year!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 21 Jul 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Swimrun 101: Top 5 Tips for New Swimrunners

Welcome to episode 132 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we have the latest installment in our Swimrun 101 series. In this episode, we are discussing our “official” LTBz top 5 tips for new Swimrunners entering the sport. We get these questions a lot and since we are on a mission to get as many people into the sport as possible, we thought that we would lay out our best thinking on what you should be thinking about if you’re new to this awesome sport. Also, because we are the first to say that we don’t have it all figured out, we asked some of our friends/uber experienced Swimrunners for their insights that we share along the way. Huge thanks to Marcus, Amy and Trista, and Bronwen and Greg for their help in getting this episode together.

Let’s get right to it…

Tip 1: Start Swimming More

Swimrun is more than just alternating swimming and running. At its purest, it’s a sport where participants try to move as seamlessly through nature as possible on their way from A to B. Taking that mindset is the best way to approach your first race.

That being said…you should start swimming more. The stronger of a swimmer that you become, the more likely that you will have a positive experience at your first event. Put another way, unlike run legs when you can walk, stop, or take a break, during swim legs you just have to get them done and the more confident of a swimmer you are, the less likely that your event will be an ordeal. We recommend that you incorporate swim paddles (that are the right size for you) and a buoy to simulate what you will likely be using during a race.

Not sure where to get started with Swimming. We recommend that you check out Tower 26 coaching. They have an awesome online Swim coaching program that we’ve used and helped us tremendously to progress our swimming.

Bonus Tip 1b: Eat/Drink More Than You Think You Need

It’s amazing how many calories you can burn while Swimrunning and you should be practicing your nutrition strategy along with race strategy. Bronwen and Greg of Team Boston Wet Sox (AKA, the most successful American team in the history of the sport) recommend the same and add that if you’re having negative thoughts, it probably means that you are hungry.

Tip 2: Don’t Stress Over Swimrun Gear

We all love getting new gear and Swimrun opens up a whole new bevy of gear options for us to obsess over. Our advice is to try not to. While procuring a Swimrun-specific wetsuit is a good idea so that you have that key piece of kit covered, you can pretty much get by with whatever you have hanging around the house for the rest of your kit. You can use any trail shoe that you might already own, you can DIY a pull buoy setup (a fun rite de passage for all new Swimrunners), and experiment to find what works for you.

That being said, Bronwen and Greg highly recommend that you use a tether (if racing with a partner) and a pull buoy with more floatation that your average pool pull buoy *cough* Ark Keel *cough*. They make a huge difference.

If you insist on getting new gear, our hierarchy of things to get are: 1, a good Swimrun wetsuit; 2, a mondo Euro-style Pull Buoy; 3, good swim paddles that are the right size for you; and 4, Swimrun-specific or well-draining trail shoes with good lugs on the soles.

Trista and Amy from Team Adorkable recommend that before you go “I’d never use…” to look at what most other Swimrunners are using and be willing to try something new since there’s probably a good reason why people use things like “the tether.”

Similarly, Marcus Barton, AKA Mr. Low Tide Boy 2020, and the most experienced Swimrunner in America, suggests that you use the current evolution of Swimrun gear as your baseline. You’ll thank yourself later.

Looking for used Swimrun gear? Make sure to check out the Swimrun Swap Meet on facebook where you can find used, new, and free Swimrun gear for your first event.

Tip 3: Swimrunning is Cold Business

Understanding that you’ll be wet for the better part of a few hours at a minimum means that managing body temperature is important to do correctly to have a positive first experience. What we term as “heat management” is making sure that you’re not cooking in your wetsuit or shivering during the swims. This takes practice…and using the correct gear to help mitigate what the elements are throwing at you.

Marcus recommends that you don’t do all your swimming and running training separately. Go on a Swimrun adventure or, if you’re in an urban setting, use your pool and some local roads to get a feel for the sport. This will help better understand whether you run cold or hot and you can start sorting out what your gear considerations should be to make sure that you stay in a good place temperature-wise.

Tip 4: Find Your Swimrun Mindset

As the late Jeff Cole would say, “Swimrun is not triathlon.” Swimrun is an adventure sport. It’s less of a time trial and more of a journey from point A to B. While we love triathlon, we think that what makes Swimrun so great is that it takes you places, both physically and mentally, that is just different from triathlon. One of the reasons that we always recommend Swimrun to triathletes is because it’s such a change of pace from those types of events.

Bronwen and Greg suggest that you incorporate Swimrun practices where you test out your equipment but also practice transitions. It’s easy to feel flustered heading into or out of a swim but practicing even just a couple of times really helps with confidence and help you find your Swimrun happy place.

A few other things that are core to the Swimrun mindset: Be comfortable with ambiguity and go with the flow; Practice heads up racing whether you are racing solo or working together with your partner; Help any other Swimrunner in need; Don’t litter and pick up any trash that you see; and, most importantly, enjoy the adventure.

Tip 5: Embrace the Vibes

By vibes we mean the positive, super supportive, welcoming, Fun (capital F), and “we are all in this together” ethos that Swimrun promotes. The greatest thing about Swimrun is the community and the best part is that everyone is welcomed.

Marcus suggests that folks try as many different events as they can. Each one is unique and that is one of the beauties of the sport. Bonus points to bring as many friends as you can along the way.

Trista and Amy recommend that you ask questions. At some point, everyone was new and had the same questions as you. Swimrunners love talking about Swimrun (ain’t that the truth!) and folks are happy to share what has worked for them to help them on their journey.

In many ways, this podcast was born out of the fact that we didn’t know anyone that we could ask our beginner questions and we were figuring it out as we went along. This show is basically an overengineered way of helping folks not make the same mistakes we made.

As ever, feel free to email or DM us if you have any questions or if there are topics that you would like for us to cover in future Swimrun 101 or 201 episodes. Also, send us your tips if you think we missed something or you have a bonus tip that we should add to the forthcoming website page.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 14 Jul 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Countdown to ÖTILLÖ: 2 months out

Welcome to episode 131 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This is the fourth and penultimate edition of our “Countdown to ÖTILLÖ” show where we discuss our journey to the start line of the 2022 ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. It’s hard to believe that we are just two months away from the big day. Joining us on this episode to talk about all things ÖTILLÖ is returning guest, Jonas Colting. We last had Jonas on the show all the way back in episode 11 and it was great to get his perspective on ÖTILLÖ as the only individual to start every single World Championship.

But first…

We want to give a giant thank you to our supporters Ödyssey Swimrun, Frank Paddle, and Precision Fuel and Hydration for helping make this show possible. Make sure to use the code “LOWTIDE22” to save 15% off of your first order from Precision Fuel and Hydration. Use the code “LOWTIDEBOYZ” that is good for 15% off of your registration for any and all of Odyssey Swimrun’s 2022 events. Finally, Frank Paddle’s new paddles are out now! Definitely check those out if you’re interested in the latest evolution in carbon fiber swim paddle technology.

How’s the Body? How’s the Mind?

Our collective motivation is still very high and as we careen towards our date on the Archipelago we are both looking forward to sharing the day and expressing our fitness. We’ve had a bit of adversity this past month with Chris getting COVID but luckily he’s recovered well and only really missed one week of training. (In hindsight, this might be a really good thing.) Overall though, we are working the process and staying focused on what’s in front of us and not looking too far down the road.

Up next for us is Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay in a week-sh. This race will be our last “tune-up” before ÖTILLÖ (not counting the Folsom Swimrun) and we are really looking forward to being at the start line to take on the new long course.

Jonas Colting

Jonas is awesome. Full stop! It’s almost embarrassing that we haven’t had him back on the show since Catalina. He’s a Swedish endurance legend and it was great to sit down with him to talk about the World Championship and what keeps him coming back year after year to experience the original Swimrun. This was a great conversation that somehow got us even more super stoked for the race. Much like our original conversation in 2020, this one is a continuation of our Swimrun love-fest.

You can follow Jonas Colting and Colting Wetsuits on Instagram.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 7 Jul 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Max Andersson

Welcome to episode 130 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We’re heading back to Sweden this week and we’re super stoked to share our conversation with Swimrunner extraordinaire, Max Andersson. We’ve been following his exploits for a while and it was great to get him on the show to talk about his Swimrun journey.

But first...

Training Update

Training has been interesting this week. Chipper had a great week but Chris’s training went sideways after his whole household contracted COVID. He’s on the mend and will be ramping back up just in time for Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay…which is just 2ish week’s away!

Shoutouts

This week we are shouting out Bradley Amery. He recently reached out to us asking for our preferred cliff/dock jump technique for his first ever Swimrun at Casco Bay and we’re here for it. Thanks so much for reaching out and hope our video from last year’s Austin LTBz shakeout was helpful.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Steve Hann from the U.K. We spotted him on Strava rocking a Ödyssey shirt on a ten mile run and it turns out that he’s flying out for Casco Bay in a few weeks. See you there Steve!

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Welcome to the LTBz news desk!

We’re keeping it short this week with only one announcement that is near and dear to our hearts…

As anyone who has listened to pretty much any of our Gear Talk shows knows (and/or has played the Gear Talk drinking game), Chris is a huge fan of the Ark Sports VIGG suit. Well this week Ark released the 2022 edition of the VIGG Wetsuit. The new VIGG pushes the envelope even more than the original model. The back pocket is re-shaped for extra space. Legs are updated with a new hi-end fabric for increased durability. Leg cut is also improved. New super stretch and soft collar improve comfort around the neck.

Anyway, we are obviously ridiculously stoked for this suit!

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Updates

Check out our latest Youtube video all about the new Ark Sports KORP Wetsuit. This suit is awesome and we can’t recommend it enough!

We’ve scheduled our next Patreon Zoom Meetup for July 9th at 7pm (Eastern) time. We’ll be chatting about new Ark Sports gear, holding an impromptu Casco Bay race strategy sesh, and other good stuff. Check out our Patreon page to learn more about how you can help support the show for the cost of one grande oat milk latte per month.

Max Andersson

It was so great to finally catch up with Max. We started paying attention to him when he won last year’s EX Swimrun’s Ark Supersprint race and we’ve been rooting for him ever since. In this conversation we talked about his Swimrun journey, how he had less than 12 hours of notice to race his first ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship in 2019, what’s it like to race with the likes of Adriel Young and Hugo Tormento, and much more. We love his enthusiasm for sport and think that you will love this conversation as much as we did. Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 30 Jun 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Nicholas Roman

Welcome to episode 129 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We have a fun one this week! Fresh off of the heels of the EX SWIMRUN’s ARK SUPERSPRINT and EX22 events we have Race Director Nicholas Roman back on the show to chat about these trailblazing races. It is becoming an annual tradition to have Nicholas on the show and we’re here for it!

But first...

Training Update

Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay is a month away! We had a great first Swimrun practice (and first Swimrun since Swimrun Lake James) at our training grounds of Aquatic Park in San Francisco. We were out there for 3+ hours and it was cool to see all of our time in the pool and on the track expressing itself. We’re dialing it back a bit this week but have some pretty big weeks leading up to Casco Bay as we are essentially training through that race on our way to ÖTILLÖ.

Shoutouts

This week we are shouting out Alex Sheen from the U.K. We love hearing from our listeners but we especially love hearing about how their first Swimrun adventures went. Alex has definitely gotten the Swimrun bug and in short order has already gotten a couple of Swimruns under his belt and is loving it. Well, we’re loving it that you’re loving it Alex. See you in Austin in November.

Feats of Endurance

This week we are shouting out our friend Stirling Myles of Team Run for Tacos. He’s been doing some cool training up in Montreal and recently ran a quirky “unsanctioned” race called a RUNK where folks meet at a random subway station and then get race directions from there. You can check out his write up about the event on Canadian Runner Magazine.

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Welcome to the LTBz news desk!

As we mentioned last week, there were a bunch of events in the U.K. over the weekend and it was great to see so many participants at We Swimrun, As Keen As Mustard and

Love Swimrun events.

Coming up this weekend, there are some cool events taking place.

Over in Spain, we have the first ever Spanish Swimrun Championship as part of Swimrun Madrid. This is an interesting trend of countries coming up with their own national title events and we’re here for it.

In Germany, Swimrun Rheinsberg is going down and is offering a bunch of distance options for this urbanish event.

Here in the U.S., PBR Swimrun Knox is happening on Sunday June 26 in Knoxville Tennessee and that event offers short and long course distance options.

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Updates

Looking for some “Gourmet Shit of Swimrun apparel?” Then head over to our online store for hats, shirts, hoodies, and other stuff.

Nicholas Roman, EX Swimrun

It was great to have Nicholas back on the show to talk about this year’s Ark Supersprint and EX22 events. We love the energy and enthusiasm that he brings to the sport of Swimrun and it was great to catch up with him and chat about how his events are evolving.

Make sure you check out exswimrun.se to learn more about what Nicholas and his team are up to.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Team Cali-Coed

Welcome to episode 128 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We have a great show for everyone this week! Joining us in Studio G are Liza Dunham and Mike Schiepke, a.k.a., Team Cali-Coed. We first met Liza and Mike in Catalina in 2020 and kept seeing them at the races. We’ve wanted to have them on the podcast for a while and we’re super stoked to share our conversation.

But first...

Training Update

Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay is 5 weeks away!! We’ve got some “robust” Swimrun practices coming up the next few weekends as we start fine tuning our training and work on transitions, swimming straight, fueling as much as possible, etc.

Shoutouts

This week we are shouting out our newest Patron on Patreon: Lisa Decker. Lisa has been a supporter of us since the beginning and we were super stoked to finally get to meet her in person at last year’s Ödyssey Swimrun Austin event. She even had a LTBz sticker on her car. Thank you so much for the support Lisa!

Feats of Endurance

We haven’t done a feats of endurance segment in a few weeks so there are several worthy winners that we want to highlight. In no particular order, a tip of the hat to Justin Young (training for the new Folsom Swimrun), Justin May (Swimrunning in Bellingham), and Scott Suurmeyer (crushing a 106 mile Unbound gravel race in Kansas). Keep up the strong work!

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Welcome to the LTBz news desk!

Since our last TWIS, there have been a bunch of awesome races and even better stories. Our favorite story though is the return of the super team of Fanny Kuhn and Desirée Andersson at ÖTILLÖ Isles of Scilly. True to form, they crushed the female division and finished third overall.

One of our favorite events, EX Swimrun’s Ark Supersprint took place this past weekend and it was an epic day. Desirée repeated as Women’s champion and Hugo Tormento (a.k.a. 2022 Male Swimrunner of the year if the award was being given today) was the Men’s champion. We plan on having EX race director Nicholas Roman back on the show to talk about this year’s race so stay tuned for that!

Looking forward, there are a couple really cool events coming up this weekend that we want to highlight.

Over in the UK, As Keen As Mustard’s Nene Park Swimrun Festival is taking place this weekend and we can’t wait to see all the photos. We love this race series and highly recommend that folks check out our interview with Nicky and Chelsey Bailey, the mother and daughter race directing duo of As Keen As Mustard.

Also in the UK, the folks at We Swimrun are hosting their Tal Y Llyn Swimrun this Sunday. It's a solo, sprint course of 10km (8km trail, 2km swim) in Snowdonia National Park, Wales. This race is ideal for first timers, and a great place to meet a future race partner!

Skipping over to France, the seventh edition of Swimrun Cote Vermeille is taking place over two days this weekend. This event offers 5 distances including an ÖTILLÖ Merit Race distance of 63km which looks stout to say the least. New for this year, they are offering a relay option for the 63km distance which is pretty cool and the first relay option that we’ve seen. Our favorite distance might be the 4km kids Swimrun though.

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Updates

For folks racing Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay in July, we are going to host our 2nd Annual Post-Race Party at a brewery in downtown Portland somewhere. We will share more details as we figure them out but we hope to see you there.

Our friends at Precision Fuel and Hydration have just released their new p30 Caffeine Gels and spoiler alert: they are delicious! Best of all they don’t taste like science. Want to check them out? Use the code LOWTIDE22 at checkout to save 15% off of your first order.

Team Cali-Coed

It was so great to finally sit down with Liza and Mike for a proper chat. We joke around a lot about folks needing to pass the vibe check when it comes to Swimrun and in our opinion Team Cali-Coed just exude cool Swimrun vibes. In this conversation we talked about their Swimrun journey, gushed over Tower 26 and Gerry Rodrigues’s training methodologies, and why Swimrun is the greatest. Liza and Mike embody everything that is great about Swimrun and we know that you will love this conversation as much as we did. Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 16 Jun 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Odyssey Swimrun Casco Bay Course Preview (2022 Addendum)

Welcome to this bonus episode of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swiun Podcast!

Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay is coming up in a few weeks and we wanted to share an addendum to our 2021 Casco Bay Course Preview episode. As some of you may know, the Casco Bay course changes every year or so and we wanted to make sure that everyone had the latest and greatest intel going into this year’s edition. In this addendum, we are joined by frequent guest of the show John Stevens to walk us through the new long course that he designed.

If this is your first time racing Casco Bay we recommend that you check out our Course Preview episode for all the details about Portland Maine and the mechanics of the race. You can also check out our 2021 Casco Bay Race Report to get some more intel about the race.

2022 Short Course

If you’re racing the short course this year, check out our recent Couch to Casco episode (with John Stevens) where we discuss everything you need to know about short course with some training and gear tips thrown in.

2022 Long Course Leg-by-Leg Breakdown

The Long course clocks in at 23-ish miles total with 18 miles of running and about 5 miles of swimming over 13 run sections and 12 swim sections.

We asked John Stevens to give us a leg-by-leg breakdown of the course and he did not disappoint. Our chat with John had a lot of great insight from the guy that designed the course to help everyone be as prepared as possible for the race. We recommend listening to his breakdown with the race map and the leg-by-leg breakdown from the show notes handy so you can orient yourself with the course while listening.

(2022 North to South Route)

Run 1: Chebeague Island (1 mile)

Swim 1: Chebeague (460 yds)

Run 2: Chebeague Island (3 miles)

Swim 2: Chebeague to Little Chebeague (685 yds)

Run 3: Little Chebeague (.5 miles)

Swim 3: Little Chebeague to Long Island (685 yds)

Run 4: Long Island (1.65 miles)

Swim 4: Long Island (930 yds)

Run 5: Long Island Sandbar (81 feet)

Swim 5: Long Island to Vaill Island (380 yds)

Run 6: Vaill Island (.55 miles)

Swim 6: Vaill to Long Island (530 yds)

Run 7: Long Island (1 mile)

Swim 7: Long to Cow Island (1375 yds) * Longest swim of the day

Run 8: Cow Island (.6 miles)

Swim 8: Cow to Great Diamond (300 yds)

Run 9: Great Diamond Island (1.65 miles)

Swim 9: Great Diamond to Peaks Island (775 yds)

Run 10: Peaks Island (3.1 miles) * Longest run of the day

Swim 10: Peaks to Cushing (975 yds)

Run 11: Cushing Island (3 miles)

Swim 11: Cushing to House (800 yds)

Run 12: House Island (.75 miles)

Swim 12: House to Peaks (725 yds)

Run 13: Peaks Island finish (350 feet)

Summary

The 2022 edition of Casco Bay is going to be challenging and fun. We hope that this addendum helps you prepare for the race. If you were on the fence about signing up and this episode nudged you in the right direction, use the code LOWTIDEBOYZ to save 15% off of your registration for Casco Bay and all of Ödyssey’s 2022 events.

That’s it for this bonus episode. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star review. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, and on YouTube. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback and/or suggestions. Finally, you can support our efforts on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 14 Jun 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Swimrun 101: Mailbag

Welcome to episode 127 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swiun Podcast!

This week we have another installment in our Swimrun 101 series. In this edition, we are opening up the LTBz mailbag and answering the most recurring questions that we get in our emails and DMs. Enjoy!

The LTBz Mailbag

Are wetsuits required at every Swimrun?

Yup. As far as we know, every Swimrun requires a wetsuit. Swimskins won’t cut it. Our best thinking on this is for safety reasons including maintaining your core body temperature and added buoyancy. You can learn more about Swimrun wetsuits on our Gear Talk episode “Wetsuit Suit Out.”

You can also check out the gear guide on our website for all things Swimrun gear.

What paddles should I use?

If you’ve seen any Swimrun race content you’ll notice that almost everyone is using swim paddles as part of their race kit. Using paddles helps compensate for the drag created by swimming with shoes on. They also make you faster. Our recommendation in choosing swim paddles are to make sure that you get the right size for you. Check out our Gear Talk episode all about swim paddles to learn more…from people smarter than us.

Our favorite paddles are made by Frank Paddle. They are carbon fiber paddles that are super stiff and move a ton of water. You can check out our full review about these swim paddles on Gear Talk.

What is the consensus on wearing underwear under your wetsuit?

Like with anything Swimrun, you need to test it in practice to see what will work for you. That being said…Chris has converted a bunch of people to not wear underwear under wetsuits. Ladies typically wear a sports bra on top and/or pair it with a kangaroo top for extra storage. Check out our Gear Talk episode all about Swimrun undergarments.

Should you use a pull buoy? And if so, what size?

YES!!! The Swimrun pull buoy is an essential piece of kit that provides a ton of flotation to keep positioned properly in the water while counteracting the drag created by swimming with shoes on. The general rule of thumb that we follow when we advise people about what pull buoy size to get it to go with the largest that you can handle to get the most buoyancy possible. Check out our review of the pull buoy that we use: The Ark Sport Keel+.

What shoes should I wear for swimrun?

This is one of the most common questions that we get. While Swimrun-specific shoes do exist and are great, we recommend that you start by looking in your current stable of shoes for trail shoes that might work for Swimrun. Any shoe that has good lugs on the bottom and drains water well are good choices. Like with anything Swimrun, testing in practice is key. Check out our deep dive into all things Swimrun shoes on Gear Talk.

Addressing the myth of blistered feet from running in wet shoes.

So the myth usually goes something like this: you get blisters from running with wet socks. This has not been our experience. If you use thin, synthetic fiber socks, you are unlikely to get blisters if your shoes fit properly. Ill-fitting shoes are more likely to cause blisters than Swimrunning. We address Swimrun socks on our Undergarments episode and on our Swimrun Gear Guide.

What to do if you can’t swim without earplugs?

For some folks, swimming without earplugs can lead to headaches, disorientation, and experience less fun in open water. Wearing ear plugs solves these problems but in Swimrun this solution is problematic because of the need to communicate with your partner during the race. We highly recommend Surf Ears which block water out but allow sounds to go in. They also have a lanyard and mini arms to keep the ear plugs in place.

How do I find a partner?

The age old question. We’ve answered this question in a couple of previous Swimrun 101 shows all the way back on Episode 4 and again on Episode 111. If you don’t want to listen to those shows, our recommendations for finding a partner are basically to look to folks in your training group or pool and see if anyone is up for the adventure and make sure that whomever you partner with has similar goals.

Where can someone find/borrow used Swimrun gear?

We love getting this question because we want everyone to be able to find Swimrun gear so that they can get out there and try the sport. In that spirit, we created the Swimrun Swap Meet on FB so folks could sell/buy/trade Swimrun gear.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 9 Jun 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Countdown to ÖTILLÖ: 3 months out

Welcome to episode 126 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swiun Podcast!

This is the third edition of our “Countdown to ÖTILLÖ” show where we discuss our journey to the start line of the 2022 ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. Joining us on this episode is the Swimrun coach who’s legend keeps on growing, Nicolas Remires from Envol Swimrun.

A big thank you to our supporters Ödyssey Swimrun, Frank Paddle, and Precision Fuel and Hydration for helping make this show possible. Make sure to use the code “LOWTIDE22” to save 15% off of your first order from Precision Fuel and Hydration. Use the code “LOWTIDEBOYZ” that is good for 15% off of your registration for any and all of Odyssey Swimrun’s 2022 events. Finally, Frank Paddle has some new paddles launching on June 15th so make sure that you mark your calendars if you want the new hotness.

How’s the Body? How’s the Mind?

We are both still feeling super motivated for the race and our training efforts definitely reflect that. While we have been dealing with a variety of challenges outside of Swimrun, we are working on staying mindful and present and so far so good on that front.

Up next for us is Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay in mid-July. This race will be our last “tune-up” for ÖTILLÖ and we are really looking forward to being at the start line for the newest edition of this super cool event.

Nicolas Remires

Nicolas has a wealth of knowledge about the ÖTILLÖ course and we were lucky to be able to pick his brain for an hour about what training should look like for the big day. In this conversation we covered his experiences at the World Championship, what training should be looking like three months out, gear considerations, where to sample the terrain style of the course, and so much more. This interview is definitely a “get your note pads out” situation. Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 2 Jun 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Gilles LaFleuriel, TSR Swimrun

Welcome to episode 125 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We are stoked to have Gilles LaFleuriel, founder of TSR Swimrun on the show this week. Gilles does an amazing job calculating The Salamander Rankings and creates a lot of super-niche Swimrun content. As purveyors of super-niche Swimrun content ourselves, Gilles is a kindred spirit and we know that you will enjoy our conversation with him.

But first...

Training Update

Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay is 7 weeks away and we have been putting in the work in the pool, on the track, and on the trails. We’ll be getting in some Swimrun practices in the next few weeks but until then we are working on speed on land and sea/pool.

Shoutout/Feats of Endurance Combo

We have a very special shoutout/feats of endurance award for our friend Sarah Fergot. A few weekends ago she tackled the Miwok 100, a brutal 100km trail run with almost 12,000’ of elevation gain in the Marin Headlands (A.K.A. our local stomping grounds) and finished the race with just a few minutes to spare before the finishing time cutoff. This race is notorious for its tight time cutoffs and Sarah showed her mettle to get it done under the wire. Major, major kudos Sarah!

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Welcome to the LTBz news desk.

Swimrun season officially kicked off in Sweden with ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Utö taking place over the weekend. The conditions were classic with chilly air temperature and just as frosty water temps. The new Sprint and World Distance courses looked hard/fun and the podiums were staked with friends and former guests of the show. Congrats to everyone that raced!

Over in the UK, Mad Hatter Sports hosted the Hokey Cokey Swimrun. Fun was had by all by the looks of the photos and congrats to all our friends and listeners that raced their first Swimrun at that event. Special bonus shoutouts to Emily from Precision Fuel and Hydration and Tim Wood on racing your first Swimruns! If you want to learn more about Mad Hatter Sports make sure to check out our recent interview with Race Director John Yelland.

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Updates

Looking for some casual gear to show your Low Tide Pride? Make sure to head over to our online store for hats, shirts, hoodies, and other stuff. As our friend and co-founder of Ark Sports, Christofer Sundberg, recently posted about our swag, this is “the Gourmet Shit of Swimrun apparel.”

Gilles LaFleuriel, TSR Swimrun

It was great to finally connect with Gilles. We’ve been following TSR Swimrun since we launched our Meme account (and podcast) and it is definitely a “game recognize game” situation. He is doing his part to help grow the sport that we love and it was great to hear from him about how he found Swimrun and what led him to start his labor of love, TSR Swimrun. We covered a lot of ground in this interview and think that you will enjoy it as much as we did.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 26 May 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Couch to Casco w/John Stevens

Welcome to episode 124 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We’ve got something new for everyone this week. Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay is roughly eight weeks away and we thought it would be cool to do a show where we give everyone that’s on the fence about trying Swimrun (or help anyone that trying to convince their friends to try Swimrun) a road map for prepping for this year’s Casco Bay short course. So welcome to “Couch to Casco.”

Joining us for this episode is literally the best person that we could ask to have this discussion with…none other than Purple Patch Coach/Ödyssey Swimrun Race Director and Casco Bay course designer/elite Swimrunner John Stevens. John’s been on the show multiple times and we pretty much bug him anytime we need some sage wisdom.

We are breaking up this discussion into three sections that will help any and all Swimrun-curious athletes to get a good understanding of what Casco Bay is all about. We discuss the Casco Bay short course, how to train for the race, and what gear you’ll want to have.

Casco Bay Short Course

The Casco Bay Short Course is a great route for both beginners and experienced athletes. It is similar to some of the original Swimrun courses in Europe and it is a lot of fun! John designed the course and shared with us a course overview.

10.5 Mile Short Course Leg By Leg Breakdown:

Run 1: Little Diamond Island (.6 miles)

Swim 1: Little Diamond to Great Diamond (285 yds)

Run 2: Great Diamond Island (.45 miles)

Swim 2: Great Diamond to Peaks Island (775 yds)

Run 3: Peaks Island (3.1 miles)

Swim 3: Peaks to Cushing (975 yds)

Run 4: Cushing Island (3 miles)

Swim 4: Cushing to House (800 yds)

Run 5: House Island (.75 miles)

Swim 5: House to Peaks (725 yds)

Run 6: Peaks Island finish (350 feet)

Training for Casco Bay

With the race eight weeks away at the time that this episode is released, athletes have plenty of time to get ready for a great Swimrun adventure. If you’re a triathlete in training then you are already in good enough shape to take on the short course. If you’re just getting started with training and have some swimming under your belt then you have plenty of time to get ready. While the overall distance may seem daunting, in our experience all the different legs alternating between swimming and running during a Swimrun make it easier on the body and it’s not like running for 10.5 miles or swimming that distance for that matter.

Gear Considerations

While there is some specific gear for Swimrun, in general you can use any trail shoes that you already own and can take a used wetsuit and cut the legs above the knees and the arms above the elbow. The typical Swimrun kit consists of shoes, swim paddles, pull buoy, wetsuit, goggles, and a tether if you’re racing with a partner.

We have a lot of resources to help folks get the gear that they need to have a good experience. Check out the resources tab on our website and some of our previous Gear Talk episodes that cover a lot of the gear in detail. Finally, check out our Swimrun Swap Meet on facebook for used gear for sale or trade from fellow Swimrunners.

Final Thoughts

We are firm believers that the best way to get hooked on Swimrun is to get out there and experience one. Casco Bay is one of the original Swimrun events in the U.S. and one of our favorites. Whether you’re in hardcore triathlon training mode or more a casual endurance athlete, participating in a Swimrun is a great way to use your training and try something different or challenge yourself in a safe and supportive environment.

If we accomplished our goal and you’re ready to sign up for Casco Bay, use the code “LOWTIDEBOYZ” that is good for 15% off of your registration.

Feel free to reach out to us if you have any other questions about Casco Bay or Swimrun in general.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 19 May 2022 07:00:00 +0000

John Yelland, Mad Hatter Sports

Welcome to episode 123 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We have a great show for everyone this week. Joining us in Studio G is John Yelland, one of the founders of Mad Hatter Sports and organizer of the upcoming Hokey Cokey Swimrun taking place on May 21st in Cornwall, UK. This was a great interview filled with lots of laughs, a feel-good origin story, and, of course, Swimrun content.

But first...

Training Update

We are back at it after taking a light break the week after Swimrun Lake James. We are now upping the swim volume, the run volume, and, well, just a lot more volume all around as we barrel towards ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship in September.

Want to learn more about our ÖTILLÖ build? Check out our Countdown to ÖTILLÖ episodes.

Next up for us is Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay on July 17th. Based on our calculations, it is 9 weeks away!

Shoutouts

We haven’t given out any shoutouts the last few weeks so here’s an outsized shoutout for our new Patrons on Patreon. Thank you Nick and Hannah M., Jeff H., and Dave D. for supporting our brand of super niche content and helping to fund our random sticker giveaway. (BTW, another giveaway is coming soon!)

We also want to give a special shoutout to a fellow Bay Area Swimrunner Jonathan Pascual. He was recently diagnosed with Stage 4 paraganglioma cancer, a rare and aggressive form of cancer and he began chemotherapy and radiation last week. If anyone wants to help him and his family cover some of their upcoming medical expenses, his friends have set up a gofundme page to accept donations.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Abby Rose. She’s been crushing some major open water swims lately including the 5 Cove’s of Death swim in Aquatic Park (5 loops around the perimeter of historic cold water home of the Dolphin and South End Rowing Clubs…and training ground of the Löw Tide Böyz), then a casual 4-hour, 12,000yd-ish swim, and she even swam in the green waters of Foster City. Strong work out there Abby!

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Welcome to the LTBz news desk. We got a long one for everyone today so buckle in.

Swimrun season is open all over the world and we have a few weeks of races to catch up on!

Here in the states, Swimrun Maryland took place on Sunday, May 8 at Greenbrier State Park. We were told that the water was chilly but good times were had by all.

In Europe, there were a couple of races this past weekend, including Swimrun Portugal’s Lagoa Swimrun which looked ridiculously epic and the Anjou Swimrun which also looked amazing.

But that is not all, in the last few weeks since our last TWIS update, there have been a bunch of awesome Swimruns, including Swimrun Costa Brava and Swimrunman Gorges du Verdon. Both of these events looked world class and so was the podiums that featured a lot of former guests of the show including, Victor Dahl, Alexis Charrier, Hugo Tormento, Desirée Andersson, and Sabina Rapelli. (Sabina was even bitten by a dog during the ultra distance course at Swimrunman and still won the Women’s division and came in 3rd overall!)

In the bummer news department, like super bummer news, Breca Swimrun has announced that they are canceling all of their events in the UK and New Zealand for 2022. This news might not come as a total surprise given the messages that have been coming out from them but it’s still a bummer.

But all hope is not lost! 3D Events (based in Cambridge, UK) announced that they have been working behind the scenes and will be putting on the Jersey Swimrun on September 3rd, 2022. A lot of folks might be racing another event in a Scandinavian country around that time but we’re stoked that the Jersey Swimrun will go on!

Finally, ÖTILLÖ is just a week away from kicking off their 2022 season with their Swimrun Utö event. Both the Sprint and World Series distances have new courses so it should be a fun adventure for everyone.

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Updates

We have some discounts for everyone!!

The awesome folks at Precision Fuel and Hydration have set up the discount code LOWTIDE22 that’s good for 15% off of your first order.

Our friends at Ödyssey Swimrun gave us the code “LOWTIDEBOYZ” that is good for 15% off of your registration for any and all of their 2022 events.

John Yelland, Mad Hatter Sports

It was great to chat with John. In this conversation we covered a wide range of topics including the origin story for Mad Hatter Sports, how Swimrun came onto their radar, the Swimrun scene in the UK, and a lot more. We seriously need to make a trip to the UK at some point to check out his events!

You can learn more about Mad Hatter Sports on their website.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 12 May 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Countdown to ÖTILLÖ: 4 Months Out

Welcome to episode 122 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swiun Podcast!

Welcome to the second edition of our “Countdown to ÖTILLÖ” show where we will be discussing our journey to the start line of the 2022 ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship in September. Joining us on this episode are The Swimrun Monks to catch up and talk ÖTILLÖ preparations and Susie Moonan of Push On Coaching to help us prepare mentally for the big day.

How’s the Body? How’s the Mind?

We are both still feeling super motivated and encouraged after a strong showing at Swimrun Lake James a few weeks back. Our communication has been really dialed and we are both feeling like our teamwork is getting to the next level.

Our next training block is already upon us as we ramp up the volume and intensity on our way to Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay in July.

The Swimrun Monks

It was great to have Sean and Philip back on the show (for the third time) to chat about their World Championship experiences. Right after we found out that we qualified, Philip reached out to tell us that there were things that we needed to know. We are grateful for their friendship and their advice for us as we barrel towards September.

Susie Moonan, Push On Coaching

What can we say about Susie Moonan? Every time we chat with her we feel like we have gained a better perspective of racing. She joined us to talk about how to think about approaching a race like the World Championship and have a clear vision of our values going into the race and how to deal when those values are tested when things get tough. She is a wellspring of knowledge and we feel super lucky to have her share her insights with us.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 5 May 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Swimrun Lake James 2022 Race Report

Welcome to episode 121 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We’ve got our first race report of 2022 to share with everyone this week! We just got back from Swimrun Lake James in North Carolina and we’re super stoked to share all the details of our latest Swimrun adventure. (Spoiler alert: we had a blast!)

It was great to meet so many Swimrunners at the LTBz/Wild Swimrun shakeout and at the pre-race briefing. We tried to remember everyone’s names and we apologize if we missed you in our shoutouts.

Swimrun Lake James certainly lived up to the hype and the unexpected warm weather made it for a pretty straight forward race experience. We went into the race with the plan of focusing on nutrition, pacing well, and having fun. We achieved all three!

We ended up finishing in 3:38:29 which was good for 4th place men's team and 5th overall behind Bronwen and Greg Dierksen of the Boston Wetsox who won overall, Marcus Barton and Kawika Tarayao, Caleb Batey and Joe Day, and Lee Greene and Jay Seymoure. We were 4ish minutes behind Lee’s team which was a surprise to us.

We are super stoked with our race execution/result and the progress that we have made during our first training block. There are a lot of people to thank for all that progress and you know who you are. Up next for us is Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay in July. Hope to see you there!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 28 Apr 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Swimrun 201: What to do when things go sideways during a Swimrun

Welcome to episode 120 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This episode is the latest installment in our ad hoc series: Swimrun 201-Advanced Topics in Swimrun. In this show, we discuss what to do when things go south/sideways/bad during a race. We’re joined by Senior Sports Scientist Abby Coleman from Precision Fuel and Hydration who shares with us the latest and greatest information on the common pitfalls that Swimrunners could face during a race and what to do about it. Get your notepads out for this one!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Ville Engberg, TOT Endurance

Welcome to episode 119 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

On the podcast this week we have Swimrunner, Endurance Coach at TOT Endurance, ÖTILLÖ Broadcaster, and our friend, Ville Engberg. We first met him in the DMs during last year’s live coverage of ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship and have kept in touch since then. If you’re super stoked–or even just run-of-the-mill stoked–on Swimrun, then you’re going to love this interview.

But first...

Training Update

Swimrun Lake James is getting so close that it’s almost time to taper! Last weekend we did a race course simulation Swimrun practice that has us feeling pretty good about our prep for the event. Famous last words??

Shoutouts

This week we are shouting out Abby Rose. Chipper met her on Catalina during the Catalina Swimrun Adventure and just wanted to say hi! Also, she did an Alcatraz crossing swim over the weekend sans wetsuit which is twice as much fun.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Sarah Estrella. She ran the Zion 100k in Utah over the weekend. This race is no joke and she crushed it. Strong work Sarah!

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Welcome to the LTBz news desk!

The Bellignham Swimrun, put on by friend of the pod and race director Brent Molsberry, is scheduled for June 5th in beautiful Bellingham, Washington. We definitely encourage everyone who’s down for a chill local Swimrun event to check out Brent’s race in a few months.

The Blackwater Swimrun in Asarum Sweden has announced that this year’s race date will be Sunday, September 4th. The race offers 10k and 20k distance options and looks like a fun one.

Over in Spain, this year’s Swimrun Costa Azahar will take place on Sunday, June 5th and registration is open now!

In the feel good story department, Hugo Tormento and his training crew are racing the 47.4km Swimrunman Gorges du Verdon to raise money for pancreatic cancer research. Anyone interested in supporting them can donate to their Swimrun for ARC initiative.

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Updates

We are working on logistics for a shakeout Swimrun on Friday, April 22nd at Lake James after or before packet pickup. Stay tuned to our IG feed for more details on that.

Save the date of Wednesday, May 4th at 10AM California time for the TSR Swimrun’s Annual Awards. We will be on a panel with a bunch of people who we know and love talking about our favorite topic: Swimrun.

Finally, we haz discounts!

The awesome folks at Precision Fuel and Hydration have set up the discount code LOWTIDE22 that’s good for 15% off of your first order.

Our friends at Ödyssey Swimrun gave us the code “LOWTIDEBOYZ” that is good for 15% off of your registration for any and all of their 2022 events.

Ville Engberg, TOT Endurance

It was great to finally have Ville on the show. He’s a soulful guy that loves Swimrun and sharing it with the world. In his coaching practice he works with a bunch of Swimrunners and had a lot of insights to share about training for Swimrun in general, and the World Championship in particular. We chatted with him about his own Swimrun journey, his coaching philosophy, and his tips for a successful race day in the Archipelago. Ville is an awesome dude and we loved this conversation. Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 14 Apr 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Countdown to ÖTILLÖ: 5 Months Out

Welcome to episode 118 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swiun Podcast!

We have a new show format for everyone this week. Welcome to our new “Countdown to ÖTILLÖ” show where we will be discussing our journey to the start line of the 2022 ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship in September. Joining us on this episode is two-time ÖTILLÖ finisher Anna Lundberg who give us a her perspective on the race from the middle of the pack and three-time finisher (and walking knowledge bomb) Andy Blow, Co-founder of Precision Fuel and Hydration, who shares with us a roadmap for training our “gut” for the big dance.

How’s the Body? How’s the Mind?

When we started this show in 2020 our thought was to help grow the sport but also share our journey. I’m that spirit, we figured we might as well put it all out there now that we have a chance to race what is going to be one of the craziest events that we’ve ever done.

ÖTILLÖ is a quest. It really feels like such a privilege to have the chance to race the original Swimrun. This is a quest that many have taken and it’s going to be a thrill to experience all of it.

Sitting here 5 months out, we’re both feeling super motivated both from a training and team perspective. We are trying to keep in focus that we want to be as prepared as we possibly can for ÖTILLÖ so that when the event takes place, we can have as much fun as possible out there in the Archipelago.

Rich Roll’s 2017 ÖTILLÖ Experience

We recently re-listened to Rich Roll’s race report podcast from his 2017 race with coach Chris Hauth. It was really interesting to hear about his journey and definitely got us stoked for our forthcoming adventure.

Anna Lundgerg

Anna reached out to us after we found out that we qualified for ÖTILLÖ and offered to share with us her perspective on the race from the middle of the pack. She is a two-time finisher of the race and we really appreciated her coming on to discuss the important race cutoffs and her training tips for the event.

Andy Blow

Andy was cool enough to come back on the show during his latest trip to the U.S. to chat with us about fueling and hydration for ÖTILLÖ and how we should be approaching gut training to be able to take in as many calories as we can to keep our energy levels up. He was recently on a webinar with Matt Dixon of Purple Patch Fitness that is a great long form discussion of what we discussed on the show. Here are some additional resources from PFH regarding the interplay between fat burning and fasted training.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 7 Apr 2022 07:00:00 +0000

SwimrunUSA Casco Bay 2018 Race Report

Welcome to episode 117 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We have a super random episode for everyone this week. We’ve gone deep into the LTBz vault and found a one-off podcast that we recorded after racing our second Swimrun ever back in 2018. We’re talking about SwimrunUSA’s (now Ödyssey Swimrun) Casco Bay a.k.a., “Cole Classic.” This is a peek back in time to the primordial origins of LTBz and the race that caused us to fall in love with the sport of Swimrun.

But first...

Training Update

Swimrun Lake James is less than a month away and we finally did our first Swimrun practice together. Short story: the water was cold AF! Like 51 degrees Fahrenheit (10.5 Celsius) cold AF! Despite that, it was great to bust some rust and start dialing in transitions and different paces as we head towards Lake James.

Shoutouts

This week we are shouting out Dan Streetman. By chance, Dan was running on the Embarcadero on Saturday morning while we were experiencing brain freeze in Aquatic Park when Dan noticed us (the only two dudes running out the water and down the street) and snapped a photo to send to his Swedish co-worker (and future guest of the show Anna) mentioning that he saw a couple of Swimrunners. Long story short, Anna recognized us and proceeded to blow Dan’s mind. Small world indeed!

Feats of Endurance

Major feats of endurance this week from Marika Wagner and Ingrid Kjellström for their completion of the 2022 Cape Epic. This race is an 8-day mountain bike stage race covering 700km (435 miles) with 17,250m (56,594ft) of climbing. So yeah…a major feat!

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Welcome to the LTBz news desk!

Hero Swimrun took place over the weekend in Rio de Janeiro and the event looked as epic as ever. Joining us to talk about how the race went is our friend and race director Fabio Iskandarian for our special segment: Race Director Reports.

In other news, Envol Swimrun recently announced that they are hosting a Swimrun camp from April 1-3 in Cap Martin in Monaco. Anyone looking to train with coach Nicolas Remires and crew and/or get an F1 driver sighting should check this camp out!

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Updates

Programming alert: we’re debuting a new show format next week called “Countdown to ÖTILLÖ" where we will be chronicling our Swimrun journey to Sweden in September. We’re pretty stoked about this new monthly show and can’t wait to share it with you.

Casco Bay 2018 Race Report

We’ve gone into the LTBz vault and found a relic of our Swimrun past. Way back in 2018 we lined up at the start of SwimrunUSA’s/Ödyssey Swimrun’s Casco Bay race for our second Swimrun ever. We’re not sure why we decided to record a podcast of our race experience but here we are. It was fun (and a bit weird) to look back on that momentous event that was the progenitor for this show and we figured we would share it with all of you. Enjoy the hot tub time machine trip back to 2018!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Team Bröderna Bäver

Welcome to episode 116 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We have a great show for everyone this week. Joining us in Studio G are brothers Lars and Jonas Ekman, A.K.A., Team Bröderna Bäver (The Beaver Brothers.) We’ve known about this team since we first started watching Rasmus’s ÖTILLÖ hype movies and noticed these two tall, fast and generously mustachioed guys that we perennially on the podium. It was super fun to get to chat with them.

But first...

Training Update

We have an extended training update this week. The Böyz split up this weekend and engaged in separate feats of endurance (Chipper was in Catalina for the “Catalina Swimrun Challenge” and Chris ran the LA Marathon as part of a charity team with fellow Swimrunner and Kancho Boy, John) and we are sharing our “race reports” to each other for the first time here.

(Also, Swimrun Lake James is 4 weeks away)

Shoutouts/Feats of Endurance

This week we’re doing a combo feat of endurance/shout out to everyone that came out to Catalina this past weekend and made it such a memorable event. This shoutout includes several first timers, several sherpas, some photographers, videographers, ice cream eaters, water stop volunteers, bike supporters, and generally amazing people.

So, in no particular order: Marcus, Beek, Trista, Amy, Anna, Matt, Ben, Alison, the Maestro twins Fatima and Roxan, Lindsey, Elisabeth, Greg, Bronwen, and Gwen, Chipper, Kristen, Charlie, Sonny, Liza, Tony, Laura, Abby, Kerianne, Mike, Christine (water and COKE!!) at ATWATER , and Sabrina.

Extra-special shoutout to Christine for offering coke at her water stop. It was a game changer that late in the day, and so unexpected and appreciated.

Make sure to sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Welcome to the LTBz news desk. We’re keeping it short this week because he have a packed show…and we didn’t have enough time to scour instagram for event updates.

Swimrun Maryland has announced that this year’s event will take place on Sunday, May 8 at Greenbrier State Park. This race has short (9.5 miles total with 1.6 miles of swimming) and long course (18.8 miles total with 2.4 miles of swimming) distances with solo and team options available for both.

Over in France, the 2022 edition of the Anjou Swimrun is going down on May 7th. This is the 4th running of this local race and if you’ve never been to Angers or this region of western France, put it on your list!

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Updates

The awesome folks at Precision Fuel and Hydration have set up the discount code LOWTIDE22 that’s good for 15% off of your first order.

Our friends at Ödyssey Swimrun gave us the code “LOWTIDEBOYZ” that is good for 15% off of your registration for any and all of their 2022 events.

Team Bröderna Bäver

Lars and Jonas are brothers, excellent athletes, and elite Swimrunners. They have done a ton of racing together and it was great to get to meet and catch up with them about their Swimrun journey and their team dynamics as siblings. We talked about a lot of stuff in this interview and even managed to get more pro tips to add to our running list for ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. Chipper has even been inspired to grow a righteous mustache for the race in their honor. (Chris would as well, but his wife won’t let him.) This interview was a lot of fun and proved once again that Swimrunners are some of the best folks out there. Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 24 Mar 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Coach Joe Friel

Welcome to episode 115 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week’s episode is one for the books! Friend of the pod, Bill Lankford (from Team Mr. and Mrs. B,) suggested that we do an episode helping “older” folks get into endurance events and Swimrunning in particular. We couldn’t think of a better person to ask to come on the show than the legendary endurance Coach Joe Friel. This is a seriously great conversation and we’re blessed to have Coach Friel on the show!

But first...

Training Update

Swimrun Lake James is 5 weeks away! Chipper will be rust busting this weekend in Catalina while Chris will be just trying to not bust during the LA Marathon.

Shoutouts

This week we’re shouting out our newest Patron on Patreon, Brooke Fallon. Thank you for supporting our podcast journey! Stay Fearless!

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Leung from Indonesia. Posted a ride over the weekend and it’s just so cool that we have folks in our Strava Club living in Indonesia.

Join in on the fun and sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for Swimruns, life, and stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Welcome to the LTBz news desk.

Down under in Australia, The 26km Trans Cape Swimrun took place this past weekend. So great to see this event grow the last few years as well as seeing more Australians getting into the sport of Swimrun.

In case you’re looking for a cool race plan in a few weeks…Hero Swimrun is going down on March 26th in Rio de Janeiro. If you can get there, go! (Programming alert, Fabio Iskandarian of Hero Swimrun will be joining us at the news desk in a few weeks for our special/random segment, Race Director Reports.)

Finally, our friends at Wild Swimrun announced the date for this year’s Utö Swimrun Camp. This year’s camp will be on the weekend of May 14th. Make sure you follow them on Instagram for more details about the camp or sign up at raceid.com.

Shameless plug time: we are raising money to help fund scholarships for women and girls to be able to participate in Wild Swimrun through their Wild Youth Initiative. We’ve already funded two scholarships but we would like to keep it going. If you’re interested in contributing to that, just go to our website and scroll to the bottom of the homepage or click the link in the show notes.

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Updates

We gots discount codes!

The awesome folks at Precision Fuel and Hydration have set up the discount code LOWTIDE22 that’s good for 15% off of your first order. Trust us, try out their hydration powder and gels.

Our friends at Ödyssey Swimrun gave us the code “LOWTIDEBOYZ” that is good for 15% off of your registration for any and all of their 2022 events. Hope to see you all at their first race of the season this July in Casco Bay Maine.

Legendary Coach Joe Friel

It was a very Wayne’s World moment to interview Coach Joe Friel. That moment was made even more so by how welcoming he was and how generous he was with his time. In this conversation, we focused on the topic of training for older adults and peppered him with listener questions. Despite Chris almost ruining the interview at the end, this interview was a lot of fun and somehow raised our already ridiculously high opinion of Coach Friel. Get your notepads out for this one!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Team Fearless Fallons

Welcome to episode 114 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week’s episode is a good one. For the first time on the show, we have a Mother/Daughter duo joining us to talk about how that works! We are stoked to have Brooke and Samantha Fallon, A.K.A., The Fearless Fallons, on the podcast to share their Swimrun journey with all of us.

But first...

Training Update

Swimrun Lake James is now only 6 weeks away! Open water swims are coming soon but until then, make sure to check out our course preview episode if you’re racing Lake James or are just curious about what we’ve gotten ourselves into.

Shoutouts

We’ve got multiple shoutouts this week! A big shoutout to the previous guests of the show Lolo Armstrong of Team Run for Tacos for running his first marathon over the weekend. Super stoked for you dude!

Another big shoutout goes out to our favorite journalist Adam Skolnick for completing the 4x4x48 Goggins Challenge for the second year in a row. Bonus shoutout to Adam’s wife April for completing the challenge as well. Strong work!

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Ignacio Eduardo Duarte Harriet for posting a nuts 77 mile, 8,000ft of elevation bike ride from Caracas, Venezuela. The elevation profile from that ride looked totally bonkers so strong work there!

We have a bonus winner this week as well. Special kudos to our friend Derek Rosner for posting a run from Chris’s hometown in San Juan, Puerto Rico. (For those just tuning in, any workout posted from Puerto Rico is an automatic winner for this segment.)

Join in on the fun and sign up for our LTBz Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for Swimruns, life, and stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Welcome to the LTBz news desk.

Race season is almost upon us in the United States and now is a good time to put one or four Ödyssey Swimrun events on your race calendar. Need an additional incentive? Use the code “LOWTIDEBOYZ” at checkout to save 15% off of your registration.

Swimrun Lake James, taking place on April 23rd in Lake James, North Carolina is super close to selling out so if you are waiting until the last minute to sign up…now is your time! See you there! By the way, if you happen to be in North Carolina this weekend…DM Marcus Barton for deetz on a low-key Swimrun training that he and fellow Swimrunners are doing on the course.

Over in Europe, Swimrun Portugal’s Azores Islands Swimrun is taking place in a few weeks on March 22nd. The race looks amazing so if anyone is racing it, let us know how it went.

If you’re not familiar with the French Swimrun Man series, well you really should be. Their races look as picturesque as they are intense. Case in point, their first event of the year, the Gorges du Verdon Swimrun taking place on May 1st offers four distances, including a kids Swimrun (cool!), a “Classic” 28km Swimrun (sounds doable), a “Half” 47km Swimrun (that’s the half?!), and an “Ultra” 66km Swimrun…that’s also an ÖTILLÖ Merit Race. (We’d hope so at that distance!)

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Updates

The Catalina Swimrun Adventure is almost here! The fun starts on Friday, March 18th with a beach clean up group activity, followed by a longer Swimrun on Saturday starting at 11am from Avalon and on Sunday the 20th, a shorter Swimrun, followed by brunch, and then an afternoon trail run. Reach out to us for more details and RSVP on Facebook.

We have a new LTBz supporter to announce!! The awesome folks at Precision Fuel and Hydration are taking us under their wing this year to help us prepare for ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. Everyone that has listened to the show knows how big of fans we are of PFH products since we did our first Sweat Test a few years ago and we are super stoked to get their support this year. If that wasn’t enough, PFH has set up the discount code that’s good for 15% off of your first order. Help make us look good and use the code LOWTIDE22 at checkout.

Team Fearless Fallons

It was great to catch up properly with Brooke and Samantha. We loved how they found Swimrun and decided to team up to race together. In this conversation we talked about their athletic roots, how they prepare for races while Samantha is in college, and why Swimrun is awesome. We loved this conversation and know that you will as well. Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 10 Mar 2022 08:00:00 +0000

Swimrun Lake James Course Preview

Welcome to episode 113 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

In this special episode, we are sharing our course preview for Swimrun Lake James. This race has been on our bucket list for a while and we are super stoked to be racing it this year. We are joined in the episode by race director Kristen Jeno, Purple Patch coach/race director John Stevens, and Mr. Swimrun himself Marcus Barton. So get your notepads out and enjoy listening to our breakdown of this super fun race.

Deep in the Heart of North Carolina

Swimrun Lake James takes place at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains at Lake James State Park in North Carolina and offers long and short course race distances that are full of rolling terrain and beautiful/chilly lake waters.

Getting to Lake James is pretty straight forward with several airports in the general area including Charlotte and Asheville. The race begins and ends at Fonta Flora Whippoorwill Farm just outside of the park entrance. Don’t let the name fool you, the race begins and ends at a local brewery called, Fonta Flora.

Course Overview(s)

The Long Course clocks in at about 4 miles of swimming and 15 miles of running. The course will have 14 run sections and 13 swim sections. The swim sections range from 20yds to 1600yds in a unique and picturesque lake setting. The run sections range from 25 meters to 7.5 miles.

The Short Course is about 2.7 miles of swimming and 10 miles of running. The course will have 8 run sections and 7 swim sections. The swim sections range from 20yds to 1300yds in a unique and picturesque lake setting. The run sections range from 25 meters to 5.5 miles.

The runs are made up of fire service trail roads, single track trails, paved roads, and off the beaten path wooded sections. The swims are in a lake and there could be some chop if it’s windy out. Water temps range from the mid 50s-low 60s fahrenheit.

We asked race director Kristen Jeno for a course walkthrough when we interviewed her back in episode 65 of the show and it was so good that we are sharing that again for everyone to listen to. We also have an annotated leg-by-leg breakdown that folks can reference as they listen.

Note that Kristen is walking everyone through the Long Course but the Short Course pretty much follows the same route until the end of the long run Leg 5 and then head’s back to the start line from there.

Leg-by-leg Breakdown

Long Course

Run 1: Whippoorwill Farm - OV Trail (.97 miles)

This section turns into a single track pretty quickly from the start to be towards the front if you don’t want to get stuck in the bottleneck

Swim 1: (800yds)

A big swim right out of the gate

Run 2: Paddy’s Creek Trail (.30 miles)

Swim 2: (50yds)

Run 3: Paddy’s Creek Trail - Beach area (.08 miles)

Super short run so better to not do a full transition, maybe just get the pull buoy out the way and run to Swim 3 with the rest of your kit on

Swim 3: (700yds)

Run 4: OV Trail - Unmarked Service Road (.55 miles)

Swim 4: (300yds)

Run 5: Paddy’s Creek Trail - Homestead Trail - Lower Tindo Loop Trail - Unmarked Service Road (7.70 miles)

This is the longest run leg of the day by far
Teams should have a nutrition plan and pacing strategy dialed in
The aid station on this leg is the first time cutoff. Teams need to reach the Homestead Trail intersection aid station by 10:00am
The second time cutoff is at 11:30am at the end of this run.
Short course heads back to the finish line from here

Swim 5: (1,600yds)

This is the longest swim of the day
Look for the strobe light signaling where the swim exit is
Can get choppy if there’s wind

Run 6: Long Island (.08 miles)

Swim 6: (450yds)

Run 7: Middle Island (.05 miles)

Swim 7: (350yds)

Run 8: BBQ Island (.05 miles)

Swim 8: (50yds)

Run 9: Long Arm Campsite #3 - Long Arm Campsite #2 (.42 miles)

Swim 9: (125yds)

Run 10: Unmarked Trail (.05 miles)

Swim 10: (175yds)

Run 11: Unmarked Trail - Unmarked Service Road - Long Arm Campsite #1 (1.30 miles)

The third and final time cutoff is at 1:30pm at the end of the run

Swim 11: (1,300yds)

This is the last long swim of the day

Run 12: Half Mile Island (.45 miles)

Swim 12: (200yds)

Run 13: Unmarked Trail (.05 miles)

Swim 13: (100yds)

Last swim of the day!

Run 14: Park Service Boat Ramp - Whippoorwill Farm (2.35 miles)

Last run of the day!
It’s an incline until the last mile so be ready for that

Training for Swimrun Lake James

As with any Swimrun, every course is different and requires athletes to prepare as best as they can for the demands that the course will present them. We asked our friend, endurance coach and stud Swimrunner, John Stevens to share with us how he would approach training for this race and what workouts he would recommend to prepare for the unique challenges that the race presents.

Deck ups!!!! You heard it here folks. John dropped a lot of knowledge about the importance of getting ready for all the swimming, quick transitions, and dealing with the terrain on the runs.

Race Tips

For race strategy and tips we couldn’t think of a better person to ask than the Swimrunner that has raced every single Swimrun Lake James event. Of course, we are talking about the one and only Marcus Barton. He points to being ready for the cold water and to check to make sure that you have your wetsuit zipped up before you get into the water.

Summary

This race is going to be dope! Lots of island to island Swimrunning in the European style will make for a ton of fun. If you want more background on the race, check out Episode 65 with the Swimrun Lake James race director Kirsten Jeno and Episode 69 for a Swimrun Lake James race recap with The Zaddy Daddies, A.K.A., Marcus Barton and Lee Greene. For deep, deep cuts of some Lake James content, check out Episode 75 with Team Keith and The Unicorn and Episode 73 with Team Phyllis Hold My Shower Beer.

Hope to see you there!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 3 Mar 2022 08:00:00 +0000

Team Kraken Swimrun

Welcome to episode 112 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We conclude this year’s Partners Month with the amazing Women’s team of Jenny Ramstedt and Diane Sadik, A.K.A., Team Kraken Swimrun. They are two of the most experienced Swimrunners out there and it was great to finally have them on the show to chat about their enduring Swimrun partnership, ÖTILLÖ, and, of course, fika.

But first...

Training Update

Swimrun Lake James is officially two months away! There’s no more time to delay getting into the cold water to start dialing in transitions at Swimrun practices. Pray for us.

Shoutouts

This week we are shouting out Sebastian Ekberg. We recently shouted him out as Radberg (for creating a cool design to use for our 100k download sticker) but he’s getting another one for becoming a Patron on Patreon. Thanks so much for the support! We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: you’re rad dude!

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Henry Amon from Tanzania. He recently joined our Strava Club and posted a cool looking ride over the weekend. It’s just so cool to see workouts from Africa in our club feed.

This Week in Swimrun

Welcome to the LTBz news desk.

Swimrun Canarias recently posted that they are postponing this year’s Fuerteventura race due to COVID. A new date will be announced soon.

ÖTILLÖ announced that they have opened registration for Swimrun Cannes. New for 2022 is a new race course and all three distances (Experience, Sprint, and World Series) will all take place on October 15, 2022. If anyone is looking for a super picturesque but still super challenging Swimrun event in the South of France. Well, need I say more?

Looking to race an Ödyssey Swimrun event in 2022 but missed their early bird registration pricing? Well have no fear because they are hooking everyone up with 15% off of registration for all 4 of their 2022 events. Just use the code “LOWTIDEBOYZ” at checkout. Hope to see you all at their awesome events.

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Updates

Programming alert: we have the legendary endurance coach Joe Friel coming on the show in a few weeks and we will be focusing on training considerations for older adults getting into the sport of Swimrun. (Thank you Bill and Chrissy Lankford for the show idea!) Send us a DM or email with your questions for Coach Friel for a chance to have them asked on that episode.

We have an update on the Catalina Swimrun Adventure for everyone. The fun starts on Friday, March 18th with a beach clean up group activity, followed by a longer Swimrun on Saturday starting at 11am from Avalon and on Sunday the 20th, a shorter Swimrun, followed by brunch, and then an afternoon trail run. Reach out to us for more details and RSVP on Facebook.

Team Kraken Swimrun

It was really great to get to chat with Jenny and Diane. Not only are they super experienced Swimrunners but also amazing people. We chatted with them about a ton of topics including their approach to training, racing, what makes Desirée Andersson such an amazing Swimrunner, and Kraken Swimrun fika traditions. They also gave us great insight and some solid gold tips on preparing for and racing ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship that we will 100% be following. This was a great conversation and we know that you will enjoy it as much as we did.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 24 Feb 2022 08:00:00 +0000

Swimrun 101: Partners (REDUX)

Welcome to episode 111 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

Way back in early 2020 (Episode 4!) we released our Swimrun 101: Partners episode. For Partners month 2022 we thought that it would be fun to do a redux of that episode since we feel like we are so much more experienced–dare we say wiser–after two-plus years of doing the show and picking people's brains all along. We re-listened to the episode (we would recommend that you do as well) and shared our thoughts on what we think holds up and what we would revise or add given where we are now in our Swimrun journey. We hope you will find it useful on your Swimrun journey. Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 17 Feb 2022 08:00:00 +0000

Team Kancho Boyz

Welcome to episode 110 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

Partners Month continues this week with our friends John Brandershort and Addison Nuding, A.K.A. The Kanchō Bōyz. They are a team based in Colorado and one that we can directly credit their origination to our constant efforts, i.e., nagging. Their first event was Orcas Island long course and that should tell you all you need to know about their mettle. More later in the show.

But first...

Training Update

Swimrun Lake James is coming up in 10 weeks and we are following the program as the weeks count down. We’ll be kicking off some Swimrun practices soon but in the meantime it’s all about hills.

Shoutouts

This week we are shouting out our newest Patron on Patreon, Scott Turner. His name should sound familiar as he has been shouted out before for both being super stoked on Swimrun and for hooking us up with homemade jam and honey from his family farm when we met up at Casco Bay last year. We really appreciate your support and look forward to seeing you at a race soon!

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Ray Conboy. He posted a workout with a title that hits close to home for Chris: ”Chill Old Man Yoga.” He was definitely feeling seen.

This Week in Swimrun

Welcome back to the LTBz news desk.

Last Thursday, ÖTILLÖ announced the results of ranking applications slots for the 2022 edition of ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. Congrats to all the teams that qualified. We wish you a safe and healthy training block and look forward to seeing you all there. (More on this later in the show)

A special shout out to the 8 US Teams that qualified on Thursday:

Team Adorkable (Trista and Amy)

The Swaggy Zaddys (Marcus and Lee)

Team Envol Baywatch (Beek and Blake)

Team RadKat (Juli and Matthew Davenport)

The Boston Wet Sox (Bronwen and Greg Dierksen)

Team #batmanparents (Liz Baugher and Jacob Gilden)

California Swimrun (Mel Bartow and Andy “The Godfather” Hewitt)

In other news, our friends at Swimrun Portugal announced the dates for all seven of their 2022 events. Registration is opening soon so stay tuned for that.

Over in the U.K., Mad Hatter Sports’ Hokey Cokey Swimrun in St. Austell Bay in Cornwall is coming up on May 21st. Registration is open now for both their short and long course distance options!

In the bummer portion of the news, Breca Swimrun had to postpone both 2022 Breca Wanaka and Bay of Islands race events due to New Zealand Covid restrictions. The race directors are as bummed out as the participants and they thank the Swimrun community for their support and understanding during these unprecedented times.

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Updates

Probably the biggest update in our Swimrun “career” is that LTBz has qualified for the 2022 edition of ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship! A huge thank you to everyone that reached out via text, email, or DM to congratulate us. We were honestly overwhelmed by all the love. We are obviously super stoked to get a slot and look forward to racing the OG event that started it all.

If that wasn’t enough, we are ridiculously stoked to announce that we have our first show/team sponsor! Frank Paddle is now officially our swim paddle sponsor. We have been fans of the brand since we interviewed Frank Paddle creator Fredrik Bengtsson way back in episode 50 and we really appreciate his support of the show and us.

Team Kanchō Bōyz

It was great to catch up with John and Addison and chat about their Swimrun origin story (spoiler alert: LTBz fingerprints are all over this) and their perspective as new Swimrunners. In this interview, we discussed how they came upon Swimrun, what training for Swimrun in Colorado looks like, how their first race at Swimrun Orcas Island went, and what is keeping them coming back for more. This was a great chat and we think it might inspire listeners to redouble their efforts to pester their endurance friends who are on the fence to try Swimrun.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 10 Feb 2022 08:00:00 +0000

Team Mr. and Mrs. B

Welcome to episode 109 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

Welcome to the second annual “Partners Month!” For the entire month of February we will be sharing conversations with Swimrun teams from all over the “world” (Europe and the U.S.) to highlight one of our favorite features of the sport of Swimrun…the partner part.

Our first conversation this month is with the wife and husband duo, Chrissy and Bill Lankford, a.k.a., Team Mr. and Mrs. B. This happily married couple have raced a ton of Swimruns including what we think is the holy/unholy trinity of super hard events, ÖTILLÖ Engadin, Rockman, and ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. We are super stoked to share our chat with all of you.

But first...

Training Update

Whelp, we’re still training…but for Swimrun Lake James. Most folks have already heard that ÖTILLÖ Catalina has been postponed (more on this in This Week in Swimrun later in the show.) While it is a bummer for sure we still have potentially six races on the 2022 schedule so the show must go on. We’re not sure how our training will be changing now that we don’t have to optimize for Leg 3 of the Catalina course but hills always pay the bills so we’ll probably keep running those for the foreseeable future.

Shoutouts

This week we’re shouting out @the_radberg. He’s an artist out of North Carolina and drew up a cool Creature of Endurance design in honor of Swimrun that he is going to let us use as our 100k download sticker. (We should be hitting that milestone in a few months.) Super rad of you…Radberg! He’s also signed up for Swimrun Lake James which that too is rad.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Bay Area local, Clayton Cook. He threw down a spicy 30k trail run in the Marin Headlands over the weekend and we don’t know if it was the beautiful weather or the 3,773ft of climbing that gave us FOMO. At any rate, strong work Clayton!

This Week in Swimrun

Welcome back to the LTBz news desk.

We are kicking off this week’s update with a bummer…to get it out of the way. Last Friday, ÖTILLÖ announced that they are postponing their Catalina event citing ongoing concerns related to COVID-19. We know that there were a lot of people that were super stoked to be either racing for the first time…or the second time but we applaud Michael, Mats and the rest of the ÖTILLÖ crew for making the tough decision and prioritizing the health and safety of all the participants, volunteers, and spectators. You can read the press release here.

Today is “Swimrun-mas!” By the time of this podcast’s release, ÖTILLÖ will have announced the results of the 2022 World Championship ranking application. As we record this on a Monday, we still think that we have a decent chance of qualifying but regardless of our fate, congrats to all the teams that qualified! We will be posting memes all day long to both celebrate and commiserate with our fellow teams so make sure to check out our feed.

One final bit of ÖTILLÖ news to report. They have opened registration for most of their 2022 events starting with first event of the year (one final *sad face* for Catalina) ÖTILLÖ Utö taking place on May 21 at the cradle of Swimrun in the Stockholm Archipelago.

In other news, Swimrun Lake James is super close to selling out with only 6 team entries remaining for the Long Course. The race takes place on Saturday April 23rd and we hope to see you at the startline.

Staying in the U.S.,TBF Racing in California has opened registration for their Folsom Swimrun. As far as we can tell, TBF primarily puts on triathlons and this is their first foray into Swimrun. The event is taking place on July 23rd in Folsom California which basically means that it will be a crazy hot race and they are offering two distance options: a 3.5 mile short course and a 7.8 mile “long” course. Not to sound like Mr. Swimrun or anything, but those courses look very easy and probably a great event for beginners. Experienced teams might want to try to do two loops of the whole course, if allowed.

Finally, while ÖTILLÖ Catalina is postponed, it looks like there will still be a Swimrun extravaganza in Two Harbors at the end of March. Intrepid Swimrunners from Wild Swimrun, Envol Coaching, California Swimrun, and the Löw Tide Böyz are still planning to go out to Catalina and engage in a weekend of Swimrunning. More details are forthcoming so stay tuned for more updates.

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Updates

It’s Chinese New Year! We hope that everyone who celebrates the holiday is getting red envelopes with crispy money and/or shiny coins and munching on moon cakes.

Make sure to check out our LTBz Swag shop to get some headwear, apparel, stickers, or all three to show off your Low Tide pride.

Team Mr. and Mrs. B (Bill and Chrissy Lankford)

This is a conversation that we’ve been wanting to have for a long time! Bill and Chrissy have been huge supporters of ours since we started the show and it was great to finally chat with them about their Swimrun journey and their life and Swimrun partnership. We chatted about all kinds of stuff in this episode and it’s safe to say, if we ever find ourselves at the same race, there will be fights over who will be buying the post-race pints. We loved everything about this conversation and think that you will too. Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 3 Feb 2022 08:00:00 +0000

Sr. Coach Mike Olzinski

Welcome to episode 108 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

Back on the show this week is Purple Patch Senior Coach Mike Olzinski. He was our guest all the way back in Episode 3 and we’re stoked to chat about strength training for Swimrunners. His first show is still on our top 10 list of most downloaded episodes and we thought, who better to talk to us about how to get strong/limber for the upcoming Swimrun season. (If you’re noticing a theme lately, well then a tip of the hat to you…and get your notepads out for this one!)

But first...

Training Update

ÖTILLÖ Catalina is 8 weeks away! It’s almost time to start doing some Swimrun practices to start dialing in transitions, fiddling with gear, and, most importantly, getting used to cold water again. Until then, it’s all about preparing for the climbs/descents on the Catalina course.

Shoutouts

This week we’re shouting out Elisabeth Starr. She’s a SF local and active in the local tri clubs and reached out to us because she’s gotten a bunch of her friends to sign up for Catalina and asked us to do a little show and tell and lead a Swimrun practice at our local spot. Obviously, we were super stoked to get the email and more than happy to lead a practice for them.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Mike McMillan. He busted out a Swimrun practice in New Zealand over the weekend and even though it’s Summer there, we are still stoked to see it.

Don’t have any idea what we’re talking about? Well every week we use a very scientific process to highlight a member or two or three from our Strava Club for their “athletic” feats. Sign up for our Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for Swimruns and stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

We have a short update for everyone this week.

The first Swimrun event of the year (as far as we know) is Breca Swimrun Wanaka in New Zealand. The race is taking place on March 19th and offers a 17.4k Sprint course and a 44.5k Full course. We’ve never been to Wanaka but we want to go!

As we mentioned last week, Ödyssey Swimrun has opened registration for their 2022 events and we encourage everyone to sign up before January 31st to take advantage of their early bird pricing and sign up for one or all of their events at the lowest prices of the year! Need another incentive? This year all finishers get custom socks AND hoodies!!

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Coach Mike Olzinski

It was great to have Mike back on the show to catch up. He recently got back from coaching at a Purple Patch camp in Kona with our other favorite coach, John Stevens. We chatted him up about strength training for Swimrun, what exercises he recommends and even talked about how he’s getting talked into signing up for Ödyssey Swimrun Orcas Island by John Stevens. Anyway, there’s just a lot of great content in this one. Take your notepads out for this one.

You can follow Mike on Instagram.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 08:00:00 +0000

Kevin Burns

Welcome to episode 107 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

One the show this week we have a Bay Area legend and a man that is very well known to an entire generation of endurance athletes. Kevin Burns runs San Francisco Sports Massage and Performance and has gotten countless athletes (and even NFL teams) ready to compete. We have both been on Kevin’s massage table and he’s the first person we call when niggles show up. We asked him to come on to chat about the importance of having a mobility practice to keep Swimrunners primed for peak performance. Get your notepads out for this one people!

But first...

Training Update

ÖTILLÖ Catalina is 9 weeks away! We’ve been hitting all the hills and kicking our own butts in the pool to get ready. Chipper has also been reading up on bison. We should be ready for all the fun by race day. Hope to see you all there!

Shoutouts

This week we’re shouting out our three new Patrons on Patreon: Andrea, Ryan, and Adrian. We really appreciate the support and hope to see you three on our first Patreon Zoom Meetup taking place on 1/22 at 4pm PT.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Sweden’s own Victor Västernäs for his Sandjöbacka Trail 60k that he ran over the weekend. Strong work Victor!

Don’t have any idea what we’re talking about? Well every week we use a very scientific process to highlight a member or two or three from our Strava Club for their athletics feats. Sign up for our Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for Swimruns and stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Our journalism department is back from their extended European-style holiday and we have a new update for everyone this week.

Ödyssey Swimrun has opened registration for their 2022 events and we encourage everyone to sign up before January 31st to take advantage of their early bird pricing and sign up for one or all of their events at the lowest prices of the year!

Swimrunning in Tahiti? Uhm, yes please! Xterra recently opened registration for their Xterra Tahiti Swimrun taking place on May 29th. Somebody please sign up for the race and let us know how it went.

The One Water Race announced some more of the teams that will be traversing the Stockholm Archipelago on August 23-25 including the American team of Quest Racing with our very own Annie and Brent Molsberry and Jason and Andrew Magness. This race is going to be so epic it’s crazy!

This is the last week (today/Thursday, Jan. 20) to enter your ranking application for the 2022 ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. Best of luck to everyone looking to spend a nice Monday on the legendary course.

In the bummer department, Swimrun NC announced that this year’s edition of their epic Swimrun at Hanging Rock State Park taking place on October 16th will be its last. Let’s make sure that we send this race off in style by signing up to race and celebrate this event/labor of love. We’ve officially put in our application to race and hope to see everyone there.

To close it out on a high note, our favorite hydration company, PH, recently rebranded as “Precision Fuel and Hydration.” The name change makes sense given that they are definitely in the fuel game after recently introducing their first gel, the PF 30. But rest assured, the same awesome athlete support isn’t changing.

That is it for this week. Feel free to reach out and let us know if there’s anything that you’d like for us to mention on the show.

Updates

Did you know that we have a FB group that its sole purpose is to help people get Swimrun gear? If not, then let us introduce you to the Swimrun Swap Meet. Everyone is encouraged to join and give your used Swimrun gear a new life like in Toy Story 2.

Kevin Burns

It was great to chat with Kevin. He’s an encyclopedia of knowledge and we peppered him with all kinds of self-serving questions. We chatted with him about the importance of sleep as a key feature of recovery, what common swimming and running issues he sees in his practice, his ideal prescriptions for pre and post-workouts, and got his take on all the newest “recovery” gadgets that are out there. We learned a ton and think that you will as well.

You can learn more about Kevin and SF Sports Massage and Performance here.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 20 Jan 2022 08:00:00 +0000

Swimrun 201: Swim Paddle Hieroglyphics

Welcome to episode 106 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This episode is the latest installment in our ad hoc series: Swimrun 201-Advanced Topics in Swimrun. In this show, we discuss in detail “Swim Paddle Hieroglyphics” wherein we break down why athletes should be writing legs and distances on their swim paddles before their Swimrun events and we share some of our theories for what to write down and when.

We are joined on this episode by Brooke Lindsley and Marcus Barton who share their expertise on this super random topic.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 13 Jan 2022 08:00:00 +0000

Marika Wagner

Welcome to episode 105 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We’re kicking off 2022 with an amazing guest. On the show this week we have the uber talented endurance athlete Marika Wagner. We’re huge fans of her feats of endurance and we’re super stoked to start off the third year of the podcast with her on the show.

But first...

Training Update

It’s back to training this week and somehow we’re already only 11 weeks out from ÖTILLÖ Catalina! While it definitely helps to have raced that course before, we also know what’s waiting for us so it’s game on as we start ramping up the training volume.

Shoutouts

This week we’re shouting out the country of Belgium. They recently cracked the top ten in terms of downloads by county and we’re stoked on that. Thanks for checking out the show or Hartelijk bedankt!!

Feats of Endurance

This week we have two winners of the Feats of Endurance “award.” First up is Victor Rosario for posting a workout from Puerto Rico. As mentioned before, any workout posted from Puerto Rico is an automatic selection. The other award goes to Bay area local Brian Ramirez for his Headlands run on New Years Day…where he ran by Chris on his Ninja Loop run.

Check out and join our Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for Swimruns and life.

This Week in Swimrun

This segment is on hiatus for the next few weeks while we give our news department some PTO. If you’re missing the segment music, you can check it out here.

Updates

Our first LTBz Patreon meetup is scheduled for Saturday, January 22nd at 4PM Pacific. Got gear questions? Got race questions? Got life questions? Your Swimrun community is here for it. Not in our Patreon Community yet? Head over to patreon.com/lowtideboyz to learn more.

Marika Wagner

It was so great to chat with Marika. We’ve been following her on IG pretty much since we launched the meme account and to call her endurance exploits impressive really doesn’t do justice to how versatile of an athlete she is. She calls herself an “Adventure Racer” and honestly, that’s probably the best way to describe her athletic exploits. In this interview we chatted with Marika about her endurance background, how she found Swimrun, what keeps her motivated to try new feats of endurance, and the adventures are in her future. We loved her candor and confirmed our long-standing opinion that Swimrunners are some of the best humans. We loved this conversation and know that you will too.

You can follow Marika’s endurance exploits on Instagram.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 6 Jan 2022 08:00:00 +0000

Thomas Ogander, One Water Race

Welcome to episode 104 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We’ve got a mind blowing episode this week! On the show we have Thomas Ogander, the mastermind behind the One Water Race, who joins us to share the story of, what is sure to be, one of the toughest endurance events in the world. Make sure you’re sitting down for this one!

But first...

Training Update

This is the final “our off-season is almost over” update because starting next week we’re back to training for ÖTILLÖ Catalina and Swimrun Lake James.

Shoutouts

This week we’re shouting out to our four new Patrons on Patreon: Lee, Helene, Lindsey, and Amy. We’re super grateful for your support! You all rock!

Feats of Endurance

This week’s Feats of Endurance winner is Lars Finanger. You might know him as the Race Director of Ödyssey Swimrun, but what you might not know about Lars is that he’s capable of just casually dropping a 10,000yd swim in just under 2.5 hours on Christmas Eve like it’s nobody’s business. Strong work!

Check out and join our Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for Swimruns and life.

This Week In Swimrun

We have a short update this week.

Swimrun Lake James only has 34 team spots remaining for their long course distance. This event takes place on April 23, 2022 and it’s a ÖTILLÖ Merit Race for those trying to accumulate ranking points. We’re super stoked to be heading to NC to race this event in a few months!

Staying in the western hemisphere, Hero Swimrun in Rio de Janeiro has opened registration for their 2022 event taking place on March 26th. If you can get there to race this year, let us know so we can live vicariously through you! (if you want to learn more about Hero Swimrun, check out our interview with Race Director Fabio Iskandarian.)

That’s it for this week. Make sure to tip us off if there is any news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Updates

As this is our last episode for 2021, we wanted to thank you all for listening and wish you a safe and healthy 2022.

Thomas Ogander

It was great to chat with Thomas about the One Water Race and his Swimrun roots. To say that concept of the One Water Race is crazy doesn’t do it justice. This event is going to be a spectacle that combines Swimrunning, adventure racing, orienteering, and just straight up grit. We chatted with Thomas about the genesis of the race, the worthy cause that it champions, and the mechanics of the event. Thomas is also part of the Kraken Swimrun crew so we had to chat with him about that. All in all, this was a great conversation that was blowing our minds while it was happening.

You can learn more about the One Water Race here.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 30 Dec 2021 08:00:00 +0000

LTBz Fireside Chat 2021

Welcome to episode 103 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

Welcome to the second edition of our annual LTBz Fireside Chat. In this episode, we look back at our year and discuss the state of the show, our racing journey, and look forward to what’s coming up in 2022.

Huge thank you to all our listeners, Patreon supporters, sponsors, and friends and family for pushing us to try to produce the best show that we can and keep us super stoked on our labor of love.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 23 Dec 2021 08:00:00 +0000

3-Time World Champion Adriel Young

Welcome to episode 102 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we have the 3-time ÖTILLÖ World Champion Adriel Young on the show. For those who don’t know Adriel, he’s a Swimrunner whose legend is being written as we speak…and also happens to be one of the nicest guys in the sport. We caught up with him at the start of his holiday and had a great chat.

But first...

Training Update

The end of the off-season is nigh! It’s almost time to start getting back to work for our build to ÖTILLÖ Catalina and we predict a lot of steep hill work in our near future.

Shoutouts

This week we’re shouting out our newest member on Patreon, Molly Erker. Thank you so much for the support. We really, really, really appreciate it!

Speaking of Patreon…we are going to start beefing up our engagement on that platform for our super fans. Starting in a few weeks we will start hosting quarterly virtual meetups on Zoom, set up webinars with coaches, race directors and other personalities in the Swimrun space, give phat discounts on LTBz swag, and do random giveaways throughout the year. Really we’re just trying to give back more to the folks that help us keep the lights on. Want some of that action? Go to patreon.com/lowtideboyz to learn more.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s award goes to Simrranvier Rana from Thailand. Sim is our first Strava Club member from Thailand and he’s planning on doing his first Swimrun next year.

Check out and join our Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for Swimruns and life.

This Week In Swimrun

We have a short update this week.

A friendly reminder that the registration window is now open for teams seeking to race ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. Best of luck to everyone trying to qualify for the original Swimrun.

Don’t know what we’re talking about? Check out our podcast episode all about qualifying for ÖTILLÖ.

In other news, Ödyssey Swimrun has released their list of 2022 events and dates. Casco Bay will be held on July 17th about a month earlier than in previous years. Mackinac Island will take place on August 28th. Orcas Island is happening on September 18th. Closing out the year, Austin will take place on November 6th. Unfortunately, the Luddington event is not going to have a second edition in 2022. Registration is opening soon, so make sure that you’ve signed up for the Ödyssey newsletter to stay on top of the early bird registration prices.

That’s it for this week. Make sure to tip us off if there is any news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Updates

Our new headwear is here! Head over to our shop to see our new hats and beanies. They won’t arrive in time for Christmas but that’s ok.

Our latest episode of Gear Talk is out! In this show, The Swimrun Labs and us review the Ark Sports Keel s pull buoy. Check it out to find out why we think that there’s not much “s” about it!

Adriel Young

We are super stoked to have 3-time World Champion Adriel Young on the show. There are too many superlatives that we could use to describe Adriel so we’ll just say that he’s pretty cool. We had a lot of fun chatting with him about his epic 2021 Swimrun season, his Swimrun “training,” why Oscar Olsson is such a legend (this is definitely a “game recognize game” situation), and why this year’s World Championship was so special. We keep saying this of pretty much all our guests but it’s true, Adriel is a great ambassador for the sport and we love his energy and enthusiasm for Swimrun.

You can follow Adriel on Instagram.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 16 Dec 2021 08:00:00 +0000

Ark Sports Keel s Pull Buoy Review

Welcome to Gear Talk: The Löw Tide Böyz and Swimrun Labs review show!

In this episode of Gear Talk, the gang is back to chat about one of the best topics in Swimrun: Pull Buoys! We’re super stoked to review the newest addition to the Keel family, Ark Sports Keel s.

Before we get into that, we have some gear updates.

Gear Updates

Chris and Chipper tested the Ark Sports UTÖ suit and had nothing but positive things to say about the suit. They wore the suit at two Swimrun Shakeouts before Ödyssey’s Orcas Island and Austin races.

Chipper also raced Ödyssey Swimrun Austin in the Ark Sports VIGG. This was his first race using the suit that Chris won’t stop talking about and spoiler alert: he loved it.

Untethered Thoughts

Chris shared an untethered thought about how Swimrun reminds him of random Olympic sporting events that people within the niche really care about but that others literally do not know that they even exist.

Keel s Pull Buoy Review

The smallest in the Keel Pull Buoy line, the Keel s is described by Ark Sports as “suitable for the pool season and training, but also for those who likes a smaller pull-buoy during their swimruns.” While the size and weight is comparable to the NU Orza Pull Buoy (see our review of that pull buoy here) that is where the comparisons end. The Keel s provides much more buoyancy for the size. Best part…they are only $28.

Swimming Impressions

Chipper knew from the start that the Keel s wouldn’t be a pull buoy that he would use in the race but was perfect for pool training. Testing it in the pool with the NU Orza pull buoy, Chipper liked the thickness of the Keel s over the Orza.

Brooke found that the shape of the Keel s resulted in it being slightly slower than the Orza in testing. She also thought (and everyone agreed) that the Orza is more comfortable between the thighs than all the Keel varieties. She prefers the Orza for pool swimming.

Chris thought that the Keel s mimicked more closely what Swimrun swimming would feel like than the Orza. Performance-wise, they were pretty much the same.

Annie surprisingly really loved the Keel s after having a lot of adoration for Orza. Chipper diagnosed Annie’s reasoning: that the Keel s is shorter than the Orza and other Keel varieties. Annie would definitely use it in a race.

Transition and Running Impressions

Everyone thought the Keel s is better for running because it feels much sturdier than the Orza and easier to store during transitions. The gang also thought that the Keel s might be a good option for the thigh mount.

Pull Buoy Rankings

Chipper’s Pull Buoy Ranking

4.5 Pull Buoys. It’s a good value and has multiple applications and while he won’t be racing in it, he will be using it in the pool.

Annie’s Pull Buoy Ranking

5 Pull Buoys. She loved it and it was just right for her. She loved the price and will be using it for races.

Brooke’s Pull Buoy Ranking

4.5 Pull Buoys. For all the reasons that Annie mentioned. She docked .5 pull buoys for the girth of the bridge was a little too thick for her liking and less comfortable than the NU Orza.

Chris’s Pull Buoy Ranking

4.5 Pull Buoys. It’s a great pull buoy that checks off a lot of boxes. He thought it was slightly over-engineered in terms of shape and could have been a bit more comfortable but that didn’t take much away from its utility.

Overall Impressions

The Ark Sports Keel s is a great pull buoy for smaller and lighter Swimrunners and those that are exceptional swimmers that might not need the help of a larger pull buoy. While it doesn’t have universal applicability due to its size it’s a great pull buoy and we loved it!

That’s it for this week’s Gear Talk show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions, and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 08:00:00 +0000

How to Qualify for ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship

Welcome to Episode 101 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

In this episode, we expound upon the various ways that Swimrun teams can qualify for ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. This episode is pretty self-serving since we were trying to figure this out to determine our own chances of qualifying for the World Championship and figured that we put it together for everyone before the application period opens on December 14th.

There are a total of 160 team spots available for qualification for ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. The race is held on the first Monday in September every year.

To be able to participate in ÖTILLÖ you have to race in a team consisting of two persons that are at least 18 years old and able to swim. Each team member needs to have valid insurance for swimrun or sports similar to swimrun. Some other things worth noting:

Your application is final and will not be reimbursed if a team is accepted. Use your insurance if you have a medical issue and need a reimbursement.

You are allowed to change one team member of the same gender. This can’t happen until after ÖTILLÖ Engadin.

No external sales of your entry is allowed.

There are five ways to get a spot at the legendary race. We will discuss each below:

1. Podium at ÖTILLÖ World Series Distance Race

Pretty self-explanatory here

9 spots available at each event, 3 for each category (Men’s, Women’s, and Mixed)

2. Direct Qualification

9 spots per event

This is essentially like a roll-down qualification

Spots are distributed between classes according to the number of races per class

E.g., 4 men, 3 mixed, 2 women

3. 7/24 Concept

Starting in 2017, The 7/24 concept is a guaranteed way of getting a spot at the Swimrun World Championship

You and your teammate have to race 5 World Series races & 2 Merit races in 24 months. It can be any of them and it can also be the same races two times. All you have to do is finish them. Then you apply and you will get a guaranteed spot

This way will also put you relatively high in the ranking which will allow you to apply in that category too

4. Race Directors Choice

10 spots at the race director’s discretion

Typically given throughout the year for sponsors, media and/or special circumstances

E.g., when Rich Roll/Chris Hauf qualified in 2018 it was through a director’s choice

5. Swimrun Ranking Points: (We’ll spend most of the time on this one since it’s the method that affects us)

78 Spots

The spots are distributed evenly between the classes according to the amount of applications per class

If you apply in more than one category we will select the team with the highest ranking in the respective category (Men, Women or Mixed)

Reserve lists will be made per class and are based on ranking

Presentation of teams on the first Thursday of February. The application opens on December 14th

Important to note for Race Directors and ranking slots:

The distribution of Ranking and Directors choice Spots will be done according to the amount of applications per category (men, women and mixed) so that we have an equal percentage between the categories.

In other words, if more women teams apply than in year’s past, there will be more spots assigned to that category. Wild Swimrun has a great article on their website explaining how this works.

How does the Swimrun Ranking system work?

It’s basically a points system. Teams register at swimrunranking.com and results are assigned points after teams either submit their finish times or they are auto-populated for ÖTILLÖ events.

The points are distributed based on the following criteria:

The system is built using inverse property.

40% of the points are based on your overall result in the race. No matter which class you are in.

60% of the points are based on your time in relation to the average time of all finishing teams. This means that teams finishing very close together get very similar “time points” in relationship to their position and vice versa i.e. performance driven.

Races are weighted differently. The base points are multiplied by a coefficient that are as follows: ÖTILLÖ World Series Races x 1,25 (ÖTILLÖ World Series Races before 2020 had the coefficient 1,1) and ÖTILLÖ merit races x 1,0.

All teams that finish a race get ranking points.

Your points will devalue with 75% after 365 days from getting them, after 24 months they will disappear completely.

Your six (6) best points over the last 24 month period will count towards your ranking (this means that devalued points might be exchanged for more current points).

Race Entry Fee: 15,900 Swedish Krona (SEK) or about $1,738 per team

Fee includes:

Transport from Stockholm City to Pre- Race Hotel (Sunday)

Hotel accommodation (Sunday)

Dinner (Sunday)

Breakfast (Monday)

Transport to Start (Monday)

Race (Monday)

Transport of bags to Finish (Monday)

Dinner Utö (Monday)

Accommodation at Utö or Monday Night Transport to Stockholm (Monday)

Breakfast at Utö (Tuesday)

Ferry transport to Stockholm City (Tuesday)

We hope this has demystified the process a bit and wish everyone the best of luck if racing from Sandhamn to Utö is on your bucket list of activities.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 9 Dec 2021 08:00:00 +0000

World Champions Desirée Andersson and Victor Dahl

Welcome to Episode 100 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We did it! It’s hard to believe that we’ve reached 100 episodes of the show, yet here we are.

We have a very special show this week to commemorate hitting the century mark. We will take a walk down memory lane over the almost 2-year history of the show. If that wasn’t enough, we are joined on the show this week by reigning ÖTILLÖ Mixed Team World Champions and World Record holders Desirée Andersson and Victor Dahl, A.K.A. Team Envol HEAD Swimming.

There are no words to adequately express our gratitude for you listening to our super niche show...but that won’t stop us from trying.

“What Does Your Show Do?”

Rich Roll was asked this question when he was visiting Minneapolis to cover the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd by some community activists. He mentioned that he wrestled with how to answer the question because it was so direct and in the moment. Hearing that struck us by how easy a question that is for us to answer. What does our show do? We get people super stoked on Swimrun!

Our Swimrun/Podcast Journey

It’s safe to say that when we started this show in January of 2020 that we did not have many expectations. We knew that we were super stoked on Swimrun and that no one we knew had heard about the sport...except from us. Given our backgrounds in digital marketing and brand building (and crucially, Chipper’s previous podcast experience), we thought that we could put out a good show, help people discover and de-mystify Swimrun, have some fun writing the first Swimrun Meme account, and we would see what happened. Our plan was to at least chronicle our Swimrun journey through March of 2020.

Our first few guests were friends that gave us the “why not” answer with a chuckle when we asked them to come on. The Swimrun Monks and Team Envol Baywatch were awesome enough to answer our DMs and come on the show in the early months. Our first “get” of a guest was Christofer Sundberg, Co-Founder of Ark Sports. While this interview probably also falls into the “why not” reasoning for coming on, Ark Sports will always have a special place in our hearts for saying yes.

When we got to Catalina for the ÖTILLÖ World Series race we began to realize that we may have started something when some “fans” came up to us on the ferry to show us their pull buoys. (Shoutout Colleen, Libby, and Tori!) The weekend just got wilder and wilder and that didn’t even take into account the race! Oh, and Chipper got quoted in a New York Times article about ÖTILLÖ Catalina. (Shoutout to our brother and forever favorite journalist, Adam Skolnick!)

We were definitely riding high after Catalina and had pretty much committed to keep doing the show and then BAM! Planet Earth got hit with a once in a generation pandemic. We weren’t sure what we were going to do at first but quickly decided that we were going to try to keep the “stoke level” high and just keep following our curiosity to learn more about the sport and the amazing people that are a part of it. Along the way, we started the Gear Talk show with Annie and Brooke from the Swimrun Labs (whom we love) so we could geek out about all things gear and help answer all the questions that we had started getting from folks getting into the sport, we launched a YouTube channel to share more info about Swimrun, and our Meme account found new levels of ridiculousness.

Well, fast forward to now, it’s safe to say that the show is a “thing.” We have tried to foster community wherever we could, we’ve made friends from all over the world, we’ve gotten better at swimming and running, and our love for the Swimrun community keeps blossoming.

So. Many. People. To. Thank.

Now for the longest shoutout segment in the history of the show.

First, no walk down the LTBz memory lane would even be possible without the seemingly undying support of our respective wives, Kristen and Susan. Their encouragement/acquiescence on our Swimrun journey has been amazing and we are truly thankful for their support.

The support that we have gotten from races and brands including ÖTILLÖ, Ödyssey Swimrun, Ark Sports, Frank Paddle, Precision Hydration and so many others has been amazing. It’s inspiring to us to see so many companies trying to grow the sport in the right way.

A giant thank you to all the show guests that agreed to come on the podcast. Thank you for your enthusiasm, candor, and perspective. A special thank you to our LTBz correspondents in the field for just agreeing to do that. We know it was super random.

Last, but definitely not least, we want to thank all our listeners and fans for tuning in. We’re constantly amazed that people actually listen and find the information useful. Obviously, that’s what we are going for but it’s still surreal to us that we’ve had over 61,000 downloads at the time of recording and the pace is only speeding up. Thank you all so much for the encouragement, for giving us feedback on how to make the show better, and for fueling us to keep trying to put together good content for you.

Our Swimrun journey continues and we can’t wait to share it with all of you!

Interview with Desirée and Victor

We are honored to have Desirée Andersson and Victor Dahl join us on the podcast for this special episode and we couldn’t think of a better team to have on. Not only do they win everything they touch, they are two of the nicest and most welcoming ambassadors of the sport. We chatted with them about how they got paired up (thank you Nicolas Remirez,) how they trained and raced to get dialed in for the World Championship, we talked about their record breaking performance in this year’s race, and what the future holds for Team Envol HEAD Swimming.

They are great and we think that you’ll enjoy this conversation.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 2 Dec 2021 08:00:00 +0000

Burcay Gurcan

Welcome to episode ninety-nine of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we have a Portland, Maine local legend, Burcay Gurcan on the show. He’s a Portland Maine institution and we chatted with him about all things Portland/Casco Bay, water polo (yes, water polo,) and how he’s single-handedly gotten so many people into Swimrun. We got a bunch of requests to get him on the show and we’re glad to share his story with you!

But first...

Training Update

It’s still the off-season for us for a few weeks and life is good. (So is all the food we’ve been eating!)

Shoutouts

This week we’re shouting out the crew at Palisades Tahoe (the ski resort formerly known as Squaw Valley) for turning on their snow-making machines so that our kids could have some snow to play with on our recent vacation to Lake Tahoe.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s award goes to Jonathan DePriest. He’s a San Francisco native and we’re super impressed that he’s been consistently jumping into Aquatic Park (our usual training grounds) to swim in the bay without a wetsuit. We wish we were as tough as you! Keep up the strong work!

Check out and join our Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for Swimruns and stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Time for all the news that we could find on the internet.

We’re back with the second edition of our ad hoc “Race Director Reports” segment! This week we have our friend Bruno Safara of Swimrun Portugal on the show to talk about the Lagoa Swimrun that took place a few weeks ago and his plans for 2022.

This past weekend, Swimrun Hydra took place in Greece. While no actual mythological creatures (hydras) were spotted on the race course that we heard about...it was still an awesome event with a ton of participants.

Over in France, Swimrun Man announced their race dates for 2022. We’ll save everyone our attempts to pronounce the names of all the events so head over to their website to see their four events for next year. As a bonus, all four events have ÖTILLÖ Merit Race distances for those trying to accumulate ÖTILLÖ ranking points.

Finally, one of our favorite races (to view from a distance) Hellas Frostbite Swimrun is taking place on December 1st. This race raises funds for the Swedish Cancer Society and it’s an all around crazy event in water cold enough to make you blush...whether you want to or not.

That’s it for this week. Be sure to tip us off if there’s any news that you would like for us to share on the show.

Updates

Our new headwear is here! Head over (see what we did there?) to our shop to see our new hats and beanies. These make great gifts for either loved ones or yourself. In other words, “treat yo self!”

Our friend Will from Above/Below sent a note our way about their new US patent and an exciting opportunity for anyone to invest in Above/Below (the company) and help fund more Ruck Rafts to get out into the world. Here is the link to the crowdfunding here (open to UK residents only at this time.)

We’ve officially signed up for Swimrun Lake James. We’re really looking forward to racing Kristen Jeno’s event in late April and hope to see you there!

Burcay Gurcan

It was great to chat with Burcay about the circuitous route that brought him from Turkey to New England, how he discovered Swimrun, what it was like to race some of those early Casco Bay events, and why he keeps coming back every year. This was a fun conversation and we think that you will enjoy it!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 25 Nov 2021 08:00:00 +0000

The Boston Wet Sox Go to Malta

Welcome to episode ninety-eight of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we welcome back to the show Bronwen and Greg Dierksen, A.K.A. The Dierksens, A.K.A. The Boston Wet Sox. They recently made American Swimrun history at ÖTILLÖ Malta and they joined us on the show to share their race report of their epic day.

But first...

Training Update

This week’s update is that there is no update. #offseason #YOLO #LFGagaininmidDecember

Shoutouts

We’ve got triple shoutouts this week for our three new Patrons on Patreon. Thank you Sarah, Scott, and Brett for helping us keep the lights on. As we mentioned last week, we have a special holiday gift for our patrons as a token of our gratitude that we will be mailing out in the next few weeks.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s award goes to Jess VandenBussche from Hamilton, Canada. She recently posted one of the best strava titles that we’ve seen in a while for a 5k Personal Best that she accomplished during a race: If I Puke, I Puke. The only response that we have to that is...HELL YEAH! Strong work Jess!

Check out and join our Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for Swimruns and stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

All the news that we could find on the internet contained herein.

The Swimrun season is winding down but there were still some cool events that took place over the weekend.

Our friends at Swimrun Portugal hosted their Lagoa Swimrun and the photos looked amazing. We can’t wait to get to Portugal to race one of Bruno’s races one of these days!

To say that Hugo Tormento is on absolute fire since racing ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship where he finished third with Matthieu Poullian (You can hear all about their race on Episode 92 of the podcast) would be the understatement of the year! Hugo won ÖTILLÖ Cannes with Max Andersson, won ÖTILLÖ Malta with Adriel Young (Adriel has also had a legendary year in his own right with 9 podiums--8 wins and one second place--in 9 races this year), and then a week later (this past weekend) won Swimrun Reunion (an race on an island off of the coast of Madagascar) with Heneman Guillaume. And if that wasn’t enough, he finished 11th in the Aquathlon World Championships just two weeks after Cannes.

In other news, if you’re already planning your 2022 calendar like we are, heads up that Swimrun Costa Brava announced that next year’s race will be on April 23 and registration is open now. Over in the U.K., Mad Hatter Sports opened registration for their Hokey Cokey Swimrun that is taking place on May 21st.

Here in the U.S., Ödyssey Swimrun will be announcing their 2022 race lineup soon so make sure that you sign up for their newsletter and/or follow them on the socials for updates on that.

That’s it for this week. Be sure to tip us off if there’s any news that you would like for us to share on the show.

Updates

We still have a handful of 50k download and 100th episode stickers left. If you want some free stuff just go to lowtideboyz.com/stickers and fill out the form and we’ll put some Low Tide love in the mail to anywhere in the world.

We have new hats and beanies arriving soon. Stay tuned for updates on new ways to show your Low Tide pride this holiday season.

The Dierksens Go to Malta

What can we say about Bronwen and Greg? They are just the best! We’re lucky to have them come back on show to share their historic experience at ÖTILLÖ Malta. Why historic? Because they are the first American team to ever win an ÖTILLÖ race. They are also the first team to ever podium an ÖTILLÖ race (Isles of Scilly in 2019.) They are great ambassadors for U.S. Swimrunning and also happen to be the nicest and most generous athletes around. They’ve contributed to a bunch of our course preview shows and whenever they dispense advice, we listen.

It was great to hear about their experience in Malta and we think that everyone will enjoy this interview.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 18 Nov 2021 08:00:00 +0000

Ödyssey Swimrun Austin 2021 Race Report

Welcome to episode ninety-seven of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We’ve got our last race report for 2021 to share with everyone this week! We just got back from the Lone Star state after racing Ödyssey Swimrun Austin Long Course on November 7th and we’re super stoked to share what was a great weekend for Swimrunning. (Spoiler Alert: We had our best race to date!)

Initial Thoughts

There were a lot of thoughts going into race weekend. It was unexpectedly our last race of the year after ÖTILLÖ Catalina was postponed to March 2022. It was the first time that we would be racing the same course after having raced the inaugural Ödyssey Swimrun Austin in 2020. Being able to have an “apples to apples” comparison was definitely intriguing for us given how much improvement we had seen from race to race this year.

With all this in mind, we were super stoked to go back to Pace Bend Park and spend some quality time with our Swimrun Community.

LTBz Shakeout Swimrun (Austin Edition)

It was great to be back in Pace Bend and get there early enough to host a Shakeout Swimrun on Saturday for everyone that was already in town. Over 35 people showed up and we had a ton of fun Swimrunning part of the course and taking a bunch of jumps at the cliff jump area. We ended the shakeout with some fika (minus the coffee) in honor of Team Adorkable that was racing in North Carolina the same weekend.

Race Day

It was cold and super foggy on race morning. So foggy that Ödyssey made the very prudent call to push the start time for the long course from 7:00am to 7:45am. Once the race started we knew that we were going to have a good day. We really didn’t know how good of a day we were having until the out and back section of Run 4 and saw that there was only one team (and two solo athletes: Adrian and Josh) ahead of us. We figured out that we were pretty solidly in second place and spent the rest of the race making sure that we consolidated that position and weren’t passed. As we neared the last swim of the day a volunteer told us that we were three minutes back from the first place team. At that point, we were just racing the clock since it looked like a sub three hour finishing time looked possible.

We crossed the finish line and got confirmation from the Voice of Swimrun himself that we finished in second place. (We were only 0:03:43 behind the winning team of Vincent and Justin, A.K.A. Team Eggplant Emoji.)

Obviously, this was our first Swimrun podium haha!

Our race stats: finish time: 2:56:43. Good for 2nd place Overall, 2nd place Men's team. (84 teams registered)

Given that the field wasn’t as deep as in 2020 due to a bunch of teams racing at Swimrun NC the same weekend, we thought that calibrating our improvement would be a more accurate measure of our development as a team. We finished last year’s race in 3:30:16. Our 2021 finishing time was 0:33:33 faster! Another comparison was our overall pace: this year our overall average pace was 10:38/mi. In 2020 our overall pace was 12:21 per mile. A difference of 1:43/mi.

Final Thoughts

Obviously, we are overjoyed with our race result and the progress that we have made all year. There are a lot of people to thank for all that progress and you know who you are. We are also so appreciative for all the congratulatory notes from our worldwide Swimrun community. We’re looking forward to a break from training and then get back to our Swimrun journey at ÖTILLÖ Catalina in March.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 08:00:00 +0000

Mark Simmons, Swimrun Photographer

Welcome to episode ninety-six of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we have the super talented Swimrun photographer, Mark Simmons, on the show. If you’ve enjoyed those amazing photos from Ödyssey Swimrun over the last few years, then you’ve likely seen Mark’s work. More on this later in the show.

But first...

Training Update

It’s race week for Ödyssey Swimrun Austin! This also means that it’s a taper week for us. We’re looking forward to racing the Austin course again and seeing everyone in TX.

Shoutouts

This week we’re shouting out Marie and Katie, A.K.A., Team Twisted Sisters-Colo. They reached out recently to tell us that they are racing their first Swimrun at Ödyssey Swimrun Austin this weekend and we’re super stoked for them. We predict that they will have a blast!

Feats of Endurance

This week’s award goes to Kelsie Pearson. Not only is she half of Team Cali Swimrun Girls (check out our interview with Kelsie and Caroline Wolek in episode 33) but last week she threw down a 2:58 marathon at the Rock’n’Roll San Diego Marathon. That’s a 6:47/mile pace if you’re keeping score at home. She definitely, uhm, rocked it!

Check out and join our Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for Swimruns and stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

All the news that we could find on the internet is contained herein.

The Swimrun season is winding down but it’s going out with a bang! There are three races taking place this weekend and we’re super stoked about all of them.

In the United States, Swimrun NC and Ödyssey Swimrun Austin are both taking place on November 7th and both events are either sold out or very close to.

In Europe, ÖTILLÖ's last race of the season is taking place on the island of Malta. Best of luck to U.S. Mixed Teams Bronwen and Greg of the Boston Wet Sox and Mel and Andy of Team California Swimrun who are crossing the Atlantic to race the 39km World Series distance.

In case anyone at home is wondering, yes, this race is on our bucket list.

That’s it for this week. Be sure to tip us off if there’s any news that you would like for us to share on the show.

Updates

It’s free sticker time!! We’ve surpassed 50,000 total downloads and we’re getting close to our 100th episode so we are celebrating by giving away free stickers to commemorate both and show our immense gratitude for everyone that has tuned in to our brand of super-niche Swimrun content. Want some free stickers? Just go to lowtideboyz.com/stickers and fill out the form and we’ll put some low tide love in the mail to anywhere in the world.

If you’re racing Ödyssey Swimrun Austin this weekend, we are hosting a casual Swimrun shakeout meetup on Saturday, November 6 at 11 am at the Grisham Trail near the location of the cliff jump for a super chill 3-5k Swimrun/cliff jump practice. We’re not totally sure where the best place to park will be but we’ll try to get as close to the cliff jump area as we can and take it from there. Send us a DM if you think you’re going to make it so we can plan snacks accordingly.

Mark Simmons, Swimrun Photographer

It was super fun to chat with Mark about how he got into photography and wound his way to being the chief photographer for Ödyssey Swimrun. We chatted about his process for scoping out great shot locations, how he moves along a course without wearing a Swimrun wetsuit, and a lot more. Mark’s also a wedding photographer so he’s got that going for him. This interview as great fun and we hope that you enjoy it.

You can follow Mark Simmons on Instagram.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 4 Nov 2021 07:00:00 +0000

ÖTILLÖ Cannes 2021 Race Recap w/Team Envol Switzerland - HEAD

Welcome to episode ninety-five of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

The fifth edition of ÖTILLÖ Cannes took place a few weeks ago (October 16-17) and we are super stoked to share our race recap of that epic race with special guests Sabina Rapelli and Alexis Charrier of Team Envol Switzerland - HEAD. We’ve been huge fans of them since they won ÖTILLÖ Catalina in 2020. We have a lot in store for this episode so let’s get right to it!

LTBz Correspondents in the Field

We have to give a special shoutout to our friends Tobias and G Flo, A.K.A. Team Max Mockermann, for taking over our IG feed on race weekend and sharing the sights and sounds of their adventure in Cannes. They are awesome and their enthusiasm for Swimrun is 100% infectious. Thanks again guys!

ÖTILLÖ Cannes 2021 Recap

In short, it was the perfect weekend for Swimrunning in the south of France.

ÖTILLÖ describes the race as a “true ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Series course with islands to cross and lots of fantastic nature. It is challenging and fun with two big hills, single track trails, amazing views and beautiful water to swim in.” That checks off all the boxes for us!

We got more intel for everyone thanks to our field correspondents Tobias and G Flo. They chatted with Emma and Brandon that manage logistics and operations for ÖTILLÖ to ask how the race started in Cannes and the demands on them as they put on a world class event.

The World Series Distance Results

The World Series distance race is 44.2km (27.5 miles) of total distance with 36.1km (22.4 miles) of mixed trail/road/sand running and 8,100m (8,858yds) of swimming. The longest run was around 7.3km and the longest swim was 1,400m. The course also had 357m (1,171ft) of elevation gain which doesn’t sound like a lot but most of it is gained on the Port de Cannes run leg.

Women’s Team Podium:

1st Place: ARK Swimrun Helena & Kristin (Helena Sivertsson and Kristin Larsson) [Reigning World Champions]
2nd Place: Team Envol/Primalcoaching (Johanna Paulsson and Anna Hellström)
3rd Place: ARKsouls Addnature (Helen Wikmar and Evelina Järvinen)

Mixed Team Podium:

1st Place: Team Envol - Desirée & Victor (Desirée Andersson and Victor Hugo) [Second Place Overall!)
2nd Place: Team Envol Switzerland - HEAD (Sabina Rapelli and Alexis Charrier)
3rd Place: TC WEPPES - NUSWIMRUN (Pierre-Louis Senechal and Angèle Duhem)

Men’s Team Podium:

1st Place: ARK Swimrun France (Hugo Tormento and Max Andersson)
2nd Place: Will and Max (Maxime Picot and William Even)
3rd Place: Team Surprise (Benjamin Dupain and David Pesquet)

Overall, the weather was perfect for race weekend and the vibe of the entire event was one of gratitude and fun. If you’re still on the fence about putting this race on your bucket list, check out the hype video for this year’s race by Rasmus Lodenius and the rest of the ÖTILLÖ media crew.

Special Race Report with Sabina and Alexis

It was really fun to sit down with Sabina and Alexis a few days after their second place finish in the World Series distance. As we mentioned at the beginning, we have been huge fans of theirs since Catalina and they have been on our list of teams that we wanted to interview for the show since then. We’re glad to finally have them on and chat about their Swimrun journey including how they met (thanks Nicolas Remires) and started racing together, how they trained and stayed motivated during COVID, their 2nd place finish at ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship, their Cannes race, and what is up next for them.

We loved this conversation and know that you will too!

Thank you for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Swimrun NC Course Preview

Welcome to episode ninety-four of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

On the show this week we have our course preview for Swimrun NC. We're joined by Co-Race Director Herbert Krabel, Marcus Barton, and Bronwen and Greg Dierksen of the Boston Wet Sox to share everything you need to know about this epic ÖTILLÖ Merit Race in beautiful Hanging Rock State Park in North Carolina.

THE STORY

Swimrun NC has a really cool history. Check out our interview with co-race director Herbert Krabel to get the origin story of this cool race. Now in its 5th year, Swimrun NC offers Swimrunners a unique challenge. We asked Herbert to come on the show to share with us why athletes should have this race on their bucket list.

Starting and finishing in Hanging Rock State Park, Swimrun NC is just 30ish miles north of Winston-Salem. There are several airport options to get to North Carolina in Charlotte, Greensboro, and Raleigh. Lodging near Hanging Rock is sparse unless you’re ok with a campground. Otherwise look for lodging in Winston-Salem.

THE RACE

The course is 16ish miles with 14 miles of running and 2 miles of swimming broken up into 11 runs and 9 swims with significant elevation thrown in. This isn’t your beginner’s Swimrun race but it does start and finish at a brewery so there’s that.

Annotated Leg By Leg Breakdown

Run 1: Green Heron Ale House to Hanging Rock Lake (4.5 miles)

First .4 miles are on a gravel road and that’s where teams sort themselves out before hitting the single track
Along the way climb through Window Falls which is one of the most picturesque parts of the course
If you’re racing, make your move before you get to the waterfall because it will bottleneck and slow you down

Swim 1: Hanging Rock Lake (500m/547yd)

This is one of the main aid station/checkpoints in the course that you pass several times

Run 2: Northern Lake trail (.2 miles)

Swim 2: Cut across bay (25m/21yd)

Run 3: Traverse waterfall (.2 miles)

Swim 3: Hanging Rock Lake (500m/547yd)

aid station/checkpoint

Run 4: Northern Lake trail (.2 miles)

Swim 4: Cut across bay (25m/21yd)

Run 5: Traverse waterfall and continue to Moore's Wall (2.1 miles)

Moore’s Wall has a 642 step stair climb but there’s a lot of climbing before getting to the steps
Don’t burn all your matches on this leg of the race
small aid station/checkpoint (the aid is rationed at the top so make sure you take some extra hydration at the previous aid station

Run 6: Traverse of Moore's Wall and descent to lake (2.2 miles)

Some tricky trails here so watch your footing
Consider untethering here because of the technical descend

Swim 5: Hanging Rock Lake (500m/547yd)

aid station / checkpoint

Run 7: Northern lake trail (.2 miles)

Swim 6: Cut across bay (25m/21yd)

Run 8: Traverse waterfall (.2 miles)

Swim 7: Hanging Rock Lake (500m/547yd)

aid station/checkpoint

Run 9: Northern lake trail (.2 miles)

Swim 8: Cut across bay (25m/21yd)

Run 10: Traverse waterfall climb through Cascades Falls and descend to Dan River (5.7 miles)

The Cascade Falls are about half a mile into this leg
This is an out and back so you might see people running in the opposite direction (Up or down depended where you are on the out and back)
Consider cabbing down if it’s a warm day
This is the last time to gain any ground on other teams if you’re racing

Swim 9: Rock walls to Green Heron Ale House (900m/984yd)

Longest swim of the day
The river can be pretty shallow at points
Consider this as a voting strategy
Try to swim the river the day before the race if you can to get a good sense of what to expect on race day

Run 11: Stairs to finish (50yd)

THE STRATEGY

We asked The Deirksens for their strategy tips for approaching the unique challenges that Swimrun NC presents to teams. They outlined where to make moves if teams are racing, how to approach the toughest parts of the course, and where to make sure that you take on bonus hydration. As usual, they dropped some major knowledge bombs and we are grateful for their willingness to share their experience with us.

THE TRAINING

We asked Marcus Barton (three-time race winner of Swimrun NC) to share his thoughts about how to approach training for the unique features of the race. He recommended training on hills both uphill and downhill and on technical trails as much as possible. He also recommends having confidence in the shoes that you will be using for the race which means practicing simulating race conditions if you can to gain confidence in your shoe choice.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

We hope that this course preview gives everyone a good sense of what to expect on race day and how to prepare for the challenge that this ÖTILLÖ Merit race offers to Swimrun teams.

These episodes are an iterative process so please let us know what you think about this evolving format.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Orca RS1 Swimrun Wetsuit Review

Welcome to Gear Talk with our friends Annie and Brooke from Swimrun Labs. This week we have a special guest to help us with this week’s review: Marcus Barton.

In this episode we have a long-awaited wetsuit review. We were finally able to get to test the “new” Orca RS1 Swimrun Wetsuit thanks to Marcus who owned one and he and Chris shared their unfiltered thoughts after testing it.

The complete review is coming later in the show.

Gear Updates

Both Brooke and Annie were (finally) convinced by Chris to buy the Surf Ears 3.0 ear plugs and both thought that they were a game changer.

Chipper has been training in the Ark Sports VIGG leading up to Ödyssey Swimrun Austin. He’s loving it but did experience some chaffing around the neckline.

Chris recently picked up a pair of the new Adidas Terrex Speed Pro Trail running shoes through one of his hookups. They haven’t been tested yet but out of the box they are pretty minimal, appear to have excellent drainage, and grip on the soles. Full review coming soon.

Guest Gear Review

Thank you to Adam and Matthew of Team Jersey Buoys for the guest review! Adam recently tried an UTTER brand swimrun wetsuit for their Orcas race a few weeks back. He didn’t share a lot of details but thought it was a great suit.

Untethered Thoughts

Brooke has felt very untethered this past year due to COVID and training pretty much in isolation. She was in pure Swimrun bliss to be able to be at Orcas Island and feel the energy of everyone at the race. She was worried about her passion for the sport but it has been renewed and we are all happy for that!

Shout Out

We wanted to give a special shout out to our friend Adrian Cameron for sharing with us some major details about how he’s been testing shoes for Swimrun. We will be giving his special spreadsheet it’s own episode but we wanted to make sure to thank him for sharing the knowledge before we unpack his spreadsheet.

Orca RS1 Swimrun Wetsuit Review

It was great to have Marcus who has a lot of experience using Orca suits and, other than Chris, is the only one to have used/tested the suit.

The RS1 retails for $499 and it is Orca’s top-of-the-line suit. Orca website describes the RS1 as being designed using the latest innovations for this suit and claims that it was created for Swimrunners by Swimrunners. The suit comes in men’s and women’s sizes. (We were all disappointed that the women’s suits only came in 5 sizes while the men’s suits came in 9 sizes. Thanks to Swimrun Labs for pointing this out.)

The most interesting innovation of the suit is “revolutionary vest-like” construction on the upper that opens like a, uhm...vest. It makes the wetsuit very easy to put on and cab down and we were curious to see how it would hold up during a Swimrun.

Swimming Impressions

Marcus thought that the suit performed well in the water. There was some water that would get in the front from the bottom of the vest-like upper. He thought that suit was a bit on the warm side and good for cold races.

Chris thought that the suit was almost too buoyant. It worked well in cold water because the material was a bit thicker than other suits that other high-end suits use. He thought that the material in the shoulders was a bit thicker than he would have liked.

Transition Impressions

Chris and Marcus agreed that cabbing down is super easy to do solo but there was a lot of material flowing around once it was at the waist. Marcus said it was akin to wearing a cape. Cabbing up was a bit tougher to get the zipper teeth lined up while running. This could be even tougher with cold hands.

Marcus noticed that there was a potential issue when exiting the water that it was possible to create a bunching in the front of the suit and it would create a gap and suck in water while trying to stand up. Marcus’s partner Caleb mentioned that during Casco Bay a few years back that he would get sand in his suit from the water going in. (“A negative pressure syphon.” -- Anne Molsberry)

Running Impressions

Chris thought that the suit was pretty hot to run in because the back panel was pretty thick. The bottoms were pretty thick and the pockets in the front were pretty worthless. He did like where the seams were placed in the crotch area and it was super comfortable.

Marcus agreed that the legs of the RS1 are too thick and could fatigue your hips on a long race. The pockets in the front weren’t well designed and it was possible to lose gels or other stuff due to the placement.

Pull Buoy Rankings Rankings

Marcus 2.5 Pull Buoys

Marcus thought that the vest-like upper was a “neat” idea but it didn’t just didn’t seem to fit. For a high-end suit, he would have expected much more flexibility in the shoulder. He also got chaffing around the neck every time he used it.

Chris 2 Pull Buoys

Chris was very disappointed with the suit. For the price point, not worth the money. He expected more tech for the price point. The internal pockets on the front waistband were worthless. The lower half of the suit was non-smooth neoprene and didn’t feel particularly better than the Synergy entry-level suit and would have expected a thinner material. The internal pockets in the front thighs for extra buoyancy pads seemed unnecessary given how thick the bottoms were. Finally, he would rather use an entry-level Ark Sports KORP or a Synergy Swimrun Wetsuit over this suit any day of the week and on race day.

Overall Impressions

We were definitely bummed that the 3rd generation of the RS1 missed the mark. For the price point, we expected much more technology and better/thinner materials. Ultimately, the vest-like top/cab down feature, while clever, is not enough to save this suit.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 19 Oct 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Team Run For Tacos

Welcome to episode ninety-three of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we have Stirling Miles and Lolo Armstrong, A.K.A., Team Run For Tacos, on the show. They share their inspiring Swimrun journey of training, traveling, and racing their first Swimrun at Ödyssey Swimrun Orcas Island a few weeks back. We loved chatting with them and their story will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside!

But first...

Training Update

Ödyssey Swimrun Austin is four weeks away. We’re starting to pump up the volume on our training and did a 2 hour-plus Swimrun on Saturday to start dialing things in again.

Shoutouts

This week we’re shouting out Lindsey Ludwick from Virginia. Thanks for being a fan of the show and for wearing your Tie-dye hoodie with pride. Hope to meet you in person at a race soon!

Feats of Endurance

This week’s award goes to Robb Damman and his buddy Yanni for their 8 hour, 30.33 mile point to point Swimrun adventure in Durham County, North Carolina this past Saturday. They called the route “SCRAMP the Falls” and while we don’t know what that means, it’s still an impressive feat!

Check out and join our Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for Swimruns and stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

All the news that we could find on the internet contained herein.

It’s race week for ÖTILLÖ Cannes. Best of luck to everyone racing and remember to ignore the paparazzi. We’ll be putting out Cannes memes all week so make sure to follow us on IG to witness the ridiculousness. If that wasn’t enough, we will have some bonus race coverage thanks to our friends G Flo and Tobias from Team Max Mockermann who will be our “LTBz Correspondents in the Field” taking over our IG stories to share all the sights and sounds of Cannes. And it THAT wasn’t enough, we will also be releasing a Cannes Race Recap episode in the next few weeks so stay tuned for that!

This past weekend, Swimrun Cyprus held their annual race on the island. We loved seeing all the photos on IG and the event looked fantastic.

Gravity Race hosted the 6th edition of their Annecy Swimrun over the weekend. According to their website, they had 700 athletes participating in their three distance formats. Can’t blame the athletes for wanting to race because the Lac D’annecy is a pretty majestic location for a Swimrun.

If you’re looking for something to do on October 24, we recommend that you check out Swimrun Cote D’azur. We learned about this part of France from our friends Laurene and Irina, A.K.A., The Swimrun Mermaids, and they convinced us that it’s an amazing location for a Swimrun. (I foresee planning a double Swimrun vacation in the South of France with ÖTILLÖ Cannes one weekend and this race the following.)

Finally, it’s never too early to start planning for 2022 and Bauer Swimrun recently opened registration for their May 1st event in Småland, Sweden.

That’s it for this week. Be sure to tip us off if there’s any news that you would like for us to share on the show.

Updates

Programming alert: If you’re racing or thinking about racing Swimrun NC in November, make sure to check out our course preview episode that will drop next week.

Speaking about course previews, if you’re racing Ödyssey Swimrun Austin (it’s on the same day as Swimrun NC) make sure to check out our course preview episode to get you super stoked...and ready for race day.

Team Run For Tacos

Chatting with Stirling and Lolo about their Swimrun journey was so great! They shared their origin story and how one video changed the course of the endurance lives of two long-time best friends and got them to the start line of Ödyssey Swimrun Orcas Island. Their story is what Swimrun is all about and we can’t wait to see them again at another race.

You can follow the adventures of Team Run For Tacos on Instagram.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 14 Oct 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Team Ark Swimrun France

Welcome to episode ninety-two of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

On the show this week we have Matthieu Poullian and Hugo Tormento of Team Ark Swimrun France. These guys finished third in this year’s ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship and they share their intense race story with us (spoiler alert: broken bones were involved). This was a great conversation and we can’t wait to share it with you.

But first...

Training Update

Ödyssey Swimrun’s Orcas Island is in the rearview mirror and we are looking forward to Ödyssey Swimrun Austin in five weeks. We took this week chill but will start our last training block of the year on Monday!

Shoutouts

This week we’re shouting out Brandon Nelson. We met Brandon at Orcas Island and his enthusiasm for Swimrun was very apparent, a.k.a., he’s super stoked. So apparent in fact, that he signed up with his buddies to go race Ödyssey Swimrun Ludington and sent us a really nice message while he was enjoying a well-earned post-race beer with his crew.

BTW, if you’re looking for real estate in the Bellingham Washington area, Brandon is your guy!

Feats of Endurance

The award this week goes to everyone that was running up and down sand dunes on Sunday at Ödyssey Swimrun Ludington in Michigan. Strong work everyone! Legend has it that folks are still finding sand in their kits.

Check out and join our Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for Swimruns and stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

All the news that we could find on the internet contained herein.

Starting out with something from the bummer news department, ÖTILLÖ announced that November’s Catalina race has been postponed to March 19-20 citing uncertainty for travel given the continued disruptions caused by COVID-19.

This means that for Swimrunners seeking to accumulate ranking points for the Swimrun World Championship in the Western Hemisphere, the sole remaining ÖTILLÖ Merit Race will be Swimrun NC on November 7th. There are some spots still available for that race so make sure to get on top of that if you have aspirations to qualify for ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship.

In happier news, the inaugural Ödyssey Swimrun Ludington took place over the weekend and looked like an amazing sand-filled adventure. Ödyssey’s final race of the season will be taking place on Sunday, November 7 in Austin, Texas. New for this year are the addition of two events on Saturday November 6: a Kids Swimrun and a 5k trail run. We encourage everyone to join us at the start line for this race. (Make sure to use the code LOWTIDE15 to save 15% off of your solo or team registration.)

In other Swimrun news, Swimrun Portugal’s Madeira Swimrun presented by HEAD is taking place this weekend. We can’t wait to be able to get out to race one of Bruno Safara’s events! Make sure to check out our interview with Bruno to learn more why you too should be jonesing to Swimrun in Portugal.

Finally, As Keen as Mustard Events recently announced that they have opened registration for all their 2022 Swimrun events. If you live in the UK (or are planning to visit) make sure to check out one of their fun and welcoming events. You can learn more about this race series and the mother/daughter duo Nicky and Chelsey on Episode 56 of the podcast.

That’s it for this week. Be sure to tip us off if there’s any news that you would like for us to share on the show.

Updates

New hats are coming! Stay tuned for more details soon. In the meantime, check out our online store if you’re looking to show some Low Tide Pride.

Team Ark Swimrun France

It was great to chat with Matthieu and Hugo. We discussed the growing Swimrun scene in France, how they discovered Swimrun, how they are such fast swimmers, and got an exclusive race report from their 3rd Place finish at ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. This was a great conversation and it’s hard not to root for Team Ark Swimrun France as they will try to climb atop the podium again in 2022. Enjoy!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 7 Oct 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Ödyssey Swimrun Orcas Island 2021 Race Report

Welcome to episode ninety-one of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We’ve got a special episode for everyone this week! We just got back from the “PNW” after racing Ödyssey Swimrun’s Orcas Island Long Course on September 26th and we’ve got one hell of a race report to share chronicling all the highs and lows and highs of us racing this epic Swimrun.

Initial Thoughts

We’ve been looking forward to racing Orcas Island since it was first announced four years ago and we were finally going to take it on and we were super stoked to take on the challenge.

Orcas Island was Pretty Cool

We rented an awesome house that was literally across the street from the start/finish line and we brought with us an LTBz flag that we had made for the occasion and must have been seen by almost every participant since they ran by our house on the way to the finish line.

We co-hosted a shakeout Swimrun on the Saturday before the race and it was awesome to see so many people come out for that. We basically just ran around Cascade Lake to do a couple of swims and play at the cliff jump section of the run course. It was super fun on a beautiful day. All the credit for the shakeout goes to Trista and Amy of Team Adorkable for coming up with the idea, getting the fika, and just being awesome ambassadors for the sport. The event was co-sponsored by Ark Sports, Wild Swimrun, and Ödyssey.

Race Day

The race was everything that we had hoped it would be: beautiful and brutal. We wouldn’t say that we set the course on fire but we kept moving forward and dug deep to get through the course.

We finished the race in 6:33 which was good enough for 4th Place Men’s Team and 7th Overall. So that was nice!

Final Thoughts

While we didn’t have the race performance that we felt we were capable of, we learned a lot at this race and gained a ton of experience. Overall, Ödyssey Swimrun Orcas Island was an amazing event and we will definitely be back to race it again next year, if able.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Mel Bartow’s Epic Swedish Adventure

Welcome to episode ninety of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

On the show this week we have a long-time friend of the show, Mel Bartow, on to chat. She is part of the California Swimrun crew and she recently traveled to Sweden to race ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship with her race partner, the one and only, Andy Hewitt. She shares her amazing experience with us on the show!

But first...

Training Update

It’s race week!!!! Ödyssey Swimrun’s Orcas Island is this Sunday and we can’t wait to get up to Orcas Island and take on the super challenging long course. We’re as trained up as we’re going to get but we feel ready to take on the challenge.

Shoutouts

This week we’re shouting out our wives. We literally wouldn’t be able to do this show and/or travel to races without their support. We know that it’s tough on them to handle everything around the house and deal with the kids while we are out in the woods tethered together and whatnot and we are full of gratitude for their support and love.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Bas Bood from The Netherlands. He raced Swimrun Lauwersoog over the weekend and put in a really good effort out there. Strong work Bas!

Bonus winner this week is our friend Carolyn for running her first half marathon since giving birth to her beautiful daughter. Awesome job!

Check out and join our Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for Swimruns and stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

We’ve got something new for everyone this week. We’re calling it “Race Director Reports” and our first installment is with our friend and co-founder of EX Swimrun, Nicholas Roman. He joins us to talk about last weekend’s EX21 event.

In other Swimrun news, the 5th edition of the Urban Swimrun Challenge took place over the weekend in Düsseldorf, Germany. It’s cool to see this type of urban format and the race looked like it was a lot of fun.

The Folkhälsan Swimrun went off without a hitch on Saturday in Finland. This event is an ÖTILLÖ merit race and took place about 40km outside of Helsinki. Shoutout to friends of the show Nicolas Remires and “Beek” Tarayao (of Team Envol Baywatch) for winning the race!

Finally, Backwaterman Swimrun took place in Austria. The races start and end in front of Ottenstein Castle looks awesome! Shoutout to friends of the show Åsa and Henrik (A.K.A., the Swimrun Pappa) for finishing first place in the mixed team category of the 36km Marathon course. Strong work!

That’s it for this week. Be sure to tip us off if there’s any news that you would like for us to share on the show.

Updates

Our new merch is here! Check out our latest ways for you to show your Low Tide Pride in our shop!

If you’re racing Orcas Island and aren’t sure what to do kit-wise, make sure to check out our latest episode of Gear Talk with the Swimrun Labs where we discuss gear considerations and tactics for the race.

Mel Bartow’s Epic Swedish Adventure

It was awesome to get Mel’s experience of her trip to Sweden for the World Championship. Her enthusiasm for Swimrun is infectious and she got us even more stoked to try to qualify for the original Swimrun. This interview is solid gold! Enjoy.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 23 Sep 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Ödyssey Orcas Gear Considerations

Welcome to Gear Talk with our friends Annie and Brooke from Swimrun Labs.

In this episode, the gang talks through the various gear considerations for the upcoming Ödyssey Swimrun Orcas Island race in beautiful Orcas Island, Washington. This is the first time that they will all be racing the same event since Casco Bay 2018. Annie and Brooke share their wealth of knowledge of the course as previous participants to help Chipper and Chris dial in their race kit for their first time racing Orcas.

That’s it for this week’s Gear Talk show. If you are enjoying the

Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions, and/or meme ideas. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 21 Sep 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Ödyssey Swimrun Ludington Course Preview

Welcome to episode eighty-nine of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

On the show this week we have our course preview for Ödyssey Swimrun Ludington. We're joined by special guests Aaron Palaian and John Stevens from the Ödyssey crew to talk us through their newest race and share some great training tips for this unique course. Trust us, this race sounds like it's going to be dope!

PURE MICHIGAN MAKES FOR PURE SWIMRUNNING

Much Like Ödyssey Swimrun Mackinac Island, Ludington offers Swimrunners an opportunity to explore a very cool part of the state of Michigan. Aaron shared with us how he settled on the coast of Lake Michigan to host a Swimrun and why Ludington will be an awesome venue for athletes and families.

Travelling to Ludington is pretty straightforward with several airport options. Lodging is also straightforward as Ludington has a lot of options.

SAND IS YOUR FRIEND (or at least keep telling yourself that)

We are lucky to have the only person to have actually ran and swam on the course, John Stevens, to walk us through each leg of the race for both the long and short course. The short course meets up with the long course at Swim 4 (of the long course) and follows the same course to the finish line so we will only mention Run 1 of the short course separately.

The long course clocks in at 19.33 miles with 16.2 miles of running and 3.13 miles of swimming with 1,500ft of elevation gain. The short course is 10.68 miles long with 8.55 miles of running and 2.13 miles of swimming with 750ft of elevation gain.

Both courses feature a variety of terrains that should make for a super fun event. As you listen to the leg by leg breakdown, we recommend looking at the course map to help orient yourself and visualize what you will experience on race day.

Annotated Leg By Leg Breakdown

LONG COURSE

Run 1 (1.45mi)

“Urban running” through the downtown Ludington
There will be some sidewalk traffic involved

Swim 1 (650m/711yd)

Coldest swim of the day (Mid to upper 50 degrees Fahrenheit)
Pretty straight forward swim along the beach

Run 2 (2.15mi)

First half is on roads
Back half of the run is a paved trail through the woods

Swim 2 (565m/618yd)

The lake is really dark

Run 3 (2.05m)

Last run on the roads for a while
Sand dune climb at the end of the run

Swim 3 (400m/437yd)

“Steven’s Lake”
Swimming though an old quarry

Run 4 (3.75mi)

Aid station at the start of the run
Running on trails and then on sand towards the end

SHORT COURSE Run 1 (1.75mi)

This first run is a doozy
There are some wooden platforms at the start that can be very slippery when wet
There are some sand trails towards the middle
A “crazy” sand dune climb at the end of the run

Swim 4 (1,365m/1,493yd)

You swim under a bridge near the start
It’s a pretty shallow swim on the second half

Run 5 (.40mi)

Straight up a 200 meter sand dune at the start of the run
“Embrace the suck.” -- John Stevens

Swim 5 (200m/219yd)

Nice and short!

Run 6 (3.25mi)

This run has it all! It goes from woods to sand to the ocean
Lots of sand here
You’ll run through some shallow pools
Awesome climb at the end over a ridge that will give you a cool view of the Big Sable Point Lighthouse

Swim 6 (250m/273yd)

This swim is around the Big Sable Point Lighthouse
This swim might be cancelled if the conditions are too gnarly
Ödyssey will make the call on race day

Run 7 (3.0mi)

Dirt road run
It’s exposed so it could be hot if the sun is out
Definitely hit the aid station at the start of the run

Swim 7 (1,610m/1,761yd)

This swim is down river so it should be pretty fast
Near the end of the swim you go under a low bridge that can be a little nerve racking

Run 8 (.15mi)

Sweet little beach run to the finish line

DO IT FOR THE ICE CREAM!

John Stevens shared a couple key workout sessions that will help athletes prepare for the demands of the Ludington course. He recommends some high tempo running mixed with some hill work such as a running workout consisting of 6-8x 30 second hard uphill into an extended 4-5 minute tempo effort. The swims are pretty straight forward so being comfortable with the distance and being able to apply some power will serve athletes well.

As far as a key Swimrun workout, John recommends doing a couple of rounds consisting of a 300yd swim at race effort with a fast transition into a hard 1-2 minute uphill and then settle into some race effort tempo running for a 1 mile.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

This race looks great and we give major kudos to Aaron, John and the rest of the Ödyssey crew for finding such an awesome location to host a Swimrun. All the different types of terrain that this event offers is very unique and will make for a great adventure for everyone that will toe the line. Huge thanks for Aaron and John for taking the time to help us put this course preview together.

These episodes are an iterative process so please let us know what you think about this evolving format.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 16 Sep 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Swimrun Wetsuit Suit-Out

Welcome to Gear Talk with our friends Annie and Brooke from Swimrun Labs.

In this episode, we have a roundtable discussion regarding the different tiers of Swimrun wetsuits (entry-level, mid-range, and high-end) and what features you typically get for the money.

Make sure to check out our companion video on YouTube to get a closer look at the different tiers of wetsuits.

Gear Updates

Annie tested out the HOKA ONE ONE Torrent 2 shoe. She wanted to really like them but they didn’t work out for her for Swimrun. She also recently tried the Saucony Switchback 2 shoe for Swimrun and found that the shoe did not drain water very well. She plans on drilling little holes and reporting back if that solves the draining issue.

Annie has also been practicing in the Ark Sports Korp and has been very happy with its durability. She also went commando for a Swimrun practice and is now a convert.

Chipper wanted to shout out the new Precision Hydration PF 30 Energy Gels. Chipper, Chris, and Annie have all tried them and think they are great!

Wetsuit Suit-Out

We get questions every week asking us for recommendations for wetsuits. Our answer is always “depends.” There are a lot of considerations in deciding what wetsuit to settle on.

Free Suits

If it’s your first Swimrun and you have a triathlon or surfing wetsuit hanging around, you can totally use that with either zero or a few modifications by cutting the legs above the knees and the arms above the elbow. You can also check out the Swimrun Swap Meet on Facebook for a used suit.

Entry Level

These suits cost on average under $250. They have few bells and whistles but there are some really great options out there including the Synergy Swimrun Wetsuit and the Ark Sports Korp. (We have full reviews on both!)

Mid-Range

These suits run on average under $450-500 and offer a lot of upgrades from entry-level suits including thinner neoprene, different materials, and sometimes come with arm sleeves. The Ark Sports VIGG and HEAD My Boost suits are great examples of this range.

High-End

These suits will offer premium everything and you definitely get something special for the price. They are lighter, they wick water away better, and generally more flexible. The Ark Sports ORNO X is a great example of what is available at the pointy end of things.

Discussion

We all agreed that there are some features that we love and features that we can live without. We all thought that having Gen 2 bottoms, suits with good shoulder mobility, toothy zippers, a comfortable neckline, and removable arm sleeves are essentials for us.

Chipper also really likes having a kangaroo pocket in the back.

Annie really loved having a thermal core panel in the suit. If you tend to not lead the swim legs then something a bit warmer might be a good idea.

We all thought that internal pockets in a suit, cargo pockets on the bottoms, Three-quarter leg length, dual zippers to help with cabbing down, mini pockets for a whistle (or a joint), and Gen 1 neoprene bottoms weren’t things that would entice us towards purchasing a suit. Brooke likes zippers that end at the waist so that they don’t get tangled up with the pull buoy and/or tether belt.

Closing Thoughts

All in all, there’s a Swimrun wetsuit for every budget. We hope that this episode has helped lay out what features you get for the money and, more importantly, what features you will find most important. Make sure to check out our companion video on YouTube to get a closer look at the different tiers of wetsuits.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 14 Sep 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Brad Stulberg

Welcome to episode eighty-eight of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

On the show this week we have someone who really has no business being on our show...but that just lets you know how awesome of a person he is. We are super lucky to have author, speaker, and coach Brad Stulberg on the show this week. His latest book, The Practice of Groundedness: A Transformative Path to Success that Feeds--Not Crushes--Your Soul, was just published this week and we chat with him about all things human performance, sustainable success, and well-being.

(Full Disclosure: Chris is Brad’s speaking agent and the COO of his media company, The Growth Equation)

But first...

Training Update

Ödyssey Swimrun’s Orcas Island is 3 weeks away! We’ve got a couple of weeks of hill work left before heading to the Pacific Northwest and we will be doing a couple of long-ish Swimruns to get our transitions dialed in.

It’s safe to say that our stoke level is very high for this race!

Shoutouts

This week we’re acknowledging a couple of folks. First, big shoutout to our newest Patron on Patreon, Miriam Fendler. She trains at the same pool as us and she’s super stoked on Swimrun. Thank you so much for helping support the show and we can’t wait to hear how Ödyssey Swimrun Ludington goes for her and her partner Sarah, A.K.A., Team PB and Bananas.

We’re also shouting out Mårten Westlund. He left us a DM over the weekend letting us know how much he’s been enjoying our memes. To quote him: “The sheer amount of incredibly funny content is too much to even take in. So damn great!” Thank you for that!

Finally, shoutout to Mark Sealy from Oxfordshire by way of Zimbabwe. He reached out to let us know that he and his partner David have been enjoying our brand of Swimrun content and they’ve signed up for their first race at the Lock to Lock Swimrun Oxford happening on September 19th. Super stoked for you guys and let us know how it goes.

Feats of Endurance

This is a tough week for Feats of Endurance because there was an overabundance of feats that took place in Sweden this week. So we thought that we would give a global combo award to everyone that lined up in Sandhamn on Monday for ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. A special shoutout to our Strava Club members that raced: Max V., Annika, Maire, Sabina (2nd place Mixed Division), Beek, Philip, Sean, Mel, Ben, Jonathan, Tim, Anders, Max A., and Per.

Check out and join our Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for Swimruns and stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

There’s so much to cover this week that we released a special bonus edition of This Week in Swimrun to discuss the results of the 15th edition of ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. Check that out wherever you are listening to this episode.

In other Swimrun news, Zêzere Swimrun took place over the weekend and it looked like a magical day for Swimrunning in central Portugal.

Over in the U.K., Breca Swimrun hosted the UK National Swimrun Championship at their Jersey race over the weekend. The competition was tough but the course was lovely and made up for everything else. 220 Triathlon Magazine had a great write up on the race so head over there to check that out.

In the bummer portion of the show, Swimrun Georgia might be postponed to 2022 due to permitting issues. We’ll share more updates as we get them.

Swimrun Costa Brava is scheduled to take place next weekend on September 18. This race is 100% on our bucket list after hearing about how awesome it is from the Boston Wet Sox and Mia and Fanny from Wild Swimrun.

That’s it for this week. Be sure to tip us off if there’s any news that you would like for us to share on the show.

Updates

Our new merch has arrived! Check out our latest ways for you to show your Low Tide Pride in our shop!

We would also like to share that we have surpassed 50,000 total downloads! We can’t thank you all enough for tuning in and listening to our super-niche content.

Brad Stulberg Interview

What can we say about today’s guest? Brad is the co-author of Peak Performance, The Passion Paradox, and author of the newly published, The Practice of Groundedness. His books have sold more than 250,000 copies and have been translated into more than 15 languages. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wired, New York Magazine, Forbes, Sports Illustrated, and other national and international outlets. If that wasn’t enough, he’s also a contributing editor at Outside Magazine, where he writes a regular column on the science and art of success and well-being. He also has a coaching practice where he works with executives, entrepreneurs, physicians, and athletes and gives keynotes and workshops across the country. Finally, he’s the co-founder of The Growth Equation, an online platform dedicated to defining and attaining a more fulfilling and sustainable kind of success.

We asked Brad to come onto the show to talk about his new book and share his insight on sustaining peak performance in Swimrun but also in life. Okay, mostly in life but still. He’s awesome and we really appreciated him doing us a solid to come on our show.

You can learn more about Brad on his website and make sure to order his new book!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 9 Sep 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Ötillö, The Swimrun World Championship 2021 Recap

Welcome to a special bonus episode of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast! This week’s episode is a recap of the 2021 Ötillö, The Swimrun World Championship. We stayed up way beyond our bedtimes to watch as much as we could live and break down the 2021 edition of Otillo, The Swimrun World Championship.

The live race production that Otillo had on their Facebook was solid. They featured a mix of live-action footage, on-course interviews, and a studio production which resulted in an entertaining broadcast.

2021 Ötillö, The Swimrun World Championship Results

Here are the podiums for each division of the 2021 Ötillö, The Swimrun World Championship. For the full results head to Ötillö’s results page.

Women’s Division Race

1st Place: ARK Swimrun Helena & Kristin | 9:00:47

2nd Place: Wild Swimrun West Coast | 9:11:27 +10:40

3rd Place: Head Swimming | 9:16:27 +15:40

Mixed Division Race

1st Place: Team Envol Head Swimming | 8:14:57 (Course Record)

2nd Place: Team Envol Switzerland - HEAD | 8:32:36 +17.39

3rd Place: ARK Swimrun Marika & Alexander | 8:33:50 +18:53

Men’s Divison Race

1st Place: Team Simcoachen | 7:38:43 (Course Record)

2nd Place: ARK Swimrun Fredrik & Lars | 7:44:55 +6:12

3rd Place: ARK Swimrun France | 7:49:08 +10:25

Final Thoughts

We are even more pumped about this race. It was really inspiring to see everyone give it their all in the Stockholm Archipelago. Special shoutouts to the team from the United States who made everyone back home proud. In the mixed division that was California Swimrun and in the men’s division It Be Me Me Me and Timothy, Team Envol Baywatch, and The Swimrun Monks.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 7 Sep 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Ödyssey Swimrun Mackinac Island 2021 Race Recap w/Team Adorkable

Welcome to episode eighty-seven of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

Ödyssey Swimrun Mackinac Island 2021 is in the books and we welcome back to the show friends of the pod, all around amazing Swimrun ambassadors, and LTBz correspondents in the field Trista and Amy from Team Adorkable to give us their race recap from their weekend up in northern Michigan for the first edition of Ödyssey’s newest race.

But first...

Training Update

Ödyssey Swimrun’s Orcas Island is 4 weeks away! (Make sure to use the code LOWTIDE15 for 15% off your registration to any/all Ödyssey Swimrun events.) Unfortunately, the air quality has gotten pretty bad here due to wildfires to the north of us so we’ve had to bail on some big runs and take things indoors. We did manage to get in a mondo swim session in the books on Thursday which was “fun” and definitely LFG-esque.

Shoutout

This week we’re shouting out the fudge stores on Mackinac Island. No we didn’t have any fudge but it sure did look good!

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Kathryn Meinhardt. She posted a workout this past week where she mentioned LTBz in the title which results in an automatic win in our book. (To recap, the current criteria for posts to automatically win include: workouts completed in Puerto Rico, workouts with a ton of elevation gain, and workouts that include LTBz in the title.)

Check out and join our Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for Swimruns and stuff.

Updates

Make sure to check out this week’s special bonus ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship race prediction show with special guests Henrik Wahlberg and Jonas Ekman. It was super cool to get Henrik and Jonas’s insights and you should make sure to tune in to ÖTILLÖ's complete coverage of the event on Facebook Live where they will be commentating.

We’ve got some new shirts and hoodies dropping in the LTBz store next week so stay tuned for the latest ways for you to show your Löw Tide pride!

Ödyssey Swimrun Mackinac Island 2021 Race Recap w/Team Adorkable

It was really great to have Trista and Amy, a.k.a. Team Adorkable, back on the show (check out our interview with them on Episode 58) to talk about their race over the weekend. We chatted with them about their whole weekend adventure in northern Michigan. The conversation was really fun and their enthusiasm was 100% infectious (in a good way) and we don’t think that anyone had more fun at Mackinac Island than they did. Their finish line antics are becoming legendary so make sure that you check their Mackinac video out.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 2 Sep 2021 07:00:00 +0000

ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship Race Prediction Show

Welcome to a special bonus episode of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We’re super stoked to share our inaugural ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship Race Prediction show with special guests Henrik Wahlberg and Jonas Ekman. Henrik and Jonas aren’t just elite Swimrunners with a ton of experience racing ÖTILLÖ but they will also be providing commentary on the Facebook live feed that will cover the entire race on September 6th.

In this bonus episode, Henrik and Jonas walk us through the elite Women’s, Mixed, and Men’s fields and give us their takes on which teams are looking fit and their podium predictions for the 15th edition of the race that started it all.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 31 Aug 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Michael Lemmel, Co-Founder ÖTILLÖ

Welcome to episode eighty-six of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We’re honored to have Michael Lemmel, Co-Founder of ÖTILLÖ on the show this week. We had a great conversation that covered a lot of ground where we looked back over the 15 year history of the race that started it all (ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship) and looked forward to what the future holds for ÖTILLÖ and Swimrun.

But first...

Training Update

The training block has begun for Ödyssey Swimrun’s Orcas Island. Running hills will be a staple of this block and luckily, there is no shortage of mountains for us to run up and down. We ran the “Ninja Loop” on Saturday (a local trail runner favorite) and we will probably be hitting that loop multiple times before race day.

Shoutout

This week we’re shouting out Caroline Wolek and Patrick Reagan. They recently won the Ödyssey Legend Award as voted by the race participants at Casco Bay a few weeks back. This award shines a spotlight on athletes who embody the spirit of Swimrun: putting others above self, spreading positive energy to other racers, and taking action when faced with adversity. Caroline and Patrick are well-deserving of this recognition by their fellow Swimrunners. Congratulations!

Feats of Endurance

This week’s award goes to Nate Budziak. Nate ran the Waldo 100k over the weekend and totally crushed the 61ish mile (with 11,000’ of elevation gain) trail race finishing in 16th place overall. Awesome performance!

Check out and join our Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for Swimruns and stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Lots of updates this week so let’s get right to it!

It’s race week for Ödyssey Swimrun Mackinac Island! Make sure to sign up if you haven’t already (using the code LOWTIDE15 to save 15% on your registration) and follow our Instagram channel where our two LTBz Field Correspondents (Trista and Amy from Team Adorkable) will be “covering” the event.

The Zêzere Swimrun hosted by our friends at Swimrun Portugal is just a few weeks away. This race is taking place on September 5th and offers two distance options. If you’re in need of a Swimrun holiday, then check out this race!

We’re also just a few weeks away from the Breca Swimrun Jersey. Taking place on September 4th, this race is also the UK National Swimrun Championship. We’ve talked about this race before and it’s 100% on the bucket list!

Over in Sweden, the Immeln Swimrun put on by A to Be Events took place over the weekend. The race looked awesome and we were stoked to see that the Ultra distance (that we talked about about a month ago) ended up getting enough participants for it to happen.

The 10 Island Swimrun also took place over the weekend. What this 20km race in Gothenburg lacks in a creative name, it definitely makes up for it with a super hard but also super fun course. Definitely check out their Instagram page for some great race photos.

That’s it for this week. Reach out to us with any news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Michael Lemmel Interview

This week’s guest doesn’t need an introduction for anyone who is familiar with Swimrun...but we’ll give one anyway. Michael is the co-founder of ÖTILLÖ and is one of the most important figures in the sport. His (and the entire team at ÖTILLÖ) approach to adventure racing, race directing, protecting nature, and building community has helped to build the global Swimrun movement. We covered a lot of ground in this interview recorded on the eve of the 15th edition of The Swimrun World Championship and we discussed the past, present, and future of Swimrun.

You can learn more about ÖTILLÖ on their website.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 26 Aug 2021 07:00:00 +0000

ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship Course Walkthrough with Oscar Olsson

Welcome to episode eighty-five of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship less than a month away! To get everyone hyped for the race, we asked our friend and previous guest of the show Oscar Olsson to walk us through the legendary 75km course. This episode is a masterclass and super helpful for anything racing the World Championship or just curious about what teams will face on September 6. Get your notepads out for this one!

But first...

Training Update

For the first time in a long time we had a chill week of training now that Casco Bay is in the rear view mirror. We’ll be starting to ramp up soon for Ödyssey Swimrun’s Orcas Island race and we foresee a lot of running up (and down) hills in our future.

Shoutout

This week we’re shouting out Henry Loveless who let us know that he did his first Swimrun over the weekend in Finland at the Strömfors Swimrun. He started listening to the show to get ready and we got him super stoked! (Mission Accomplished!) Congrats Henry and thanks for listening.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s award goes to Drew Wilson. This guy biked 105 miles (with 7,000ft of elevation) in Taos County New Mexico over the weekend...on a tri bike. Impressive on multiple levels. Strong work dude!

Check out and join our Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for Swimruns and stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

Lots of updates this week so let’s get right to it!

Ödyssey Swimrun Mackinac Island is fast approaching! The race is on August 29 and we already are experiencing FOMO. Lucky for us, we will have two LTBz Field Correspondents (Trista and Amy from Team Adorkable) “covering” the event for us and they will be sharing all the weekend festivities on our IG stories and we’ll be doing a race recap episode with them as well so stay tuned for that.

Another race that is giving us FOMO is Swimrun Georgia. This race is taking place on October 10 and we recommend that everyone who is in the general area of Georgia or in the United States to register! Programming note: are hoping to interview the race director Tony Hammet before the race so stay tuned for that.

Up in Canada, Swimrun Victoria took place over the weekend. Lots of smiling faces at this event that offered 27km Long Course and 13km Short Course options.

Over in Europe, all eyes are on ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship on September 6. That’s not all that is going on across the pond. ÖTILLÖ’s Final 15k sprint race is taking place on September 4 which looks like a ton of fun!

Finally, Swimrunman Laffrey is happening this weekend in France. This race offers a bunch of distance options including an ÖTILLÖ Merit race distance that features a legendary/brutal vertical kilometer final run to the finish line. There’s also a kids Swimrun which is awesome! This is yet another race that’s on our bucket list. Sigh!

That’s it for this week. Reach out to us with any news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Updates

If you haven’t already, make sure to check out our Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay Race Report episode. Spoiler Alert: we had a good race and a lot of fun.

Chris recently co-hosted the morning shakeout podcast with Mario Fraioli for the quarterly “Ask Mario Anything” series. A lot of great insight about marathon and ultramarathon training, nutrition, and the importance of taking breaks that is worth a listen.

Finally, we are going to be restocking the LTBz store soon so stay tuned for new ways to show your Löw Tide Pride.

ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship Course Walkthrough

We are super lucky to have someone like Oscar Olsson come back on the show to walk us through the legendary ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship course. He knows the course like the back of his hand and he drops some major pro-tips that are good for everyone from first-timers to experienced teams racing on September 6. Basically, he gives us a masterclass on strategy for the 75km. He’s a great ambassador for the sport who clearly loves Swimrun and wants to help grow the sport. You definitely want your note pad out for this one!

Oscar’s World Championship Solid Gold Pro-Tips:

With 24 runs and 23 swims, working to keep your transitions short and crisp will save you a ton of time over the day
Don’t worry about jockeying for position on the first run in Sandhamn because the beach before the first swim is very wide and there’s plenty of space
Take advantage of non-technical sections on the runs to find some pace
Plan on cabbing down on the three long runs on the course unless the temperature is very cold to make sure that you’re not losing too much electrolytes that will affect your speed towards the end of the race
Always take a gel before the Pig Swim
Most athletes will be cold after the Pig Swim so try to keep moving to get the body temperature up
Take energy before the swim that takes you to Ornö because there isn’t an energy station until about 8-9km into the long 20km run
Cab down for the Ornö run
In training, make sure do a long Swimrun session that ends with a 15km run so simulate what the long run on Ornö will feel like
Make sure to notice the current direction

You can follow Oscar Olsson on Instagram and definitely check out Livesporttv.se for awesome Swimrun content!

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 19 Aug 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay 2021 Race Report

Welcome to episode eighty-four of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We’ve got a special episode this week! We just got back from racing Ödyssey Swimrun’s Casco Bay on Sunday August 8th and we’re going to share our race report on what was a great weekend in Portland, Maine. Hope you enjoy it!

Initial Thoughts

There was a lot of buildup for this race. We’ve basically been training for this thing since January in the hope that races wouldn’t get canceled because of COVID...again. We definitely put in the work and the pre-race nerves were all about being able to put in a performance that was commensurate with all the training that we had been doing.

Getting to the Maine Event

Getting to Portland was uneventful. We flew separately which wasn’t ideal but we hang out enough already.

Just like in Austin last November, it was awesome (and a little surreal) to meet so many new people, put faces to names from our Strava Club and Instagram DMs, and reconnect with previous guests of the show. We did our best to try to remember everyone that we met, so here’s a shout out list: (Super sorry if we forgot anyone)

Luke from New Hampshire (hope the Ark Korp worked out for you)

Lucas, the Renaissance Man as termed by John Stevens

Brooke and Samantha Fallon (finally met them!)

Ben from Arizona who we met outside of Otto's Pizza

Grace Moberg

Ray Conboy

Chris Sweet (a local)

Ian and Nick from the UK

Mick from Australia

Caleb Baity (finally!)

Scott H. from Boston

Jenny Hinshaw (Sarah Fergot’s race partner)

Liza and Mike from LA (we met Mike at Catalina last year)

Chris from Tower 26 (Feel free to use the testimonial that Chris gave you at the post-race party)

Jett and Derek Rosner

Nikos

John from the ca Swimrun crew

John’s friend Heather from Boston

Sophie Molsberry

Scott Turner from DC (Extra special Shout-out)

It was also great to see former guests of the show and folks that we have met at previous events. There are too many of them to list but you know who you are!

Finally, some special bonus shoutouts to the four US teams that are racing the ÖTILLÖ World Championship next month that all came out to Casco Bay for a final tuneup before the big dance. You’re all great ambassadors for US Swimrunning and we’ll all be rooting for you! (Programming alert: we’ve interviewed all of them...except for Mel Bartow...which we will be rectifying soon!)

Team Envol Baywatch (Beek and Blake)

It Be Me Me Me and Timothy (Jonathan and Tim)

The Swimrun Monks (Sean and Phillip)

California Swimrun (Mel and Andy)

Race Day/The Shark Email/Ferry Ride to the Start

At 4:06am on race morning, Ödyssey made a bunch of people shit their pants when they sent out an email letting everyone know about a tagged shark sighting about 4 miles off of Cushing Island (so basically near/not so near the first and second swims.) Obviously, they made the right decision in letting everyone know but it probably wasn’t helping calm the nerves. For our part, we weren’t thinking about it. Our nerves were more about putting together a good race to justify to ourselves that all our training culminated in good race execution, which doesn’t always happen.

The ferry ride was cool and hanging out with everyone at the start line was a lot of fun. Then, just like that the race started!

LTBz Long Course Play-By-Play

R1: Peaks Island (2.0mi)

S1: Peaks Island to Cushing Island (965m/1,055yd)

R2: Cushing Island (2.3mi)

S2: Cushing Island to House Island (645m/705yd)

R3: House Island (.4mi)

S3: House Island to Little Diamond Island (965m/1,055yd)

R4: Little Diamond Island (.8mi)

S4: Little Diamond Island to Great Diamond Island (325m/355yd)

R5: Great Diamond Island (1.3mi)

S5: Great Diamond Island to Cow Island (200m/219yd)

R6: Cow Island (.5mi)

S6: Cow Island to Long Island (965m/1,055yd)

R7: Long Island Part 1 (1.6mi)

S7: Long Island to Vail Island (270m/295yd)

R8: Vail Island (.5mi)

S8: Vail Island back to Long Island (880m/962yd)

R9: Long Island Part 2 (1.6mi)

S9: Long Island to Little Chebeague Island (640m/700yd)

R10: Little Chebeague Island (.4mi)

S10: Little Chebeague Island to (Big) Chebeague Island (560m/612yd)

R11: Chebeague Island (Run 1) (4.25mi)

S11: Chebeague Island (Swim 1) (650m/711yd)

R12: Chebeague Island (Run 2) (.8mi)

S12: Chebeague Island (Swim 2) (400m/437yd)

R13: Chebeague Island (Run 3) (.55mi)

The long course ended up being a bit longer than advertised with most teams saying that the overall distance was around 25 miles. But hey, that’s Swimrun!

We finished the race in 5:10 which was good enough for 10th Place Men’s Team and 11th Overall.

Post Race

The finish line was a lot of fun with everyone cheering the finishers as they crossed the arch.

We ended up tagging along with the Cali Swimrun Crew and got a water taxi back to Portland which was the best $40 that we ever spent..and saved about 2 hours of ferry boat riding to get back to the mainland.

Our inaugural race after party at Lone Pine Brewery was a lot of fun. People showed up which was not a guarantee and it was great to have a venue for everyone to share their war stories from the day and learn from the experiences of others. We learned a ton for sure. Huge thanks for everyone that came out.

Overall Impressions

The race was a great adventure. The course was well marked, the locals were out cheering everyone on, and the sharks minded their own business. The Ödyssey crew did an awesome job and it was easy to see that they were as stoked as all the participants racing.

Final Thoughts

It was so great to get out there and express the fitness that we’ve been developing over the last year. We’re definitely feeling amped up for Orcas Island at the end of September.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 12 Aug 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Team It Be Me Me Me and Timothy

Welcome to episode eighty-three of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

In this episode, we sit down with Jonathan Story and Tim Ferguson of Team It Be Me Me Me and Timothy. They are a Swimrun team out of Charlotte, North Carolina and they are one of only four U.S. teams to qualify for the ÖTILLÖ World Championship this year. This is a fun one!

But first...

Training Update

It’s race week...finally! We know we say this a lot, but we’re super stoked to be heading to Portland to race Ödyssey Swimrun’s Casco Bay race for a second time.

Stay tuned for our race report on next week’s show.

Shoutout

This week we’re shouting out Sarah and Miriam from Team PB and Bananas. They are a new team out of Petaluma, CA and happen to train at our pool. We love their enthusiasm (they definitely remind us of all the fun we had when we first got into the sport) and it’s safe to say that they are super stoked on Swimrun. Follow their adventures on Instagram as they train for Ödyssey Swimrun’s Ludington race in October.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s award goes to Jett Rosner. He posted a treadmill workout that had one of the best titles that we’ve seen in the Strava Club. His 5 mile run was called “Decent treadmill run (listened to the Low Tide Boyz Casco Bay Race Briefing!! Got hyped at the end and dropped a 6:10 last mile so the average pace was skewed).” Jett got us hyped!

Check out our Strava Club and join Swimrunners from around the world as they train for Swimruns and stuff.

This Week in Swimrun

We’ve missed a few weeks of updates so instead of looking back, in this edition we’re looking forward in time to chat about upcoming news and events.

The Ödyssey Swimrun race season starts this weekend with Casco Bay. We can’t wait to participate in the long course distance and see everyone!

In other Swimrun news from the U.S., Swimrun Georgia is back! This year’s race is scheduled for October 10. The course looks awesome and it’s a great first race for anyone who is curious about Swimrun.

On the other side of the Atlantic...ÖTILLÖ is hosting its second race of the year this weekend in Gothenburg. The start list is stacked with a ton of talented teams for the 35km World Series distance race as teams try one last time to qualify for this year’s ÖTILLÖ World Championship on September 6.

The Västeras Swimrun recently confirmed that their race on September 4th is happening and the race is filling up fast so make sure to register if you are in Sweden or want to go to Sweden for this event.

Our friends at EX Swimrun are introducing a new Swimrun term that they hope will catch on: SWIFA (Swim Factor). Basically it’s a measure of how much swimming in relation to running a Swimrun course has. The higher the SWIFA, the more swimming a course has. They adapted the term from running and cross country skiing which uses the term STIFA to take into account elevation on a course. We think that it could be a helpful way to help people select and prepare for events.

Speaking of EX Swimrun, their EX21 Fall Edition is taking place on September 19. With a SWIFA score of 21.7%, this race is not for the faint of heart with long swims and tough trails. Also the race starts with a 6 meter cliff jump. Sounds like a ton of fun!

That’s it for this week. Reach out to us with any news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Updates

Make sure to check out our latest episode of Gear Talk where the gang talks about gear considerations for this weekend’s Casco Bay race.

This is the final reminder about our Casco Bay race after-party taking place at Lone Pine Brewery starting at 5:30ish. Look for the blue LTBz flag when you get there. Hope to see you all there!

Team It Be Me Me Me and Timothy

It was great to chat with Jonathan and Tim about their Swimrun journey and their quest to qualify and race the ÖTILLÖ World Championship. It was inspiring to hear how they just put that goal out there and went and achieved it. As one of only four teams heading over from the U.S. to race the original Swimrun, they are representing the growing Swimrun scene in the U.S. In this interview, we chatted with them about how they discovered Swimrun and became partners, why they decided to try to qualify for worlds, how they are training for the big dance, and a lot more. These guys are great ambassadors for the sport and we will definitely be rooting for them next month.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 5 Aug 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Odyssey Casco Bay Gear Considerations

Swimrun Odyssey Casco Bay Gear Considerations

Welcome to Gear Talk with our friends Annie and Brooke from Swimrun Labs.

In this episode, the gang talks through the various gear considerations for the upcoming Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay race in Portland, Maine. They take into account their previous experience at the event, the weather forecast, their training, and everything else to help Chipper and Chris dial in their kit for their first race of the year.

That’s it for this week’s Gear Talk show. If you are enjoying the

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 3 Aug 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Odyssey Swimrun Orcas Island Course Preview

Welcome to episode eighty-two of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

In this episode, we’re joined by Lars Finanger, Brent Molsberry, and Brooke Lindsley (of the Swimrun Labs) for our detailed course preview of Ödyssey Swimrun’s Orcas Island event. We’re super stoked for this event and think that you will also be super stoked about it after hearing this episode.

Programming note: We are tying a bit of a new format for this course preview. I.e., we are going to try to be a bit more concise. As ever, we would love to hear your feedback on this episode to let us know if it’s a thumbs up or thumbs down.

KILLER WHALE ISLAND DOESN’T SOUND AS NICE

Taking place on Orcas Island, Washington, Ödyssey Swimrun sets up an amazing course in the Pacific Northwest that has been on our bucket list since the race was first announced a few year’s back. The Ödyssey website describes the race as follows: “Crisp inland lake swims, hauntingly beautiful forest trail runs, big mountain climbs, and stunning scenery around every turn makes this an instant fall classic.” Uhm, they had us at “crisp.”

Course designer and race director Brent Molsberry was cool enough to share his thoughts on the course and the Orcas Island region.

Traveling to Orcas Island is pretty tricky so we asked Brent to share with us all the logistics that participants will want to have lined up well before race day.

The moral of the story here is book your travel to either Seattle or Bellingham, your lodging on Orcas Island, and definitely plan to book your ferry ticket when they become available.

MT. CONSTITUTION SOUNDS FUN (Leg By Leg Course Breakdown)

As with our previous course preview episodes, we recommend having a copy of the course map handy so you can follow along and start visualizing what you can expect on race day. That being said, as with a lot of Swimrun events, the distances are approximate and might change on race day so be prepared for that.

Here are the main stats for Orcas Island: the long course is a total of 24.25 miles with 3.5 miles of swimming and around 6,110ft of elevation gain. The short course is a total of 12.30 miles with 2 miles of swimming and around 2,152ft of gain.

To tee up the leg by leg Breakdown, Lars Finanger shares with us an overview of both the long and short courses.

Lars also shared some extra details about the start and finish location of this year’s race, signage on the course, and aid station fixin’.

Annotated Long Course Leg Breakdown:

R1: Rosario Resort Race Start (1.05 miles)

Prepare for hills from the get go and hills along the entire course
The section is very technical so take it easy

S1: Cascade Bay Swim (275m/300yds)

This will be the only ocean swim on the course and it will be super cold
Make sure you are warmed up going into the swim
Consider wearing ear plugs and an extra swim cap that you can stash afterwards or dispose at the next aid station

R2: Rosario to Cascade Lake (.9 miles)

“Chill” run
It’s a big uphill when you get out of the water at the start

S2: Cascade Lake Swim #1 (290m/317yds)

R3: Cascade Lake Perimeter (.75 miles)

S3: Cascade Lake Swim #2 (850m/930yds)

Second longest swim of the day

R4: Cascade Lake Perimeter (.35 miles)

10ish foot cliff jump into S4

S4: Cascade Lake Swim #3 (515m/563yds)

R5: Cascade Lake to Mountain Lake (2.5 miles)

S5: Mountain Lake Swim #1 (885m/968yds)

Longest swim of the day
Might be hard to see the swim exit from the swim start

R6: Mountain Lake Mini Island Hop (130 feet)

Keep your goggles on since the run is super short

S6: Mountain Lake Mini Swim (50m/55yds)

R7: Mt. Constitution (4.5 miles)

Have a plan for this run and make sure you have nutrition and hydration for this section
Consider cabbing down
It’s straight uphill. There’s not much relief. Power hiking is your friend.
There are pretty steep downhills on the way to Twin Lakes.

S7: Twin Lakes Swim #1 (275m/301yds)

Look for the large pink teardrop flags for the swim exit
This lake might be colder than the other lakes

R8: Short Twin Lakes Run (.15 miles)

S8: Twin Lakes Swim #2 (100m/110yds)

R9: Mt. Pickett (4.5 miles)

Not as steep as Mt. Constitution but it’s a long gradual climb
This is the most remote part of the course
You might get a little chilly in this section
Take nutrition and hydration here to get you to Mountain Lake.

S9: Mountain Lake Swim #2 (565m/618yds)

The start of this swim is the end of a short course swim
Aid station at the end of this swim and it’s the last aid station before the finish so make sure that you fuel up here

R10: Mountain Lake Perimeter Run (.75 miles)

S10: Mountain Lake Swim #3 (355m/388yds)

There’s a rope swing at the start of this swim

R11: Mountain Lake Perimeter Run (.5 miles)

S11: Mountain Lake Swim #4 (385m/421yds)

R12: Mountain Lake Island Hop (225 feet)

A pretty little island according to Brent

S12: Mountain Lake Swim #5 (325m/355yds)

R13: Run back to Cascade Lake (3.75 miles)

You may see some racers going in the other direction
Pretty much all downhill

S13: Cascade Lake Swim #4 (725m/793yds)

Final swim of the day!

R14: Run to Rosario Resort (1 mile)

Annotated Short Course Leg Breakdown:

R1: Rosario Resort Race Start (1.05 miles)

Prepare for hills from the get go and hills along the entire course
The section is very technical so take it easy

S1: Cascade Bay Swim (275m/300yds)

This will be the only ocean swim on the course and it will be super cold
Make sure you are warmed up going into the swim
Consider wearing ear plugs and an extra swim cap that you can stash afterwards or dispose at the next aid station

R2: Rosario to Cascade Lake (.9 miles)

“Chill” run
It’s a big uphill when you get out of the water at the start

S2: Cascade Lake Swim #1 (290m/317yds)

R3: Cascade Lake Perimeter (.75 miles)

S3: Cascade Lake Swim #2 (850m/930yds)

Second longest swim of the day

R4: Cascade Lake Perimeter (.35 miles)

10ish foot cliff jump into S4

S4: Cascade Lake Swim #3 (515m/563yds)

R5: Cascade Lake to Mountain Lake (2.5 miles)

S5: Mountain Lake Mini Swim (50m/55yds)

R6: Mountain lake Mini Island Hop (130 ft)

S6: Mountain Lake Swim #2 (485m/530yds)

R7: Run back to Cascade Lake (2.9 miles)

You may see some racers going in the other direction
Pretty much all downhill

S7: Cascade Lake Swim #4 (725m/793yds)

R8: Run to Rosario (1 mile)

COLD WATER COMING!

Training for Orcas is all about getting your climbing legs ready for the course. Find hills and run them. If you don’t have hills, use a stairmaster or find a tall building and run up and down the stairwell.

Brooke shared with us what you will find at Orcas from a Swimrunners perspective and how she prepared for the race. She practiced her uphill and downhill running on as technical trails as possible.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 29 Jul 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Chris’s Trans Tahoe Relay 2021 Race Report

Welcome to episode eighty-one of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

In this episode, we chat about the Trans Tahoe Relay Swim that Chris participated in over the weekend. It was a really, really, really fun event and we will share the complete race report with everyone.

But First…

Training Update

The Böyz split up over the weekend (shocking!) and Chipper did a solo 3-hour Swimrun practice while Chris was having fun in Tahoe.

Shoutouts

We’ve got two shoutouts this week!

First, a tip of the hat to Rob Golden. He reached out to us recently and he’s racing his first Swimrun in a few weeks at Casco Bay. We’re super stoked for Rob and hope to see him at our race after-party at Lone Pine Brewery.

We’re also shouting yet another new Patron on Patreon: John a.k.a. HAYATZ a.k.a. HYZ. He’s been a friend since even before LTBz was a thing and we really appreciate his support. HYZ is also on a new Swimrun journey as he trains up for his first race at Orcas Island and second event at ÖTILLÖ Catalina. HYZ is also responsible for inspiring us to create the Feats of Endurance segment after he ran around his block covering 50 miles to raise funds for the non-profit KEEN USA.

Feats of Endurance

We have two winners this week. The Swimrun team of Mel Bartow and Andy Hewitt swam around Coronado in San Diego in a cool 4h 53m covering some 21,000yds. Why? We don’t know but it was an impressive feat for sure!

Make sure to check out our Strava Club and follow fellow Swimrunners from around the world as they train for races and life.

This Week In Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

It’s been another good week for Swimrun news!

The Illmensee Swimrun took place in Germany over the weekend. Given all the bad news coming out of Germany lately regarding bad weather and flooding, it was great to see this event go off without a hitch. Special shoutout to Christian Götz (and his partner Martina) from our Strava Club who finished first place overall and first place mixed team. Strong work!

The Kalmar Swimrun also took place over the weekend. This 23k race looked super well organized and had a ton of participants. It’s great to see events coming back in Sweden!

Over in Italy, Aquaticrunner has announced the date of Sept. 12th (the best date in the world) for what they are calling the 2021 Individual Swimrun World Championship. Not entirely sure why it’s a “World Championship” but it’s cool that new formats for racing are popping up in Europe.

In the bummer section of the news, Quest Racing recently announced that they had to cancel their Seattle Swimrun.

Breca Swimrun confirmed that their Gower Swimrun has a full go ahead to take place on July 31st. Registration is closing soon, so make sure to sign up if you want to race in the Gower Peninsula in Wales.

That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Updates

Are you tether-curious? Make sure to check out our two new videos on YouTube about the Swimrun Tether. Sarah and Miriam from Team PB and Bananas (who swim at our pool) recently DIY’d their own tether for their first Swimrun practice and it looked like they survived so we must be doing something right in the advice department.

At long last our LTBz Swimrun practice bibs have arrived! Want to represent for LTBz or just want some extra visibility out there for safety and stuff? Then these bibs are for you. We only made a limited run of these so head on over to our store to check them out.

Chris’s Trans-Tahoe Relay Race Report

In this episode, we are letting people into a tradition that Chipper and Chris have had for years, namely, sharing their race report on either a run, a ride, or over a dinner with the training crew. In short, Chris’s experience at the Trans Tahoe Relay was so much fun. In this race report, Chris breaks down everything that you need to know about the event, how it went, and why he is planning on participating in it again for every year that he can!

You can learn more about the Trans Tahoe Relay on their website. (Warning: the website is overdo for a facelift, to put it mildly.)

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Swimrun 101: The Tether

Welcome to episode eighty of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week’s show will hopefully leave you saying Snyggt! (“Nice!” in Swedish)

In this show we are demystifying one of the most mystifying aspects of Swimrun to non-Swimrunners and Swimrunners alike: The Tether! We are going to break it all down for you and by the end, hopefully convince you why you will want to race with a tether at your next Swimrun event. Welcome to Swimrun 101: The Tether!

But First…

Training Update

We had a good Casco Bay race simulation practice over the weekend and we’re definitely starting to feel the itch to race in a few weeks. In the meantime, we’ll keep swimming and running and swimming and running and so on.

Shoutouts

This week we’re shouting out our newest Patron on Patreon: Hugh B. As ever, we really appreciate folks supporting the show and helping us keep the lights on at Studio G. You’re awesome Hugh!

Feats of Endurance

It was really tough to pick a winner this week but we had to give the award to Tom Avontour from The Netherlands. Tom raced the Trail des 6 cols 45k race in France over the weekend and given that he lives in a practically pancake flat country, a race that had over 11,000ft of climbing is no easy feat. Major kudos Tom!

Make sure to check out our Strava Club and follow fellow Swimrunners from around the world as they train for races and life.

This Week In Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

It’s been a good week for Swimrun news!

ÖTILLÖ Engadin took place over the weekend and it looked as epic as ever. Congrats to everyone that raced and a special shoutout to Desirée Andersson and her partner Victor Dahl for winning the World Series event Mixed Division AND finishing 3rd overall! A bonus shoutout to Oscar Olsson and his partner for Adriel Young for finishing 2nd overall and then doing a bunch of interviews with livesporttv.se after the race! This race is second on our bucket list (just being ÖTILLÖ Utö) and we were experiencing major FOMO. Hopefully next year....

Swimrun Madrid by HEAD happened over the weekend in Peyalos de la Presa Spain. They had over 300 Swimrunners in attendance (according to their website) racing either their Sprint (10km) or Half (19km) distances. Both courses looked like a lot of fun!

Over in the UK, Breca Coniston and Mad Hatter Sports’s Hokey Cokey Roseland Swimrun took place and both events looked like a success! Shoutouts to friends of the podcast Iain Shaw and Sarah King who raced Coniston and Bill and Christina Lankford who won the mixed division at Roseland. Strong work all around.

In more UK news, our friends at As Keen As Mustard Events are back at their back to back event hosting escapades with the Manvers Lake Swimrun that happened last weekend and the Long Eaton Swimrun coming up this weekend in Nottingham. We expect to see some clever Robin Hood-themed team names for that one!

Here in the U.S., Swimrun season is about to get kicked into overdrive with five Ödyssey Swimrun events starting with Casco Bay on August 8th (use the code LOWTIDE15 to save 15% on registration for any 2021 Ödyssey event), Swimrun NC on November 7th, and fittingly closing out the year with ÖTILLÖ Catalina on November 20th.

That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Updates

If you’re going to be in Portland, Maine on Aug. 8th, make sure to come join us at our inaugural LTBz post-race after-party, co-hosted by Ödyssey Swimrun at Lone Pine Brewery. We’ll be there from 5:30ish until they close at 8 pm. Mark it on your calendars!

SWIMRUN 101: THE TETHER

We’ve been getting a lot of feedback asking us for a Tether episode so for this edition of Swimrun 101 series we are going to break down the What? Why? And How? of the Swimrun Tether and make our case as to why you should be going to your local paracord/shock cord and carabiner supplier and DIY’ing one of these for your next Swimrun.

You can also check out our article in Triathlete Magazine about the tether and our video on Youtube.

What is it?

The tether, or tow line, is essentially a 3m (or roughly 10ft) cord that Swimrun teams use to stay in contact with each other in the water and on land during a Swimrun. Swimrun event rules typically state that teams must stay within 10 ft of each other at all times for safety.

The genesis for the tether, according to previous guest of the show and legendary swimrunner Jonas Colting, was to keep teams safe and in contact during the original ÖTILLÖ race, which in the early years took teams 18+ hours to finish. While they aren’t mandatory at every race, as you will hear later, it’s a definite advantage to use one.

Why is it a thing?

There are some tactical advantages for using a tether. Mainly, it allows teams to stay in contact during swim legs and stay in each other’s draft. The advantages of drafting in the water are pretty well understood. In longer swimrun events, recovering behind the lead swimmer can keep everyone fresh, which can pay off later in the race. Teams can draft with different strategies.

Teams will typically stay tethered during run legs and we would definitely recommend this. The tether provides real-time haptic feedback that lets you know exactly how your partner is doing pace-wise. If a team member is not having a good day, it’s not uncommon for a runner to tow their partner up a steep climb. The tether can keep a team moving forward until they recover or hit the next aid station. Rather than thinking of it as your teammate giving you a push of motivation, they are actually giving you a pull of motivation.

When you are using a tether, we would also recommend keeping it on all the time unless the terrain makes that dangerous (cliff jumps) or annoying (lots of shrubbery for it to get caught on.) Clipping, unclipping, wrapping the cord up after a 200m swim, pulling it out and trying to rehook it to your partner will eat up a lot of time. This all comes down to practice and developing the technique to wield the tether effectively.

How to build a tether and how to use it?

The majority of teams DIY their tethers and we recommend using quick release carabiners to attach at both ends for um...quick release. (You can buy them pre-made but they are usually way overpriced and, more importantly, where’s the fun in that?!) The length can vary depending on comfort level, but typically you want it just long enough so that you stay on your partner’s feet in the water. (PRO TIP: if the tether is too long during a race, make a knot on the line during the next run leg.) Teams then attach each end to their wetsuit (some suits have integrated loops for attaching one), to the cord of your pull buoy waist loop (if you’re using that type of pull buoy mount), or to a waist utility belt a la Batman. Chris uses a “tactical military grade” nylon belt that has a loop built into the belt that sells for around $13.00 on Amazon. Companies like Orca and ARK Sports also make these belts.

To make your tether, we recommend using either a thick, bright-colored 1/4” paracord/shockcord or ½-¾” nylon webbing material and attach carabiners on either side. We recommend a highly visible color that can be easily seen in murky lakes and crystal clear ocean waters. You don’t need anything special in terms of carabiners, something that’s light and basic (but not easily snapped) will do the trick.

As with anything Swimrun, you should experiment in training to see what works best for you. It definitely takes some getting used to swim and run with a tether...and dinner plate-sized hand paddles...and a giant pull buoy. Basically though, the partner being towed wants to keep the tether in their midline so that they can swim freely without getting all caught up in the tether.

In summary, we really can’t recommend the tether enough! It was a game changer for us when we finally stopped taking the tether off during runs and think that it will be the same for other teams as well.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 15 Jul 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Gemma Hollis

Welcome to episode seventy-nine of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week’s show is all about swimming. We were super lucky to be able to chat with Gemma Hollis of PushGlideKick. She’s a swim stroke and mechanics expert and we pick her brain on all things swimming for Swimrun. Get your notepads out for this one.

More on this interview later in the show.

Training Update

We’re stuffing as much hay into the barn as we can the next few weeks during our last training block for Casco Bay. (Friendly reminder: use the code LOWTIDE15 to save 15% on your registration to any Ödyssey Swimrun 2021 event.) Long Swimruns, long pool sets, and long-ish runs are all on deck the next few weeks so that should be fun. #LFG

Shoutouts

This week we’re shouting out the Country of Switzerland. In the last few weeks, they have cracked the top ten (in terms of show downloads by country) and we’re super stoked on that. It’s also fitting since ÖTILLÖ Engadin is happening this weekend and it’s a race that is 100% on our bucket list.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Oskar Boberg who participated in the Slottsrundan Swimrun and raced the 29k long course over the weekend. We looked up that race after seeing his post on Strava and it didn’t look easy! Strong work Oskar!

Need some inspiration in your training life? Then join the LTBz Strava Club and connect with fellow Swimrunners as they train and race all over the world.

This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

Here’s all the Swimrun news that’s either fit to print or that we were able to glean from Instagram.

As we mentioned above, the Slottsrundan Swimrun took place over the weekend and it looked like a dope event. The event takes place on the coast of Lake Mälaren and the course stretches along Rosersbergs, Steninge Castle, and Sigtuna. Fun factoid: Lake Mälaren has 594 reviews on Google with an average rating of 4.5 stars. Who knew that you could review a lake?

It’s race week for Breca Swimrun’s Coniston event. This will be their first race in the UK in 20 months and we’re stoked for them to be back hosting events! Check out their hype video on Youtube to see why this race looks amazing!

In ÖTILLÖ world, all eyes are on Switzerland this week with Engadin taking place this weekend. This was the first ÖTILLÖ race outside of Sweden and helped launch the international Swimrun movement. Want to know more about this event? Check out our Engadin Course Preview episode and learn why we are already trying to convince our wives that we need to go to Switzerland.

In the bummer portion of the news, ÖTILLÖ 1000 Lakes has been cancelled for 2021. Registered participants should be getting info from ÖTILLÖ regarding their options. Germany has general elections on that weekend and the City of Rheinsberg informed ÖTILLÖ that they were unable to get enough volunteers to support the races. Registered participants will either receive a refund of 95% of the entry fee or they can move their registration to another ÖTILLÖ event.

In other news, We Swimrun has a couple of events on deck that look pretty cool. First, on September 18 they are hosting the Tal Y Llyn Swimrun in Snowdonia National Park in Wales. This race has a cool format where Swimrunners will run on a loop course consisting of two swims and two runs and they have 6 hours to see how many laps they can complete. Less than a month later, We Swimrun is hosting the Dyfi Swimrun (pronounced Dovey) on October 2. Registration for both events is open now so if you’re in Wales or want to go to Wales, check these events out!

That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Updates

If you’re looking to show your Low Tide pride, head over to our website to get yourself some LTBz apparel and other stuff. We’ve also got something totally new in the store that we recently soft launched that we’re super stoked on but we’ll just leave it at that.

Are you racing Casco Bay in August? If so, come join us at our inaugural LTBz post-race after party, co-hosted by Ödyssey Swimrun at Lone Pine Brewery. We’ll be there from 5:30ish until they close at 8pm. We’ll be sharing more details about that as we get closer to the race but mark it on your calendars!

Our Conversation with Gemma Hollis

We first heard about Gemma from Lars at Ödyssey Swimrun and figured since he went to her for swim analysis then we should definitely be chatting with her. She was great to chat with and her passion for swimming was definitely on display. We spoke with her about her journey to becoming a swim coach, her thoughts on teaching swimming to adults, her opinions on optimal stroke rates and form for swimming for Swimrun, and finally, the amazing pool in her backyard. This interview is action packed and Gemma was awesome. Enjoy!

Make sure to check out the PushGlideKick website for more info on getting Gemma’s expert advice.

Thank you for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 8 Jul 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Bonnie Tsui

Welcome to episode seventy-eight of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast! (It’s also episode 101 of total podcast content!)

So it is fitting that we have what we think is one of our best shows ever, maybe even the best show. This week we have Bonnie Tsui on the show. She is the author of Why We Swim (an amazing book about swimming, water, and life that we’ll talk more about later), a New York Times contributor, a surfer, and a Bay Area local. We were totally honored and humbled that she agreed to come on to our super niche podcast to talk with a couple of random dudes about her book. She was awesome to chat with and we can’t wait to share our conversation with you!

More on this interview later in the show.

Training Update

We’re continuing to ratchet up our training for Casco Bay and we’re feeling pretty good about where our run is at. Swimming is the type of thing that we will never totally be happy with so we’re putting in the time and following the process. All in all, we had another good week of training this past week with a long Swimrun practice over the weekend focusing on some longer swims with fast running mixed in. #LFG

Shoutouts/Feats of Endurance

This week we’re shouting out and giving the Feats of Endurance award to our friend Tobias Rop.

Toby crushed the Austria Extreme Triathlon over the weekend finishing in the top 15! Strong work!

Need some inspiration in your training life? Then be like Toby and join the LTBz Strava Club and connect with fellow Swimrunners as they train and race all over the world.

This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

Lots of Swimrun news to share this week.

Envol Coaching’s Big “Battle” is done! Congrats to all the Swimrunners around the world that participated and bonus congrats to the Dutch Swimrunners team for winning the battle. Pretty sure that they Swimran more in a month than most people have in their entire lives.

The ÖTILLÖ Utö hype video is out and Rasmus Lodenius, our friend and former guest of the show, produced yet another awesome film. Make sure to check out our Utö race recap episode with Helena and Åsa if you haven’t listened to that yet. Up next for ÖTILLÖ is their Engadin event happening on July 10-11. Listen to our course preview episode to get all the details on that amazing location and course.

Speaking of ÖTILLÖ, they announced this week that they will introduce a SOLO division for their World Series distance events. Their purpose for the move is to open up the races to more people and to grow the sport of Swimrun. The SOLO racers will not get ranking points and they will not get points in the World Series standings. No change to the World Championship format where only teams may qualify.

Love Swimrun recently announced that all their events for 2021 are open for registration. If we’re ever in North Wales we will definitely be checking out their events. The Holy Island Swimrun on Sept. 11th looks particularly magical.

In the category of random events that we learned about from Instagram, NZ Swimrun is hosting a 3-day Swimrun camp in Whangamata, New Zealand on August 20-22. This is an all-inclusive camping experience and it looks awesome. We don’t know anything about it other than that but if you’re in the area, it might be worth checking out.

That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Updates

Our latest episode of Gear Talk with the Swimrun Labs is out. We did our full review of the ARK Sports’ latest opus, their new ORNÖ X Swimrun Wetsuit. This suit is worth the hype in our collective opinion so check out that show, if you haven’t already.

We know that we’ve been mentioning our Ödyssey Swimrun discount code a lot since we got it but that is only because we love their events and think that you will too! Use the code LOWTIDE15 to save 15% on your registration. By the way, Casco Bay is 80% sold out so if you’re the type of person to wait until the last minute then now is your time to shine...and join us at the start line.

Our Conversation with Bonnie Tsui

What can we say about this interview? It might be our best work but not because of anything that we did. Bonnie was a great guest and we loved chatting with her about her book, Why We Swim. We covered a lot of ground in this interview where she discussed what inspired the book, what blew her mind the most in her research for the book, and so much more.

Make sure to check out her book Why We Swim. The new paperback edition is out now.

Learn more about Bonnie Tsui on her website.

Thank you for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 1 Jul 2021 07:00:00 +0000

ARK SPORTS ORNÖ X Wetsuit Review

Welcome to Gear Talk with our friends Annie and Brooke from Swimrun Labs.

In this episode, we have another wetsuit review. This week we do a deep dive on the brand new Ark Sports ORNÖ X Swimrun Wetsuit. This suit was just released a few weeks back and we were lucky enough to get 4 suits sent to us to test by our friends at Ark Sports.

Our complete review is coming later in the show.

Gear Updates

Brooke finally realized that she is small and not a medium as she previously thought after using Trista’s Ark Sports KORP suit. That small fit much better and resolved her issues of water entering the suit.

Chipper just picked up 3 pairs of the Magic5 swim goggles. These are allegedly custom-made and are sized to fit your face by using a facial recognition-type app to get the sizing right. Chipper also is trying out the Hoka One One Torrent 2 as his new Swimrun shoe. More updates on how that goes in the coming weeks.

Annie also got a set of the Torrent 2’s and will report back as well.

Chris recently updated his “team” race kit by replacing his trustworthy compression bandage with a new slimmer H&H Mini Compression bandage. It’s a lot slimmer than the old one and capable of being worn in a kangaroo top due to its design.

Untethered Thoughts

This week’s untethered thought comes courtesy of Greg Dierksen of the Boston Wet Sox. He DM’d us with the observation that there is very little information about “the tether” out there and recommended that we do a Gear Talk show on the tether. Great observation and suggestion and we will be releasing that show soon!

Thanks Greg!

ARK SPORTS ORNÖ X Wetsuit Review

Check out our first impressions video here to get our first look at the ORNÖ X wetsuit.

Here’s how ARK describes the ORNÖ X:

ARK Sports ORNÖ X is an evolution of our flagship model ORNÖ which has been tested and trusted by the Worlds best swimrun athletes since its launch in 2017. A pioneering suit positioned as the most thermal and buoyant suit in the ARK Sports line without compromising of keeping the lowest weight. What came to be the world's fastest swimrun suit, has now been developed, optimized, and revolutionized for the start of the 2021 swimrun season.

The suit retails for $710 and features premium Yamamoto Limestone neoprene, running+ bottom, thermal+ foam waist belt, and comes with arm sleeves. A men’s medium weighs just 510grams and a women’s medium weighs 500grams.

Out of the box, this suit looks and feels premium. But how does it perform?

Swimming Impressions

Chris and Chipper tested the ORNÖ X during two long Swimrun practices where the water temps were around 55 degrees. The suits worked amazingly. The suits felt properly warm and the thermal+ belt really helped to keep the core warm. The shoulder mobility was excellent. The anti-leak neckline worked as advertised. The running+ bottom felt like it was providing some warmth which might be due to the neoprene material lining of the running+.

Annie tested the suit with both a pull buoy and without. She felt that the ORNÖ X provided some buoyancy even without a pull buoy. She was surprised by how great the shoulder material felt during the swim. The shoulder material also feels more flexible and stretchy compared to the ORNÖ 02 which might mean that it will have better durability (read: fewer armpit holes requiring repair).

Brooke got her mind blown by the suit. She felt like she was swimming in a second skin and a perfect suit for the Pacific Northwest. She thought that just how it performs in the swim makes it well worth the money.

Transition Impressions

Basically a non-issue. Everyone thought that the suit performed great coming in and out of the water. The zipper size felt sturdy. Cabbing down and up was a little challenging, partly because of fear of tearing the suit.

Everyone loved the new design of the rear pocket on the suit. It was really well thought out and worked as advertised. Similar feedback for the zipper size of the suit.

The .5mm arm cuffs were another innovation in the suit that everyone thought was great. They help the suit stay in place and keep the arm sleeves well-positioned to create a good seal to keep water out.

Running Impressions

Everyone thought that running in the ORNÖ X Suit was great. The running+ material that ARK uses allows for complete running freedom and no one had any major complaints about the run performance of the suit.

Chris runs hot and felt like he had to cab down/lower the zipper on most runs. Chris also experienced a tiny amount of chafing with one of the seams on the inside by the leg opening but it was barely noticeable and nothing a little bit of body glide wouldn’t fix.

Brooke continued to get her mind blown running in the suit.

Pull Buoy Rankings Rankings

Brooke 5 Pull Buoys

She was smitten by the ORNÖ X Suit. A joy to run in, a joy to swim in, and she can’t wait to race in it.

Chris 5 Pull Buoys

He thought that this suit is the pinnacle of technology for the sport and ARK Sports once again raised their own high bar. Next to the VIGG, it was the best wetsuit that he’s ever worn.

Annie 5 Pull Buoys

She thought that this was the best suit that money can buy and worth every penny.

Chipper 5 Pull Buoys

Chipper wants to use this suit all the time. It was a joy for him to train in and he is looking forward to the next time that he can wear it...whether to a Swimrun or not.

Overall Impressions

This is definitely a milestone for us. The ORNÖ X is the first item to be reviewed that received 5 Pull Buoy ratings across the board. While it’s an expensive suit, it has all the latest innovations in terms of design and materials that raises the bar on what’s possible in a Swimrun wetsuit. Major kudos to the DaVinci of Swimrun, Daniel Sand, for once again raising the bar of what is possible in wetsuit tech!

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 29 Jun 2021 07:00:00 +0000

ÖTILLÖ Utö 2021 Race Recap with Special Guests, Team Helena and Åsa

Welcome to episode seventy-seven of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

ÖTILLÖ made its return to hosting events this past weekend on the Island of Utö...and what a triumphant return it was. The races looked super fun and the fields were stacked with a lot of the heavy hitters in the sport in attendance. We are super stoked to share our race recap with you and share a special guest race report with Helena Bjälkemo and Åsa Ehrnholm of Team Helena and Åsa. They were just the coolest and it was super fun to chat with them.

But first...

Training Update

Our training for our Fall race schedule is going well. The intensity is picking up a bit with several rounds of fast intervals at our latest Swimrun practice and we didn’t die so that’s good. A lot of work still to do before Casco Bay but we’re having fun...so is it really work?

Want to join us at Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay? Use the code LOWTIDE15 to save 15% on your registration.

Shoutouts/Feats of Endurance

Blanket shoutout and Feats of Endurance awards to everyone who raced ÖTILLÖ Utö this past weekend.

Special bonus shoutout to our friend Oscar Olsson (and previous guest of the show) for his great interviews and commentary all weekend long as part of the livesporttv.se crew.

The FOMO was real for us but it was great to see so many members of our Strava club racing.

Speaking of which, make sure to join the LTBz Strava Club and connect with fellow Swimrunners as they train and race all over the world.

ÖTILLÖ Utö 2021 Recap

Swimrun season finally feels like it’s officially open with ÖTILLÖ’s first race of the year on the island of Utö. Not only was the sport of Swimrun essentially born on this island in the Stockholm Archipelago but it’s also just an amazing location for Swimrunning.

Due to COVID restrictions the race was split up over two days with the Experience and Sprint races taking place on Saturday and the Sunday World Series distance race being broken up into three races with the Men’s, Women’s, and Mixed team races being split up over the course of the day to be in line with local rules. (We’re going to focus on the World Series distance but you can see the results for all the races over the weekend on the ÖTILLÖ website.)

The World Series distance race was 26,2k (16.3 miles) of total distance with 22,05k (13.7 miles) of mostly technical trail running and 4,150k (4,538yds) of swimming. The longest run was around 6k and the longest swim was 400m.

As we mentioned at the beginning, all three World Series races were stacked with some of the best athletes in the sport and the podiums definitely reflected that.

Women’s Team Podium:

1st Place: Team Envol Anna & Desirée (Anna Hellström and Desirée Andersson)
2nd Place: Wild Swimrun West Coast (Therese Bergling and Evelina Järvinen)
3rd Place: ARKswimrun. (Helena Sivertsson and Kristin Larsson)

Mixed Team Podium:

1st Place: ARKswimrun (Ulrika Eriksson and Peter Oom)
2nd Place: ARK Swimrun (Marika Wagner and Alexander Koller)
3rd Place: Team Envol Switzerland (Sabina Rapelli and Alexis Charrier)

Men’s Team Podium:

1st Place: Öckerö Rörläggeri (Adriel Young and Max Andersson)
2nd Place: Kraken Swimrun (Pontus Lindberg and George Bjälkemo)
3rd Place: ARKswimrun 1 (Lars Ekman and Fredrik Axegård)

Overall, the weather was perfect for race weekend and the vibe of the entire event was one of celebration. This event has been a long time coming for Michael, Mats, and the rest of the ÖTILLÖ team and we’re super stoked that they are back to hosting events! Congrats to everyone that raced over the weekend and we can’t wait to be at the starting line of this race at some point in the (hopefully) near future.

Special Race Report with Team Helena & Åsa

It was really fun to sit down with Helena Bjälkemo and Åsa Ehrnholm the day after they raced the World Series distance race to get their take on how it all went down. (If anyone thinks that Helena’s last name sounds familiar it is because the reigning men’s world champion and two-time guest of the show, George, is her husband.) We’ve been fans of Helena and Åsa since we started following a bunch of Swedish Swimrunners on IG and their attitude towards training, racing, and the sport is a great representation of why the Swimrun community is the best!

We spoke with Helena and Åsa about their athletic backgrounds, how they became Swimrun partners, and how they trained (or didn’t train) for Utö during the pandemic. We also chatted with them about how their Utö race went, got the lowdown on the whole vibe of the race, and what is up next for them. We loved having them on the show and think that you’ll really enjoy this interview.

You can follow Helena and Åsa on Instagram.

Thank you for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay Course Preview

Welcome to episode seventy-six of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we have a super comprehensive course preview for Ödyssey Swimrun’s Casco Bay race. We raced Casco Bay in 2018 and we’re super stoked to be going back this year to race the long course again. We will be focusing on the long course in this show but the short course follows most of the same course so we will make sure to cover everything the short course Swimrunners will want to know.

Putting together a course preview for Casco Bay is a challenge because the course has changed every year since it started in 2016 but that’s part of the allure. Casco Bay was the first European-style Swimrun (i.e., Island to island and point to point) in the United States and the brainchild of legendary race director Jeff Cole. Jeff and Lars Finanger partnered up to put on the first race 5 years ago and the rest is Swimrun history. When Jeff passed away in 2018, Casco Bay was renamed “The Cole Classic'' in his honor. It’s safe to say that Jeff would be super stoked with how the sport of Swimrun has grown in the U.S.

With that as a prelude, let’s get into our course preview for Casco Bay.

THE GREAT ATLANTIC NORTHEAST (IS THAT TERM A THING?)

The Casco Bay islands are situated off of the coast of Portland, Maine. The islands are relatively easy to get to via ferry or water taxi service and there are plenty of activities to do for the whole family. Most Swimrunners will be staying on the mainland in the City of Portland which is a great spot with lots of really good restaurants, lobster shacks, donut shops, and tourist destinations. We definitely ate our way through town before and after our race!

Getting to Portland is pretty straight forward. Folks can either fly into Portland directly or fly to Manchester, New Hampshire or Boston, Massachusetts and then drive up to Maine.

NOW FOR THE “MAINE” EVENT (COURSE OVERVIEW)

For a general overview of the Casco Bay course, we asked Lars to share his take on the course and what athletes can expect out there.

Let’s break down the Casco Bay course for 2021.

As we mentioned at the start of the show, the course changes every year so we will try to be as general as possible about the specific islands that Swimrunners will be crossing so they can be referenced in the future in case they are used again in following years in a different order.

As we talk about the course you will notice that we will emphasize that all the distances are approximate because, well, that’s how it goes with Swimrun. The Casco Bay Long Course clocks in at 21.65ish total miles with 17ish miles of running and 4.65ish miles (7,465m/8,164ish yards) of swimming. The Short Course is 12.1ish total miles with 10ish miles of running and 2.1ish miles (3,400m/3,718ish yards) of swimming. The Short Course starts at Long Island (Run 7 on the Long Course) so athletes racing that course can skip the first bit and get a snack and jump back in when we start chatting about Long Island and onward. We recommend pulling up the course map on the Ödyssey Swimrun website and follow along the legs as we break them down.

We are lucky to have a couple of course experts to walk you through the course instead of us. Joining us for this portion of the show are John Stevens: Multisport coach with PurplePatch Fitness and Casco Bay race director/course designer and Matt Hurley: Multisport coach and Co-Founder of Black Sheep Endurance Project. They have raced and won all four editions of Swimrun Casco Bay so we can’t think of a better duo to walk us through the course.

Annotated Long Course Leg by Leg Breakdown with key features of each leg:

R1: Peaks Island (2.0mi)

Neutral start for everyone for the first .5 mile
Race starts on low tide
Rocky entrance to first swim

S1: Peaks Island to Cushing Island (965m/1,055yd)

First swim will at low tide

R2: Cushing Island (2.3mi)

It’s a private island that we get to run through
Only run that has any significant elevation

S2: Cushing Island to House Island (645m/705yd)

This swim might be longer than 700yds
Very rocky and slippery swim exit so take extra precaution to make sure that you have good footing and maybe be on all 4s if needed

R3: House Island (.4mi)

Another private island you run through an old war fort so don’t freak out by that

S3: House Island to Little Diamond Island (965m/1,055yd)

First “long” swim of the day
John Stevens thinks that this swim will be closer to 1,300yd
Might be a longer or shorter swim depending on where the swim entrance is located
Swim exit is on a beach by a dock

R4: Little Diamond Island (.8mi)

Swim exit has a short and steep hill
Fun factoid: John Stevens lives on this island

S4: Little Diamond Island to Great Diamond Island (325m/355yd)

This might be a sandbar run for fast and mid-packer racers

R5: Great Diamond Island (1.3mi)

A fun run

S5: Great Diamond Island to Cow Island (200m/219yd)

Nice and short swim

R6: Cow Island (.5mi)

There is a rope that athletes will need to climb one at a time to get onto the trail
Look out for campers from a Ripple Effect (They are an awesome non-profit that will be volunteering at the race)

S6: Cow Island to Long Island (965m/1,055yd)

Likely the longest swim of the day, more likely closer to a mile than what’s on the course map
Swimming directly into the Sun if it’s cloudless
Current will be going from right to left and will be stronger closer to Long Island

R7: Long Island Part 1 (1.6mi) THE SHORT COURSE STARTS HERE

Some road running on this island

S7: Long Island to Vail Island (270m/295yd)

This is a good swim to push on since it’s short
Good place to make up some time

R8: Vail Island (.5mi)

AKA, Happy Fun Island!
Most technical run on the whole race
“Teamwork” is required
Lots of poison ivy
Stay lower to the ground and watch your footing

S8: Vail Island back to Long Island (880m/962yd)

Deceivingly long swim with a little sandbar break about 250 yards where you run for 30ish ft and then jump back in the water
There will be a strobe light to help athletes sight the swim exit
Swim exit is a tricky rocky outcropping onto the lawn of a private residence

R9: Long Island Part 2 (1.6mi)

Back on roads for about .5 miles and then you go straight uphill for a bit and then some cool trails
Pay attention so you don’t get lost

S9: Long Island to Little Chebeague Island (640m/700yd)

Strong current pushing from right to left...so aim right
Might be the strongest current of the day
Pay attention to which direction the lobster buoys are bending to get a sense of the direction of the water

R10: Little Chebeague Island (.4mi)

S10: Little Chebeague Island to (Big) Chebeague Island (560m/612yd)

Depending on when you get to this swim it might be a sandbar run or a wade/dolphin jumping or swim across to Big Chebeague

R11: Chebeague Island (Run 1) (4.25mi)

Longest run of the race
Some cool new trails debuting for the first time at this year’s race
Good place to make up some time if you’re a fast running team

S11: Chebeague Island (Swim 1) (650m/711yd)

R12: Chebeague Island (Run 2) (.8mi)

Get used to some sand running!

S12: Chebeague Island (Swim 2) (400m/437yd)

Swim will probably be closer to 500yds

R13: Chebeague Island (Run 3) (.55mi)

This run is on sand!
Finish line is at a cool boatyard

Lars shared some bonus leg breakdowns for some of the course with us. Specifically, he breaks down the Cow Island, Vail Island, and Chebeague Island sections of the course. He also shares some final words for everyone racing Casco.

IT’S PRONOUNCED “LOBSTA” (TRAINING AND TACTICS)

This is a swim heavy course that will favor strong swimmers. It’s about 5 miles of swimming with mostly flat and non-technical running (except for Vail Island). Everyone we talked to said to swim a lot to prepare for this event. John Stevens recommends doing race simulations to make sure that you are ready for some of those long swims with short runs in between. Check out our episode with Matt and Lauren Hurley for some swim sets that you can do to prepare for race day.

For race strategy, we brought in a team that has raced Casco Bay every year and they are literally the most dominant Swimrun mixed team in the United States. Of course, we are talking about our friends Bronwen and Greg from Team Boston Wet Sox. They share their tactics for executing your race plan.

SEE YOU AT THE SHACK (Final Thoughts)

Well, there you have it! Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay in a glorious nutshell.

We hope to see a bunch of new and familiar faces in Maine. If you were on the fence but we managed to convince you to sign up, use the code LOWTIDE15 to save 15% on your registration for Casco Bay and every other 2021 Ödyssey Swimrun event.

We’re always trying to improve these types of shows and we’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know what you think. We wanted to give a final thanks once again to Lars Finanger and John Stevens and the rest of the Ödyssey Swimrun crew, Matt Hurley of Black Sheep Endurance Project, and Bronwen and Greg Dierksen of the Boston Wet Sox for their help in getting this course preview together.

Thank you for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 17 Jun 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Team Keith and the Unicorn

Welcome to episode seventy-five of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we head to “The Shire” (New Hampshire, not Tolkein’s Middle Earth) to chat with Keith Lundquist and Kanoa King of Team Keith and the Unicorn. These guys are one of the up-and-coming American teams and we’re super stoked to introduce them to our listeners.

More on this interview later in the show.

Training Update

The training continues and we put in a 2 hour-plus Swimrun practice over the weekend and we’re definitely feeling like we are making progress. Our transitions are pretty much dialed in and our overall pace is feeling good. It’s almost as if all the swimming and running that we are doing is paying off! Weird! Casco Bay, here we come! #LFG

Shoutouts

This week we’re shouting out the ten folks from the swim club Pool2Lake who all completed their first Swimrun this past weekend at The Box End Bedford Swimrun put on by our friends at As Keen As Mustard events. We have no idea if they listen to the show or not, but either way we are stoked that they all came out to race their first event.

Feats of Endurance

We are going back to the Netherlands for this week’s FoE winner: Elly Dijk. She’s taking part in the Envol Coaching’s “Big Battle” and literally did eight Swimruns last week. Eight!

Need some inspiration in your training life? Make sure to join the LTBz Strava Club and connect with fellow Swimrunners as they train and race all over the world.

This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

Lots of Swimrun news to share this week.

First off, we’ve got something special to share with everyone. We are debuting our “Notes from the Field” with guest correspondent Shane Chaplin. Former guest of the show (Episode 43) and our favorite Aussie living in Sweden was present at the ARK SUPERSPRINT put on by EX Swimrun a few weeks back and he shares his expert analysis of how the race went from his perch atop a stand-up paddle board on the swim leg for the event. Thanks Shane for your special report!

Ödyssey Swimrun released their latest course overview zoom recording for Luddington last week. Check it out on YouTube to get all the info you need to convince you to sign up.

It’s race week for Swimrun Knox! If you’re in the general vicinity of Tennessee or are willing to travel, registration is open for either the short or long course distance taking place on June 13th.

Week one of Envol Coaching’s “The Big Battle” is officially in the books! Make sure you follow @envolswimrun on Instagram to see how all the teams are progressing. They also have a leaderboard with all the standing at envolcoaching.net for folks that want to check that out. (In case you’re curious about how Team Löw Tide Böyz is doing but are too lazy to go to Envol’s website, our team is not in last place.)

Our friends at As Keen As Mustard events had their first race of the year over the weekend and the Box End Bedford Swimrun did not disappoint. (Fun fact: Google Maps describes Box End Park as a leisure park.) Good times were had by all at their first event of the year. Their next event, Nene Park Peterborough Swimrun is coming up on June 20th, so if you’re in the U.K. and are keen to try Swimrun, we can’t recommend a more welcoming event series. If you want to learn more about As Keen As Mustard events, check out our interview with the mother and daughter race directing duo, Nicky & Chelsea Bailey, on Episode 56 of the show.

The Stockholm Swimrun took place over the weekend. The field was limited to 150 participants for this ÖTILLÖ Merit Race but it looked like a lot of fun. In other news, their winner’s trophy was humongous!

The race (and city) whose name I’ve been butchering for weeks, the Jönköping Swimrun powered by Speedo, took place over the weekend. This race had some heavy hitters in the field and the competition for this ÖTILLÖ Merit Race looked fierce. Shoutout to Marie Anderzén, Annika Westin, and Anders Nyberg from our Strava Club who all raced on Sunday.

In a little bit of a bummer, ATOBE events recently announced that they need five more teams to sign up for the epic ATOBE Ultra at their Immeln Swimrun for it to happen on August 21st. We haven’t chatted with them about this but we’re taking it on as a personal mission to try to get five teams to sign up for this 108km (97km running, 11km swimming) ultra by June 15th so that we can experience the FOMO from the U.S. Registration is open on raceid.com. (if you sign up after listening to this, send us a DM!)

That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Updates

We know that we’ve been mentioning our Ödyssey Swimrun discount code a lot but that only because we love their events and think that you will too! Use the code LOWTIDE15 to save 15% on your registration.

Looking to waste some time on YouTube? Check out the LTBz channel and check out our new How to Practice Smooth Transitions and our Pull Buoy Mounting Options Overview videos. Let us know if you’re liking this type of content so that we can justify it to our wives why we need to get camera equipment in addition to our podcasting gear.

As a programming alert, we will be releasing our Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay Course Preview episode next week so stay tuned for that.

Interview

It was great to chat with Keith and Kanoa about their Swimrun journey. While it hasn’t taken them long to start winning races, they definitely passed the Swimrun vibe check and it will be cool to see them at the start line (and then at finish line a few hours after they are done) at a bunch of races in the Fall. In this interview, we chatted with them about how they found Swimrun and each other, the genesis of their Swimrun team name, how they’ve approached training and racing, and even got a mini-race report from their Swimrun Lake James long course win. We also talked about beer miles, gave them wetsuit recommendations, and more. This was a fun one. Enjoy!

Thank you for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 10 Jun 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Stefan Laursen, Founder of Synergy Wetsuits

Welcome to episode seventy-four of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we have the Founder of Synergy Wetsuits, Stefan Laursen. Get ready to learn about Stefan’s fascinating background, his ambitious Swimrun program, and get a behind-the-scenes look at the research and development process for making their new Swimrun wetsuits.

More on this interview later in the show.

Training Update

We’re feeling like a couple of Swimrunners lately. Our pool was closed so last week was open water swimming week for us and we managed to get in three Swimrun practices since our last show. With Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay just two months away, it’s time to do some work!

Shoutouts

This week we’re shouting out Adrian Cameron. He rocked a 3rd place finish at the CapTex triathlon in Austin over the weekend and was rocking his Löw Tide Böyz shirt on the podium. Strong work out there dude!

For folks who don’t know who Adrian is, check out the addendum to Episode 38 of our Ödyssey Swimrun Austin course preview show where Adrian scoped out the course at Pace Bend Park and then shared all his intel with us and our listeners.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Piet Wisse from the Netherlands. This guy just casually cycled 193.44 miles in just over 10 hours. Double centuries are something that we are familiar with and they are never a piece of cake but Piet made it look easy!

Need some inspiration in your training life? Make sure to join the LTBz Strava Club and connect with fellow Swimrunners as they train and race all over the world.

This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

Lots of Swimrun news to share this week.

The Bellingham Swimrun, hosted by Quest Races and friend of the pod Brent Molsberry, is happening this coming Sunday, June 6th. You can get all the details on their website.

Ödyssey Swimrun recently released their latest course overview video on Casco Bay. Anyone that registered or interested in registering for the original Ödyssey event should definitely check it out on YouTube.

In international news, Swimrun Sumin took place over the weekend in Sumin, Poland. It’s great to see races coming back and this one looked like a lot of fun with a mix of terrains. On a side note, the course description infographics on their site are really cool.

Swimrun Edmonton, where your’s truly won a prize at their virtual edition last year, announced that this year’s (non-virtual) edition is taking place on July 25 at Terwillegar Park. Registration is open now!

In the category of “They did what now?,” a bunch of Swimrunners from Swimrun Côte D'azur completed the 6th edition of their Ultraswimrun of the Maritime Alps. This was a 78k (67k of running and 11k of swimming) coastline Swimrun from Le Trayas to Beaulieu-sur-Mer or basically from west of Cannes to East of Nice in Southern France. Amazing!

Speaking of Swimrun Côte D'azur, their main event is now scheduled for October 24th in Beaulieu-sur-Mer and registration is open now! They offer 8k, 17k and 30k distance options and they have a really cool refund policy in place where all participants will get 100% of their registration fee refunded in the case of a COVID lockdown. If you want to learn more about the Swimrun scene in the South of France, check out Episode 48 with Laurene William and Irina Kondratieva of Team Swimrun Mermaids.

Finally, Envol Coaching’s “The Big Battle” has officially begun! Make sure you follow @envolswimrun on Instagram to see how all the teams are progressing. Swimrunners can still sign up and join a team so don’t let the FOMO take hold and sign up at envolcoaching.net.

That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Updates

So last week was a big week for LTBz. We took over Ödyssey Swimrun’s Instagram stories and put out all sorts of content including the release of the short film, Swimrun Confessions, featuring the acting debut of Chris’s wife, Susan. If that wasn’t enough, friend of the show (and our guest on Episode 28 of the show) Adam Skolnick rocked his LTBz hat on the bi-weekly podcast Roll On that he co-hosts with Rich Roll. We’re big fans of Rich and Adam and it was a major thrill for us to see our tiny show get mentioned and it was an even bigger thrill to see all our fans be as super stoked about the mention as we were.

Looking to race an Ödyssey Swimrun race this year? Use the code LOWTIDE15 to save 15% on your registration. We will be at Casco Bay, Orcas, and Austin this year so come join us!

Mark your calendars if you’re in the Bay Area because we are going to be holding an “Intro to Swimrun” session and practice at Aquatic Park in San Francisco this Saturday, June 5th at 7:30am. Precision Hydration will be providing free hydration packets for everything to check out and we have some bonus swag that we’ll be giving away as well. So if you’re new to Swimrun or just want to practice with some other people, then join us on June 5th!

Interview

Stefan Laursen was an awesome guest. Stefan’s passion about wetsuits and performance is only matched by his extensive experience and deep knowledge of the industry. In this interview we chatted with Stefan about his background and how he came to design and build his own wetsuit at age 13, how he became a pro triathlete and ultimately transitioned to making wetsuits full-time, how Synergy grew to being the wetsuits of choice for elite athletes, and why he chose to enter the Swimrun space. We talked at length about the research and development process for their new entry-level Swimrun wetsuit and their plans for an elite Swimrun wetsuit coming out soon. In short, this interview is an education on wetsuit R&D.

Need another reason to check out Synergy? Use the code SRLABS25 to save 25% off their new Swimrun Wetsuit.

You can find Synergy at Synergywetsuits.com and on all the socials.

Thank you for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 3 Jun 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Synergy Swimrun Wetsuit Review

Welcome to Gear Talk with our friends Annie and Brooke from Swimrun Labs.

In this episode, we break down the new Synergy Swimrun Wetsuit. At $200 this suit is an intriguing entry-level suit that looks and, more importantly, performs great. We would like to thank Synergy for sending us four of their new suits for us to test out.

Our complete review is coming later in the show.

Gear Updates

Annie swam in the Ark Sports KORP Wetsuit for the first time and only had good things to say about the suit. She tested it in pretty chilly water and didn’t experience any water pooling in the suit that others have experienced.

Brooke tried to go full commando under her wetsuit for the first time...and she wasn’t a fan.

Chris and Chipper got to try out the new Summer Smoc from Smoc Smoc. These bamboo fiber smocs are great for the summer months and make it really easy to change into and out of your Swimrun gear.

Untethered Thoughts

This week’s untethered thought comes courtesy of Amy Bush. She asked us why our Gear Talk show isn’t called the “Löw Tide Töyz” show. We discussed this at length and will consider the suggestion and try to incorporate “labs” in there somewhere.

Synergy Swimrun Wetsuit Review

We all got to use the suits and have some well-formed opinions about the Synergy Swimrun Wetsuit. You can watch our first impressions video here to get a general overview of the suit.

The suit costs $200. It comes with three pockets (two internal pockets in the front and one large zippered pocket in the back), a whistle on the zipper, and male and female-specific sizing. The Synergy website describes the suit as follows: The Synergy Swimrun is a high-quality suit with the essential features; long front zip, total of 3 accessible pockets, and graded/variable neoprene thickness to allow best flexibility while retaining buoyancy for swimming and enough insulation to keep you warm.

Given that this is an entry-level suit, we thought that it would be important to calibrate our review with other similar entry-level suits with a similar price point such as the ORCA Core and the BlueSeventy Alliance Swimrun Wetsuit. It’s worth noting that this suit does not come with arm sleeves.

Swimming Impressions

Chipper was worried about chafing with the collar of this suit but those concerns didn’t come to pass. The suit fit great and he thought that it kept water out well and kept him warm. He did feel that the velcro portion to secure the collar was a bit small and would have liked it to be a bit larger since it came undone during a swim and he had to adjust it.

Brooke was also worried about the suit collar. She tried the suit on when it arrived and thought that the neckline felt a little “chokey” because it came up pretty high. She didn’t experience any chafing. She did experience some water entering the suit from the arms and flushing through the suit. (We all think that this was a fit issue.)

Annie did not have any water entering into the suit and thought that the fit was spot on. She did experience some chafing. There is a seam on the collar that had some extra reinforcement but it did lead to some chafing.

Chris’s expectations for the suit were low when he took it out of the box because at first glance it appeared that it was using a Gen 1-style design with thick neoprene on the legs instead of a more Gen 2 approach that is more run-forward. The suit definitely exceeded his expectations. The suit was great in the water and easy to swim in with good seals to keep water out and shoulder mobility wasn’t a problem.

Transition Impressions

Chipper and Chris didn’t have any issues with transitions. The zipper was good for cabbing down and zipped smoothly.

Brooke and Annie thought that transitions went fine. Annie was able to cab down no problem in the suit. Brooke felt like she was carrying some water with her but that could be because of the sizing issues that she was having.

Running Impressions

Annie and Chris were pleasantly surprised with the run performance. Out of the box the suit felt stiff and had neoprene running down the entire front. They didn’t feel restricted at all during the run.

Brooke felt very comfortable on the run and didn’t feel like she would overheat in the suit. Sizing down may have resolved some of the bunching issues that she was having.

Chipper was very worried that he was going to cook in the suit because it seemed pretty thick. Just like everyone else, he was pleasantly surprised with how the suit performed on the run. He felt that the legs did ride up a bit but it wasn’t a deal-breaker. He did have some concerns about the front pockets not being super useful when cabbed down.

Pull Buoy Rankings Rankings

Chipper 4.5 Pull Buoys

Chipper thought that for the price point, this suit was good enough for him to race in the suit. He said that he would be fine racing in the suit. This was the top of the heap in terms of entry-level wetsuits and it was a great suit for most Swimrun conditions.

Chris 4 Pull Buoys

Chris thought that for an entry-level suit, the Synergy is great! A lot of thought and intention went into making this suit and for $200, this suit definitely delivers. He would use this suit over any other entry-level suit that he has tried.

Brooke 3.5 Pull Buoys

Brooke doesn’t think that anyone should listen to her review. She thinks that she had the wrong size and didn’t enjoy it as much as she wanted to. She would maybe give it a higher score if she had the right size. She did think that this is a great suit for folks starting out and/or for training.

Annie 4.5 Pull Buoys

Annie gave it a high score for the value that it presents for $200. It totally delivered and exceeded her expectations for the price point. It has a great balance of swim buoyancy and run mobility. She would feel totally fine racing in this suit.

Overall Impressions

We were all pleasantly surprised with how the new Synergy suit performed and we would all recommend this suit to both beginners in the sport and more experienced athletes looking for a durable suit to train or race in.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 1 Jun 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Team Phyllis Hold My Shower Beer

Welcome to episode seventy-three of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we have Jennifer Devers and Bridgit Phillips on the show. They are a Swimrun team out of North Carolina with one of the best team names that we’ve seen in a while: Team Phyllis Hold My Shower Beer.

More on this interview later in the show.

Training Update

We got redemption on last week’s irony fest and got in our two-hour Swimrun this past Friday. We busted out the tether for the first time of the year and ended our training with a 15’ pier jump before our last swim. We even did a bonus Swimrun practice on Tuesday! Fun times!

Shoutouts

We have two shout outs this week.

First shoutout is to our buddy Alex Sigal. He’s not a Swimrunner yet but he shared a ton of intel with us for a potential Swimrun adventure while on a trail run on Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay this past weekend. It looks pretty promising and we’ll be going out there in a few weeks to do some more recon. Good looking out Alex!

Our second shoutout goes out to Oskar. His instagram handle is @enidiottvaklassiker (One idiot doing two Swedish Classics) and he sent us a DM thanking us for our ear plug recommendations. It worked out great for him and solved a major problem for him and his partner. So happy we could help!

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Will Ramsey. We know that we make fun of triathlon a fair bit in our memes but races are happening and it’s great to see our Strava Club members out there doing stuff. Will raced Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga over the weekend and his swim split was very spicy! Strong work buddy!

Make sure to join the LTBz Strava Club and get inspired by your fellow Swimrunners as they train all over the world.

This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

Lots of Swimrun news to share this week.

The Bali Swim Trail Challenge took place over the weekend and it looked like a fantastic event. Friend of the show and YouTube sensation, Patrick Delorenzi, tipped us off about this event (and it was his first official Swimrun race) and he said that the course was great and he’s definitely keen to do more races.

There are a lot of Swimrun events being confirmed in Europe now that COVID restrictions are being lifted in many countries. Swimrun Côte Sud Landes is taking place from June 18-20 in Southwestern France. Swimrun Gran Canaria is taking place on June 12th. Swimrun Victoria in, wait for it, Victoria, British Columbia is on! The race is set for August 15th and registration is open now.

In ÖTILLÖ news, Swimrun Utö is confirmed for June 19-20th with some modifications since the authorities are limiting the fields to 150 participants at a time. Check out their website for all the details there. Make sure to check out ÖTILLÖ facebook channel as well for a live/recorded presentation regarding Utö and the rest of their race series.

Speaking of Utö, we just learned that they have created a permanent Swimrun trail on the island similar to what Erika Rosenbaum did at Hellas. (Make sure to check out Episode 22 of the show to learn more about Erika and why she’s one of our favorite humans.)

For anyone interested in joining us at Ödyssey Swimrun Orcas Island in late September, Lars, Aaron, John and the rest of the team over there held a super comprehensive Zoom chat all about the race this week. You can check it out on YouTube.

Finally, Envol Coaching’s “The Big Battle” is starting on June 1st. Individuals can join teams from all over the world to do as many Swimruns as possible during the month and “battle” for top honors and prizes. In case you missed our video, we have a team in the “battle” and everyone is welcomed to join if they can pass the vibe check (being super stoked on Swimrun.) We only have a few slots left so make sure that you sign up soon to be part of the fun.

That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Updates

We have a couple of discounts to share with folks. Looking to race an Ödyssey Swimrun race this year? Use the code LOWTIDE15 for 15% off your registration. We anticipate all the races selling out so don’t wait! Our friends at Precision Hydration set up the discount code LOWTIDE21 for 15% off of your order. That code is good through the end of May so don’t wait if you want to stock up for the Summer.

Mark your calendars if you’re in the Bay Area because we are going to be holding an “Intro to Swimrun” session and practice at Aquatic Park in San Francisco on Saturday June 5th at 7:30am. Precision Hydration will be providing free hydration packets for everything to check out and we have some bonus swag that we’ll be giving away as well. So if you’re new to Swimrun or just want to practice with some other people, then join us on June 5th!

Our latest video on the NU Orza Pull Buoy is up on YouTube. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Interview

Jennifer and Bridget were just delightful to talk to. We loved their attitude to training and racing and it was pretty obvious from our interview that they are super stoked on Swimrun. We chatted about how they found each other, how they decided on their team name, and how they found Swimrun. We chatted about Swimrun NC and Swimrun Lake James and got a mini-race report for their 2nd place finish at Swimrun Lake James a few weeks ago. Good stuff for sure!

Thank you for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 27 May 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Nicholas Roman, Co-Founder of EX Swimrun

Welcome to episode seventy-two of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We got something pretty awesome for you in this show. Unless you were living under a rock that didn’t have wifi access this past weekend, then you probably heard about the EX Swimrun’s Ark Supersprint event. This was a first of its kind event in the sport and we have the race director mastermind behind this event, Nicholas Roman, on the show to chat all about it!

We’re super stoked for this one! More on that interview later in the show.

Training Update

The irony was crushing this past weekend as we decided to go for a 2-hour Swimrun practice at a beach with notoriously low tide muck a couple of hours before low tide. Anyway, the tide was too low! On the brightside we didn’t lose any shoes in the muck. Onward and upward though.

Shoutouts

This week we are shouting out Justin Searcy. He’s been through our old catalog of shows and he slid into our DM’s with some great ear plug recommendations for Chris. Super cool of you for reaching out Justin.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Marie Anderzen. We think that it’s only fitting that this week’s winner be somebody from our Strava Club that competed in the EX Ark Supersprint event over the weekend. Great job out there Marie!

Make sure to join the LTBz Strava Club and get inspired by your fellow Swimrunners as they train all over the world.

This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

We have a lot of Swimrun news to share this week.

As we already mentioned, the sport of Swimrun saw something novel happen over the weekend. EX Swimrun hosted the ARK Supersprint Invitational. This was the world’s first Swimrun Supersprint. The course was super short: 1.2km in total distance, and consisted of two running legs of 1000m total with a 200m swim leg in the middle. Probably as a surprise to no one, Desirée Andersson, won for the Women’s side. On the Men’s side Max Andersson took first place.

Our friends at Swimrun Portugal recently announced that a new race, the Lagoa Swimrun, will be taking place on October 31st. This race looks like it hugs the southern coastline of the city of Lagoa in the Algarve region and our super extensive internet research (30 seconds on Google) showed us that this location looks to be an incredible location for a Swimrun. Registration isn’t open yet so make sure you are following them on Instagram to get details on that.

In local news, the next two Swimrun events in the U.S. look like they will definitely be happening. The Bellingham Swimrun, hosted by Quest Races and friend of the pod Brent Molsberry, is scheduled to happen on Sunday, June 6th. Get all the details on their website.

A week later, the PBR Swimrun Knox event is happening on Sunday, June 13th in Knoxville, Tennessee (in case that wasn’t obvious.) This race has long (17.2 total miles) and short course (8.2 total miles) options so something for everyone. Registration is open now so head on over to their website to learn more.

That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Updates

Our latest episode of Gear Talk with the Swimrun Labs is out. We reviewed the NU Orzo Swimrun Pull Buoy and we all thought it was great...or did we? Only way to find out is to check it out!

Looking to dial in your hydration strategy? Our friends at Precision Hydration set up the discount code LOWTIDE21 for 15% off of your order. That code is good through the end of May so don’t wait if you want to stock up for the Summer. We did!

As a programing alert, we will be taking over Ödyssey Swimrun’s Instagram feed next week and frankly we’re impressed that they let us do it again! Anyway, we are going to be doing a bunch of cool stuff on there all week long (including giving away prizes) so stay tuned for that.

Interview

It was great to get to chat with Nicholas Roman, Co-Founder or EX Swimrun, about ARK Supersprint that happened over the weekend. Not only was it a cool event, it was obvious from listening to Nicholas just how super stoked he was with how it turned out. In this interview we discuss everything about this new race from how they came up with the idea, to location, to format, and ultimately, to race day. We also chatted with Nicholas about the other events that EX Swimrun has for the rest of the year. All in all, this interview was jam packed with enthusiasm for the future of Swimrun while we celebrated the birth of a new iteration of the sport.

Make sure to check out EX Swimrun’s website for photos of the Supersprint event and learn about everything else that they are cooking up. You can also follow them on Instagram.

Thank you for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 20 May 2021 07:00:00 +0000

NU ORZA Pull Buoy Review

Welcome to Gear Talk with our friends Annie and Brooke from Swimrun Labs.

In this installment we talk about one of our favorite topics: pull buoys! And not just any pull buoys, but the NU Orza Swimrun Pull Buoy. He had a lot of thoughts on this one and can’t wait to share them below.

Gear Updates

Chris and Chipper tested out the Ark Sports KORP wetsuits in open water at their first Swimrun practice of the year. They both stand by their ratings in the review but they both experienced air/water pockets in the back of the suit. They also tested out the Frank Paddle carbon fiber paddles in open water and they remained as awesome as they were in the pool. They guys switched paddles (medium-sized Ark Sports Blades) halfway through the practice and the difference was night and day. The Ark Blades felt super bendy by comparison to the Frank Paddles. This got Chris thinking that perhaps using a small Frank Paddle might be equivalent to using a larger regular paddle which could help keep the stroke rate up and keep the shoulder fatigue low.

For a full discussion on all things swim paddles, check out our Gear Talk episode “Paddles for Swimrun” with special guest John Stevens.

New Gear First Impressions

The awesome folks at Synergy Wetsuits recently sent the crew four of their new Swimrun Wetsuit to test out. This is an entry-level suit coming in at $200 with male and female specific options. It’s great to see another entry-level/affordable option for folks new to the sport. There will be a full review of this suit coming soon so stay tuned for that.

You can see the first impressions video here to get a complete overview of the suit.

Tethered Thoughts

Chris used his old faithful Ark Sports Keel pull buoy at their Swimrun practice and he noticed after the starting that the paracord for his simple pull buoy mount had stretched. So much so that he had to wear the paracord as a sling over his shoulder to keep it from falling down below his waist. So a general reminder for everyone out there to check your gear before going out there to make sure that everything is tuned up and you won’t have to resort to random stuff to keep your Swimrun practice/adventure/race from going sideways on you.

NU ORZA Pull Buoy Gear Review

The Orza is a Swimrun-specific wetsuit that costs $50. It weighs in at 150 grams and the dimensions are 24x27x10cm. It has a unique pontoon-style shape designed for optimal positioning and comes with a thin paracord already attached for those interested in using a simple waist mount attachment.

Swimming Impressions

Chris used the Orza in both the pool and open water and used the Ark Sports Keel for comparison. The Orza was super comfortable to use. It does have less buoyancy compared to the Keel and he was about two seconds slower using the Orza versus the Keel.

Brooke thought that the Orza was the most comfortable pull buoy that she’s used. She thought that it was a little bendy where the two pontoons connect but hasn’t experienced anything breaking off or anything like that. Overall, she thought that this pull buoy fits in between the Swimrunners Piraya and the Ark Keel. She was a little bit faster in the Piraya and Keel by about one second per hundred. (Listeners can check out the full pull buoy comparison chart on the Swimrun Labs website.)

Annie loves the Orza pull buoy. For her size, she thought that this was the perfect pull buoy for her. In pool testing, she was over a second faster per 100 compared to the Keel.

Chipper experienced similar floatation issues to Chris and wished it was a bit bigger. He was a bit worried about how low-profile it was and thought that he was going to lose it on a run. He would switch out the paracord to something a bit thicker than the one that’s included.

Transition/Running Impressions

Overall, the Orza was super easy to run with and it would stay in place nicely. Transitioning from run to swim, the Orza was pretty easy to wrangle between the legs.

Pull Buoy Rankings Rankings

Chipper: 4 Pull Buoys

Chipper thought that the Orza was a pretty safe pull buoy for folks looking to just have one pull buoy in their stable. He also thought that if a Swimrunner is more on the larger side of things (height/weight) that this pull buoy might not provide enough flotation. He liked that it included the paracord attachment and took away some of the DIY anxiety that folks might feel about cutting holes in their gear.

Brooke: 4 Pull Buoys

Brooke thought that the shape was awesome and was super comfortable. She liked how she doesn’t feel it when she’s running. For training, she would give it 5 pull buoys. She might rate it higher overall but she hasn’t tested it in a full kit.

Chris: 4.5 Pull Buoys

Chris gave it a bunch of rankings: 5 for comfort and 5 for running and transitions. While he wouldn’t use it for racing because he would like more buoyancy he still thinks that if it provides the right amount of buoyancy for the user, then this is an excellent pull buoy and only took off .5 pull buoys because it didn’t have universal applicability.

Annie: 4.5 Pull Buoys

Annie loves this pull buoy while it is the pull buoy for her, it isn’t for everybody for all the reasons that were discussed. She loves the feeling and comfort of it while in use.

Overall Impressions

This is an amazing pull buoy and listeners can’t go wrong with the NU Orza for either a training tool in the pool or for Swimrun events if it provides enough flotation for you.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 18 May 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Swimrun 201: Heads-Up Racing

Welcome to episode seventy-one of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This episode is the latest installment in our ad hoc series: Swimrun 201-Advanced Topics in Swimrun. On this show we discuss in detail the concept of “Heads Up Racing.” Prepare for some knowledge bombs, but first....

Training Update

Chris was out of town for work this past weekend so we didn’t get a Swimrun practice in but our training for Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay has officially begun. We will be ramping up our joint training sessions and look forward to sharing our progress (such as it is) with you. Now that we are training, we are going to start working on dialing in all of the key phases of racing to make sure that we’re as ready as we can be.

On that note, it’s time for our first knowledge bomb of the show! We reached out to our friends at Precision Hydration to share their insight on the unique aspects of hydration for Swimrun and Andy Blow, the Co-Founder of Precision Hydration and previous guest of the show back in Episode 25 offered to share his wisdom as a hydration expert and experienced Swimrunner regarding the unique hydration demands that Swimrun events present to athletes.

If that knowledge bomb wasn’t enough, Precision Hydration set up the discount code LOWTIDE21 for 15% off of your first order. That code is good through the end of May so make sure that you place an order and help make us look good.

Shoutouts

This week we’re shouting out a couple of our listeners that reached out to us over the past week. First, big shoutout to Alex Linas and his partner Cam Holman for rocking the short course with a first place finish at Swimrun Lake James and then doing it again at Swimrun Maryland this past weeked. These guys are new to the sport but you wouldn’t be able to tell by these performances! Strong work guys.

Our second shoutout this week goes to Scott Turner. He’s been a fan of the show for a while and just raced his first event at Swimrun Maryland. He got second place in the Solo Long Course Category and handled all the weather that got thrown at him (including thunderstorms and hail!) with aplomb. Super proud of you and hope to see you at Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay in a few months.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is NorCal local Jonathan Pascual who recently completed a big 30km trail run in our backyard trails of Mt. Burdell and didn’t invite us! We’ll forgive him this time...

Make sure to join the LTBz Strava Club and get inspired by your fellow Swimrunners as they train all over the world.

This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

We have a lot of Swimrun news to share this week.

First, congratulations to everyone that raced Swimrun Maryland this past weekend. As far as Swimrun events go, this one checked off a lot of boxes: it was cold, there was a thunderstorm and hail at one point, and there were a lot of smiling faces at the finish line. There were also a lot of first-time Swimrunners at the race which was awesome to see.

If anyone is still on the fence about signing up for Ödyssey Swimrun Mackinac Island we have two pieces of information for you. First, get off the fence and sign up! Second, Aaron and the rest of the Ödyssey recently hosted an info session about the race that you can check out on Youtube to help get you to comply with our first point to sign up!

Atea Jönköping Swimrun, Presented by Speedo is set to take place on June 6th! This might be one of the first large Swimrun events to be taking place in Sweden this year and we couldn’t be happier. The event takes place in the town of Jönköping in southern Sweden has a 15km distance and a 35km distance that is also an ÖTILLÖ Merit Race. Registration is open now on Raceid.com.

Speaking of ÖTILLÖ, they recently announced that they will begin hosting live interviews on Facebook on May 19th. The first interview will be with Co-Founder, Michael Lemmel about how the 2021 race season is developing and what participants can expect at the races. They will also be doing interviews the week before their races so that participants can ask questions and get a better understanding of what the race courses will look like and other relevant information.

Finally, we wanted to give a huge congratulations to a long-time friend of the show and two and a half-time guest, Helen Wilkmar, on being named the CEO of Ark Sports. We are super stoked for her and super stoked for Ark. We have a special place in our heart for Ark since they were the first company to really give us the time of day and not only reply to our DM’s but agree to be interviewed way back on Episode Seven when Co-Founder (and the most interesting man in Swimrun) Christofer Sundberg came on the show. Onward and upward for Ark!

That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Updates

Looking to race an Ödyssey Swimrun race this year? Use the code LOWTIDE15 for 15% off your registration. We anticipate all the races selling out so don’t wait! We’re going to be putting out a lot of Ödyssey-related content in the next few months including course preview episodes for Casco Bay, Orcas, Luddington, and Mackinac Island so stay tuned for all of that.

Envol Coaching’s “The Big Battle” is starting in less than a month. In case you missed our video, we have a team in the “battle” and everyone on the team has been passing the vibe check (being super stoked on Swimrun) with flying colors. Our team is already half full so if you want to be a part of it, sign up soon. We’re going to try to have a lot of fun with this so even though we won’t be winning, we’re going to look good, real good!

The folks at Synergy Wetsuits were cool enough to send us a couple of their new Swimrun Wetsuits to try out and we’ve put together an overview video that you can check out on our YouTube channel. We will be doing a full review on a future Gear Talk show soon so stay tuned for that!

SWIMRUN 201: Advanced Topics in Swimrun

In this edition of Advanced topics, we dive into the concept of “Heads Up Racing.” In Swimrun, heads-up racing is super important to make sure that event participants have the best experience that they can. We get the race director's perspective from Lars Finanger on what that side of things considers when they are designing and marking the courses. We also chatted with Marcus Barton to get his perspective on heads-up racing during a Swimrun event. Add it all together and the takeaways are this: be prepared before the race, have good communication with your partner and rely on your course preparation and not on other participants, and finally, take time to reflect after the race to come up with areas of improvement for your next event.

That’s it for this edition of Advanced Topics in Swimrun. We hope that you found it useful and we would love to hear any feedback that you might have for us on topics that you’d like for us to cover and/or whether these types of episodes are helpful.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star review. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, and YouTube. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback and/or suggestions. Finally, you can support our efforts on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

Thank you for listening and see you out there!

- Chip and Chris

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 13 May 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Anna Naylor, Founder of Smoc Smoc

Welcome to episode seventy of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We’re headed back to the U.K. this week (North Wales to be exact) to chat with Anna Naylor, founder of Smoc Smoc. Don’t know what Smoc Smoc is, well you’re about to get an education!

More on this interview later in the show.

Training Update

We did our first Swimrun practice of the year on Saturday!

Went to our usual stomping grounds of Aquatic Park in San Francisco and had fun testing out the NU Orza pull buoy, Ark Sports KORP wetsuit, and Frank Paddles swim paddles in open water. (We will save our impressions for our Gear Talk show so stay tuned for that.) We did 6 runs and 4 swims with the runs increasing from 1 mile 3 and then back down with the swims staying static at around 400yds. The water was 56F (13C) so the shorter swims were just fine for our delicate bodies.

We were stoked to be back out there and it will start being a regular thing now that we are about three months away from Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay.

Shoutouts

This week we’re shouting out everyone that’s headed to Boonsboro for Swimrun Maryland happening this weekend. The start list had some pretty funny team names so bonus shoutouts to: The Her-ricanes, Team Amphibilicous, Big Otter Energy, Please Bring Me My Whine, Grumpy Squared, This Tether’s For Strangling, Buoy oh Buoy, Doing This Again!, and We Put the F in Swimrfun.

Yet another race that we would love to race but alas, we’re trying to keep our happy marriages happy and Chris will be in Texas for work.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Ben Kennedy from the U.K. Not only did he post a cool looking Swimrun workout this past week, the location was extremely British sounding. Ben ran in Druridge Bay County Park and swam in Ladyburn Lake that is located in Northumberland.

Make sure to join the LTBz Strava Club and get inspired by your fellow Swimrunners as they train all over the world.

This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

We have a couple of updates to share this week.

The race reports are flying in from Swimrun Lake James. Check out a really great one by Team Adorkable on their website.

Our friends at Swimrun Portugal recently announced that it looks like everything will be a go for Swimrun Tamega Powered by HEAD Swimming due to a turn for the better in terms of the COVID situation in the Country. The race will be happening on June 6th so head out there if you’re able to. We know we would!

Finally, we heard about a cool Swimrun event happening in Ocean City, NJ in late July to honor fallen soldiers called The Ocean City Iron Soldiers Swimrun. This event is a 1.5K ocean swim followed by a 4K beach run. There is no entry fee and all donations go directly to the charity Philadelphia Treats for Troops. Make sure to check this event out if you’re in the area.

That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Updates

Head over to our store if you’re looking for ways to show your Low Tide Pride with a hat or shirt or both when you’re going around town and at races.

Looking new or used Swimrun gear but don’t know where to go? Check out our Swimrun Swapmeet Facebook Group to buy, sell or trade Swimrun gear.

Looking for a Swimrun challenge to do in June. Then you are in luck because Envol Coaching’s “The Big Battle” is happening in June. Individuals can join teams from all over the world to do as many Swimruns as possible during the month and “battle” for top honors and prizes. In case you missed our video, we have a team in the “battle” and everyone is welcomed to join if they pass the vibe check (being super stoked on Swimrun.)

This Week’s Interview

It was great to connect with Anna from Smoc Smoc. She has a super interesting origin story and her commitment to sustainability and protecting the oceans is infectious. We chatted with her about how she came up with the idea for Smoc Smoc, why she chose to keep production in the U.K. rather than outsourcing it, the magical properties of bamboo, and why she thinks that people love her products. We also chatted about her connection with two of our favorite people Mia and Fanny from Wild Swimrun. (Don’t know why they are our favorite people? Check out Episode 10 of the podcast.) Finally, we talked about what the future holds for Smoc Smoc.

You can learn more about Smoc Smoc on their website and on Instagram.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a five-star review. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback and/or suggestions. Finally, you can support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 6 May 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Swimrun Lake James 2021 Race Recap w/Special Guests The Swaggy Zaddys

Welcome to episode sixty-nine of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We got something new for everyone. On this episode, we welcome Marcus Barton and Lee Greene of Team Swaggy Zaddys for a special guest race report from Swimrun Lake James. It was almost too much fun to chat with Marcus and Lee but somehow we managed to get through it and share a cool race report from a couple of great ambassadors for the sport.

But first...

Swimrun Lake James Is In The Books!

Swimrun season is here with Swimrun Lake James taking place over the weekend. We were definitely experiencing major FOMO and will definitely be at the starting line next year. It was really cool (and still unbelievable) to see so many people rocking Low Tide Boyz gear in photos that we saw at the pre-race packet pickup and race briefing.

We loved getting all the messages and tags from folks all weekend as well. Special shoutout to Nancy Morris (Go Team Morris!) for her really nice email to us after finishing her first Swimrun with her daughter Lydia as her teammate.

ÖTILLÖ Merit Race/Long Course Podiums:

Women's:

1st: Behme Me Up, Wheatley (Amy Wheatley and Carrie Behme)

2nd: Phylis Hold my Shower Beer (Bridget Phillips and Jennifer Devers)

3rd: Team Adorkable (Trista Mennen and Amy Bush)

Mixed:

1st: Boston Wet Sox (Brownen Price-Dierksen and Greg Dierksen)

2nd: Radkat (Juli and Matthew Davenport)

3rd: Hot Mess Express (Sarah Breaux and Johnathan Lejeune)

Mens:

1st: Keith and The Unicorn (Kanoa King and Keith Lundquist)

2nd: The Mighty Boosh (Jack McAfee and Greg Harper)

3rd: Kraken/Race Like a Viking (Lars Finanger and John Stevens)

We asked on IG for some mini-race reports and as usual our fans didn’t disappoint. Here are the greatest hits:

@Samanthafallon_: Wet and Wild!

@b.pugh941: Great race, great people (Kristen, Tony, etc.), great course. LTB 2022!

@d_sapp17: I’m apparently a grown up and wasn’t able to swing it with work…

@amybush: (she had several submissions) 1. Hilda, don’t chew your feet. 2. My parts don’t work anymore. 3. Why does the water feel warmer than the air? (Turns out it was) 4. Why is this 7 mile run 29 miles?!

@this_is_trista: The Low Tide Boyz were missed, and missed out

@onewarriorprincess: Absolutely perfect course and venue! Top notch event! Definitely racing again next yr!

@gdierksen: Fun trails; great swims; lots of transitions; fast race. And good beer to finish it out.

@bernard.waugh: Who would have thought the cold temperatures and pouring rain would be perfect?

@sarahdvick: They seem to need bigger podiums

@blakenuttall: transition transition transition transition transition transition transition transition transition

@brookesfallon: Not for wimps!

Guest Race Report Time!

It was really great to have Marcus and Lee on to break down every aspect of their race last weekend at Swimrun Lake James. We chatted about how they met, what their training looked like, what gear they decided to go with, and of course, how their race went. The conversation was really funny at times and super serious at others. In short, listeners will get a great feel for the race and understand why Swimrun Lake James is on our bucket list.

You can follow Marcus and Lee’s adventures on Instagram and on Speedylizard.com.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 29 Apr 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Frank Paddle Carbon Fiber Swimrun Paddle Review

Welcome to Gear Talk! As always, this show is co-hosted by our friends Annie and Brooke from Swimrun Labs.

In this installment of Gear Talk, we review one of the hottest new pieces of Swimrun Tech on the market: Frank Paddle’s carbon fiber swim paddles. The founder of Frank Paddle, Fredrik Bengtsson, was cool enough to send us a medium and a large pair of paddles to check out and--spoiler alert--we’re super stoked on them. You can learn more about Fredrik and Frank Paddle on Episode 50 of the podcast.

But first, we have an untethered thought submission by our friend (and previous guest on the podcast way back in Episode 18) Marcus Barton blew our collective minds.

New Gear First Impressions

We have a couple of new items to discuss this week.

Swimrun superstar Trista Mennen mailed Brooke her KORP suit that is a size small for her to check it out. We’ll report back.

Chipper tried LMNT hydration after hearing that friend of the show, Adam Skolnick, had tried it during his recent feat of endurance. LMNT has some pretty cool flavors and Chipper has been digging it.

Will Watt from Above Below recently sent us one of their super popular RuckRafts to test for the show. We are super stoked to check it out in open water soon. The RuckRaft is an inflatable raft that comes with a built in dry bag to tow pretty much anything across the water. This thing looks perfect for a true Swimrun adventure. Stay tuned for a full review of the RuckRaft coming soon.

Untethered Thoughts

Marcus reached out to us in response to our last Gear Talk show where we reviewed the Ark Sports KORP wetsuit. He mentioned his thoughts on what the back zipper pocket was for after hearing us go on and on about how we thought the placement was weird. Essentially, the zipper is for your partner to easily access, not yourself. You carry your partner’s nutrition or what have you and they carry yours. Not only does this make a ton of sense, it’s also totally in the spirit of the partner aspect of Swimrun. We then go philosophical for a bit...

We collectively loved Marcus’s reasoning so thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. You can learn more from Marcus on his website.

Tethered Thoughts

We wanted to remind everyone of the new Swimrun Swap Meet forum on FB. This is a forum for people that are looking for Swimrun gear to buy, sell or trade. So if anyone got one of the KORP suits on faith but the sizing didn’t work out, we have a place for you to try to trade it. Join the Swimrun Swap Meet today!

Frank Paddle Gear Review

These paddles are the original carbon fiber swim paddles. Fredrik’s story is a great one and it’s hard not to root for Frank Paddle as a company. These paddles are essentially made by hand and a lot of thought and experimenting went into creating these. You can check out Episode 50 to get the whole story.

We were sent the following size paddles:

M: length: 21.5cm, width: 19cm

L: length: 23.5cm, width: 20.5cm

Since we only had one set of each, Chris sent his Large paddles to Brooke to test and Chipper sent his Medium paddles to Annie.

So they look cool, they are super light and really stiff. Now, do they work?

Swimming Impressions

Frank Paddle is something completely different. They feel super light and it was a different swimming experience due to the stiffness of them and how much water was being moved. The only way to get to how they perform was to test them.

Brooke tested the paddles (with the caveat that the Frank Paddles are larger than the ones that she normally uses) and was about 2 seconds faster per 100yd even though her stroke rate went down noticeably. Over a longer distance, she did two 1-mile (1,650yd) swims, one with her normal synergy paddles and one with the Frank Paddles. In that test the Frank Paddles were almost 2 minutes faster than the regular paddles. Shoulder fatigue was enhanced using the Frank Paddles. Brooke wasn’t a fan of the paracord attachment.

Chris saw similar speed improvements to Brooke, albeit less scientific. The feel of the water was very different and every stroke felt very powerful due to the combination of stiffness and lack of holes.

“It moves water with aplomb” was the way that Annie (and her friend Caleb) would describe it. While she wasn’t used to using paddles as large as she tested, she saw 4 seconds per 100yd improvement but less so over longer sets due to shoulder fatigue. Annie’s friend Caleb, a born and bred open water swimmer, was cool enough to try the paddles out. He thought that the paddles resulted in one of his faster swims on an open water route that he swims often. He did say that he lost the feel of the water because the paddles were so effective at moving water.

Chipper felt that the paddles were super light and was wondering if he would get used to it after using them for a while. He also liked the hole pattern of the paddles and the paracord attachment.

Transition/Running Impressions

We were all really concerned about durability but Fredrik assured us that they can take a pounding. Sharp pointy things are the enemy of course, but other than that these paddles are designed to handle the rigors of swimrun.

We also all agreed that these paddles shouldn’t be an issue on run legs other than the fear of losing them because they are so light or the unsubstantiated fear that they will break if you fall.

Other than the paracord straps that are more of a personal preference, the setup for transitions and Swimrun in general are a non-issue.

Pull Buoy Rankings Rankings

Chipper 4 Pull Buoys

Chipper felt that this paddle wouldn’t be an everyday paddle but they are awesome. They will make you faster (whether placebo effect or not) and are the hottest rage in Swimrun. He will be racing in them.

Annie 4 Pull Buoys

Annie thinks that there is no denying the tech in the paddles that even made her faster. She docked points for the price point being so high. She would rate her Synergy paddles a 3.5-4 pull buoys and those are $8. If she was trained up for them, she would use the Frank Paddles.

Chris 4.5 Pull Buoys

Chris would give Frank Paddles 5 pull buoys but for the cost. He thinks that these paddles are a total game-changer if you’re trained up for them and looking for extra speed in the water. He’s a big fan and is a total convert.

Brooke 4 Pull Buoys

Brooke thinks that if she was able to try a smaller paddle that she would have awarded them 4.5 pull buoys. She thought that they were awesome but she wasn’t a fan of the strapping and the price point. They are the nicest paddles that she’s ever swimming with and thought that they are the real deal.

Overall Impressions

We all thought that these are the real deal and a total game-changer for swim paddles. If you have the funds and/or desire definitely check out Frank Paddles. They are an amazing piece of tech. Period.

If you want to learn more about swim paddles in general, check out our Gear Talk episode all about Swim Paddles with special guest John Stevens.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 27 Apr 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Vinicius Vecchiatti and Sarah King of Söuthsea Swimrun

Welcome to episode sixty-eight of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show, we’re taking another trip across the pond to Southern England to chat with Vinicius Vecchiatti and Sarah King of Söuthsea Swimrun. It was great to hear about how they are sharing their love for Swimrun and building community in Portsmouth, England.

More on this interview later in the show.

It’s Race Week!

Swimrun season in the U.S. is officially kicking off this weekend at Swimrun Lake James in North Carolina. Best of luck to everyone racing either the short or long courses and remember to thank all the volunteers out there.

Shoutouts

This week we are shouting out our newest Patron on Patreon, Ryan Smith. Thank you so much for the support to help us keep the “lights on” and keep pumping out good content for everyone.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is last week’s honorable mention, Mike McMillian. He’s been crushing it in the gym and everywhere else apparently with a cool “Swim the Bridge - Double Crossing” workout that looked pretty awesome.

Make sure to join the LTBz Strava Club and get inspired by your fellow Swimrunners as they train all over the world.

This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

We have a couple of updates to share this week.

As we mentioned earlier, Swimrun season officially kicks off in the U.S. with Swimrun Lake James this weekend. This event is an ÖTILLÖ Merit Race (which means that Long Course teams will earn points towards qualifying for entry into the World Championship selection lottery.) Check out our recent podcast episode with Race Director Kristen Jeno if you want to learn more about the history of this race and get a mini-course preview.

Speaking of Lake James, Wild Swimrun ambassador and our friend Trista Mennen is hosting a meet-and-greet on Friday, April 23 at 4 pm at Fonta Flora during packet pickup for Lake James for anyone who wants to learn more about Wild Swimrun. If you don’t know about Wild Swimrun (then you need to listen to more of our podcast episodes) they are a group of women who support women athletes to discover the sport of Swimrun. If you are a female, support a female, or just generally interested in what we do, come to say hi.

For our German listeners, Swimrun Rheinsberg recently opened registration for their June 20th event. This race looks like it has it all: a kids race and super sprint, sprint, and long course distances. Get all the details on their website. This race is also part of the Deutschland Swimrun Cup consisting of ten races across Germany taking place throughout the year. Some of their urban Swimruns look--in a word--DOPE!

In other event news, Envol Coaching announced their new “The Big Battle” virtual event this week. Individuals can join teams from all over the world to do as many Swimruns as possible in the month of June and “battle” for top honors and prizes. The registration fee is $13. You can find all the rules on the Envol Website. If you want to take part, feel free to join Team LTBz when you register. Teams are capped at 30 members so join us before we hit our cap.

That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Updates

We have some upcoming programming alerts for everyone. We have some cool shows coming up in the next few weeks including a special guest race report from Swimrun Lake James, our full review of Frank Paddle’s carbon fiber swim paddles, the next installment in our “Advanced Topics in Swimrun” series, and other cool stuff.

Stay tuned for all of that!

This Week’s Interview

It was a blast chatting with Sarah and Vini from Söuthsea Swimrun. We always love learning about people that are super stoked on Swimrun since they are our people. We especially love when they are doing their part to build community in their locales to share their love for the sport and encourage others to try it.

We chatted with Sarah and Vini about how they discovered Swimrun and their journey to start the Söuthsea Swimrun club. We talked about how they handled COVID restrictions and managed to have safe weekly Swimrun practices all year. We also chatted about what they think the future holds for their club and for Swimrun in the U.K.

You can learn more about Söuthsea Swimrun on their website and follow them on Instagram.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 22 Apr 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Aaron Palaian

Welcome to episode sixty-seven of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

On the show this week we have the one and only Aaron Palaian from Ödyssey Swimrun. He has a super interesting back story and we discuss everything from his roots in endurance sports to Orcas and Bears in Alaska to driving cross country flying the Swimrun flag and so much more.

More on this interview later in the show.

Training Update

Training continues as usual and we’re definitely getting the itch to start Swimrunning again.

Shoutouts

We are shouting out the Country of Taiwan this week. They recently climbed into the top ten for downloads by country and we loved seeing that! It still blows our minds the people listen to our show from all over the world and we’re full of gratitude for letting us into your ears.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is our friend Sarah Fergot. We’re pretty sure that she’s won this award before but her Marin High 5 Unsupported (solo) 50 mile FKT with 12,103ft (3,689m) of climbing over the weekend is pretty much an automatic award. She’s awesome and this feat is definitely amazing!

Make sure to join the LTBz Strava Club and get inspired by your fellow Swimrunners as they train all over the world.

This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

We have a couple of updates to share this week.

Torpedo Swimrun held their Cape race over the weekend in Cape Town, South Africa. The course looked epic as it hugged the coastline and had a beach finish. We’re working on getting the folks from Torpedo on the podcast to talk about the growing Swimrun scene in South Africa so stay tuned for that.

ÖTILLÖ announced this week that they are moving the date of ÖTILLÖ SWIMRUN UTÖ to June 19-20 from the original date due to uncertainty around Swedish restrictions around hosting events. ÖTILLÖ also announced that they have opened registration for Isles of Scilly 2022 and encourage participants to book their accommodations early since there are a limited number of beds there and they are booked up to a year in advance.

In the weekly bummer department, Swimrun Costa Brava by HEAD announced last Friday that they had to cancel their event that was slated to take place on April 17th due to COVID restrictions put in place by the Catalonian government. No rescheduled date has been announced.

That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Updates

A huge thanks to everyone that attended our Encore Premiere of All the Way: The Making of Swimrun Champions with special quests Carl Eneroth, George Bjälkemo, and Pontus Lindberg over the weekend. If you missed the Premiere, the film is available for rent or purchase at alltheway.se and all the proceeds go towards The Archipelago Foundation that helps preserve the Stockholm Archipelago that birthed the sport of Swimrun.

This Week’s Interview

It was really fun to have Aaron Palaian on the show. He’s the final person for us to interview from the Ödyssey Swimrun crew. He’s the COO/jack of all trades with a ton of experience in race directing, photography, marketing, and web design. He shared his super interesting origin story and how he found Swimrun. We covered everything from him getting into endurance sports to “impress the ladies,” how he became a uber-successful triathlon race director, how he created some epic Ultra Triathlons like Alaskaman, and how Lars moved to Texas and started to win all of Aaron’s races. We also chatted about the two new races on the Ödyssey race calendar: Luddington and Mackinac Island. Finally, we went into how Ödyssey is working to make Swimrun accessible for everyone that wants to try it.

There’s a lot of good stuff in this interview! You can learn more about Aaron on his website and follow him on Facebook and Instagram.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 15 Apr 2021 07:00:00 +0000

George Bjälkemo and Pontus Lindberg

Welcome to episode sixty-six of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We’re super stoked to have George Bjälkemo and Pontus Lindberg back on the show this week to chat about the film All the Way: The Making of Swimrun Champions. We think G & P are great and it was fun to connect with them.

More on this interview later in the show.

But before we get too far into this episode, this seems like a good time to announce that our first event of our “media company” LTBz Productions, is happening on Sunday, April 11th at 3:00PM EST. We will be hosting an Encore Premiere of All the Way for the U.S. audience that missed the Premiere a few weeks ago. Special guests G & P will be on after the film for a Q&A with the audience. Head over to lowtideboyz.com/alltheway for all the details.

Training Update

Training continues and we’ve been seeing a lot of improvement thanks to the swim coaching we’ve been getting from Tower26. If anyone is looking to give their swim training a jolt of energy, we definitely recommend their program. Swimrun practices are on the horizon and we’ll be heading back to Lake Sonoma for the first (of hopefully many) Swimrun adventures there. If you want to hear more about Tower26 check our episodes with Gerry Rodrigues, Founder of Tower 26, and Emma-Kate Lidbury and AMA style interview with Tower 26 coaches Megan Melgaard and Jim Lubinsk

Shoutouts

We have a shoutout-heavy episode this week so let’s get right to it.

First, a big shoutout to Helene for her generous donation to our fundraiser for Wild Swimrun’s Wild Youth Initiative. If you heard last week’s episode then you know that we’ve raised enough funds for a second woman or girl to attend one of their amazing camps but we’re not satisfied with that. With Helene’s help, we’ve got a jump start on getting a third scholarship funded. You can donate to Wild Swimrun at lowtideboyz.com.

Next up, we have a combo shoutout for a great training crew from North Carolina. A group of eight of them are doing their first Swimrun at Lake James in a few weeks. (They were supposed to do the race last year to celebrate Chris’s 60th birthday, but COVID.) So best of luck Chris (and Happy 61st Birthday), Bob, Al, Bobby, Ryan, Kristen, Brian, and Bernard. Thanks for listening to the show and prepare to have an awesome time at Lake James!

Finally, we wanted to give an extra special shoutout to Trista Mennen. She was recently selected to be a Wild Swimrun Ambassador and we can’t think of a better person to represent the inclusive spirit of Swimrun and the mission of Wild Swimrun to get more women and girls into the sport. Her enthusiasm is infectious and she’s personally gotten a small army of people to get super stoked on Swimrun. Thank you for everything that you’ve done and will do for the sport.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is none other than Chipper’s brother, Michael. Chipper has been working on getting him super stoked on Swimrun and it’s working! Keep it up “Little Chipper!”

Bonus awards this week go to Bronwen and Greg from Team Boston Wet Sox for posting workouts while on their recent vacation to Puerto Rico. They ran in Chris’s hometown and swam in the ancestral waters (Ocean Park) where he learned to swim.

Make sure to join the LTBz Strava Club and get inspired by your fellow Swimrunners as they train all over the world.

This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

We have a couple of updates to share this week.

ÖTILLÖ announced that all of their 2021 events are open for registration on raceid.com. We are already registered for Catalina so come join us. If you need more incentive than just hanging out with us in the back of the field...early bird registration is happening until April 13th so sign up early to save money.

Ladies, save the dates of May 15-16 for the next Wild Swimrun camp called Wild Day at Utö. Pretty sure everyone can figure out where the camp is being held. There’s more info on that coming soon so sign up for the Wild Swimrun newsletter to be the first to hear all the details.

The next registration price increases for Ödyssey Swimrun events Mackinac Island, Swimrun Ludington, and Swimrun Austin are happening on April 14th at midnight so make sure to sign up soon if you want to race AND save some money. Our sources (the Internet) tell us that Mackinac Island is already 50% sold out so let the FOMO take over and sign up soon!

That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Updates

Our latest episode of Gear Talk with The Swimrun Labs is out. We do a full review of the Ark Sports KORP Wetsuit so check it out wherever you’re already listening to podcasts and stuff.

Speaking of gear, we were sitting in the idea lab (Chipper’s garage) and came up with something to help everyone buy, sell, or swag new and used gear. Check out our Swimrun Swapmeet Facebook Group and help find your used gear a new loving home.

Finally, mark your calendars to join us on Sunday, April 11th at 3:00 PM EST for an Encore Premiere of All the Way: The Making of Swimrun Champions for the U.S. audience that missed the World Premiere a few weeks ago. We will have a live Q&A with George and Pontus after the film. Head over to lowtideboyz.com/alltheway for all the details.

This Week’s Interview

We were super stoked to have George and Pontus back on the show to chat about the film All the Way. We discussed a lot of scenes from the film and dove deeper into their training for the World Championship, their positive attitude, and their relationship as friends and partners. We’ve said this before, but they are great ambassadors for Swimrun and they are really easy to root for.

You can follow G and P on Instagram here and here and their Kraken Swimrun training and fika (coffee) crew here.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 8 Apr 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Ark Sports Korp Swimrun Wetsuit Review

Ark Sports KORP Wetsuit Review

Welcome to Gear Talk! As always, this show is co-hosted by our friends Annie and Brooke from Swimrun Labs.

In this episode we do a deep dive into the Ark Sports KORP Wetsuit. This suit has gotten a lot of attention lately due to Ark deeply discounting the suit by 50% for a week that caused the corner of the internet that cares about Swimrun to freak out. We know that a lot of people purchased these suits so we breakdown all of our thoughts on this amazing piece of kit.

But first, we are unveiling a new segment...

Untethered Thoughts

We got a great email from Jasper from Belgium with some feedback about our winter open water swimming AND our swim paddles episodes. We really appreciated him taking the time to write to us and that inspired us to create this segment.

Jasper (who has a PhD in physiology) wrote to us to clear up that the reason that people tend to pee more when it’s cold is that kidneys are flushing fluid out in order to release pressure from your system to send blood to your core to keep your organs warm. Hence, you can get more dehydrated in cold water so make sure that you’re on top of your hydration all the time, but definitely during cold events.

Jasper also had some feedback on some swim paddle testing that he did and had some interesting findings. He found that if he shortened the distance from the tip of the swim paddle to the tip of his fingers that this made his swim times be faster with less shoulder strain. It totally makes sense that if you shorten the lever arm (length of the arm with paddles) that this reduces the torque on the shoulder. If your paddles have extra holes for straps, try to moving them so that your fingertips are closer to the edge of the paddles and see if that works for you.

Thank you again Jasper!

Reach out to us if you have anything that you’d like to share with us to be part of this new segment.

New Gear First Impressions

We have two items to discuss this week.

Chipper and Chris got the NU Orza Pull Buoy courtesy of The Swimrun Labs. This pull buoy is comparable in size with the new Ark Sport Keel s and comes with a pre-drilled hole and a yellow paracord for mounting. We’re excited to check it out and do a full review on a future episode.

Chipper and Chris also got a special delivery from Frank Paddle a few weeks back with two sets of carbon fiber swim paddles to test. Their first impressions are that these things are incredible! A full review will be coming out soon. If you want to learn more about these paddles in the meantime, check out episode 50 of the podcast with Frank Paddle’s founder, Fredrik Bengtsson.

Finally, Annie was recently contacted by a couple of companies that are designing Swimrun-specific undergarments for women. Handful (that’s the name of the company) sent over some prototypes for the ladies to test and Innovenia reached out for some customer feedback. Here is the survey link for the Innovenia research.

Announcements

Chipper and Chris were in the garage where most of the show ideas seem to be born and they came up with the idea to create a “Swimrun Swapmeet” on FB. This is a forum for people that are looking for Swimrun gear to buy, sell or trade. So if anyone got one of the KORP suits on faith but the sizing didn’t work out, we have a place for you to try to trade it. Join the Swimru Swap Meet today!

The Wetsuit Details from Ark Sports

Ark Sports describes the KORP as “the optimal all-round” wetsuit. Their website states that “the suit is designed to cover the whole spectra of swimrun races, from shorter sprints to longer full-day adventures. This suit is designed for the athlete who prefers a lightweight and flexible suit where comfort is key.”

The KORP is Ark’s entry-level option but the suit is packed with tech. The suit has the following features:

Premium Yamamoto LIMESTONE neoprene
Low weight
Scratch-resistant surface
Running+
Master buoyancy belt - 3 mm
Anti-leak neck
UltraFlex inner liner
Back pocket with zipper closure
Separate arm sleeves included

A medium-size suit weighs in at a ridiculously light 550 grams (19.4 ounces).

Running Impressions

Running in the KORP is a dream! This “Gen2” wetsuit (a wetsuit little to no neoprene below the waist) like the rest of the Ark Sports suits designed by Daniel Sand, is optimized for running. You can learn more about Daniel on episode 53 of the podcast. The bottom of the suit uses Ark’s Running + fabric that is great to run in and comparable to the Running ++ fabric that Ark uses on the UTÖ and the VIGG. The neoprene on the top of the suit is thin and comfortable to run in.

Chipper and Chris took the KORP on a hilly trail run. Cabbing up and down was not a problem at all. Chris thought that the neckline wasn’t as comfortable as the VIGG suit.

Swimming Impressions

Chris and Chipper tested a suit in the pool. They both thought that the suit was comfortable to swim in. There was some water that got in through the neck closure and pooled in the lower back but that might be mitigated by making sure that the neckline is sealed right. More testing is required.

Brooke tested the suit in open water and did have an issue with the neck seal and had some water pool in her lower back while swimming. She didn’t have any discomfort with the neck closure that Chris and Chipper experienced.

This suit felt a little more durable than other Ark Suits that we’ve tested. (Check out our review of the Ark Sports ORNÖ)

Transition Impressions

The KORP cabs down and up easily and transitions shouldn’t be an issue with this suit. We did have some questions about the placement of the zipper on the back pocket. We thought that it could have been better to either move the zipper to one side or the other or stick to the flap pockets that other Ark suits employ.

Pull Buoy Rankings Rankings

Brooke 4 Pull Buoys

Brooke thought that there is some room for improvement with the suit. She plans on racing in the suit this year. She knocked off some points for the neckline seal issues and for Ark’s “no returns” policy.

Chipper 4.5 Pull Buoys

Chipper thought that for the price point, this suit is good for everyone from beginners to advanced. The suit is durable, comes with separate arm sleeves, and versatile enough to be used in most races.

Chris 4 Pull Buoys

Chris gave the KORP 4 pull buoys but wants to give it 4.5 buoys if he can solve the neckline discomfort. Overall, this is an amazing suit that checks off a lot of boxes. He plans on training in it and maybe racing in it depending on the event.

Overall Impressions

If you’re looking for an entry-level wetsuit to use in a variety of training and racing conditions then look no further than the Ark Sport KORP. This suit packs in a lot of tech for the price point and won’t be obsolete anytime soon.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 6 Apr 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Kristen Jeno of Swimrun Lake James

Welcome to episode sixty-five of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

In this episode, we chat with the race director of Swimrun Lake James, Kristen Jeno. This year’s race is coming up on April 24th and we have the origin story and a mini-course preview for everyone to listen to.

More on this interview later in the show.

Shoutouts

We have a major shoutout this week to our friends G Flo and Tobias of Team Max Mockermann (and guest on Episode 57 of the Podcast) for sending us a custom LTBz blanket for Christmas. It took over three months for the blanket to arrive from Germany but we were super stoked to receive it and we’re full of gratitude for them making the effort.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s award(s) go to Stirling and Lolo of Team Run for Tacos. They held a fundraising event a few weekends ago on Strava and have a Swimrun in their sights for 2021. Keep up the great work guys!

Don’t know what we’re talking about? Join us on Strava and cheer on your fellow Swimrunners as they train all over the world and win free stickers and other cool stuff.

This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

We have a couple of updates to share this week.

It looks like Swimrunning events in Portugal are back! Swimrun Portugal (check out our interview with race director Bruno Safara on Episode 35 of the podcast) recently announced that the Tamega Swimrun powered by Head Swimming is happening. The race is scheduled for June 6th and offers two distance options. Registration is open on raceid.com.

In more of a bummer, the Anjou Swimrun in Angers France announced that they are postponing their 2021 event to 2022. They will be emailing all registered participants with their defer and refund options.

The premiere for the film All the Way:The Making of Swimrun Champions was a resounding success last week. Anyone interested in seeing the film has until April 5 to be able to watch it for free at alltheway.se. In related news, we are working on hosting an encore premiere for U.S. swimrunners. We’ll be sharing news about that as soon as we have the date and special guests confirmed.

That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Updates

We have a major update to share! With the help of some generous donations (looking at you Trista and Lori), we’ve managed to raise enough funds to sponsor a second young woman to attend a Wild Swimrun camp as part of their Wild Youth Initiative. We love everything that Wild Swimrun is about and we’re so happy to play a very small part in helping introduce the sport to more women. If you want to learn more about Wild Swimrun, check out our interview with Co-founders Mia and Fanny on Episode 10 of the podcast.

The new LTBz hats are here and all the pre-orders have been mailed out! Head over to our store to order one if you’re feeling some FOMO. Use code “NEWLID” to save $10 off any order of $50 or more!

This Week’s Interview

This week’s interview checks off a lot of boxes. We got to chat with a trailblazing race director, learned about the history of Swimrun Lake James, and got a mini-course preview before the sold-out April 24th race.

It was great to connect with Kristen Jeno to chat with her about all these topics before the kickoff of the 2021 U.S. Swimrun race calendar. In this interview, we discussed her athletic background and her discovery of Swimrun. (BTW, her first race was the World Championship!) We chatted about her race director background and how she developed her concept to host a Swimrun in Lake James, North Carolina. We got a bird’s eye view of this year’s racecourse from and discussed what the future holds for Swimrunning.

You can learn more about Swimrun Lake James on their website.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 1 Apr 2021 07:00:00 +0000

All the Way Film Review

Welcome to episode sixty-four of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

Welcome to the inaugural LTBz Go To the Movies episode where we review the film All the Way: The Making of Swimrun Champions. This film chronicles the journey of George Bjälkemo and Pontus Lindberg as they prepare for the ÖTILLÖ World Championship. But this film is so much more than that, it’s really a window into the sport of Swimrun and why it’s awesome.

It tells the story of Swimrun in a way that can appeal to everyone. The film’s director, Carl Eneroth, shares his discovery and journey in Swimrun and uses his perspective to uncover the magic of the sport and, specifically, the World Championship. The film premiered on March 24th.

We were lucky enough to get access to an early version of the film and were blown away by how great it was. George and Pontus were worthy subjects for the film and their humility and commitment to each other showcases some of the best aspects of the sport of Swimrun. The other main character in the film, the Stockholm Archipelago where the sport was born 15 years ago, is both mysterious and enticing for anyone who is predisposed to Swimrun. With the help of ÖTILLÖ, Carl was able to infuse the film with amazing race footage produced by Rasmus Lodenius (learn more about Rasmus on Episode 39 of the podcast) that leaves the audience with a great sense of the magic of the sport.

All in all, we both thought that the film was a great way to showcase the sport Swimrun and George and Pontus are easy heroes to care and root for. We recommend this film to everyone who might be interested in Swimrun and if you’ve already drank the kool-aid on the sport this film is sure to keep that flame burning bright.

You can learn more about the film at alltheway.se and rent it through that page. All proceeds from rentals and purchases will go to Skärgårdsstiftelsen (The Archipelago Foundation) that has been working since 1959 to preserve and develop the archipelago from Arholma to Landsort.

We have been lucky enough to interview many of the swimrunners in All the Way. Here are a list and corresponding episode number if you want to dive in deeper!

Mats Skott, Otillo | Episode 16

Erica Rosebaum | Episdoe 22

Daniel Hanson (in Engadin Course Preview) | Episode 24

Kraken Ultra Swimrun w/ George & Pontus | Episode 36

Rasmus Lodenius | Episode 39

Annika Erickson | Episode 55

Carl Eneroth, Director All the Way | Episode 62

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Ty Dowks of Burleigh Swim Run

Welcome to episode sixty-three of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

In this episode, we head to the Gold Coast of Australia to chat with Ty Dowks from Burleigh Swim Run. It was great to interview Ty about his event and celebrate the 11th edition that took place earlier this year.

More on this interview later in the show.

Shoutouts

This week we have not one, but two shoutouts! First, we’d like to shout out Jasper Dewit for sending us a new entry to our International Swimrun Adventure Guide all the way from Belgium. We really appreciate your help in growing our guide!

We’d also like to shout out Lori Lussier for making a donation to our WILD Youth Initiative fundraiser for Wild Swimrun, our guest on episode 10. On that note, we are getting close to raising enough money to fund a second scholarship for a young woman to attend one of their amazing camps as part of the WILD Youth Initiative so head over to our website to donate.

Training Update

Unstructured training continues except for in the pool where we the great minds at Tower26 are helping us be less bad in the water. We’re still waiting for events to resume in California but until then you can find us doing random stuff.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s prestigious award goes to Rick Mann from Florida. He’s been posting up some cool workouts while on vacation in Chris’s homeland of Puerto Rico so that pretty much triggers an automatic award!

Make sure to join us on Strava and cheer on your fellow Swimrunners as they train all over the world.

This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

We have a couple of updates to share this week.

The 4th edition of Swimrun Uruguay happened over the weekend. The weather looked amazing and while the Instagram photos weren’t as plentiful as we would have liked, we experienced FOMO just the same.

The Holy Island Swimrun put on by the good folks at Love Swimrun is happening on September 11th in North Wales. New for 2021: they’ve extended their full course to 23km and added a new 10km sprint course. Best of all, registration is open now!

Registration for the 5th edition of Swimrun Cote D’Azur is open taking place on October 24th. Located near Nice France, this race has three distances and looks really fun! Make sure to listen to our episode with the Swimrun Mermaids if you want to learn more about this jewel of a location for Swimrunning.

Unless you were living under a rock...where you didn’t have WIFI, you probably took advantage of the 50% off sale last week for the entry-level/yet still pretty advanced Ark Sports Korp wetsuit. We will be sharing a full review on Gear Talk soon so keep a lookout for that. (Spoiler alert: it’s a great suit!)

That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Updates

Our latest episode of Gear Talk with The Swimrun Labs is out now! We reviewed the new Ark Sports Keel+ so check that out if you’re in the market for a mondo pull buoy or just want to hear Chipper try to say “Lasso” correctly.

The new LTBz hats are here! Head over to our store to order one or three. Use code “NEWLID” to save $10 of an order of $50 or more!

The world premiere of All the Way: The Making of Swimrun Champions is taking place next week on March 24th at 8PM CET (11AM Pacific.) We encourage everyone to sign up on the film’s website to watch for free. Check it out and let us know what you think.

On a related note, we have a programming alert for next week. We will be sharing a new show format where we will be giving our official long-form review of the All the Way film.

This Week’s Interview

Full disclosure: when we reached out to Ty about being on the show, we weren’t sure what exactly we were getting into. We had heard about his Burleigh Swim Run race and checked out the Instagram page but as soon as we got on the phone with him, we were super stoked that we did. Following the long and storied tradition of the Australian Nutri-Grain IronMan and IronWoman series where athletes engage in a variety of feats of endurance, Ty created an event for the entire community to Swim and then Run. While not your typical Swimrun in the European-style, Burleigh Swim Run has all the fun and community feels that you’d find any Swimrun finish line around the world.

In this interview, we chatted with Ty about how he got into the Swim Run space and how he came up with the idea for the Burleigh Swim Run. We spoke about how the event has grown over the 11 years that he’s put it on and what the future holds. The fact that we recorded this interview while he was coaching a bunch of kids at an open water swim meet pretty much tells you all you need to know about Ty’s passion.

You can learn more about the Burleigh Swim Run on their website and check them out on Instagram.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 18 Mar 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Ark Sports Keel + Pull Buoy Review

Welcome to Gear Talk: The Löw Tide Böyz and Swimrun Labs swimrun gear review show!

In this episode we discuss one of our favorite topics: Pull Buoys. We do a deep dive into the new Ark Sports Keel + and break it all down.

Before we get into that, we have some gear updates.

Gear Updates

Annie dusted the cobwebs off of her old Finis Swim Snorkel and has started using it in the pool again to mixed results. Speaking about swim snorkels...Chris ended up copying Chipper and got the Aqua Sphere/Michael Phelps Focus Swim Snorkel and thinks that it is a vast improvement from his old Finis one but is still getting used to it.

Brooke is 100% sold on the NRS Maxim gloves. She used them in open water in the ocean for the first time and they were amazing. She has since ordered the NRS Booties to complete her cold open water situation.

Chipper is still in love with his Red Original Dry Robe and hasn’t been stopped by the neighborhood watch yet so all’s good there.

Keel + Pull Buoy Review

The Keel + is the largest pull buoy available from Ark Sports. With the following dimensions: Length 28 cm, Height 31 cm, and Width 12 cm. For reference, ÖTILLÖ has limit on the maximum pull buoy size of Length 30 cm, Height 32 cm, and Width 15 cm. We think that Ark Sports didn’t take it to the limit because it didn’t need to. The Keel + is super buoyant at 55 Newtons and any more might just be too much.

Swimming Impressions

Annie and Brooke did some scientific testing in the pool comparing the Keel to the Keel +. For Brooke, the Keel + was 2 seconds per hundred faster than the regular Keel. She also thought that the pull buoy was a bit “too much” in terms of buoyancy. She also felt that the Keel + was a bit too long and she couldn’t keep it nice and snug between her legs. Annie was disappointed in her swim test. She tested the NU ORZA, Swimrunner’s Piraya, and the Keel pull buoys and was fully expecting that the Keel + would make her faster but instead she was about 2 seconds per hundred slower than with the regular Keel. She felt that the Keel + was too big and challenging to wield. It felt thick between the thighs and it went below the joint line of her knees and couldn’t get comfortable with it.

Chris and Chipper also tried to do “science.” For Chris, the Keel + was definitely faster in the water than the normal Keel. He felt that the fit was a bit tough because the pull buoy felt fine in the groin but it was hard to keep between the legs towards the knees and it felt like it was popping out a bit. Chipper tested the Keel + just using the buoy with no paddles and felt that it was faster in the pool and in open water. He thought it was too big for the pool.

Chipper and Chris did use the Keel + in training and raced with it in Ödyssey Swimrun Austin and it was a non-issue in the water.

Transition and Running Impressions

Brooke practiced transitioning with the Keel + and found that tucking it into the loop was only possible by using Chris’s method of tucking the buoy in the front and then moving it to the back. Chipper also had to use Chris’s method for the Keel +. Everyone thought that a thigh mount pull buoy method might be tough to pull off. There’s just a lot of pull buoy that will stick out while on the run.

Speaking of the run, Chipper and Chris practiced with the Keel + before Swimrun Austin and felt that it was fine. The Keel + wasn’t so wide that elbows would hit the thing during a normal stride but it did take up the whole back.

Pull Buoy Rankings

(By way of reminder from our Ark Sports Keel review Gear Talk Episode: Annie, Chipper, and Chris gave the Keel 4.5 pull buoys each and Brooke gave it 4 pull buoys.)

Chris’s Pull Buoy Ranking

Chris gave the Keel + 4.5 pull buoys. The Keel + has a very specific application and it works really well if you’re tall enough and strong enough to wield it. He docked it .5 for the lack of universal applicability. He plans on continuing to race with the Keel +.

Brooke’s Pull Buoy Ranking

Brooke gave it 4 pull buoys. She docked some points for it being over-designed and she didn’t feel that the Keel + gave a distinct advantage but it is a great option for people that come in different shapes and sizes.

Chipper’s Pull Buoy Ranking

Chipper gave it 4 pull buoys. He docked some points because the Keel + didn’t have universal applicability and not something that you could use for all aspects of Swimrun training and racing like one could with the Keel.

Annie’s Pull Buoy Ranking

Annie gave the Keel + 3 pull buoys. She felt that it was over-designed and sort of sets up an arms race of having multiple pieces of gear. She also felt that this wasn’t the only pull buoy that you have in your quiver.

Overall Impressions

We all felt that the Keel + isn’t for everyone. It’s a great piece of tech for those who feel that they can wield it but it might pose a challenge for shorter athletes or those that don’t want to be engaging their adductor muscles for an entire Swimrun. It’s a great option to have but we would recommend that if you’re just going to have one mondo pull buoy, that one the size of the regular Keel is way more versatile.

That’s it for this week’s Gear Talk show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions, and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 16 Mar 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Carl Eneroth, Director | All The Way: The Making of a Swimrun Champion

Welcome to episode sixty-two of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We know that we always say that we’re always super stoked about our guests but it’s just true. This week is no exception. On the show this week we have Carl Eneroth, the filmmaker behind the forthcoming documentary All the Way: The Making of Swimrun Champions. This film chronicles the journey of George Bjälkemo and Pontus Lindberg as they prepare for the ÖTILLÖ World Championship. But this film is so much more than that, it’s really a window into the sport of Swimrun and why it’s awesome.

The free online premiere of the film is scheduled for March 24th and we highly, highly encourage anyone who loves Swimrun to check it out. We also encourage anyone who loves someone who loves Swimrun to check it out as well.

More on this interview later in the show.

Shoutouts/Feats of Endurance

This week we’re doing a combo shoutout and awarding our friend, and the previous guest of the show way back on episode twenty-eight, Adam Skolnick. He completed David Goggins’s 4x4x48 over the weekend and did great! As big proponents of “unnecessary” feats of endurance, Adam really stepped out of his comfort zone, put himself out there, and got it done. Strong work brother!

We had a few other folks in our Strava club take on the challenge so congrats to Ben and Tony and anyone else that we might have missed.

Make sure to join us on Strava and cheer on your fellow Swimrunners as they train all over the world.

This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

We have a couple of updates to share this week.

ÖTILLÖ Swimrun announced some changes to their 2021 race schedule due to the ever-changing COVID situation. ÖTILLÖ Malta has been postponed to November 2021 and unfortunately, ÖTILLÖ Isles of Scilly has been postponed to 2022.

The third edition of Swimrun del Bilancino is taking place on June 13 in Barberino di Mugello in the Tuscany region of Italy. The race offers two distances (SPRINT with 4km swim and 18km run and PROMO with 1.5km swim and 10km run) and did we mention that it’s in Tuscany! Thank you to race director Paul Bernier for bringing this race to our attention. (In case the name Mugello rings a bell to fans of F1, it’s the location of the circuit by the same name and the test track for Ferrari.)

In other race news, the Trans Cape Swimrun took place over the weekend in Western Australia. The race was completely sold out and photos on Instagram showed an epic day for racing with really cool terrain and, of course, a ton of smiling faces.

That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

This Week’s Interview

is a saying that this week’s guest Carl Eneroth mentioned to us and we think that it perfectly embodies the spirit of Swimrun. It means “Team before self” and Carl found a way to capture that spirit in his film, All the Way: The Making of Swimrun Champions. In the film, Carl shows the magic of the sport in a way in a multi-layered way that we haven’t seen presented before. Following George and Pontus (two world-class humans, athletes, and previous guests on the show) as they train for the 2018 and 2019 ÖTILLÖ World Championship, the film interlaces interviews from previous winners and giants of the sport with race footage and successfully makes the case that Swimrun is a hero’s pursuit.

In this interview, we chatted with Carl about how he got into filmmaking and how he discovered Swimrun and what was the spark that led him to want to make a documentary about the sport. We discussed some of the central themes of the film including the magnetic Swimrun community, the joy of moving through nature, the insights into what it takes to Swimrun at a high level, and, of course, collectively agree that George and Pontus are awesome.

We encourage everyone to sign up on the film’s website to watch the free premiere on March 24th at 8PM CET (11AM Pacific.) If you haven’t already drank the Kool Aid on Swimrun before watching it, you’ll start drinking it during this film.

You can learn more about Carl and his film company, The Stockholm Social Innovation Lab on their website.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 11 Mar 2021 08:00:00 +0000

Fabio Iskandarian of Hero Swimrun

Welcome to episode sixty-one of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We’re super stoked about this week’s guest! We are headed to South America for the first time to check out the Swimrun scene in Brazil with Fabio Iskandarian. He’s the founder of Hero Swimrun and chief Swimrun Evangelist in the Rio de Janeiro area. It was great to interview him for the show and it really reaffirmed our theory that Swimrun is just a special sport that draws great people from all over the world to it. Fabio’s passion is a testament to that!

More on this interview later in the show but first...Obrigado a todos do Brasil por ouvirem este podcast.

Shoutouts

This week we’ve got dual shoutouts to our two latest Patrons on Patreon: Caleb Baity from North Carolina and Jason Hodgetts from the U.K. We really appreciate your support of the show and helping us fund our outsized international sticker mailing budget.

Adventure Time/Training Updates

The unstructured training continues...except in the pool. We are both officially being coached in the pool by Tower26 and really can’t speak highly enough about Gerry, Jim, Megan, and the rest of the crew over there. We decided that we wanted to really work on our swim fitness going into this year’s race season and well, we’re certainly doing that.

Make sure to check out our two episodes with Tower26 coaches (Episode 32 with Gerry Rodrigues and Emma-Kate Lidbury and Episode 42 with Megan Meelgard and Jim Lubinski) to glean some swimming wisdom from them.

Feats of Endurance

This week’s winner is Bart Czarnecki from Poland. He’s been posting 3-minute ice bath swims and adding a photo with a smile. Not sure if the smile is frozen on or not but keep it up!

Make sure to join us on Strava and cheer on your fellow Swimrunners as they train all over the world.

This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

We have a couple of updates to share this week.

Ödyssey Swimrun Mackinac Island, located in northern Michigan, is open for registration. Sign up for either the short or long course to check out this small island on Lake Huron. The race date is Sunday, August 29, 2021, and registration is limited to 250 teams total so you know what to do if you want to experience this race.

Speaking of Ödyssey Swimrun, today (March 4th, 7 pm, EST) they are hosting a Zoom call talk about their 2021 race season. We will be on the panel of speakers so we hope that Ödyssey won’t regret that decision! The link to the call can be found on the Ödyssey website.

In other news, Breca Swimrun has announced that they have opened all of their 2021 U.K. races for registration. They have only opened Sprint and Solo Sprint distances at the moment and plan on opening up the long course distances once the U.K. eases their COVID restrictions. Their confirmed 2021 races are Coniston on July 10th, Gower on July 31st, Loch Lomond on August 7th, and Jersey on September 4th. Head over to their website for all the latest details.

That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Updates

Our new “Super Stoked on Swimrun” stickers are being mailed out at a steady clip. Drop us a message on IG or send us an email with your mailing address and we’ll mail you a free sticker to anywhere in the world that accepts mail.

The new Low Tide Boyz hats should arrive at HQ in the next few weeks. Now that their arrival is imminent, we’re taking pre-orders in our shop for those who want to be the first to rock one.

This Week’s Interview

This week’s interview is a special one. We were stoked to chat with Fabio Iskandarian of Hero Swimrun a few weeks ago and we were humbled about how stoked he was to chat with us! A stoke fest all around for sure.

We chatted with Fabio about all kinds of stuff from his athletic background, to his role in the Rio Olympics and the ITU circuit, to his entrepreneurial spirit, and ultimately, to how he found Swimrun. Fabio also talked to us about how influential (and helpful) Michael Lemmel and Mats Skott of ÖTILLÖ were in helping him create his first race and have it be the first merit race in South America. (Side note: It was so friggin cool of them to take the time to help Fabio!) (Second side note: The Swedish Consulate in Brazil also supported Fabio’s efforts to grow the sport!) Finally, we talked about the journey of Hero Swimrun as a race and how Fabio is almost single-handedly growing a vibrant Swimrun community in Rio, and his plans to keep elevating the sport.

Obviously, Hero Swimrun is on our bucket list and will definitely accept Fabrizio’s invitation to come to race his event at some point. We encourage everyone to check out Hero Swimrun on their website or on Instagram.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 4 Mar 2021 08:00:00 +0000

Swimrun 201: Team Tactics

Welcome to episode sixty of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We close out our inaugural “Partners Month” with another edition of Advanced Topics in Swimrun. In this episode, we discuss team tactics. For us, team tactics mean the things that partners can work on in practice and in races to take their team performance to the next level by being more deliberate/tactical in how partners prepare and communicate with each other.

In our view, we take it as a general proposition that the more prepared that teams are for the foreseen (and unforeseen) things that happen on race day the better the experience that the team will have. In this way, partners can manage their race and deal with adversity calmly and rely on their preparation to problem solve and continue to move forward. Below we break down some key aspects for improving team tactics.

Partner Management

The main key to a good partnership is communication. Getting to the point in Swimrun (as in life) where you can have an honest and open dialogue with your partner is the best way to help take your teamwork to the next level. In endurance sports that are typically solo affairs, it can be uncommon to think about your teammate’s performance, let alone talk to them about it. So don’t expect to have your mind read by your partner or have them read yours. Talking about how you plan to communicate during training and racing is the best way to stave off passive aggression, bad vibes, and lack of stoke.

By working on your communication, both verbal and non-verbal (listen to our show on Swimrun Flow and the all-important tether) with your partner, you really unlock the possibilities for having more fun and better race experiences. This also allows teams to visualize what their races will be like and be prepared mentally for the known and unknown. This advice has been repeated by many of our previous guests including Susie Moonan, Oscar Olsson, Johan Carlsson, Andy Blow, and Team Precision Hydration UK. To sum it up, the more that a team is mentally prepared for their race, the less mental energy is required during the race to deal with adversity.

Food/Trash Management

When we interviewed Rhian and Ben from Team Precision Hydration UK one of the things that they talked about was how they managed their nutrition during a race as a team. One partner would carry the caffeine gels and the other would carry the non-caffeinated ones. It was really eye-opening for us how granular they were in their planning. While this seems like a simple enough thing to set up before a race, during the event you can just rely on the preparation and not have it take away your focus and flow to think about it. That same is true with your hydration strategy. Our guest Andy Blow shared his detailed plan that he used at OTILLO Catalina to make sure he was set up for success.

Trash management is another thing that teams can communicate about to have a plan before the race starts. Brooke from Team Swimrun Labs (and co-host of our Gear Talk shows) has a special pocket in her Lapa Bra undergarment that is just for trash and she empties it when needed at an aid station. The moral of the story being that she doesn’t spend any mental energy thinking about worrying about what she’s doing to get disqualified for littering at a race.

Heat Management

Running in a wetsuit can get pretty warm. Having a plan for managing heat during a race is yet another way that teams can have plans in place. Taking a swim cap off, unzipping, and cabbing down are basically the three progressive strategies to help manage heat. If there’s a long run coming up and you know that you run hot, then plan with your partner to cab down upon exiting the water.

Basically, there are a lot of ways that teams can step up their performance through applying a tactical mindset to race preparation and execution with the cornerstone of good open communication with your partner. Feel free to email or DM us with tactics that you employ that have worked for you and of course, we’re happy to receive any and all feedback about the show.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 25 Feb 2021 08:00:00 +0000

The Swimrun Monks

Welcome to episode fifty-nine of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

Partner’s month continues with the return of the first team that we ever interviewed on the show: The Swimrun Monks. It was great to have our friends Sean and Phillip back on the show to talk about all kinds of stuff.

More on our interview with The Monks later in the show.

Shoutouts

This week we’re shouting out Henna Rönkönharji all the way from Finland. We know that she’s been loving the show and we really appreciate her for listening.

Adventure Time/Training Updates

Spring racing in California is not looking promising so our unstructured training continues...except for pool swimming.

Feats of Endurance

We are happy to announce that Dave Gardner is this week’s Feats of Endurance winner. We hiked the Rocky Raccoon 50k race in Huntsville Texas like it was nobody’s business. Strong work Dave.

Make sure to join us on Strava and cheer on your fellow Swimrunners as they train all over the world.

This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

We have a couple of updates to share this week.

Ödyssey Swimrun announced a new race this week. Mackinac Island, located in northern Michigan, is a vacation destination that looks like a dope place to host a Swimrun. There will be short and long course distances and both courses pretty much take all around and over the entire island. The race date is Sunday, August 29, 2021, and registration is open now!

Looks like the results of Chipper’s forensic googling were correct and ÖTILLÖ’s new race for 2021 is in Gothenburg and the setting looks perfect for an OG Swimrun race. The race is on August 7, 2021, and you can register on Raceid.com for the Experience, Sprint, or World Series Distance. Just FYI, this will also be the last race to potentially qualify for the 2021 ÖTILLÖ World Championship.

That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.

Updates

Our new “Super Stoked on Swimrun” stickers are in the mail for everyone that reached out who wanted one or several. Drop us a message on IG or send us an email with your mailing address and we’ll mail you a free sticker to anywhere in the world that accepts mail.

Our latest episode of Gear Talk is out! We chat all things swimrun training tools with Brooke and Annie from Swimrun Labs!

This Week’s Interview

It was great to have Sean Coetzee & Phillip Saenkov back on the show. Like we mentioned at the start of the show, The Monks were the first team that we ever interviewed for the show (Episode 5) and we’re grateful to be able to consider them friends. They are great ambassadors for the sport and an easy team to root for.

We brought them back for Partner’s Month to chat about how they work together and check in about their qualification for the ÖTILLÖ World Championship this August. This will be their third time racing Worlds together and we break down what they are doing differently this year in order to improve on their previous races. This interview was a lot of fun and full of tips for partner harmony and better race performances.

You can follow the exploits of the Swimrun Monks on Instagram.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 18 Feb 2021 08:00:00 +0000

Swimrun Training Tools

Welcome to Gear Talk: The Löw Tide Böyz and Swimrun Labs review show!

In this episode, we break down all the different training aids that you can use to take your Swimrun training/racing to the next level.

Before we get into that discussion, we have a few gear updates.

GEAR UPDATES

Just a few gear updates this week.

Brooke finally tried some HOKA ONE ONE shoes (Speedgoats) and she’s really liking them as an alternative to her usual INOV-8 shoes that she uses.

Chipper finally pulled the trigger and ordered a Red Original Pro-Change Robe for those chilly mornings on the pool deck. That leaves Chris as the only member of the group just using a towel.

SWIMRUN TRAINING TOOLS DISCUSSION

Since it’s still the off-season, we thought that it would be good to talk about what people can do now to come back stronger for the (hopefully) upcoming Swimrun season.

We all recommend that if you’re planning on trying to improve this off-season that you get an understanding of your fitness metrics. Whether that’s heart rate zones or RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion), understanding where you are at will help you get to where you want to go. Chris used to use songs to calibrate what zone he was in. For example, if he could sign Toni Braxton’s “Unbreak My Heart” while on the bike it meant that he was riding his bike in zone 2. If he couldn’t belt out the lyrics, it meant he was above where he wanted to be.

Overall, we recommend that athletes have a plan for what they want to work on. Having a purpose for each session will help keep you focused on your progress. Along with purpose, since this is a gear show, we thought that we would list some of the types of training tools that you can use to take your performance to the next level.

Strength Tools

Stretch cords, therabands and/or stretch bands are a cheap and effective way to add some resistance to your routine to add more strength that will help you become more injury-proof and, uhm, stronger. Check out the Swimrun Labs page of training tips for using stretch bands.

Bosu Balls or other products that create unstable or wobbly surfaces are also great for working on the smaller muscles to prevent injury.

There are also swimming-specific stretch cords that have paddles built in that are perfect for warm-ups before swims.

You can also check out Episode 17 of the Podcast with Strength and Running Coach, Nate Helming for more training tips.

Run Tools

Not a lot of tools here, just vary your stimulus by running hills or terrain that you’re not used to. Try different shoes, maybe load up a backpack with some water bottles, or work on downhill running. Don’t have a hill in your area? Maybe there is a bridge that you can do hill repeats on. Basically, where there is a will, there’s a way.

You can also check out Episode 30 of Podcast with Running Coach, Mario Fraioli for great insight on how to vary your workouts while you prepare for a particular race.

Swim Tools

Swimming has the most training aids by far. Here we break down the tools that we use. As we mentioned above but especially with swimming, having a training plan or focus for each swim will help you improve.

“Essentials”

Depending on what you're trying to work on in the pool, these essentials can really help you work on your technique to become a better/faster swimmer. Just like strength or running, adding external resistance will help make you stronger. Note: if you’re new to ankle straps make sure that you pair it with a pull buoy because it will cause significant drag. Wearing an ankle strap can also simulate the resistance of swimming in shoes.

“Nice to Have”

Multiple Sizes of Swim Paddles

Kick board

Neoprene SIM shorts

Swim bands/stretch cords

These Swim toys are nice to have to mix things up and create new stimuli. If you’re Brooke, you can get a kettlebell and walk the bottom of the pool while holding it. (Just remember to drop it and get to the surface to breathe.

“Baller Status”

Dry robe

Garmin Swim 2 watch (underwater wrist-based heart rate)

Garmin HRM-Swim Heart Rate Monitor (to pair with your existing GPS watch)

Dry robes are pricey but they are super comfy and easy to change underneath. There are several brands out there including Red Original, Dry Robe, and Smoc Smoc. Here’s a video with a review of all the dry robe styles out there.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

We hope this episode gives you some ideas on gear that you can get to help make 2021 your best Swimrun season yet. Let us know if you’re using a product that you love that we didn’t mention and think that we should. Stay safe and happy training!

That’s it for this week’s Gear Talk show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions, and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 16 Feb 2021 08:00:00 +0000

Team Adorkable

Welcome to episode fifty-eight of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

Partner’s month continues with a really fun interview this week. Today we have the Swimrun duo of Trista Mennen and Amy Bush, A.K.A Team ADORKable. Trista and Amy have been big supporters of the show and we’re super stoked that our listeners will get to learn more about their love for Swimrun.

More on this later in the show.

Adventure Time!

With COVID restrictions about to be reinstituted in Northern California, we are a bit worried that state parks will be officially “closed.” Chris has come up with a rough map for the first test exploration at Lake Sonoma and hopefully, we will be able to get out there and see what happens.

Shoutouts

This week we’re shouting out Joseph Dickinson. He’s been a listener of the show for a while and he’s always been great about giving us feedback which we really appreciate. We hope to see you out a race in 2021.

This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

We didn’t hear about any new events taking place this past week other than another cold day at the Hellas Frostbite Swimrun. It doesn’t look like it was any warmer this week.

In other news, if you’re interested in checking out Finland and score some ÖTILLÖ merit points in the process, the Folkhälsan Swimrun just opened registration (on Raceid.com) for next year’s event to be held on September 18, 2021. The race looks dope with three distances available and team and solo categories for those interested in that sort of thing.

Our friends Fanny and Desirée’s Champions Christmas Challenge is on its second week. The social media photo theme for this week is animals so post up your workout pics in your best leopard print tights, bunny ears, butterfly wings, or whatever to have a chance to win some awesome prizes.

Updates

Our latest episode of Gear Talk where we chat with the ladies from The Swimrun Labs about the essentials for cold open water swimming is out now! We recommend checking it out while sipping on some hot tea or cocoa.

No other big updates this week, just a programming alert. We will be taking a week off from the show (we mean it this time!) the last week in December and will be back with our normal schedule programming in 2021. We may throw in some bonus content that week but that’s TBD.

This Week’s Interview

It was great to get to chat with Helen Wikmar to hear her story. For those who don’t know who she is, Helen is a mother of 3, Head of Operations at Ark Sports, and just happens to be a bad ass Swimrunner and one of the sport’s best ambassadors. She’s also super cool so there’s that.

In this interview we chatted with her about her athletic origin story after starting a family, how she met and teamed up with her racing partner Isabella Hedberg, and how she builds community wherever she goes. This was a fun one and we think that you will enjoy this conversation.

You can (and should) follow Helen on Instagram.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 10 Dec 2020 08:00:00 +0000

Winter Open Water Swimming Essentials

Welcome to Gear Talk: The Löw Tide Böyz and Swimrun Labs review show!

In this episode, we chat about all things cold open water swimming. We breakdown the science, strategy, and gear for swimming in the cold with a smile. (Smile optional)

Before we get into that, we have some gear updates.

Gear Updates

Just a few short gear updates this week.

Brooke tried out some curved paddles at the pool and she didn’t like them because they didn’t suit her stroke very well.

Winter Swimming Science

There are a lot of things to take into account before swimming in open water when the water temp is getting cold. Both physically and mentally, winter swimming requires some preparation. Whether it’s “cryo-gina” or cold shock, taking a measured approach while going into cold water includes walking slowly into the water, control your breathing, and wait for your mammalian dive reflex to kick in.

The mammalian dive reflex is basically designed to prioritize oxygen to the body’s most important organs and send blood flow to those organs. Adam Skolnick (previous guest of the show) wrote a book (One Breath: Freediving, Death, and the Quest to Shatter Human Limits) about freediving and spent some time explaining this reflex well.

Athletes starting to swim in cold open water should take their time to get used to the cold shock and acclimate over a period of weeks. It’s important to honor the time that it takes to make sure that you make sure that you’re being safe out there. Coldwater also makes you pee a lot more. This means that you should make sure that you’re well hydrated.

Hypothermia is probably what scares people the most about cold water. There are some early warning signs to look out for. When you start losing coordination, get brain fog, or your form breaks down that is a sign of cold incapacitation. Cold incapacitation is what most people consider to be hypothermia and swimmers should be super-mindful of their extremities while swimming to watch for the signs. Shivering in the water is a very bad sign.

The Outdoor Swimming Society is a great resource for more information about swimming in cold water safely.

Getting out of cold water and “re-warming” is very important. Your body can continue to get cold up to 30 minutes after swimming. Swimmers should start re-warming slowly and get dry and don’t try to jump into a hot shower right away.

Cold Water Gear for Open Water Swimming

This is a gear show so we listed out all the important gear from head to toe that you should consider if you’re going to be swimming in the cold stuff.

Head:

TYR Neoprene Swim Caps

blueseventy Thermal Neoprene Skull Cap

ROKA Strapless Thermal Neoprene Swimming Hood

TYR Warmwear Caps

Double up on random Silicone Caps

Earplugs:

Silicone Putty

Wetsuit:

blueseventy Thermal Reaction Wetsuit

ROKA Maverick Pro Thermal Wetsuit

Zone3 Neoprene Warmth Vest

Gloves:

AquaLung 5mm Thermocline Dive Gloves

NRS Maxim 3mm Neoprene Gloves

Booties:

blueseventy Thermal Swim Socks

Seavenger Seasnugs Socks (Brooke’s favorite)

Post-Swim:

Dryrobe Advance Long Sleeve Change Robe

Swimrun-Specific Considerations

For Swimrun, heat/cold management is super important. Luckily there are some easy ways to keep your core temperature where you need it to be. Keeping your swimcap on and not cabbing down after a cold swim can help you warm up during the run leg. Using the right gear, such as socks, can also help keep your core temperature where you want it to be. Being cold can compound over a race and if you can’t properly warm up during a run leg, cold swims can take their toll and lead to a DNF.

Another consideration is that being cold uses more energy and, as such, you may need extra nutrition to account for the additional calorie burning.

Closing Thoughts

So now you’re prepared to try to go into cold water. It’s good for you both mentally and physically so give it a shot. Good luck and godspeed.

That’s it for this week’s Gear Talk show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions, and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 8 Dec 2020 08:00:00 +0000

Team Swimrun Mermaids

Welcome to episode forty-eight of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We have a great interview this week. In this episode, we take you to the South of France to talk with Laurene William and Irina Kondratieva of Team Swimrun Mermaids and organizers of the Mermaids Swimrun Club. This conversation was a lot of fun and we’ll talk more about that later in the show.

Adventure Time!

We took a week off from planning this week due to Thanksgiving but we weren’t totally unproductive. After several months of compiling emails, we are super stoked to announce that our International Swimrun Adventure Guide is finally live! This is a living document so keep sending us your suggestions for Swimrun locations to include in the guide.

Shoutouts

This week we’re shouting out Anders Nyberg from Sweden. He participated in the Hellas Frostbite Swimrun over the weekend and when we commented on his Strava post, his reply was a true classic: “a bit nippy!” You wouldn’t catch us in that cold water but it gave us plenty of meme ideas so for that we thank you Anders!

This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

The Champions Christmas Challenge is in full swing. Our friends Fanny and Desirée are hosting a 24-day challenge to get folks to move at least 1km per day and have fun, win prizes, and attend virtual galas. What’s not to love? The challenge started on Nov. 30th so make sure that you head to the raceid.com website to log your kms.

In other news, the Hellas Frostbite Swimrun kicked off over the weekend. True to its name, it looked really friggin’ cold! Check out their Instagram page to see photos of the event…and to gain a new appreciation for the comforts of warm water.

Updates

Our last column of the year for Triathlete Magazine, The Swimrun Pull Buoy – A Love Story, is out on the digital newsstands. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Do you need some new t-shirts and/or stickers? Head over to our website and use the code LOWTIDE for free shipping on all orders through December 6th.

This Week’s Interview

As mentioned at the start of the show, we had a really great chat with Laurene and Irina of Team Swimrun Mermaids. Based in the South of France, Laurene and Irina are great ambassadors for the sport and work with their organization Mermaids Swimrun Club to help get more women into the sport.

We talked about how they found Swimrun (and each other), why they started the Mermaids Swimrun Club, and why the South of France is a great place for Swimrunners. We also talked about their packed 2020 race season and how their mindset changed due to COVID including signing up for races at the last minute and race with gratitude. We covered a lot of ground and can’t wait to make a trip to France to get a tour of their training grounds.

You can follow Laurene, Irina, and the Mermaids Swimrun Club on Instagram.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 3 Dec 2020 08:00:00 +0000

Brent Molsberry

Welcome to episode forty-seven of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We’re stoked to have Brent Molsberry on the show this week. He’s a race director, adventure racer, Annie Molsberry’s husband, and our tour guide for awesome Swimrunning spots in the great state of Washington.

Adventure Time!

Our plans are starting to come together for our Swimrun adventure in Lake Sonoma, CA. We will start going out there after Thanksgiving to start scoping out swim routes by running the trails the run pretty much parallel to the lake. We will bust out maps and everything.

Shoutouts

We have three extra special shoutouts this week. In the past few weeks we’ve added three (yes, three) new patrons on Patreon. Marcus Barton from North Carolina, Bob K. from Texas, and Miguel E. from California have all come on as supporters of the show. We really appreciate the support and these funds help us cover our production costs (and help justify to our wives that other people care about Swimrun as much as we do.) A tip of the hat to you three.

This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

Two of our favorite people, Fanny and Desirée (reigning ÖTILLÖ World Champions), are putting on the Champions Christmas Challenge. What is this Challenge? Their idea was to bring some excitement to these otherwise quite dark and lonely times, make this strange Christmas a little less lonely (in a completely COVID-safe way of course) and for participants to get outside, get some exercise in, win some cool prizes, try something new, and help save the oceans in the process.

Event Rules:
All you have to do is move 1 K each day for 24 days. If you make it, you get an exclusive invitation to the Grand Champions Virtual Gala dinner on December 23. (This will be more of an early lunch for folks in the US)

Weekly Challenge & Prizes - with a guaranteed laugh:

Each week Fanny and Desirée will announce a fun challenge (mostly to do with what you wear during your daily exercise) that can make you earn killer prizes from the event sponsors (even some stuff from The Löw Tide Böyz)! The challenges will be communicated on social media each Monday.

Documentation:

To win outfit prizes and picture prizes, you must have a public Instagram profile and use the hashtag #ChampionsChristmasChallenge with your photo and mention @desireedessi and @fannyfromswe in your caption.

So let’s do this! Head over to RaceID.com to register and we hope to see you at the Gala Dinner.

Updates

Our latest column in Triathlete Magazine, The Swimrun Pull Buoy – A Love Story, is out on the digital newsstands. You knew that a dedicated pull buoy article was coming and we delivered! Check it out and let us know what you think.

Looking for something for yourself or that special Swimrunner in your life? Check out our latest Gear Talk episode where we give our thoughts on cool Swimrun-specific gifts.

Do you need some new t-shirts and/or stickers? Are you trying to skip the Black Friday hysteria this year? Head over to our website and use the code LOWTIDE for free shipping on all orders through December 6th.

This Week’s Interview

As mentioned above, our guest this week is Brent Molsberry. We met him in Catalina earlier in the year and have wanted to have him on the show ever since. This interview was part Lonely Planet Guide for Swimrunning in Washington, the part origin story of Ödyssey’s Orcas Island race, and a part recap of Brent’s first Swimrun race in Catalina. This was a fun one and we think you will enjoy it.

Brent shared with us some of his go-to Swimrun training grounds in the western part of Washington. We’re listing them here for anyone that might be planning a vacation in the Pacific Northwest.

Bellingham, WA:

Lake Padden Park

Site of the Bellingham Swimrun, this park abounds with swimming and running routes for any distance Swimrun.

Bellingham Bay

The bay offers some open water Swimrun options.

Larrabee State Park

This park offers some challenging climbs on the trails but swimming options are all over the place.

Anacortes, WA:

Deception Pass State Park

There are beautiful bays and lakes that give a nice mix of cold water and warmer lake swims.

Seattle, WA:

Seward Park

It’s on a peninsula in South Eastern Seattle that sticks out into Lake Washington. There are tons of options for swim and run routes.
It’s very close to the city so this park is great for a casual afternoon Swimrun practice.

San Juan Islands, WA:

Orcas Island

Location of the Ödyssey Swimun Orcas Island race but it’s also a great place to just go explore the lakes, mountains, and trails.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 26 Nov 2020 08:00:00 +0000

Holiday Gift Guide

Welcome to Gear Talk: The Löw Tide Böyz and Swimrun Labs review show!

In this episode, the gang shares their holiday gift ideas for the Swimrunners in your lives…or just yourself.

Before we get into that, we have some gear updates.

Gear Updates

Just a few short gear updates this week.

Annie tried out the Seavenger SeaSnug socks during a walk in her neighborhood and got a blister on her foot. She pretty decided not to even try them on a run after that. (Sorry Brooke!)

Chris used the SurfEars 3.0 ear plugs during Ödyssey Swimrun Austin and they worked beautifully. Chipper could rest assured that Chris could hear him even though Chris may have been ignoring him.

High Gear, Low Gear

New segment alert!!! In this new segment, the crew will break down what gear they wore at their latest race and give their High and Low rankings on what worked well and what didn’t work so great. Chipper and Chris recently raced Ödyssey Swimrun Austin and shared their kit setup and what they liked/didn’t like.

Chipper’s Swimrun Kit:

Speedo Vanquisher 2.0 goggles

Ark Sports ORNO 2

Ark Sports Kangaroo top

Regular sport underwear

Swiftwick Aspire 12 socks

Hoka One One Speedgoat EVO shoes

Ark Sports Keel+ (Lasso Mount)

Ark Sports Blade Swim Paddles (Medium)

High Gear award: The Keel+ worked perfectly and Chipper had no issues whatsoever.

Low Gear award: Chipper thought that he had his shoes dialed in but during the race it felt like the uppers of the shoes felt a little stretched out and his foot was moving around in the shoe.

Chris’s Kit:

Aqua Sphere Kaiman goggles

Ark Sports VIGG

Ark Sports Kangaroo top

Swiftwick Aspire 12 socks

Salomon Slab Amphib shoes

Ark Sports Keel+ (Simple loop waist mount)

Roka Swim Paddles (Medium)

Ultimate Direction waist belt (Discontinued)

High Gear award: Pretty obvious here, but Chris thought that the Ark Sports VIGG was the perfect wetsuit for the air and water temperature in Texas.

Low Gear award: Chris thought that the Ultimate Direction waist belt was less essential this race because of the Kangaroo top from a storage perspective and it was basically being used to store the compression bandage and attach the tether.

Holiday Gift Guide for Swimrunners

Now for the main event! The gang broke our ideas for cool gifts into three categories to take into account different budgets.

Stocking Stuffer/White Elephant Gift Level (Under $30ish)

Annie: Ödyssey Swimrun hand-Thrown, Custom Glazed Coffee Mug ($30)

Brooke: Zoggs Predator Next Gen Swim goggles ($19.99)

Chipper: Swim Stretch/Bands ($15.99)

Chris: Swiftwick Aspire Socks ($14.99-29.99 depending on sock height)

“Nice” Gift Level (Under $100)

Annie: NU Orza Pull Buoy ($50)

Brooke: Wild Swimrun Annual Club Membership ($58)

Chipper: NU Lapa Bra ($60)/NU Lapa Shirt ($90)

Chris: SurfEars 3.0 Ear Plugs ($59.95)

Trying to Impress/In the Doghouse/No Limit (No $ Limit)

Annie: “Year of Swimrun” (Price Unknown; Entry to either Orcas Island or Casco Bay Swimruns, Two full Swimrun kits (a beginner kit and an intermediate kit, training camp weekend in Europe with Wild Swimrun, and private coaching by Swimrunner John Stevens)

Brooke: Ödyssey Orcas Island Long Course Swimrun Race Entry ($450-$650 depending on when you register)

Chipper: Ark Sports VIGG ($430)

Chris: All expenses paid trip to ÖTILLÖ Malta (Flights: ~$2,000; Hotel: ~$1,000; Food/drink: ~$500; Race entry: ~$650)

Closing Thoughts

That’s our best thinking on what to get to that special Swimrunner in your life. If you’re on the fence about what to get, giving the gift of race entries is a great way to support race directors and help keep the sport of Swimrun growing in the US and elsewhere. We hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving holiday and remember to stay safe, wear a mask, and all that.

That’s it for this week’s Gear Talk show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions, and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 08:00:00 +0000

John Stevens

Welcome to episode forty-six of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we have John Stevens on the show. He’s a coach with Purple Patch Fitness, Assistant Race Director with Ödyssey Swimrun, endurance adventurer, and a stud Swimrunner in his own right. We had a really great chat with him and look forward to sharing that with you later in the show.

Training Update/NEW SEGMENT ALERT

No update this week because it’s the off-season!! We still plan on training and stuff but we will be pretty unstructured outside of continuing to swim on a regular basis. Our goal is to not eat our way through the holidays but that’s still TBD.

In other news, we are starting to plan an epic Swimrun adventure in Northern California and will be documenting the journey in a new segment called “Adventure Time” where we will keep you all informed on our progress. This adventure could be epic or an epic fail but either way, strap in for the ride!

Shoutouts

This week we’re shouting out all of our listeners that use CastBox to listen to our podcast. We’ve never heard of this app but here’s a tip of the hat to the 1.48% of our listeners that use that app!

Feats of Endurance

We’re going to put a pause on this segment until 2021 but we will still be keeping tabs with kudos to everyone in our Strava Club and look forward to following everyone’s training and adventures. On that note, if you’re planning Swimrun adventures, let us know! With no races happening, this will be a fun way to keep folks engaged in the sport that really doesn’t require events in order to take place.

This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)

With COVID cases on the rise in Europe, the U.S., and elsewhere, there were no events this weekend and it’s looking like Swimrun Austin may end up being the last race of the year. While this is a bummer, we urge all our listeners to exercise caution, listen to the scientists, wear masks, engage in social distancing, and stay safe. We will get through this.

Updates

Our latest column in Triathlete Magazine, The Swimrun Pull Buoy – A Love Story, is out on the digital newsstands. Check it out and let us know if you share our love for all things pull buoy.

This Week’s Interview

As mentioned above, we have John Stevens on the show this week. He’s a close to a household name (among U.S. Swimrunners) as you can get. He’s raced almost every Ödyssey Swimrun event (in addition to being an assistant race director) as well as ÖTILLÖ events including the World Championship. In this interview, we touched on a bunch of topics. John gave us his mini-race director report of how Ödyssey Swimrun Austin went. We chatted about his origin story and how he found Swimrun. We also talked about his newfound enjoyment of endurance adventures. Finally, we peppered him with questions for swim training during the offseason.

There was a lot of good stuff in this interview and we think that you’ll enjoy it.

Listeners can follow John on Instagram and sign up for coaching through Purple Patch Fitness.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a review. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback and/or suggestions. Finally, you can support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 08:00:00 +0000

Ödyssey Swimrun Austin Race Report

Welcome to episode forty-five of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We’ve got a special episode this week. We just finished racing Ödyssey Swimrun Austin on Sunday, November 8th and we’ll be sharing our race report from our weekend in Texas. We were super stoked to be able to race and hope that you enjoy our thoughts on how that whole thing went. (Spoiler alert: Stoke level is still super high!)

Initial Thoughts

It was a stressful week with the election, COVID, travel, and a race on the horizon. We felt better once we got to Texas and we were really happy with our performance on race day. Sure, we could have trained harder…but we probably would be saying that regardless of how hard we trained. Regardless of our level of fitness, we managed to put together a strong performance and that only a small part of what was an amazing weekend.

Getting to Texas/Pre-race Meeting

Getting to Pace Bend Park from AUS was pretty easy (Chipper picked Chris up from the airport on Saturday afternoon) and we managed to show up only slightly late to the mandatory pre-race meeting.

Shout outs to folks that we connected with this weekend: (We’re really sorry if we missed anyone)

Drew and Michael

Brooke and Samantha

Adrian

Trevor AKA The Copper Paladin

Trista and Amy (Who brought us a giant donut from Round Rock Donuts)

Mel

Jenny

Bob

Rick (from Florida)

Chase

Chris

Matt

Melissa

Gemma

Kristen (RD at Swimrun Lake James in April 2021)

Lee Green LIKE THE COLOR (Chris’s new bestie)

The entire Odyssey team!

It was also great to see previous guests of the show as well:

Bronwen and Greg AKA The Boston Wet Sox

Andy Hewitt

Blake and Beek AKA Team Envol Baywatch

Sean and Phillip AKA The Swimrun Monks

Marcus Barton

John Stevens (he had a cameo on Gear Talk. Future full episode with John coming soon!)

Lars Finanger, Race Director for Ödyssey

It was really great to see everyone and we really appreciated all the kind words from folks saying that they listened to the podcast and found it helpful in their race prep.

That night we put into practice a lot of the advice that we had learned from previous guests of the show and made our plans for the race. The main things that we wanted to put into practice on race day were: having a detailed plan for nutrition, hydration, and when to cab down (Team Precision Hydration UK and The Boston Wet Sox); focusing on technique especially fast transitions in and out of the water and at energy station (Andy Hewitt and Nicolas Remires); stay mentally engaged in the race and problem solve quickly (Mario Fraioli, Johan Carlsson, and Oscar Olsson); and Swim straight (Megan Melgaard and Jim Lubinski).

Race Day: Leg by leg (Play by play)

The weather on race morning looked pretty great but we were worried about it getting hot during the race. Ödyssey did a great job with their COVID precautions and the race started on time with a time-trial start where teams started 5 seconds apart.

Run 1 - 2.11 miles: The start was pretty straight forward and, frankly, it was nice to finally get to race again!

Swim 1 - 663 yards: The swim felt a bit short. There was no significant current in the water and the water temp was very pleasant.

Run 2 - 1.28 miles: This run was pretty straight forward. The classic Texas trails (rocky, rooted, etc.) made their appearance.

Swim 2 - 1,166 yards: This swim was pretty straight forward and sighting was not a problem at all.

Run 3 - 2.12 miles: This run was getting into the meat of the course and we started pushing on the runs a bit more. We made the decision to keep the tether attached the whole time. It was a new experience for us to race that way and we both felt that it was major benefit to not have to worry about putting it away and then attaching it again before a swim saved a lot of mental energy.

Swim 3 - 1,145 yards: The swim entrance was at the end of a steep boat ramp. This swim was against the water current, but it wasn’t really noticeable. It was cool to swim next to the limestone cliffs.

Run 4 - 3.33 miles: This was the longest run of the day. We got to see a bunch of our friends on the out and back portion. We had planned for Chipper to cab down as soon as we got done with Swim 3 and that happened smoothly.

Swim 4 - 536 yards: This short swim started at the end of another steep boat ramp and Chris led the entire swim like a big boy. The swim exit was the most technical water exist.

Run 5 - .56 miles: This short run led to the cliff jump section of the course. We ended up not doing the cliff jump because we were moving so well and wanted to save time by not having to swim another 300 yards or so.

Swim 5 - 955 yards: This swim also felt short and we started mingling with the short course athletes.

Run 6 - 2.49 miles: This run was the most technical of the day and we were moving well. So well that Chris missed a turn and did a bonus cruise by the finish line (we probably lost a few minutes but not much more than that) before we got back on course. The entrance to that swim was down a bunch of stairs to a boat ramp to jump in the water.

Swim 6 - 1,582 yards: We definitely felt the water current on this swim and we were moving pretty well. Chris was supposed to take over leading after Chipper started the swim but he was doing so well (and Chris was staring at the cliffs) that he closed it out.

Run 7 - 1.15 miles: The last run was uneventful until Chipper tripped on a poll (that a volunteer warned us about). Like a graceful cat he did a roll and got right back up. He managed to mask his embarrassment and we finished the race. We got a nice shout out from Lars’s dad on the mic.

Our finishing stats: we finished in 3:30. (9th place Men’s team and 14th overall out of 65 long course teams)

We felt like this was our best race performance. We put into practice everything that we had been learning throughout the year. Chipper gave our performance 4.5 pull buoys.

Post-race

Ödyssey had masks at the finish line for people to don. The finisher sweatshirts were super high quality and the food was great.

It was really great to hang out at the finish line and see a lot of our friends and folks in our Strava Club cross the finish line. It was great to see Lars and the Ödyssey Swimrun crew so stoked with how the event ended up. Given that three of their races got cancelled this year, we were so happy that they got to close out the year with a success.

Overall impressions of the event

We would definitely recommend this race to everyone who’s curious about Swimrun and experienced Swimrunners alike. The race was a lot of fun! Logistically, it was super easy to get to the park and there was good food all around.

Final Thoughts

Huge shout out again to Lars and the Ödyssey crew for putting this event together during COVID. It was not without risk to try to put on this event in the age of COVID and they did an awesome job!

To be able to race and forget about everything that was going on in the world for a little while at least was like a salve to the soul. We look forward to going back in 2021 to race the event again.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 12 Nov 2020 08:00:00 +0000

NU Lapa Bra Review

Welcome to Gear Talk: The Löw Tide Böyz and Swimrun Labs swimrun gear review show!

In this episode, we discuss the NU Lapa Bra for women (and men.) Annie and Brooke swear by this undergarment for Swimrun and we get their full download in this episode. You can also read their review on the Swimrun Labs website.

Before we get into that, we have some gear updates.

Gear Updates

Brooke has been training with her Ark Keel in the pool all year and has noticed that she started getting some lower back pain. She thinks that the pain might be from overuse (she uses it about 70% of the time) or muscle imbalance. She has started mixing the pull buoys that she uses during pool training to see if that helps.

This echoes what our guest Shane Chaplin mentioned recently on the podcast that training for Swimrun-style swimming is different than training for open water swimming and that doing both is probably the best practice in order to be a good overall swimmer…and survive if you lose your pull buoy for some reason.

NU Lapa Bra Review

We briefly mentioned that Lapa Bra in our Swimrun Undergarments episode. We thought that it required a full review given how much Annie and Brooke love this piece of kit. Before they found out about the Lapa Bra they had tried a whole bunch of DIY options. When Annie discovered the Lapa Bra, she immediately called Brooke and proceeded to yell on the phone that they “cracked the code” for undergarment storage.

The Lapa Bra ($60) has three pockets in the front of the bra that provides ample space for storage. Brooke liked the color scheme (not the “shrink it and pink it” approach) of black and yellow and it was specifically designed for the needs of female Swimrunners.

General Impressions

Taking into account that all bodies are different, Annie and Brooke found this bra to be very supportive. Sizing is based on chest circumference but the ability to use the pockets for storage might depend on chest size.

The bra material is mostly mesh material and very breathable. It did not get soggy and would wick water well. The three separate pockets are also mesh and they have a lot of elasticity to expand to hold a lot of gear. This bra allows users to fine-tune a “system” that can always be helpful.

The bra did have a lot of seams and Brooke in particular has gotten some chaffing under the arm from the seams. That would be the main thing that she thinks that NU could improve upon in future versions of the Lapa bra.

Swimming Impressions

Annie and Brooke both gave the best endorsement for the bra…that it was a “non-issue in the water.” This is what we always look for how a product will work during the swim legs of a race. The last thing that you want is to be bothered or need to stop to readjust something during a swim.

Transition and Running Impressions

The ladies thought that the Lapa bra worked well during transitions and during running legs. Annie was able to stuff her paddles in the center pocket and Brooke would use her pockets for a spare set of goggles, nutrition, and one specifically for trash. As mentioned above, they thought that the bra was very supportive but that might be individual to the chest size of the end-user.

Annie’s Pull Buoy Ranking

Annie gave the Lapa Bra 4.5 pull buoys. She wears it every time that she Swimrunners and hasn’t had any problem with it. She docked ½ pull buoys due to the seams being a bit thick and the need to make sure that it is lubed up before a Swimrun. Annie sees this as an “insta-buy.”

Brooke’s Pull Buoy Ranking

Brooke gave the Lapa Bra 4 pull buoys. Brooke thinks that her Lapa Bra (next to her pull buoy) is a must-have. She docked it points for the reason that the bra drew blood once due to chaffing. Overall though, she thinks that this product is essential for female Swimrunners.

Overall Impressions

This is a sport-specific piece of gear that is made for women (or people with breasts) that actually works. That, in and of itself, is a great thing. The NU Lapa Bra also reflects well the ethos of Swimrun of it being an inclusive sport and the fact that brands in the sport are designing products that are specific to the needs of female Swimrunners is really great…and we hope to see more if it down the road.

The best part of this entire review is that Swimrun Labs now has an online store where they are selling NU products in the U.S. (rather than from Spain.) So head over to their website and order!

That’s it for this week’s Gear Talk show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions, and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 10 Nov 2020 08:00:00 +0000

Oscar Olsson

Welcome to episode forty-four of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

Like some of the most popular superheroes with alliterative names, this week’s guest definitely fits in. We’re not talking about Matt Murdock, Clark Kent, Bruce Banner, or Peter Parker. This week we have the one and only, Oscar Olsson on the show. While he needs no introduction, we should do one anyway. He’s widely regarded as one of the best Swimrunners in the world and is a great ambassador for the sport.

This interview was a blast and we’re super stoked to share that conversation later in the show.

Training Update

It’s race week!!! We’re super stoked for Ödyssey Swimrun Austin on Sunday. The hay is in the barn and we can’t wait to see a lot of our listeners and friends at Pace Bend Park. If you need to cram some last-minute racecourse info check out our Odyssey Swimrun Austin Course Preview!

Shout Out

This week we’re shouting out the Commonwealth of Australia. They’ve been climbing the charts on our downloads list and we’re really happy that they are finding our brand of content interesting. We’ll keep it going!

Feats of Endurance Weekly Award

This week’s winner is Lee G. He’s a member of our Strava Club and has been putting in the work heading into Swimrun Austin. He’ll also be racing with one of our favorite humans, Marcus Barton. Enjoy the taper and see you there Lee!

This Week in Swimrun

We have another short report this week.

There were no races again this week because of increased COVID restrictions.

In happier news, we are super stoked to announce that this segment is now being powered by Raceid.com. They recently rebranded from race.se to raceid.com in late October and we’re looking forward to beefing up our “reporting” with their help.

Send us an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com and tip us off if there’s are a race that you are doing and we’ll do our best to include it.

LTBz Updates

We don’t have any updates this week that you haven’t already heard before.

Stay tuned for our race report of Swimrun Austin next week!

Interview

Now for this week’s interview. Oscar Olsson is one of the most well-known Swimrunners in the world and has the personality to match. His enthusiasm for Swimrun and the community is infectious and we had a great time chatting with him about his Swimrun journey.

In this interview, we chatted about his athletic background and how he found Swimrun and fell in love with the sport. We also chatted about his preparation for races including the ÖTILLÖ World Championship and races of the first impression. We talked about the mental side of training and how he’s been handing the curveball that COVID has thrown to the world. He shared his experiences racing Catalina and how he just popped in and raced the World Championship at the last minute one year.

Oscar runs his own gym and coaching business, o2Tri in Gothenburg Sweden. He’s also super accessible on Instagram to answer questions from Swimrunners.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 5 Nov 2020 08:00:00 +0000

Shane Chaplin

Welcome to episode forty-three of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we have Shane Chaplin on the show. If you don’t know who Shane is, well you should. He’s an Australian living in Sweden who’s witnessed the early days of ÖTILLÖ, he’s sailed the world, skied all over the world as well, raced the XTERRA World Championship, he’s a marine biologist (that works at a bank), and last but not least, he’s a Swimrunner.

More on this super interesting interview later in the show.

Training Update

We’re getting super close to race day and we’re dialing in where we can before Ödyssey Swimrun Austin on November 8th. It’s officially tapered time so we apologize in advance to everyone that we may be grumpy towards.

Shout Out

We’re doing a group shout out this week to everyone that joined us for our first Instagram Live event with Odyssey Swimrun’s Lars Finanger. It was great to see so many people on IG and we hope that folks found the Q&A useful. It was especially nice to see some of our friends from Sweden jump on to say hi!

Feats of Endurance Weekly Award

This week’s winner is Tom A. from Amsterdam. He’s been a member of our Strava Club for a while and we’ve been taking notes on where to train for Swimrun if we ever find ourselves in The Netherlands.

This Week in Swimrun

We have a short report this week.

There were no races this week because of COVID. Races in Portugal, Spain, Italy, and North Carolina were all scheduled but ended up being canceled or postponed. So be safe, wear masks, and practice social distance people!

Swimrunners all over the world got the email this week from ÖTILLÖ with the sad news that their season is over. Given the COVID situation in Europe, their Malta race was canceled. In the same email, they also listed their tentative schedule for 2021. You can see that schedule on their website. Notably, for folks in the U.S., Ötillö Catalina is scheduled for November 20-21, 2021. We’re not sure when registration will open but we’ll make sure to let everyone know when we know.

We’re sure that we may have missed some events. Send us an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com and tip us off if there’s are a race that you are doing and we’ll do our best to include it.

LTBz Updates

Our latest column in Triathlete Magazine, What to Expect at Your First Swimrun Race, is out in the digital newsstands now! Check it out and give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it.

Finally, head over to our website to pick up some cool Löw Tide Böyz shirts and stickers and show your Low Tide Pride in the streets.

Interview

Now for this week’s interview. We’ve wanted to get Shane on the show since he first slid into our DM’s and dropped some knowledge bombs on us. He’s a super interesting guy who’s been all over the world…happens to be Michael Lemmel’s neighbor.

We covered a lot of ground in this interview. We chatted about the early days of Ötillö and how the original race developed over the years. What it’s like to be Michael Lemmel’s sometimes Swimrun race partner. His thoughts about orienteering as a key aspect of training. How he thinks that Swimrunners in the U.S. should train on super technical to better compete in races in Europe. His thoughts on what swim paddles should look like. And so much more!

Shane shared his thoughts on how Swimrun is changing the way people train for open water (OW) swimming. This part of the interview was so rich that we asked him for some notes to share with everyone.

OW swimmers with good natural buoyancy and/or kick driven stroke are relatively penalized compared to the pack in Swimrun mode. This is because the buoy conveys little extra buoyancy benefit and the legs are immobilized. Or if you do try and kick your legs, you will go backward.
Conversely, sinky-leg swimmers and those with more upper body power get a relative boost.
Swimmers with over-glide or dead spots will be relatively penalized because they can’t use their legs to iron out the dead spots. So, don’t worry about fast or slow cadence. Focus on ironing out dead-spots.
Other elements of the bad technique can be masked over in Swimrun mode. Particularly any actions which would normally result in the legs sinking (push-down during the catch phase, breath-holding underwater, and head lift during breathing).
Braking actions with the hand paddles (upward glide), will be magnified and penalized - which is why some people aren’t faster with paddles at first.
Swimrun swimming is flatter – i.e. less rotation. It, therefore, favors swingers and those with flexible shoulders. You need to try and generate rotation a bit more from the core because the legs are out of action.
Paddles – most paddles on the market have way too much area out around the fingertips. This puts unnecessary strain on the forearm muscles and the elbow joints and burns energy in these muscles unnecessarily. There’s a real niche still waiting to be filled by paddles that have the center of the area further back in the hand, which transfers the load to the lats (and pec) muscles instead. This is where the real power lays. If you’re stuck with the existing offering, try and get your hand as far forward a possible on your paddle. Fingers hanging over the front edge even. Drill holes and mount new straps with gay abandon!
Warning – controversial statement! In alpine skiing, there’s a saying which goes: “a good ski racer is always a good skier, whereas a good skier isn’t always a good ski racer.” This is because ski racers have great technique. They can carve ice. The same goes for swimming – a fast open-water swimmer will normally be a good Swimrun swimmer, whereas the specialized Swimrun swimmers will often struggle without the toys. So, don’t neglect your gearless open water swimming in the offseason. It will give you an edge. It will also give you something else to do. As you get closer to Swimrun competition season then go over to pure Swimrun gear and power sessions. The extra muscles will also help your open-water and beach gigs.

Listeners can follow Shane on Instagram.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 29 Oct 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Seavenger SeaSnugs

Welcome to Gear Talk: The Löw Tide Böyz and Swimrun Labs review show!

In this episode, we do a deep dive into the Seavenger SeaSnugs sock and give our impressions on Brooke’s favorite socks. Not to be confused with the Seavenger Zephyr which she mistakenly mentioned in the budget swimrun gear show, the SeaSnugs are the socks that Brooke swears by for training and racing.

Before we get into that, we have some first impressions and our newest segment, Guest First Impressions.

First Impressions

Ark Sports Kangaroo Review

Chris recently started testing the Kangaroo top and although he was previously anti-undergarments, he’s been convinced at the virtues of having extra storage capacity on-board. The top fits really well under a Swimrun wetsuit and the storage capacity is perfect. It has now become part of his race kit. If you are looking for more information about things to wear under your swimrun wetsuit be sure to check out our Swimrun Undergarments episode!

SurfEars 3.0 Earplugs Review

Some swimmers (including Chris) need to wear earplugs in order to keep cold water out and keep from getting disoriented. Chris recently purchased the SurfEars 3.0 because they claimed to keep water out but allow sound in. It has been an issue in the past where Chris couldn’t hear Chipper during a Swimrun unless he was right next to him and even then if he was zoning out, we couldn’t hear his partner. SurfEars are pricey ($59.95) but they worked as advertised. The fit was customizable and they kept water out well. The best part was that Chris could still hear Chipper yapping away. They even come with a lanyard so that they are less likely to get lost. If you need to wear earplugs to swim, you might want to give these a shot.

Guest First Impressions

Friend of the show, G Flo, recently sent us a note after our swimrun paddles episode that he had started testing the carbon fiber Frank Paddles. He had been using the Ark Sports Blades and noticed that Frank Paddles were much stiffer and that over his test the lack of flex helped his fingers not get as fatigued as they did with the Ark Sports Blades.

Lindy from the UK reached out about the Seavenger socks after our Budget Swimrun Kit episode. She had found a sock by Inov8 called the Extreme Thermo sock High that looked similar. We’re curious to hear what she thinks about these.

SeaSnugs Details from Seavenger

According to the Seavenger website, the SeaSnugs are the perfect socks for beach sports. (Note that there is no direct mention for the application of Swimrun)

They have the following features:

ADJUSTABLE FIT — Adjustable strap ensures a snug fit and stretchy material is great for wide feet.
PERFECT FOR ALL WATER SPORTS — Wear alone to protect from hot sands or layer underneath fins.
COMFORTABLE CONSTRUCTION — Flat-lock stitching prevents chafing and minimizes flushing.
DURABILITY THAT LASTS — Heel and toe caps leave extra room for your toes and add extra strength.
QUICK-DRY TECHNOLOGY — Moisture evaporates rapidly for convenient comfort.

The SeaSnugs have neoprene on the sole, heel, and toe with Lycra on the rest of the sock. There are plenty of color and design options and come in two lengths: ankle and tall.

Swimming Impressions

Brooke swears by these socks and thinks that they feel snug and keep her feet warm. They are easy to swim with and were a non-issue…as hopefully, all things should be while swimming.

Chris thought that the socks were also a non-issue for the swim and definitely provided some extra warmth.

Annie has been injured but still tested the socks for just open water swimming and they kept her feet warm and were great for walking in and out of the water without worrying about stepping on anything sharp. She also noted that they were easier to take off than full neoprene socks when her hands are super cold after a swim.

Chipper didn’t get a chance to test them while swimming but still did science…

Transition and Running Impressions

Chipper did a science experiment to test out the SeaSnugs. He went for a two-mile out-and-back run with the socks and shoes, then immediately stepped in a kiddy pool filled with water and hung out for two minutes, and finally went for the same two-mile run that he did with dry socks/shoes. He noted that the socks were “boggy” and felt “squishy” while running once they were wet. His feet also got noticeably toasty. He also noticed some pilling on the lycra upper.

Brooke didn’t experience the bogginess that Chipper felt and in her studies, she thought that the SeaSnugs retained less water than socks like the Swiftwick Aspire. The socks are so snug in her shoes that she doesn’t get any debris in her socks and shoes during transitions.

Chris was not a fan of running in the socks. Transitions weren’t an issue at all with a sandy beach entrance and exit. They felt squishy and the seams felt like they were generating hot spots on the run. It got to the point where during his last run leg of his test he ran to the car to see if he had a spare set of socks to change into.

Annie wasn’t able to run in the SeaSnugs but she commutes to work on a bike and used the socks under her cycling shoes and they worked amazingly! Also, they are way cheaper than cycling-specific options.

Chris’s Pull Buoy Ranking

Chris gave the SeaSnugs 2 pull buoys. They were fine in the swim but they weren’t fun on the run and they weren’t for him.

Annie’s Pull Buoy Ranking

While Annie wasn’t able to test the SeaSnugs in a Swimrun and abstained from giving it a pull buoy ranking on that front. She did have two categorical rankings for the socks.

She gave them 4 pull buoys for non-Swimrun applications such as cycling in the Pacific Northwest.

She also gave them 5 pull buoys if your Swimrun partner uses them and swears by them.

Chipper’s Pull Buoy Ranking

Chipper gave the SeaSnugs 2.5 pull buoys. They weren’t for him. He does see an application for them but he wasn’t a fan of how hot his feet got and the seams were problematic. Side note: these socks are a great hack for cycling in cold and/or rainy weather.

Brooke’s Pull Buoy Ranking

Maybe not surprisingly, Brooke gave the SeaSnugs 4.5 pull buoys. She loves them on the run and the swim and has had zero issues using them. She took away ½ a pull buoy acknowledging that the seams could cause issues for folks.

Overall Impressions

It’s one of the best qualities of Swimrun that there’s no one way to do anything. This even includes the choice of socks. While these socks might not be for everyone, it was fun trying out the SeaSnugs to try to understand why Brooke was so into them.

That’s it for this week’s Gear Talk show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions, and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 07:00:00 +0000

AMA #1 with Tower 26 Coaches Megan and Jim

Welcome to episode forty-two of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we have our first AMA-style episode with Tower 26 coaches Megan Melgaard and Jim Lubinski. We were lucky to get these super experienced coaches on the show and it was a lot of fun. We asked them a bunch of listener questions about open water swimming and, it’s safe to say, that we learned a ton and think that you will as well. More on the interview later in the show.

Training Update

We had a good week of training with a big 3-hour Swimrun practice to dial everything in for Ödyssey Swimrun Austin on November 8th. It’s almost taper time so please pray for our wives as we will surely get moody on race week. Racing Odyssey Swimrun Austin? Check out our full course preview guide here.

Shout Out/Feats of Endurance Weekly Award

This week we’re doing a combo shout out to Adrian Cameron. He’s a member of our Strava Club and participated in Ödyssey Swimrun’s Austin course preview training day and was essentially our man on the ground. He gave the club a ton of great intel on the course and we really appreciate him taking the time to share the knowledge. If that wasn’t enough, we got the idea on Sunday night to try to get Adrian on the show to do an Addendum for our Austin Course Preview episode and he was down to help us with that. That Addendum bonus episode is out now! Major tip of the hat to Adrian.

This Week in Swimrun

We have a short report this week.

ÖTILLÖ Cannes took place over the weekend. The weather looked much better than last year and everything that we saw about the event looked amazing. Big shoutouts to former guests of the show Desirée for winning the mixed division with her partner, Guillaume Heneman, and for Nicolas Remirez finishing in third place overall with his partner, Francesc De Lanuza Gimeno.

Over in the Canary Islands of Spain, Swimrun Fuerteventura took place. Can’t believe we’re saying this…but we may have added yet another race to the bucket list. The photos of the event looked spectacular and it looked like a nature paradise to swim and run in.

We’re sure that we may have missed some events. Send us an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com and tip us off if there’s are a race that you are doing and we’ll do our best to include it.

LTBz Updates

Our latest column in Triathlete Magazine, What to Expect at Your First Swimrun Race, is out in the digital newsstands now! Check it out and give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it.

Ödyssey Swimrun Austin is super close to selling out! Join us in Texas, if it’s safe for you to do so, and use the code LOWTIDEBOYZ and save 25% on your entry. In addition, if you’re racing Austin but still need a Swimrun wetsuit, we have some that we can bring for you to use for the race. We have 3 Men’s medium (Blueseventy Alliance Swimrun Long-sleeved, Orca RS1 Short-sleeved, Head MyBoost Pro Sleeveless) and 2 Men’s large suits (Blueseventy Alliance Swimrun Long-sleeved and Zone3 Swimrun Evolution Short-sleeved.) Send us a message and we’ll make sure to bring it for you.

Finally, head over to our website to pick up some cool Löw Tide Böyz gear and show your Low Tide Pride.

Interview

Now for this week’s AMA-style interview with Megan Melgaard and Jim Lubinski from Tower 26. Megan and Jim are super experienced triathlon and open water swim coaches. They have helped thousands of athletes improve in open water and we were lucky to be able to pepper them with questions from our listeners. We covered everything from how to get started with open water swimming to how to use open water sessions to replace pool sets if you don’t have access to a pool. This was a great conversation and we already anticipate having them back on the show so answer more questions in the near future.

You can learn more about Tower 26 and the coaching offerings on their website. If you want to follow Jim on Instagram his handle is @jimlube and if you want to follow Megan her Instagram is @meganmelgaard.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 22 Oct 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Ödyssey Swimrun Austin Course Preview: Addendum

Welcome to this bonus episode of the Löw Tide Böyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

A few weeks ago, we dropped our deep dive course preview of the Ödyssey Swimrun Austin race coming up on November 8th. That episode has been listened to over 500 times and it appears that folks are getting a lot of value from it…which we love.

Given that this is a first-year race, there are a lot of gaps in our review. Fortuitously, Ödyssey put together a course recon training day at Pace Bend Park this past weekend and one of our Strava Club members, Adrian Cameron, was on the scene and brought back some great intel that he shared with the club. The intel was so great that we thought that we should produce a quick addendum to the Course Preview episode and get Adrian on to share his insight with everybody.

So without further ado, we welcome Adrian to the show and get right to it!

Ride’em Cowboy AGAIN! (Updates to our Short and Long Course Leg Breakdowns)

As a refresher, Swimrun Austin offers two distance options: short course (total distance 8.96 miles; total run 7.04 miles; total swim 3396 yards/1.92 miles) and long course (total distance 16.42 miles; total run 13.04 miles; total swim 6036 yards/3.38 miles). Both courses offer solo and team divisions. You can check out the detailed map for both courses here.

The Ödyssey course recon training day didn’t cover the entire course but there were a lot of additions that we were able to make to our leg by leg breakdown of the course.

Ödyssey Swimrun Austin Short Course Annotated Leg Breakdown:

Run 1 - 2.11 miles (Flat run)

Swim 1 - 663 yards (Swimming with the current)

Run 2 - 1.28 miles (Slightly hilly run)

Swim 2 - 1166 yards (Swimming with the current; wind might be an issue)

Run 3 - 2.49 miles (Flat/rocky run; Cliff jump option into Swim 3)

Swim 3 - 1582 yards (Swimming with the current)

Run 4 - 1.15 miles (Flat run)

Ödyssey Swimrun Austin Long Course Annotated Leg Breakdown:

Run 1 - 2.11 miles (Flat run)

Swim 1 - 663 yards (Swimming with the current)

Run 2 - 1.28 miles (“Lite” hills run)

Swim 2 - 1166 yards (Swimming with the current; wind might be an issue)

Run 3 - 2.12 miles (Narrow trails, rocky, and hard-packed; first half is mostly uphill; Sandy at points in the second half the run; finishing with a very steep run down a boat ramp to Swim 3)

Swim 3 - 1145 yards (Swimming against the current; Current mild or non-existent if water levels remain low; stick close to the cliffs to keep the swim as short as possible; very steep water exit so make sure your hands are paddle-free upon exit)

Run 4 - 3.33 miles (Slightly less flat but still pretty flat run; this run is exposed and could be very hot; very steep start but then levels off; pretty narrow trail so it will be mostly single file; the end of run has another super steep boat ramp to get to the swim leg)

Swim 4 - 536 yards (Swimming against the current; Current mild or non-existent if water levels remain low; wind might be an issue; swim start has about 6 inches of muck for about 20’ out; make sure your shoes are on tightly so you don’t get a “flat tire”)

Run 5 - .56 miles (Flat run; this is a “teamwork-heavy” section; the swim exit for this run is very steep; you will need your hands free for this technical section; there are bathrooms along the road of this run; cliff jump option into Swim 5; the highest jumping-off point is around 20’ but athletes can scale down some ledges to make a smaller jump)

Swim 5 - 955 yards (Swimming against the current; Current mild or non-existent if water levels remain low; wind might be an issue)

Run 6 - 2.49 miles (Flat/Rocky run; cliff jump option into Swim 6)

Swim 6 - 1582 yards (Swimming with the current)

Run 7 - 1.15 miles (Flat run)

Final Thoughts

It’s important to note that the water temperature was 78 degrees Fahrenheit (the air temperature was 62 degrees) during the course training day. You can check the water temps for yourself here. Folks should plan accordingly for that. Other than that, paying attention during the trial runs will help prevent collisions and tripping on roots, rocks, and the like.

We want to thank Adrian again for taking the time to give us his field report. He’s going to do great on race day…and so will all of you!

That’s it for this week’s bonus show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and leave us a review. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback and/or suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 20 Oct 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Team Precision Hydration UK

Welcome to episode forty-one of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we have Ben and Rhian Martin of Team Precision Hydration UK. You can probably guess where they are based out of by this point but what you might not know is that they were the number 1 ranked mixed team in the Ötillö World Series in 2017 and 2018. They’ve traveled all over Europe to race and they share their wealth of experience in this interview. Get your notepads ready for this pro-tip bonanza! More on the interview later in the show.

Training Update

We’re back to our regularly scheduled programming…in terms of training. With Ödyssey Swimrun Austin around the corner, we are sharpening our knives/rusty machetes with a big Swimrun practice this weekend. Yeehaw!

Shout Outs

This week we’re shouting out our newest Patron on Patreon, Team Max Mockermann, AKA, G Flo, and Tobias. They have been friends of the show since our early days and we really appreciate all their feedback and insider product reviews that they’ve been sending our way. Much like us, they take Swimrun and Swimrun gear seriously but don’t take themselves seriously and we can’t wait to be able to race with them at some point. Thanks again for the support guys!

Feats of Endurance Weekly Award

Our award this week goes out Sarah V. She did something that has been on our bucket list over the weekend that was pretty much a shoe-in for getting the award: a rim to rim to rim Grand Canyon run. Make sure to join our Strava Club to be part of the action.

This Week in Swimrun

We have a fun report this week.

Keen As Mustard Events in the U.K. was at it again this past weekend with Box End Bedford Swimrun. It was looking chilly out here but hey, it could be way worse! At least that’s the look that people had when they crossed the finish line.

Swimrun Portugal hosted the 4th edition of Swimrun Madeira and it looked amazing. We checked in with Race Director Bruno Safara (and former guest of the podcast) after the race and he told us that he got his mind blown with how perfect the weather was. The water was 23 degrees Celsius (73 Fahrenheit)!!

Gravity Race Lake Annecy looked like a dope event. (Fun fact: Lac d’Annecy is basically the next lake over from Lac du Bourget to the northeast where last week’s Swimrun Aix-les-Bains) The courses and the views looked great. The event had a 44k distance that looked particularly sporty. They also had over 550 participants which would have seemed huge in 2019 but in 2020 it’s just bonkers!

Finally, ÖTILLÖ Cannes is happening this weekend. After the Utö bummer fest a few weeks back, it will be great to see Ötillö back to hosting a Swimrun! Check out last year’s hype video, The Force of Nature, to see what it’s all about. (The video was produced by our former guest of the show, Rasmus Lodenius)

We’re sure that we may have missed some events. Send us an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com and tip us off if there’s a race that you are doing and we’ll do our best to include it.

LTBz Updates

Ödyssey Swimrun Austin is closing in fast! Join us in Texas, if it’s safe for you to do so, and use the code LOWTIDEBOYZ and save 25% on your entry!

Our friends at Precision Hydration have turned on our discount code again so make sure that you use the code LOWTIDEBOYZ to save 15% off your order. We recently re-upped on our supply and are looking forward to testing out our new (and much improved) hydration strategy at Swimrun Austin in a few weeks. Precision Hydration is the official hydration partner of Ödyssey so we won’t be able to use hydration issues as an excuse for our “race performance.”

Finally, head over to our website to pick up some cool Löw Tide Böyz gear and show your Low Tide Pride.

Interview

Now for this week’s interview with Team Precision Hydration UK. Ben and Rhian Martin are the second husband and wife Swimrun team that we’ve had on the show. They took up the sport in 2015. They quickly became the fastest team within the UK in the early years and became the number 1 ranked mixed team in the Ötillö World Series in 2017 and 2018. They’ve raced many of the Ötillö and Breca Swimrun races including Isle of Scilly, Germany, Croatia, Malta, Wales, and qualified for the Ötillö World Championships 4 times.

We had a great conversation that covered everything from training and racing while coordinating schedules as they were growing their family, to great pro-tips for Swimrunners coming into the sport.

There were so many pro-tips that we just thought we’d list them here:

Advanced Swimrun Tips

Plan out your nutrition and your hydration strategy in detail for the event that you’re racing and estimate how much gels and salt to take on.
Know what’s available at the energy stations of your race (and where they are located on the course) and plan accordingly from there.
Write down your nutrition plan for when you plan to take on gels and salt and have it with you on race day.
If you’re carrying both caffeinated and non-caffeinated gels, have one partner carry the caffeinated ones and the other partner carry the non-caffeinated gels so that there’s no time wasted trying to read the label to make sure you’re not getting wired at the wrong stage of the race.
Plan ahead of time where you think that you’ll be cabbing down during a race. For example, if you know that you’ll be cabbing down if a run is longer the few miles, make that part of your race plan so that you and your partner can be in sync during the transition.
Unexpected things are likely to happen during a race so keep your wits about you and solve problems as they arise. Know what exists
Communication is key.
Practice your transition routine for going in and out of the water and have a clear understanding of which team member is doing what during the transition. This can save teams a lot of time so have a strategy for transitions laid out.
The more you know about the currents of the race course the more it can be really helpful in saving a lot of time during a race.

As mentioned at the start, a veritable bonanza of pro-tips for Swimrunners!

Rhian recently started her own coaching business and is working with Triathletes and Swimrunners so check that out at www.rhianmartinfitness.com if you’re looking for coaching. If you have any Swimrun questions for Ben and Rhian you can send them a DM on Instagram.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions, and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 15 Oct 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Lauren and Matt Hurley of Black Sheep Endurance Project

Welcome to episode forty of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we have coaches Lauren and Matt Hurley from Black Sheep Endurance Project on the show. Besides being super accomplished athletes in their own right, they are also leading the way in training athletes for multisport and Swimrun. Get your notepads ready because this show is packed with great info. More on the interview later in the show.

Training Update

Air quality continues to be an issue in Northern California but we are getting out when we can. With Ödyssey Swimrun Austin just over a month away, we are starting to dial in our gear and plan a couple of long Swimrun practices—weather permitting—and we should be ready for the endurance hootenanny.

Shout Outs

This week we’re shouting out the country of Taiwan. They clawed their way into the top ten of our most downloads list and we are stoked to see our friends in Asia checking out the show. Fun fact: 65% of all wetsuits are made in Taiwan.

Feats of Endurance Weekly Award

Our award this week goes out Lana C. She’s been holding it down in the Strava Club for all of Australia and has been putting in consistent work all Spring(?) long. Keep it up!

This Week in Swimrun

We have a short report this week.

Keen As Mustard Events in the U.K. had another race this past weekend. The Nene Park Peterborough Swimrun had three distance options with a mix of solo and team categories for the 21km long course race. It looked a bit chilly out there so perhaps the smiling faces were frozen in place but at least folks were smiling.

Over in eastern France, Swimrun Aix-les-Bains looked like a cool urban Swimrun going around Lac du Bourget. In case you’re wondering what’s going on in Aix-les-Bains, it is known as a thermal spa town and swimming, sailing, golf, and now Swimrun are the popular sports. Landmarks include the Roman ruin, Temple of Diana, in the town hall, and the belle epoque Château de la Roche du Roi.

We’re sure that we may have missed some events. Send us an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com and tip us off if there’s a race that you are doing and we’ll do our best to include it.

LTBz Updates

Ödyssey Swimrun Austin is just a month away! Join us in Texas and use the code LOWTIDEBOYZ and save 25% on your entry. The fun will be had by all!

Our friends at Precision Hydration have turned on our discount code again so make sure that you use the code LOWTIDEBOYZ to save 15% off your order. Have questions about PH? You can literally email them and a live human being will talk you through which products will work best for you! Be sure to check out our episode featuring Precision Hydration Co-Founder Andy Blow.

Finally, head over to our website to pick up some cool Löw Tide Böyz gear and show your Low Tide Pride at your local Costco and other locations where shirts are required.

Interview

Now for this week’s interview with Lauren and Matt from The Black Sheep Endurance Project!

Lauren Hurley (formerly Goss) was a pro triathlete before becoming a coach and Matt Hurley was a coach with Purple Patch Fitness before they started Black Sheep Endurance Project together in 2019. They met at 2018 Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon and legend has it that Matt fell instantly in love with Lauren.

We had a great conversation where we chatted about how they developed their coaching philosophy, how Black Sheep instantly took off when they launched it in 2019, how they intentionally keep the number of athletes that they coach low so that they can focus on one-on-one coaching and their plans for the future.

We couldn’t help but hit them up for free coaching advice since we had them on the show and they did not disappoint. We discussed how to work on specificity in the pool and how to apply that in open water. We got some great tips for doing big swim sets in a fatigued state. We got their advice on swim paddle size. And so much more! We definitely got a lot out of this interview and think that our listeners will as well.

Black Sheep Endurance Project doesn’t really have a website so the best way to get a hold of them is through DM’s on Instagram.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram, and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 8 Oct 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Rasmus Lodenius

Welcome to episode thirty-nine of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we the Martin Scorsese of Swimrun hype films; the one and only Rasmus Lodenius. If you’ve ever been on YouTube at 2:30 am geeking out on Swimrun videos, there’s a good chance that you’ve been turned on to the sport by Rasmus and his team. We are super stoked for this interview and we’ll get to that later in the show.

Training Update

So we got back to training and had to hit the pause button yet again due to wildfires and poor air quality in Northern California. We are still going full steam ahead for Ödyssey Swimrun Austin on November 8, 2020, and managed to get some good Swimrun practices in before the smoke came back. We’re back to working out indoors until the skies clear…again.

Shout Outs

This week we’re shouting out Piet from The Netherlands or as it’s called in Spanish, Los Países Bajos. He’s a fan of the show and was cool enough to fill us in about a Swimrun event in the Netherlands that took place over the weekend that he participated in. Thanks for the support Piet!

Feats of Endurance Weekly Award

Our award this week goes out to the 2020 Mr. Löw Tide Böy Award Winner: Marcus Barton. He completed a 24-hour adventure race over the weekend. No big deal for him but it looked intense to us mere mortals.

Make sure to check out our Strava Club to be a part of the love/kudos fest!

This Week in Swimrun

We heard about a couple of Swimrun events this past weekend that looked pretty cool. (Programming Note: as more events start popping up, we’re going to have a harder time getting them all included in the show but we’ll do our best.)

Swimrun Sport Nederland took place on Saturday. (Thanks to Piet again for telling us about the event) This was the third year of the event and sold out with 175 participants. While the race didn’t have a lot of elevation on the course, it looked like a fun time was had by all with three distance options to accommodate different skill levels. We although think that their race tag line was pretty good: “you swim in your shoes on and run in your wetsuit.” That pretty much sums up the sport!

Epic Blue Swimrun Finale Ligure took place on Sunday. Located on the Italian Riviera on the Gulf of Genoa, Finale Ligure looked like an amazing place to host a race and the photos from the event didn’t disappoint and our bucket list of races to try just got longer.

In more of bummer news, ÖTILLÖ Utö was canceled during race week due to their permit being unexpectedly pulled. Michael and Mats were as frustrated as the rest of us with the news but, as usual, the Swimrun community came through to still make the weekend special. Our friends at Wild Swimrun had a bunch of ladies on the island on Saturday to casually follow the route and the good folks at Envol Coaching have a large group out on Sunday on the course. Finally, everyone was able to get into the action to support some great causes with Ark Sports’ Dark Swimrun virtual race.

We’re pretty sure that we may have missed some events. Send us an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com and tip us off if there’s are a race that you are doing and we’ll do our best to include it.

LTBz Updates

Ödyssey Swimrun Austin is just about a month away so make sure that you use the code LOWTIDEBOYZ and save 25% on your entry and join us in Texas for some Swimrunning, cliff jumps, and other fun stuff.

Our friends at Precision Hydration have turned on our discount code again so make sure that you use the code LOWTIDEBOYZ to save 15% off your order. We swear by the stuff and don’t see that stopping anytime soon. If that wasn’t already awesome enough, PH has given our listeners a 15% off code for their The Science of Endurance Hydration Training Peaks online course. Use the code PODCAST15 and get your hydration education on! Finally, make sure to check out our interview with PH Co-founder Andy Blow to get your mind blown about proper hydration for Swimrun and life.

Our new swag store is up and running. Head over to our website to pick up a shirt and some stickers.

Interview

Now for this week’s interview with Rasmus Lodenius!

It was really great to sit down with him and learn about his journey as a filmmaker and how he got hooked up with ÖTILLÖ to work on their race films. It was especially cool to get to peek behind the curtain to see how these race hype films get made since for so many of us these films are our first introduction to the sport of Swimrun.

In the interview we chat about everything from his upbringing on the island of Utö, his experiences in film school, how he learned about Swimrun and ultimately started working with ÖTILLÖ, and finally his experience of his first Swimrun race as a participant at the 2020 ÖTILLÖ Final 15 event. We covered a lot of ground in this episode and really appreciated Rasmus taking the time to chat with us.

Check out these videos on YouTube to see some of Rasmus’s best work (as curated by Rasmus):

ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Cannes 2019 - The Force of Nature

ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Malta 2019 – The Breakwater

ÖTILLÖ The Swimrun World Championship 2019 - Speechless

ÖTILLÖ – The Dream 2020

ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Catalina 2020- Welcome to America

You can follow Rasmus on Instagram and on his YouTube channel.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions, and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 1 Oct 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Paddles for Swimrun

Welcome to Gear Talk with Annie and Brooke from Swimrun Labs.

In this episode, we do a deep dive into Swim Paddles for Swimrun. If you’re new to Swimrun you’ve probably seen photos or videos of races with folks wearing giant paddles, and other swimrun gear, as part of the race kit. We discuss why paddles are so ubiquitous in Swimrun, how to minimize your risk of injury in using paddles, and we have a discussion of what paddles we’ve used, and why.

Gear Updates/First Impressions

The Ark Sports ORNÖ 02 sagas continue with Chipper developing a hole in the sleeve area of his suit. He applied a patch kit. He got some advice from Annie on how to fix it and reached out to Ark Sports for more advice on how to patch the hole. We shall see how that holds up and report back.

Main Discussion: Swim Paddles

History of Using Swim Paddles in Swimrun

As the sport of Swimrun has evolved over the last 15 years, the ability of teams to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible (while wearing a full kit) has resulted in a lot of optimization for forwarding propulsion during the swim legs. Over the years the pattern that emerged was using a big pull buoy (such as the Ark Sports Keel) coupled with a large set of swim paddles as the established method for most speed.

As you will see below, the answer to whether swimming with giant paddles makes you faster is that “it depends.” It depends on a lot of factors that we will discuss below.

Swim Paddle Education

We chatted with Coach John Stevens for his advice on paddles.

Legend has it that John was actually born with paddles on his hands. He is the only Swimrunner we’ve ever heard of with a stroke so powerful that he actually cracked a paddle in half while swimming. One of the strongest swimmers on the US Swimrun circuit, John and his partner have won Odyssey Casco Bay every year of its running since 2016. He has coached swimming at many levels and currently offers his coaching services to triathletes and Swimrun athletes through Purple Patch Fitness.

Should every Swimrunner use paddles?

Every Swimrun athlete should aspire to use paddles, but it may not be the right thing off the bat. For example- my Swimrun partner Matt Hurley couldn’t translate paddles to his stroke, it slowed his cadence too much and actually slowed him down. Do it unless you have a hx of shoulder issues, and make sure you’re in shape swimming wise and your form is there.
What guidelines and technique elements should someone keep in mind if they are interested in safely and sustainably using paddles?
- Work on the catch. If you’re dropping the elbow on the catch you’re pulling with just your hand and putting a strain on the bicep and rotator cuff. The idea is a high elbow allows you to scoop water with your forearm too and engage your lats.
- If you know you have a tendency to drop your elbow, build into paddles very intentionally.
- If you push out to the side to balance your breath stroke or do the keyhole or S, you are also liable for injury with paddles.
- Midline cross over is another liability.
- Elements in Swimrun such as shoes, wetsuit, and pull buoy cause less rotation, more of a square swim stroke is actually better for Swimrun and better for injury prevention with paddles. don’t let your arm move out or in, keep it it’s lane and elbow high.

Injury Prevention when using Paddles for Swimrun

This is obviously super important because we don’t want anyone getting hurt trying to keep up with Joneses. Brooke wrote a pretty detailed article all about shoulder injury prevention in Swimrun that we recommend that everyone check out.

Are Bigger (Paddles) Better?

Coach John weighed in on this question as well.

How can an athlete determine optimal paddle size, and what are the pitfalls of a paddle that’s too large vs. a paddle that’s too small?
- Always start smaller than you think you need and build into it. Even if you’re advanced, start small.
- If your turnover has slowed down, your paddle is too big and you’re likely depowering your stroke.
- Elements of the course should be taken into account when decided what size paddles to use.
We are seeing a paddle size trend to a larger and larger paddle among European racers- should we follow suit?
- NO. This works for very few people. Be honest about how strong of a swimmer you are. Do you have resiliency build up in your shoulders? If you are this person, you’re probably a lifelong swimmer, you’ve probably used paddles and know how to use them.
Flat vs. curved- any thoughts?
- Fan of flat. Allow you to get a hold of the water and pull more directly.
- Always look for holes in the flat paddle- the more the better and if there are no holes you might as well consider them to be the next size up because there is so much more resistance.
- Curved paddles don’t hold water as well per John’s opinion

Finally, we asked Coach John about what paddles he uses and why.

Favorite paddle- what do you use for training and racing?
- 2 or 3 different size paddles: small for shorter faster stuff with higher cadence arm turnover
- Tempo or longer and harder = medium size paddle
- Endurance or aerobic pace long sessions= large paddles to just build strength
- After taking time off a couple of years ago for an injury he transitioned from using med size paddles for racing down to small.
- Big paddles were out because: shoulder injury, front swimmer, slow cadence
- Strokemaker- tried and true and huge range of sizes, very durable
- Also likes the ark paddle, it’s a lot lighter. Can’t say he notices the weight when swimming, they are nice for stuffing in your wetsuit.
- Durability is really key in Swimrun- the lighter the less durable and encountering rocks in transition is notorious for snapping paddles.

What Swimrun Paddles Are We Using

Chipper:

Roka Pro Swim Paddles $23 (For Training)

Ark Blade $32 (For Racing)

Chris:

Roka Pro Swim Paddles $23 (Currently using these for training and racing)

Speedo Power Plus Paddles $19.99 (Previously used these for training)

Brooke and Annie:

Finis Agility Paddles $21.99 (For Training)

Synergy Power Swim Paddles $8.95 (For Racing)

Final Thoughts

We can say with some certainty that using paddles will make you faster but that comes with some caveats.

First, make sure that you ease into using paddles to make sure that you build up strength and technique. Strength building and Injury prevention should be the top priority as you start using paddles. Check out this article on Swimrunlabs.com for an amazing resource on shoulder injury prevention in swimrun.

Second, bigger isn’t always better…when it comes to swimming paddles. Take into account your strength and technique as well as the racecourse that you are training for. Wind, waves, and currents can definitely minimize any potential speed gains in using giant paddles and destroy your shoulders in the process.

Finally, take into account durability. Make sure whatever paddles you end up using are strong enough to handle rocky swim exits and everything else that can come at you during a race. Nothing derails a race faster than having gear issues so think ahead about replacing straps and checking for cracks before something breaks.

That’s it for this week’s Gear Talk show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions, and/or meme ideas. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 29 Sep 2020 07:00:19 +0000

Ödyssey Swimrun Austin Course Preview

Welcome to episode thirty-eight of the Löw Tide Böyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

We’ve got a super-comprehensive course preview for you this week. We’re doing a deep dive to give you as much information as possible for Ödyssey Swimrun Austin happening on November 8, 2020. This is our second attempt at this type of show and we tweaked the format a little bit to take into account that this will be the first year for this event.

These episodes are pretty labor intensive and we definitely could not have done this without the help from Lars Finanger and the rest of the crew from Ödyssey Swimrun, Lauren and Matt Hurley from the Black Sheep Endurance Project, and Bronwen and Greg from team Boston Wet Sox. A huge thank you for sharing all their insight for this show.

Let’s get right to it!

The Stars at Night are Big and Bright…. (Getting to Austin and What to Do)

Swimrun has arrived in Texas! For anyone who’s not familiar with the great state of Texas, it’s a pretty massive state with a lot of variety in terms of terrain and climates. Swimrun Austin takes place in Pace Bend Park in Spicewood, Texas. This Park is within the city limits of Austin and is about an hour drive (40ish miles away/1hr drive) from the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Here’s a handy link for directions via Google Maps.

Hotels, rental cars, and food are plentiful. If you’ve never spent time in Austin, we think that you’ll enjoy the vibe and the food is amazing although it skews towards non-vegetarians, I.e., Texas BBQ is legendary and totally worth checking out places like Salt Lick and Iron Works for BBQ and Moonshine Grill for southern comfort food (they have vegetarian options here.) You also can’t go wrong with any of the restaurants on Rainey St. near downtown Austin. PRO TIP: save the BBQ for after the race.

Yee-haw! (Intro to Swimrun Austin)

The Austin Hill Country, where the race is located, is well known for trail running and water sports so it’s a natural place to combine those two activities for a Swimrun race. We chatted with Ödyssey Race Director Lars Finanger about how he found Pace Bend Park and why he thought that it would be a great place to host a Swimrun.

Lars gave us a lot of info about Pace Bend Park and explained why this location is perfectly suited for Swimrunning. The courses don’t favor runners or swimmers and have a good mix of both making it a great race for everyone.

Ride’em Cowboy! (Ödyssey Swimrun Austin Short and Long Course Breakdowns)

Swimrun Austin offers two distance options: short course (total distance 8.96 miles; total run 7.04 miles; total swim 3396 yards/1.92 miles) and long course (total distance 16.42 miles; total run 13.04 miles; total swim 6036 yards/3.38 miles). Both courses offer solo and team divisions. You can check out the detailed map for both courses here.

The air temperature on race day can be unpredictable. While the average air temp. for early November is 70 degrees Fahrenheit. According to the weather almanac, the weather on November 8 last year was 50 degrees. The water temps are pretty much unknown and could be anywhere 60-80 degrees.

Lars shared with us a leg by leg breakdown of both the short and long courses and we have added as many details as we could to our leg summaries below. In short, the theme for Swimrun Austin is race “heads up” and follow the pink ribbons and flags.

Ödyssey Swimrun Austin Short Course Leg Breakdown:

Run 1 - 2.11 miles (Flat run)

Swim 1 - 663 yards (Swimming with the current)

Run 2 - 1.28 miles (Slightly hilly run)

Swim 2 - 1166 yards (Swimming with the current)

Run 3 - 2.49 miles (Flat/rocky run; Cliff jump option into Swim 3)

Swim 3 - 1582 yards (Swimming with the current)

Run 4 - 1.15 miles (Flat run)

Ödyssey Swimrun Austin Long Course Leg Breakdown:

Run 1 - 2.11 miles (Flat run)

Swim 1 - 663 yards (Swimming with the current)

Run 2 - 1.28 miles (“Lite” hills run)

Swim 2 - 1166 yards (Swimming with the current)

Run 3 - 2.12 miles (A little hard to plot out but it looks pretty flat)

Swim 3 - 1145 yards (Swimming with the current)

Run 4 - 3.33 miles (Slightly less flat but still pretty flat run; this run is exposed and could be very hot)

Swim 4 - 536 yards (Swimming against the current)

Run 5 - .56 miles (Flat run; this is a “teamwork-heavy” section; cliff jump option into Swim 5)

Swim 5 - 955 yards (Swimming against the current)

Run 6 - 2.49 miles (Flat/Rocky run; cliff jump option into Swim 6)

Swim 6 - 1582 yards (Swimming with the current)

Run 7 - 1.15 miles (Flat run)

Time for Supper! (Nutrition on the course)

The short course has 3 energy stations. The long course has 5 energy stations. It’s important to note that several of the aid stations are before swim entrances so planning your nutrition and hydration accordingly. The aid stations will have gels, electrolytes, and other snacks for participants. Both courses are cup-less so remember to bring a collapsible flask or cup with you.

As far as we know, there will not be any Texas BBQ at the aid stations.

Giddy Up! (Training for Swimrun Austin)

We chatted with Lauren and Matt Hurley from the Black Sheep Endurance Project to get their advice for training for the terrain in Pace Bend Park. They emphasized making sure that the swim fitness was dialed in before the event to make the race experience more enjoyable. They shared some key swim workouts to do that emphasize doing main sets after fatigue has set in.

We also asked Bronwen and Greg of team Boston Wet Sox how they are training for the Austin Long Course distance. They shared with us how they are ramping up for the race and mentioned that they plan to do a couple of race simulations of 3.5-4 hours to make sure that they are dialed in for the race.

Both Lauren and Matt and the Boston Wet Sox emphasized having a plan for the cliff jump sections. To sum it up, teams should have already figured out how they are going to negotiate the jumps (if they even decide to do them). Definitely do not jump with the tether attached. Jump feet first. Think about what you are going to do with your gear to make sure that it doesn’t go flying off.

Finally, our friends at Envol Coaching have also put together a 6-week training plan (for a fee) for folks that want a plan from the super-experienced Nicolas Remirez for both the short course and long course distances.

We think that participants have plenty of resources for training even though this Is a first-year event.

Ride off into the sunset (Final Thoughts)

Well, there you have it!

Ödyssey Swimrun Austin in a nutshell. We hope to see a bunch of familiar and new faces in Texas and look forward to closing out 2020 with some racing. If you were on the fence on signing up but we’ve managed to convince you…use the code LOWTIDEBOYZ when you register to save 25% on your registration fee.

We’re always trying to improve the show and we’d love to hear your feedback so let us know what you think. We wanted to give a final thanks once again to Lars and the Ödyssey Swimrun crew, Lauren and Matt Hurley of Black Sheep Endurance Project, and Bronwen and Greg of the Boston Wet Sox for their help in getting this course preview together.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram, and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 24 Sep 2020 07:00:09 +0000

Jon Littlewood from Swimrun Club

Welcome to episode thirty-seven of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show, we have Jon Littlewood from Swimrun Club. He’s a Swimrunner out of the UK that is doing some really cool stuff for the sport. More on his interview later in the show.

Training Update

Our training plans were ramping up for Ödyssey Swimrun Austin on November 8, 2020, but wildfires on the West Coast have put a bit of a pause button on our build towards the race. We have been forced to mostly workout indoors since the air quality has been dangerously unhealthy but will be back out there as soon as the sky clears.

Undeterred we are still super stoked for the race in a few months. Need some added incentive to sign up for Swimrun Austin? Use the code LOWTIDEBOYZ and save 25% on your entry.

Shout Outs

This week we’re shouting out the entire United Kingdom. Our listenership has been growing a ton in the UK and we are really appreciative of all the love and engagement on our meme page that we’ve been getting from across the pond. Hopefully, when COVID is past us and we get a chance to do our European show tour, we’ll be able to meet a lot of you when we come to town.

Feats of Endurance Weekly Award

Our award this week goes out to Donnie and Preston. These guys were some of our earliest Strava Club members and in the OG spirit of Swimrun do a lot of training together which we love to see. Congrats and keep up the good work guys!

This Week in Swimrun

We heard about a couple of Swimrun events this past weekend that looked pretty cool.

The Åland Swimrun took place on Saturday in Åland Finland. They had to modify the race a bit and cut out the “Tough Enough” 51k distance but they still hosted 3.5k, 8.5k, and 15k distances. The water looked a bit cold but everyone was smiling in the photos that we saw.

Bewl Water Swimrun put on by the Folks at As Keen as Mustard events happened on September 13th. That race featured 6k & 10k solo courses and a 21k solo and team course. This looked like a really fun local race.

We’re pretty sure that we may have missed some events. Send us an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com and tip us off if there’s are a race that you are doing and we’ll do our best to include it.

LTBz Updates

Our latest column in Triathlete Magazine, “What’s the best ‘Full Spec’ Swimrun Kit?” is out on the digital newsstands now! Let us know if there’s a burning Swimrun question that you’d like to have answered.

We got some new merch in the works so make sure that you check out our website for the latest in LTBz apparel and stickers.

We also just released a new Youtube video about how to make a lasso style swimrun pull buoy mount, so give that a look if that is something you are wanting to try out.

Finally, the rock flute intro is about to make a comeback! We are working on a course preview episode for Ödyssey Swimrun Austin so look for that to drop soon.

Interview

Next to us, Jon Littlewood is probably the most stoked person on Swimrun. He started out as a trail runner that enjoyed it most when the conditions were miserable. He was basically a Swimrunner before he knew that it was a sport. He learned about Swimrun in June of 2020 and has gone full speed ahead since then!

In this interview, we chat about how he fell in love with the sport, his mission to help grow the sport in the UK, and how he’s setting up Swimrun Club (a new app), Swimrun Radio (a new podcast, and his plans for the future. We covered a lot of ground in this episode and his passion for the sport is infectious. He has a lot of irons in the fire and we’re looking forward to seeing what Jon is able to build for the sport.

You can learn more about Swimrun Club and sign up to help test their forthcoming Swimrun app here. You can also learn about the soon to launch Swimrun Radio here.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions, and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 07:00:09 +0000

GPS Wearables for Swimrun

Welcome to Gear Talk with Annie and Brooke from Swimrun Labs.

On this episode, we answer a question that we got from several of our listeners: what GPS Wearable should I get for swimrun? We discuss everything that should be considered in choosing a GPS watch and share our personal favorites. But first…

Gear Updates/First Impressions

Annie ordered the Aquasphere Classic Pullbuoy that was mentioned on the Budget Swimrun Kit episode for $6 and free shipping. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as giant as advertised. It’s the size of a regular swim pull buoy. That being said, for $6 you can buy two of them and glue them together.

Ark Sports KORP

Brooke has continued to have water infiltration issues with her Ark Sports KORP wetsuit. She contacted Ark and they mentioned that she should have sized down…but didn’t offer to replace it for the right size since she had already used it in open water. While the KORP might run big, Chris mentioned that his VIGG suit might run small. So make sure that you are super confident about your size.

Ark Sports Keel+ Swimrun Pull Bouy

Finally, Chris and Chipper have started testing with Ark Sports Keel+ Pull Buoy (this item is sold out online). Chipper did a “scientific” test of 100 yard swims with nothing, a regular pool pull buoy, a Keel, and the Keel+. The Keel+ was definitely the fastest. Chipper also used the Keel+ in a swimrun practice and was a lot faster in a full kit. Chris did a longer non-scientific test of 500s with paddles alternating between the Keel and the Keel+ and his gut told him that the Keel+ was faster. It took some getting used to swimming with the Keel+ given the size and extra buoyancy in a pool without a full kit on.

We’ll have a full review on the Keel+ in a future show. In the meantime, you can listen to our complete review of the Keel Pull Buoy on Gear Talk.

GPS Wearables for Swimrun

Before getting into the details about the best GPS wearables and watches for Swimrun, we wanted to make some global statements about GPS watches.

First, having a GPS watch is not a necessity to participate in Swimrun or have fun out there so don’t let the lack of a GPS watch stop you from training and signing up for a race. Second, there are a lot of considerations about the technical features of the different watches. There is a better source for that type of analysis: DC Rainmaker is the gold standard for super in-depth reviews about specific watches. Finally, while most GPS watches have some form of heart rate monitoring and use different methods, either with a chest strap or wrist-based optical readers. Chest strap is the most accurate so if you’re looking for something for heart rate training and optical tracking is more for folks that aren’t totally devoted to zone training. Annie had some more thoughts on the matter that you can read below:

Optical HR sensor accuracy can vary from individual to individual. Aspects such as skin color, hair density, and position can impact accuracy. The band should be snug. It doesn’t need to leave marks, but you shouldn’t be able to slide a finger under the band (at least during workouts).
Chest strap will always be more accurate than optical. If you do a lot of steady state training, using a wrist based HRM is generally pretty reliable because there’s not much HR variation it needs to pick up. Still can be 2-10 BPM off though, which is a lot.
If your training is based on shorter intervals and you rely on HR to guide effort frequently, as in tightly zone-based training, opt for chest strap over optical HRM and save some bucks on your watch as you won’t need this feature. Wrist based HR can have a delay in presenting changes in HR, so if for example you are doing a 30 sec interval at higher intensity, you may be done with the interval before your watch picks up the effort increase.
One last note- 24x7 HR monitoring (am resting HR, avg resting HR) can be helpful for gaining a lens into when you may be over-fatigued, having trouble recovering from your training, or responding to other stressors in life. Fatigue and cumulative stress is an important metric to monitor for any athlete. Optical wrist HR does well with this application.

Some general recommendations that we have are the following:

Make sure that the watch is a GPS watch and doesn’t require you to run/swim with your phone.
Make sure that it has good battery life if you’re going to be doing longer events.
Make sure it’s waterproof.
Make sure that the watch has some form of multisport setting. (Either built-in like Garmin or able to add like Coros, Suunto, etc.)
Make sure that the watch can capture the metrics that you care about.

GPS Wearables and Watches that We’ve Used

Chris and Chipper both use the Garmin Fēnix 5 and would recommend it. It works well, has swimrun-specific settings, good battery life and it’s tough. Chris has used Suunto watches in the past but would always come back to Garmin. Chipper has always used Garmin watches for multisport events but hasn’t seen any reason to change.

Brooke uses the Garmin Forerunner 735xt and has had it for three years. She loves it because it calculates open water and pool swim metrics like SWOL score and stuff like that. The battery life lasts about 9 hours for her which is less than advertised but still pretty long life. (This watch is currently on sale on Amazon for $229.95!)

Annie also uses that Forerunner 735xt but first used the Suunto Ambit 3 Vertical for a long time. She had initially got the watch for its superior altimeter data collection (and because of the color: Bright Turquoise Blue) but she was disappointed with it when using it for Swimrun. The watch wasn’t easy to set up custom multisport settings. It did what it needed to do but it wasn’t ideal. Annie is super happy with her 735xt and recommends that people do not choose a watch based on the color.

NOTE: it’s easy to change the color of the Garmin watch bands if you want to bedazzle your GPS watch look with one of these color bands kits.

Here’s a handy list of the GPS wearables and watches that we know of that have Swimrun-specific or Multisport settings:

Garmin
- Forerunner 735xt
- Descent MK1
- tactix
- Fēnix 5, Fēnix 5s, and Fēnix 5x
- Fēnix 6
Suunto
Coros
Polar
- Vantage
- Grit

Overall Impressions

In closing, we all agree that while having a GPS watch is totally optional for Swimrun, we would recommend making your life easy and make sure that whatever watch you use collects and sends your data to your preferred method of recording, e.g., Strava, Training Peaks, Garmin Connect, etc. We’re obviously fans of Garmin but they are by no means the only way to go.

That’s it for this week’s Gear Talk show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme ideas. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 07:00:03 +0000

George Bjälkemo & Pontus Lindberg of Kraken Swimrun

Welcome to episode thirty-six of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On the show this week we are talking with George Bjälkemo and Pontus Lindberg of Kraken Swimrun to chat about their epic 3-day Swimrun Adventure covering the entire Stockholm Archipelago. Yes, you heard that right. A total distance of 242km while traversing 79 islands in just 42 hours! George and Pontus are also the reigning Ötillö World Champs and just super cool dudes. More on all this later in the show.

Training Update

Our training plans are ramping up now that we are just two months away from Ödyssey Swimrun Austin race on November 8, 2020. There will be lots of Swimrunning in the near future as we dial in our technique after not racing since early March.

A quick reminder that we want to see you at the race with us! We’ll be the guys in the back of the race. Need some added incentive? Use the code LOWTIDEBOYZ and save 25% of your entry.

Shout Outs

This week we’re shouting out Justin. We’ve known Justin for years and he got hooked on Swimrun at the Sprint distance race at Ötillö Catalina. He sent us some lovely feedback on the show and we really appreciate him taking the time to do that.

Feats of Endurance Weekly Award

Our award this week goes out to Nuno. He raced Swimrun Zêzere over the weekend and it did nothing to help our FOMO for not being able to be there are chatting with the race director last week.

Congrats and thanks for being part of our Strava Club community.

This Week in Swimrun

A lot of folks were riding the good vibes from the Ötillö Sprint Final 15k race in Utö and jumped into races this past weekend.

Västerås Swimrun took place in Björnön, Sweden. The race was capped at 150 participants and similar to other events in Sweden, the race started in waves of 50 athletes at a time. Apparently, they had two Djs on the course blasting beats! There were some pretty funny team names as well including “Team Cold Soups and Abrasions,” “Team Half Decent Sea Lions,” “Team Latina Lovers,” and our personal favorite “Team Chips on the Couch & Cream on the Waffle.” (Honorable mention: “Team Earth, Wind & Water”)

Breca Jersey went down on Saturday on the island of Jersey. Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands located between England and France. This 20K race looked very epic based on our in-depth Instagram research. Dare I say that this race has been added to our already very long bucket list.

Finally, Zêzere Swimrun looked like a blast on the Zêzere River in Portugal. The event had two distances: Standard (31k) and Sprint (14.7k). We had Race Director Bruno Safara on the show last week and we can’t help but root for him as he grows the sport in Portugal.

We’re pretty sure that we may have missed some events. Send us an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com and tip us off if there’s a race that you are doing and we’ll do our best to include it.

LTBz Updates

Our latest column in Triathlete Magazine, “What’s the best ‘Full Spec’ Swimrun Kit?,” is out on the digital newsstands now! Check it out and let us know if you agree with our choices for the best top of the line kit choices in all the main categories.

We got some new merch in the works so make sure that you check out our website for the latest in LTBz apparel and stickers.

Interview

The interview this week is just epic. George Bjälkemo and Pontus Lindberg of Kraken Swimrun are reigning World Champs and elite athletes. You would think that would be enough to get them on the show. We didn’t even talk to them about that because they came on to talk about their journey traversing the entire Stockholm Archipelago.

This conversation is all about how they decided that since the Otillo World Championship wasn’t happening this year that they would embark on an “Ultra Swimrun Adventure.” And what an adventure it was! We chatted with them about how they came up with the idea, why they decided to do this, how the event almost got derailed because they couldn’t find a boat driver, and finally, we get their “race report” breakdown on how each day went. This interview covered a lot of ground (figuratively for us) and hearing from George and Pontus about this feat was a lot of fun.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of their Kraken Ultra Swimrun Adventure’s stats:

They started in Arholma at dawn on Friday 28 August and reached Landsort at dusk on Sunday 30 August, covering in tot: 242 km (150 miles), 79 islands, in 42 hrs.

Stage 1: Arholma-Landsort, 12 hrs, 80 km (16,000 m swim/ 64 km run) [49.7 miles total], 32 islands. Longest swim 1,500 m (Ålandet-Gåsö) and longest run 10,5 km (Yxlan).

Stage 2: Möja-Ornö, 15 hrs, 86 km (8,700 m swim/77,3 km run) [53.4 miles total], 22 islands.

Longest swim 1,400 m (The ”Pig swim”) and longest run 18,5 km (Ornö).

Stage 3: Ornö-Landsort, 15 hrs, 76 km (13,700 m swim/ 62,3 km run) [47.2 miles total], 25 islands Longest swim 6,130 m (Danzige Gatt) and longest run 13,8 km (Utö).

There were a lot of people and sponsors that came together to help make this adventure be successful. Here’s a shoutout to everyone that was involved:

The Boat Driver:

Pehr Westman

The Kraken Swimrun Crew:

Thomas Ogander

Pär Kristoffersson

Joakim Axelsson

Fredrik Åström

Krinstin Larsson

Annika Ericsson

Ludvig Myrenberg

Fredrik Granström

Sponsors:

HEAD Swimming

Addnature

Clif Bar Sweden

Carlys Natural

You can follow Kraken Swimrun on Instagram to get an entire visual chronicle of their journey.

Our buddy Herbert Krabel at Slowtwitch also had a great write up about this adventure, so be sure to check that out as well!

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 10 Sep 2020 07:00:09 +0000

Bruno Safara of Swimrun Portugal

Welcome to episode thirty-five of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On the show this week we are going across the pond to Europe to learn about the Swimrun scene in Portugal with Bruno Safara of Swimrun Portugal. This was a fun one! More about the interview later in the show.

Training Update

Our training plans are still sideways due to forest fires in Northern California and the terrible air quality. We’re basically doing indoor stuff until the air quality improves.

One big piece of news in terms of training is that we will actually have to start training because we are committed to going to the Ödyssey Swimrun Austin race on November 8, 2020. We’ll be doing an Odyssey Swimrun Austin course preview show in the next few weeks in case you need any additional motivation to sign up and join us in Texas for some Swimrunning. In case you need any additional motivation to sign up, use the code LOWTIDEBOYZ, and save 25% of your entry. Just FYI, this race with be either preceded and/or followed by some serious Texas BBQ.

Shout Outs

This week we’re shouting out Per Åström. Chipper did some deep internet research and discovered that Per left the very first comment to our announcement of the launch of the podcast. He’s basically an OG from day 1 so a tip of the hat to you sir. For some reason if you don’t follow us on Instagram you are really missing out!

Feats of Endurance Weekly Award

This week’s award was a toss-up between two finalists so we decided to give the “prestigious” award to both of them. First, Courtney and Christian have put in some major miles together this past week. We think that they are a husband and wife mixed team. Second, Clare busted out a 90-mile ride on her trainer over the weekend. Yes, 90 miles…indoors.

Congrats and thanks for being part of our Strava Club community.

This Week in Swimrun

In case you were living under a rock this weekend and/or somehow cut off from WIFI, the Ötillö Sprint Final 15k race went off without a hitch in Utö. This two-day event featured 3 separate waves of 50 athletes each wave to comply with Swedish COVID rules. This weekend also featured some pretty gnarly weather so that must have been fun.

In more of a bummer than news to anyone, the Ötillö World Championship was slated to take place this past weekend and would have been the 15th race of the OG Swimrun. We are all looking forward to celebrating the 15th edition in 2021!

Swimrun Sumin happened in Sumin, Poland on Sunday. Looked like a cool local event and the photos on Instagram were FOMO inducing with the mix of town and trail runs and lake swims. This race had Marathon (42K), Sprint (27.7k), and Super Sprint (13.8k) distance options.

The Torekov Swimrun took place in Torekov, Sweden. The field was limited to 150 participants due to Swedish COVID rules but it looked like fun was had by all. The race only had one distance: 23k divided into 18 sections with 4.7k of swimming.

While it wasn’t a race per se, the Kraken Swimrun team of former and current Ötillö World Champs and other stout athletes completed the three-day adventure from Arholma to Landsort that we mentioned in last week’s show. The adventure ended up being a total of 242K’s of swimming and running, or roughly one Ötillö World Championship each day for three days! Check out their Instagram page and prepare to get your mind blown.

We’re pretty sure that we may have missed some events. Send us an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com and tip us off if there’s are race that you are doing and we’ll do our best to include it.

LTBz Updates

Our latest Gear Talk show with Swimrun Labs is out and it’s all about getting started in Swimrun on a budget. Check it out wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Keep sending in your submissions for our “International Swimrun Adventure Guide.” We got a bunch of entries and we’re almost ready to start putting something up on our site. As a reminder, If you have a great training route that you don’t want to keep secret you can head over to our website and fill out the form on our website homepage.

Interview

As mentioned above, this week we go to Portugal to get the story about how the Swimrun scene developed in that Country from Bruno Safara. A badass athlete in his own right, Bruno discovered Swimrun and never looked back. He organized one of the first races in Portugal in 2017 and now runs Swimrun Portugal that puts on six races in some of the coolest destinations in the country. In this interview we chatted about his background, how he decided to go all-in on Swimrun, Loch Ness, and “Nessie,” how he chooses venues and designs his racecourses, and what the future holds for events in Portugal.

Swimrun Portugal’s next race, Zêzere Swimrun, is happening on Sept. 6. We can’t wait to get out to one of Bruno’s races in the future! You can follow Swimrun Portugal on Instagram is you want some FOMO-inducing content in your life.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions, and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 3 Sep 2020 07:00:26 +0000

Budget Swimrun Gear Setup

Welcome to another episode of Gear Talk with Annie and Brooke from Swimrun Labs.

In this episode, we break down the different parts of the Swimrun kit with an emphasis on keeping it under a budget of $350 for those interested in getting into the sport of Swimrun but want to dip your toe in and not go full cannonball. We’ll talk more about that later in the show.

Gear Updates/First Impressions

Annie is still loving her Arc’teryx Norvan SL shoes. She’s now used them on a variety of endurance expeditions and they are holding up great! These are quickly becoming her favorite Swimrun shoe.

Brooke recently picked up an Ark Sports Women’s Ark KORP wetsuit. This was her first new suit in several years and said that running in the suit was totally amazing. Some water did get into the suit while swimming but she thinks that it could be a sizing issue. Overall, first impressions were mixed but optimistic.

Budget Swimrun Kit Roundtable

To frame this discussion, Chipper came up with a prompt and a goal that we used to come up with our recommendations.

Prompt: You are new to Swimrun. You run on trails on the weekends, but other than shoes you don’t really have any of the gear. You’re doing a race in 6 months and don’t want to invest too much money.

Goal: Create a budget-friendly Swimrun gear setup (not counting shoes, tether, nutrition, etc.) to get you started and stay under $350

With these cues in hand, we broke down the different elements of the Swimrun kit and talked about each gear category (goggles, pull buoy, etc.) and gave our thoughts on the best/cheapest gear to get you started. We also made recommendations on where you should splurge and where you can save some money. Most prices are approximate. Below is the breakdown of our choices:

Chipper: (Total $347)

Goggles: Speedo Vanquisher ($20)
Wetsuit: Blueseventy Alliance Swimrun Wetsuit ($240)
Pull Buoy: Ark Sports Keel ($47)
Undergarments: Under Armour sleeveless shirt ($20)
Paddles: Strokemaker Paddles ($20)

Chris: (Total $267)

Googles: whatever you already have. Don’t own goggles, I’m a fan of Aquasphere Kayenne ($28)
Wetsuit: Orca Core ($169)
Pull Buoy: Definitely spurge on this and get the Ark Sports Keel ($47)
Socks: use what you have (something with synthetic fibers. Cotton is not your friend.
Paddles: If you’re already training with paddles use those, if you’re not training with them, start with something manageable like the Speedo Power Paddle Plus ($20)

Annie: (Total: $198)

Wetsuit: Zone 3 Womens Swimrun Versa, currently on sale for ($137.50)
Goggles: Roka R1 goggles are a personal choice and fit issues vary between people, but your goggles definitely can’t suck. These are my favorite and it’s worth investing in a pair that works for you. ($33)
Pullbuoy: Aquasphere Classic Pullbuoy bigger than all the rest! ($6) One hole, one bungee cord ($1.50)
Undergarments: sports bra and sporty undies you already own, Versa wetsuit has 2 internal and 1 external pocket so no additional storage needed.

Brooke: (Total $219.39)

Goggles - Zoggs Predator Next Gen ($16.99)
Wetsuit - 2019 Orca Core ($169)
Pull Buoy - Rise Pull Buoy x2 and glued together for Mundo vibes $5 ea. ($10) + bungee cord ($1.50)
Undergarments - use what you have, but here are my fav socks and options for nutrition storage for longer events
- Socks: Seavenger Zephyr 3mm Neoprene Socks $16.95
- Belts: FlipBelt Classic Running Belt ($28.95) or just stuff gels in your sports bra...we’ve all done it. Or go with the RJ Sport Race Number Belt $8.95 Amazon. Also, stores some gels and has places to hook paddles.
Paddles - Synergy Swim Paddles $9.95

Overall Impressions

As you can tell, there are many ways to get race ready and that’s one of the cool things about Swimrun. There’s no right or wrong answer. Whatever works for you is the right answer. We recommend try before you buy whenever possible and reach out to other folks who might have gear that you can check out. (If you’re in the Bay Area, reach out to us and we can bring our gear to a swimrun practice for you to try out.)

If you are looking for more in-depth gear reviews be sure to check out other episodes of Gear Talk, Swimrun Undergarments, Swimrun Shoes, and various swimrun wetsuit reviews. We also have the beginner's swimrun gear guide called Swimrun Gear Guide.

That’s it for this week’s Gear Talk show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions, and/or meme ideas. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 1 Sep 2020 07:00:13 +0000

Herbert Krabel

Welcome to episode thirty-four of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On the show this week we Herbert Krabel. Co-race director of Swimrun NC and Editor of Slowtwitch. This was a fun, wide-ranging interview that we will chat more about later.

Training Update

Our training plans went sideways this past week due to forest fires in Northern California. We’ve had to stay indoors because of the poor air quality so there wasn’t too much training action that wasn’t on something stationary.

Our thoughts are with all the folks that have been evacuated from their homes (including Chris’s parents) and those working day and night to fight these fires and help those in need.

Shout Outs

This week we’re giving prospective shoutouts to a bunch of current and former Ötillö World Champions that are plaining on swimming and running the entire Stockholm Archipelago in three days. That’s 150K of trail running and about 50K of swimming or basically one Ötillö World Championship each day. George Bjalkemo, Pontus Lindberg, Kristin Larsson, and Annica Ericsson are the four athletes doing this. We will try to get them on the show to talk about this feat and ask the key questions: What? Why? What?!

Feats of Endurance Weekly Award

This week’s award is going out to Trista and Amy of Team Adorkable. They’ve definitely been embodying the spirit of this award all Summer with their feats putting in some serious mileage including a “secret” 50-mile trail run on a 1.5-mile loop last week! Keep it up, ladies!

This Week in Swimrun

As far as we could tell, there were three Swimrun events last weekend (August 22-23) including an Ötillö Merit Race in France. The photos looked great for all three events and definitely gave us some major FOMO. We would like to apologize in advance for butchering the pronunciations.

Skatås Sjöar Swimrun on August 22nd featured a 10km and 15km events. This event took place just outside of Gothenburg and definitely looked like it had a cool community vibe from all the photos that we saw on Instagram.

Immeln Swimrun in Immeln Sweden took place on August 22nd and featured a short (15km) and long (37km) course options. This race is put on by A to Be Events which we think is an awesome name for a Swimrun race company.

Swimrunman Great Lakes of Laffrey by HEAD in Laffrey France took place on August 23rd. Nothing like some swimrunning in the French Alps! The event featured Sprint (14.75km), Classic (22.1km), and Vertical Ötillö Merit race (30.6km) distances. The merit race looked particularly intense with the race finishing with a run-up to the top of Alpe Du Grand Serre.

If we missed any races or you want to tip us off to a future race that you want us to include, send us an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com and we’ll make sure to include it.

LTBz Updates

We’re going to have a couple of open water swim coaches from Tower 26 on the podcast in a few weeks and we’re going to this as an “Ask the Coaches” episode. Submit your open water swim questions to us via email or DM and we’ll get them asked on the show.

We just launched our Swimrun Gear Guide! This guide covers everything you need to get started doing swimrun, well for the gear portion at least.

Interview

It’s safe to say there is no one who has spread the gospel about Swimrun in the United States and beyond as much as Herbert Krabel has over the years. He has down pretty much every type of endurance event that there is to do including being a pro mountain bike racer for a while. When he found Swimrun, he was instantly hooked. We had a great wide-ranging conversation and we think you’ll enjoy it.

In this interview, we chat about Herbert’s athletic background, how he found triathlon, and then Swimrun. He recalled for us his first Swimrun race, Ötillö Engadin, and how that went. We spoke at length about Swimrun NC, his role as co-race director, and how that race has developed over the years. We also talk about the growth of Swimrun in the United States, what makes a good race, and what the future looks like.

You can follow Herbert on Instagram and read his articles on Slowtwitch.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions, and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 07:00:10 +0000

Cali Swimrun Girls

Welcome to episode thirty-three of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On the show this week we have Team Cali Swimrun Girls. Caroline Wolek and Kelsie Pearson are a Swimrun team out of Southern California and part of the California Swimrun crew with Andy Hewitt, Sean Durkin, The Swimrun Monks, and others. More about this interview later in the show.

Training Update

We didn’t do a Swimrun practice this weekend for the first time in a while. Our usual Sunday swim was also canceled due to thunderstorms…so it was a lite weekend of training. Chris finished his One Punch Man Challenge but is still trying to do a bunch of pushups every day for some reason.

Shout Outs

This week we are shouting out our newest patron on Patreon, Carolyn. She’s been a big supporter of the show since we launched it in January and a good friend to us since way before that.

Feats of Endurance Weekly Award

This week’s award is going out to Rob from San Anselmo. He’s been putting some work in! Congrats.

New Segment Alert

Starting next week, we will be launching a new segment for the show: This Week in Swimrun. We plan on updating everyone on the Swimrun events that happened around the world (and that we heard about) to showcase all the cool places where race directors are putting on races. We’ll probably not catch every single event, but we’ll try.

LTBz Updates

Our latest column in Triathlete Magazine, How to Pick an Awesome Swimrun Team Name, is out now so make sure that you check it out and give it a thumbs up if you liked it.

We recently posted our Swimrun Gear Guide to help everyone that might be looking for a place to start on all things Swimrun gear. We get asked a lot of questions about gear and what we use so we thought that we would write something up that we will update as we try new and review new stuff.

Our new-ish project, The International Swimrun Adventure Guide, is up and running and we’ve got a bunch more submissions. If you have a great training route that you don’t want to keep secret you can head over to our website and fill out the form on our homepage.

Finally, our latest episode of Gear Talk is out and we review the Vivobarefoot ECS Tempest, give some updates on previous gear that we’ve reviewed, and a first impressions report of the Ark Sports Vigg Swimrun Wetsuit. Check it out and send us suggestions for future episodes!

Interview

Caroline and Kelsie are both amazing athletes (D1 swimmer and an almost-pro triathlete respectively) and found Swimrun separately and then got introduced to each other by Sean Durkin and Andy Hewitt. In this interview, we chat about their athletic background, how they met, and what it took for them to finally become a team. (Spoiler alert, they weren’t fans of each other at first.)

This is a wide-ranging interview where we talk about Ötillö Catalina (they finished 3rd and qualified for the World Championship), connect a bunch of storylines from the race, talk about the beauty of the team aspect of Swimrun, random swimrun adventures, and the future of the team as Caroline prepared to head off to medical school. All kinds of good stuff in this episode.

You can follow the Caliswimrungirls on Instagram.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions, and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 20 Aug 2020 07:00:01 +0000

Vivobarefoot ESC Tempest Review

Welcome to Swimrun Gear Talk, co-hosted by our friends Annie and Brooke from the Swimrun Labs.

In this episode, we break down the Vivobarefoot ESC Tempest Swimrun Shoe. Chris and Chipper have trained in the swimrun shoes for several weeks and they are ready to share their thoughts on the Tempest and get peppered with questions by the Swimrun Labs.

(Note: Vivobarefoot was kind enough to send us a couple of pairs of shoes to demo and they have not asked us for an endorsement or paid us for this review.)

(Second Note: if you want to learn more about Vivobarefoot and the genesis of the ESC Tempest, check out episode 23 of the podcast for our interview with Asher Clark, Co-founder of Vivobarefoot.)

Previous Show Review Updates

Salomon Amphib Shoe Mini Review

In the “Shoedown” episode we chatted about the Salomon Amphib shoe (not the S-Lab version) and Chris has recently have been using these shoes for urban Swimrun practices in San Francisco for several weeks and really liked them. In the Shoedown episode, it was brought up that traction was an issue with these shoes on trails but they have been working extremely well on pavement. Chris would definitely recommend these for more urban adventures.

These shoes aren’t in production anymore in the current iteration but the new version is called the Amphib Bold Water Shoe and looks very similar to the version that Chris used.

Ark Sports ORNÖ 02 Swimrun Wetsuit

In our previous review about the Ark Sports ORNÖ 02 wetsuit, we chatted about durability being an issue since the suit is so thin. Recently Annie noticed that she was getting yet another hole in the armpit of the suit and had to fix it with Aquaseal + Neo Neoprene Contact Cement. At this point, she’s thinking that the armpit wear might be a problem if this suit is used too often.

Gear Talk First Impressions Reports

Arc’teryx Norvan SL Shoe Review

Annie recently picked up a pair of the Arc’teryx Norvan SL shoe at a rock-climbing store and loved them. The upper material is very similar to the Amphib uppers and allows for maximum drainage. The Norvan SL is a trail shoe so the tread had a great grip coming out the water and on trails. Annie now thinks that this shoe is a contender to become her everyday Swimrun shoe.

Ark Sports VIGG Swimrun Wetsuit Review

As mentioned previously, Chris made an ill-advised late-night purchase and ordered the Ark Sports VIGG Swimrun Wetsuit. He used it for one Swimrun practice and it’s safe to say that he’s hooked. The suit is very light and uses the Running++ material in the legs, back and arms. Running in the suit was amazing. It felt more like running in swim skin than a wetsuit. Even though the suit is thin, the neckline kept water out and the suit was comfortable in relatively cold water (around 56-58 degrees Fahrenheit/13-15 Celsius) even without using arm sleeves. Note: the VIGG does not include removable arm sleeves. The Running++ material repelled/shed water as soon as he came out of the water.

After observing the ORNÖ O2 and the VIGG closely, the Running++ material appeared to be a tighter weave that the Running+ and felt thinner. The seams on the VIGG look a bit sturdier than those on the ORNÖ as well. This might be due to all the Running++ material used. The jury is still out on durability but it looks like it might last with proper care.

Overall, the suit was amazing and Chris now understands why Annie and Chipper want to use their Ark Sports suits in training despite the durability issues. The VIGG is a joy to Swimrun in and Chris plans to use it in training as long as the water temperature allows.

The Main Event: The Vivobarefoot ECS Tempest Swimrun Shoe Review

The Tempest is the first style to launch as part of the “Extreme Survival Collection,” and is touted as “the best Swim Run shoe on the planet, for the amphibious athlete” on the Vivobarefoot website. The description of the shoe states that it was “[i]nspired by nature's aquatic animals and blended with modern technology, we created a lightweight organic cage to provide flexibility, drainage, and protection.” The sole was developed in collaboration with Michelin using a proprietary compound that provides grip on every surface. The shoe retails for $220.

The shoe looks pretty revolutionary from top to bottom and has the following features:

Sticky rubber outsole developed in collaboration with Michelin
Speed toggle for easy fastening
Quick draining mesh and recycled plastic PET ankle sock construction
Bio-based Bloom EVA midsole gives additional flotation reduces heavy feet in the water

There’s a lot to unpack here so let’s jump right into the review of the shoe.

Swim Review

The shoe performed excellently on the swim. It was definitely a non-issue and didn’t require any mental energy while swimming. A great shoe for swimming. Period.

Swimrun Transitions Review

In transition, the shoe performed well. The ankle sock construction isn’t tight around the ankle so some debris can enter the shoe but it wasn’t very noticeable. The shoe drains exceptionally well since the entire upper part of the shoe is basically all mesh.

Chipper got scientific with the shoe and did the Swimrun Labs-prescribed water bucket test. He took the shoes and weighed them while dry, then he immersed them in water to soak for 20 minutes, weighed them afterward, waited two minutes, and then re-weighed them. (Note we had to two different measurements because Chipper used one black and one orange shoe for the test.) Here are his results for the Men’s size 11 shoe:

Dry Weight:

Orange shoe (342 grams per shoe)

Black shoe (337 grams per shoe)

Weight after the 20-minute soak:

Orange shoe (426 grams)

Black shoe (423 grams)

Weight after 2-minute dry time:

Orange shoe (415 grams)

Black shoe (394 grams)

Interestingly, the Black color version of the shoe appears to be slightly lighter than the coral color. We didn’t notice any performance impact but it was worth noting.

The special Michelin compound of the sole lived up to the hype for us. We exited and entered water on sand, dirt, and slippery rocks and grip was never an issue. Same was true while running on pavement, sand, dirt, grass, train tracks and wood planks.

Run Review

A caveat to the run review is that this shoe is super minimal and it does take some getting used to. Chris didn’t do any of the recommended exposure to get accustomed to minimal shoes but Chipper went through the protocol as described by Vivobarefoot. All that being said, neither Chipper nor Chris were ready to totally commit to minimal-style running. Chipper could see himself racing a short Swimrun event in the shoe but Chris wasn’t into it. Training in these shoes will definitely happen. (Annie, Brooke and “science” recommend using a variety of shoes regularly of different types since this is the easiest way to prevent common running injuries.)

One issue that both Chipper and Chris experienced on the run was that they got a blister on the pinky toe on the black shoe. The hot spot was probably due to where the top of front part of the shoe was creasing while running. Interestingly, there weren’t hot spots on the orange shoe.

It’s too early to tell about the durability of the shoe. The shoe is really well crafted but there is a potential for some ripping on the mesh of the shoe because the materials are so specific. The material used in the upper to create some structure might also start peeling off after long-term use.

Overall, the shoe performed really well on the run (blisters aside) and it was an ideal shoe…if you can run in them.

Pull Buoy Rankings

Chipper

(4.5 Pull Buoys)

While Chipper thought that the shoe wasn’t necessarily for him, he thought that the Tempest was the best Swimrun shoe that he’s been exposed to. Yes, the shoe might be a bit more fragile and a bit expensive but the shoe is next level. If swimrunners are looking for the top of the line when it comes to Swimrun shoes, then this is the shoe for them.

Chris

(4 Pull Buoys)

Despite his personal concerns with the shoe, Chris thought that the shoe was amazing and really appreciated the tech that was used to create a shoe that is specifically for swimrun. Vivobarefoot has set a high bar for shoes. He took some Buoy points away for the cost and for the break-in period required to really be able to race long distances in the shoe.

Overall Impressions

The Vivobarefoot ESC Tempest is the most advanced Swimrun shoe in the world. It’s amazing to see the technology that was put into this shoe and how they executed something that is a game-changer for the sport. It is literally the best Swimrun shoe out there.

That’s it for this week’s Swimrun Gear Talk show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 18 Aug 2020 07:00:26 +0000

Gerry Rodrigues & Emma-Kate Lidbury

Welcome to episode thirty-two of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

One the show this week we have Gerry Rodrigues, Founder of Tower 26, and Emma-Kate Lidbury. Former Pro Triathlete and Editor at Triathlete Magazine, to talk about their new book: Triathlon Swimming: Master Open Water Swimming with the Tower 26 Method. We do a deep dive into the book and their swimming methodology later in the show.

In other exciting news, we’ve reached the milestone of 10,000+ downloads! We’re surprised and humbled by all the support that we’ve gotten since starting the show and have a lot of gratitude for everyone that’s checked out the show.

Training Update

We did yet another Swimrun last weekend which was fun and Chris is in the middle of the One Punch Man Challenge where he is doing a 10k run, 100 pushups, 100 sit-ups, and 100 squats every day for a week. Why? Nobody knows, least of all him.

Shout Outs

This is a special shout out to the “Dude from Costco” that recognized Chris wearing a Löw Tide Böyz shirt and chatted him up. It was totally random but definitely the highlight of an otherwise ordinary trip to Costco.

Feats of Endurance Weekly Award

This week’s winner is Kawika (Beek) from Team Envol Baywatch. He did the Pier to Pier Quest and submitted an audio clip describing his 27 Mile point to point Swimrun adventure for your listening pleasure. We also got our first Feats of Endurance award acceptance speech!

We love seeing everyone working out in our Strava Club so keep up the great work!

LTBz Updates

Our latest column in Triathlete Magazine, How to Pick an Awesome Swimrun Team Name, is out now so make sure that you check it out and give it a thumbs up if you liked it.

Our new project, the International Swimrun Adventure Guide, is up and running and we’ve received a bunch more submissions. If you have a great training route that you don’t want to keep secret you can head over to our website and fill out the form on our homepage and we’ll start compiling the entries and getting them listed on the site.

In other news, our next episode of Gear Talk will be coming out soon and we will be reviewing the Vivobarefoot ECS Tempest, give some updates on previous gear that we’ve reviewed, and a first impressions report of the Ark Sports Vigg Swimrun Wetsuit.

Interview

Our guests this week recently published a new book all about training for open water swimming. Gerry Rodrigues and Emma-Kate Lidbury put together an excellent resource for everyone looking to get better in open water. While the book is centered around the triathlete experience, there is a lot of crossover with Swimrun and we think that our listeners will get a lot of value from the wealth of expertise that Gerry and Emma-Kate shared with us.

In the interview, Gerry and Emma-Kate shared their background and how they got the idea to write the book and how it all came together over a year later. We chatted about their new book and did a deep dive into some of the questions that we had about the Tower 26 Method and how it translates to Swimrun training and races. We touch on a lot of swim training and open water strategies. We also discussed how the Tower 26 Method is a great way to be “race ready” for triathlon and/or Swimrun.

There are a lot of great tips in this episode so we definitely recommend that you take some notes and check out the book, Triathlon Swimming: Master Open-Water Swimming with the Tower 26 Method if you’re looking to take your training and racing to the next level. You can follow Emma-Kate on Instagram and learn more about Gerry and Tower 26 on his website and on the official Tower 26 Podcast.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 07:00:10 +0000

Fanny Kuhn

Welcome to episode thirty-one of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On the show this week we have our first repeat guest, Ötillö World Champion Fanny Kuhn. We chatted with her about her experience post-Catalina and how she dealt with the shelter in place restrictions in Barcelona. More on the interview later in the show.

Training Update

We are still training for something—not sure what yet—but we had another Swimrun practice over the weekend and we’ll be doing another Swimrun adventure soon.

Shoutouts

This we’re shouting out Vicky. She’s in our Low Tide Boyz Strava Club and a fan of the show. She recently found out that she shares one of her favorite movies, The Big Blue, with Chris after listening to our interview with Journalist and Writer Adam Skolnick.

Bonus shout out to the Ötillö Hype Video crew for their latest opus: the 2020 Engadin Recap Movie. If that doesn’t make you want to go to Silvaplana, then we don’t know what will. If you want to learn more about the Engadin course, check out our Course Preview episode to get all the details!

Feats of Endurance Weekly Award

We are giving our feats of endurance award this week to Neil Copper. He’s been putting in a ton of work so we wanted to give him the ole’ tip of the cap.

By the way, we’ve finally ordered the bumper stickers! We’ll be reaching out to our past winners to get mailing address and get these in the mail for everybody.

LTBz Updates

Check out our latest gear review on our newly re-named “Gear Talk” show with Swimrun Labs. This week we do a deep dive into the Ark Sports ORNÖ 02 Swimrun wetsuit. Check it out wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Our new project, the International Swimrun Adventure Guide, is up and running and we got our first submission from all the way from Germany! If you have a great training route that you don’t want to keep secret you can head over to our website and fill out the form on our homepage and we’ll start compiling the entries and getting them listed on the site.

In other news, we didn’t come up with any new projects this week! That’s a first for us.

Fanny Kuhn Interview

Our guest this week is Fanny Kuhn. She’s the reigning Ötillö World Championship and one of our favorite humans. We previously chatted with her about her organization Wild Swimrun with her co-founder Mia and we’re stoked to have her back as our first repeat guest.

In this interview, we wanted to chat with Fanny about how her life changed when she returned home to Barcelona after racing Ötillö Catalina and COVID-19 changed the course of everyone’s lives. She opened up about how she dealt with being in quarantine for three straight months, losing her world-class fitness and deciding to take time off from Swimrun (she had made the hard decision to not race the World Championship before it was cancelled.) We also talked about how she gained a new perspective for her training and maintaining balance in her life.

This was a deep interview that touched on a lot of topics and it just confirmed to us how great we think Fanny is and why she’s such a great ambassador for Swimrun. You can follow Fanny on Instagram here and learn more about her organization Wild Swimrun here.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 6 Aug 2020 07:00:07 +0000

Ark Sports Ornö Swimrun Wetsuit Review

Welcome to the (newly named) Gear Talk: The Löw Tide Böyz and Swimrun Labs review show!

In this episode, we do a deep dive into the Ark Sports ORNÖ 02 Swimrun wetsuit.

We’ve talked about Ark Sports a lot on Gear Talk and we’re stoked to take a closer look at the ORNÖ 02 suit. Both Chipper and Annie have used the ORNÖ 02 in training and racing so we get their perspective on the suit while Brooke and Chris peppered them with questions. We were first introduced to Ark Sports when we interviewed the co-founder, Christofer Sundberg for the podcast back in February 2020.

Wetsuit Details from Ark Sports

The ORNÖ is Ark Sport’s “flagship suit” and it has been tested and trusted by the world’s best swimrun athletes since they launched it in 2017. Ark Sports describes the suit as “a stripped racer with no unnecessary additions. Designed with the single purpose of making you move as smoothly and quickly as possible even through the hardest conditions.”

The suit boasts the following features:

Premium Yamamoto LIMESTONE neoprene
Low weight
Running+ (the material of the bottom half of the suit)
Master buoyancy belt - 4 mm AIR
Anti-leak construction - total
UltraFlex inner liner
Glide skin coating

The suit comes in Men’s and Women’s specific cuts and costs $480. It includes removable arm sleeves and a whistle can be purchased separately. The size chart on the Ark Sports site is very detailed and both Annie and Chipper we’re able to dial in the right size easily.

Swimming Impressions

Annie loved swimming in the suit. She was expecting it to not be a cold-water suit but because the suit locks out water so well it worked well in a variety of conditions. The removable sleeves also worked really well despite how thin the neoprene was. Similarly, Chipper loved swimming in the suit and echoed Annie’s experience of the suit sealing out water.

The shoulder material in the suit is very thin and allows for full range of motion. Chipper felt like the suit was like a second skin in the water. The lower half of suit which is a different material that the top half didn’t result in feeling cold and was a non-issue.

One negative of the suit is how delicate it is. Annie has been using the suit a lot (over 17 times) and she’s gotten several holes in the suit in the anterior shoulders, on the hip seam and in the back of the neck. Chipper’s suit is just starting to get some small tears in the armpit area.

Annie and Chipper both recommended pairing it with a large swimrun pull buoy to address the lack of buoyancy in the lower half of the suit, which is very minimal and designed for ultimate running mobility…which we will discuss below. They weren’t sure if buoyancy would be an issue if swimrunners are not using a large pull buoy.

Overall, the suit performs exceptionally well in the water. The suit looks great but it has a low safety score because of the color. The suit doesn’t come with a whistle but you can get one for an extra $10. While durability is an issue, it is a very well-engineered wetsuit designed specifically for Swimrun.

Running Impressions

The ORNÖ 02 performed amazingly during runs. As mentioned above, the lower half of the suit uses a material that Ark Sports calls “Running+” that is a spandex material with some thin neoprene with nylon backing that doesn’t absorb water.

Running in this suit was “hands down the best running suit” that Chipper has used. The suit doesn’t hold water and is super light. Annie also felt that the suit was great for running. Chipper hasn’t cabbed down (lowered the top half of the suit for runs) as often as Annie has and it appears that the tearing issues started as a result of excessive cabbing down and up.

One potential negative is that the suit has zero storage. While the new Utö suit, Korp and Vigg suits have a back pocket, the ORNÖ 02 requires you to either wear an undershirt with storage or have some other external storage solution. This might be okay for a race with ample energy stations but it’s an issue for longer self-supported Swimrun adventures.

Annie’s Pull Buoy Ranking

For racing, Annie gave the ORNÖ 4.5 pull buoys. It works exceptionally well for racing and she docked a half a pull buoy for lack of any storage. For “everyday” or overall use, she gave it 4 pull buoys mostly because of the lack of durability.

Chipper’s Pull Buoy Ranking

Chipper thought this was the best suit that he’s tried and even seen. He gave it 4.5 pull buoys because of the lack of durability and storage.

Overall Impressions

Annie and Chipper both agree that this suit will result in a performance advantage for anyone that uses it. This is a great race suit but given how delicate the suit is, it’s not be the best suit for everyday training and potentially worth have another suit that is primarily for training and save the ORNÖ 02 for race day. Annie recommends getting some Aquaseal + Neo Neoprene Contact Cement to fix any tears that might happen from training or racing in the suit.

Chipper’s favorite feature of the suits are the running+ leg material and the flexibility in the shoulders coupled with the removeable arm sleeves. Annie’s favorite feature was the running+ material and the fit of the suit along with how great the suit looks. Some suggestions for improvement that Chipper and Annie had would be to include some sort of pocket for storage and include the whistle. They would also like to see better material for the Velcro to seal the neck of the suit.

Overall, Ark Sports really changed the game by creating a suit that is now imitated by several of the other brands in the sport. It’s an amazing piece of technology. It’s also very cool that Ark Sports has a demo/rental program in collaboration with Ötillö events.

That’s it for this week’s Gear Talk show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 4 Aug 2020 07:00:04 +0000

Mario Fraioli

Welcome to episode thirty of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

We have the one and only Mario Fraioli on the show this week. He’s an Olympic level running coach, host of the morning shakeout podcast/newsletter, and the last member of the Marin County Holy Coaching Trinity of to be interviewed for the show. (Mike Olzinski and Nate Helming are the other two members of that crew.) More on Mario later in the show.

Ötillö World Championship Update

If you’ve been off the grid or just getting all your Swimrun reporting from us, then you haven’t heard that Ötillö made the tough decision to cancel this year’s World Championship. You can read more about their decision here. You can also read about how the slots are being set for the 2021 race here. This hasn’t been without controversy but there’s no way to please everyone and we are living in unprecedented times.

In other (happier) news, Ötillö Engadin happened last weekend and it looked like it was an epic weekend in Switzerland. If you’re curious as to what the course is like, check out our course preview episode and start planning for 2021!

Training Update

Chipper was on vacation in Lake Tahoe and enjoyed some time away from the show while swimming and running in one of the most beautiful places in California.

Chris and Sandrine teamed up to race the Swimrun Edmonton Virtual Race at Aquatic Park in San Francisco. “Team Untethered” made their debut and apparently won a prize box from the race organizers. True to the LTBz pact, we didn’t use a tether. (This was a good thing since Sandrine is an amazing swimmer and Chris would have been dead weight on that tether.)

Shoutout

This we’re shouting out Patrick from Italy. He’s a triathlete that was looking for something else to do and DIY’d his own pull buoy, got after it, and is now “100% hooked.” Glad we played a small part in his new Swimrun journey.

Feats of Endurance Weekly Award

We had a lot of feats of endurance this week!

We had a couple of folks in our Strava club that raced Ötillö Engadin over the weekend. Tobias and G Flo raced the World Series race on Sunday and looks like they had the best time in Engadin. You can check out their race report on Spotify here.

We also wanted to give a special shout out to the Swimrun Labs crew doing a 50k distance Swimrun. (They can’t win the Feats of Endurance because we co-host a show with them) Here’s their description of the Swimrun:

“12 runs, 11 swims, 50k total distance, volcano views, bracing ocean swims through kelp forests to secret coves, single track climbs through prehistoric old growth forest, new friends, old friends, mobile roving aid station, PBJs for days, currents from all directions... we’ve often said we could swimrun all day and today we actually got to. We were back, middle, and front of the pack, had highs, lows, swallowed some seawater, and shouted out loud about the magic.”

LTBz Updates

We have a new Patron on Patreon! Thank you Dirk for the support all the way from Germany. We really appreciate the support!

We also want to announce yet another new project, the International Swimrun Adventure Guide! With races being canceled and a lot of people training on their home turfs, we’ve noticed in our Strava club that a lot of teams have their go-to training locations. We thought it would be fun to compile them all in one place so swimrunners can explore new training grounds if they happen to be visiting from out of town/state/country or if they are looking for some variety in their training. We need your help to get this off of the ground. If you have a great training route that you don’t want to keep secret you can head over to our website and fill out the form on our website homepage and we’ll start compiling the entries and getting them on the site.

Mario Fraioli Interview

Our guest this week needs no introductions in running circles. Mario Fraioli is an Olympic-level running coach, a journalist, the host of the morning shakeout podcast, the creator of the morning shakeout newsletter and one of the greatest human beings around. We’ve known Mario for years (Full disclosure: Chris’s company helps to produce the morning shakeout podcast and newsletter and manages sponsorship and sales) and frankly, he has no business being on our show, but he’s just that awesome!

In this interview we cover a lot of topics including his coaching background, how the morning shakeout newsletter got started and how that expanded to the super successful podcast, and what he’s up to now.

We spent most of the interview talking about running and how to approach any Swimrun course and reverse engineer the type of build that you would want to have a successful race. According to Mario, every race is about problem-solving and understanding the course. We also talked about the mental game and how to work on “perspective” while training for races and the importance of making sure that every session has a purpose and some type of “quality” to maximize both the training effect but also developing mental toughness.

All in all, there was a lot of knowledge being dropped on this episode. We encourage everyone to sign up for Mario’s newsletter and listen to the podcast. You can also follow Mario on Twitter and Instagram.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 30 Jul 2020 07:00:24 +0000

Johan Carlsson

Welcome to episode twenty-nine of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

In honor of Ötillö Engadin happening this week, our guest is Johan Carlsson, a member of last year’s winning Otillo Engadin men’s team (Team Simployer). We chatted about his story, mental toughness and, of course, Swimrun. More on Johan later in the show!

Training Update

Well we did Nicolas Remires’ 3-hour Engadin key swimrun workout that he recommends on our Ötillö Engadin Course Preview episode on Saturday at Aquatic Park in San Francisco. We used Hyde Street (a very steep street famous for the cable cars that go up and down it from Ghirardelli Square) for the “hill.” Needless to say, it lived up to its billing. It was super hard and super fun!

Feats of Endurance Weekly Award

On Saturday, we had Ray and Sandrine (members of our Strava Club) join us for the sufferfest for no other reason than they were easily convinced. For that reason alone they are both winners of this week’s Feats of Endurance award.

LTBz Updates

We only have a couple of updates this week. Make sure to check out our latest column in Triathlete Magazine and hit the like button if you enjoyed it. Also remember to check out our latest special edition episode with the ladies from Swimrun Labs all about Orca Wetsuits.

Johan Carlsson Interview

Johan is a super experienced swimrunner based in Stockholm. We met him earlier this year in Catalina and knew then that we wanted to get him on the show at some point. He came in second in the mixed team division at Otillo Catalina with his girlfriend (and stout swimrunner in her own right) Helena Dalivin. He’s raced pretty much every Ötillö race in the series and won Ötillö Engadin in 2019.

We covered a lot of topics in this conversation. We chatted about Johan’s athletic background, his time in the Navy as an underwater mine-clearing diver (yes, you heard that right), and how he found swimrun thanks to his main partner Joakim Brunzell. Joakim had raced Ötillö in the early days of the championship and convincing Johan to take on the adventure. When they started racing, they were doing it mostly for fun and then at some point they started to train very hard and started seeing great results.

We chatted about his experience racing in Catalina, how he trained for it and where he ranked it in terms of difficulty compared to other Ötillö races (Spoiler alert: They are all tough!). We spent some time talking about swimrun training in general (averaging 20-25 hours a week) and how he sets up his training blocks for the specific features of each course. We also talked about the importance of training the mental game to make sure the mind is ready for the effort required to compete at a high level.

We discussed Ötillö Engadin and how he raced in 2019 to win. He shared some funny race stories with us as well. We talked about training in the age of COVID and how to stay motivated when there aren’t races to train for and keep working on the mental aspect of racing to keep sharp.

You can follow Johan and Team Simployer on Instagram.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 23 Jul 2020 07:00:02 +0000

Orca Swimrun Wetsuits Review

Welcome to the fifth Löw Tide Böyz swimrun gear review show! This review is once again co-hosted by our friends Annie and Brooke from the Swimrun Labs.

This episode is all about Orca Swimrun Wetsuits and Accessories. Brooke and Chris have used several Orca suits so they review while Chipper and Annie ask the questions. It’s good stuff so let’s get right to it.

Orca has been around for a long time with triathlon, open water, free diving and kids gear. Relevant for this show is their evolving line of Swimrun-specific wetsuits. Their first iteration of suits, The Core and RS1 suits, were basically triathlon suits where they cut the legs and sleeves off and put the zipper in the front. We’ve seen an “evolution of industry-standard” with their second iteration of suits that we’ll talk about later in the show.

The Swimrun Core Wetsuit (First Iteration)

Both Brooke and Chris have used the Swimrun Core. It’s Orca’s entry-level wetsuit that runs under $200. (You can read Swimrun Labs super in-depth review of the Core here.) It has the standard zipper in the front and it’s definitely a swimrun wetsuit with thick-ish neoprene on the chest and thigh region with thinner shoulder and back neoprene. It comes with removable neoprene sleeves for colder conditions, a small hip pocket that can hold one or two gels or the team bandage, a whistle and a medium size zippered pocket in the lower back. It’s a versatile suit that works well in various water temperatures and was overall pretty good in the water. While running, the thick thigh neoprene didn’t feel super inhibiting but hip flexion might be an issue for a really long event. Brooke has issues cabbing down in the suit but it wasn’t a deal breaker.

PRO-TIP: you don’t need a lot of hip buoyancy in the suit if you’re using a large pull buoy like the Ark Sports Keel. (You can listen to our in-depth review of the Keel here.)

LTBz Pull Buoy Ranking

Brooke: 3.5 PULL BUOYS

It’s not a fancy suit but it gets the job done. It’s held up for 3 years with a lot of use and wear and tear. It you’re looking for something fancy, then there are plenty of options but it you want something that won’t break the bank and will perform well in a lot of conditions, then you can’t go wrong with the Core.

Chris: 3 PULL BUOYS

The price point was great. Other than the mobility issues that Chris had in the shoulders (which might totally be his own issues) the Core is a great training suit and pretty versatile so it’s great for beginners or folks using a separate training suit than their racing suit. That being said, there are newer suits that have better/newer technology.

The Swimrun RS1 Wetsuit (First Iteration)

The RS1 is the mid-range/top of the line suit that Orca offers. The material is very similar to the Core except that the shoulder material is a little thinner. The suit comes with removable sleeves, a two-way zipper in the front, a small pocket in the upper chest that stores a whistle and has a very large pocket in the back for almost too much storage. Unlike the Core there isn’t an external pocket in the hip. The neoprene material in the hips is still very thick neoprene but there is a small thinner panel in the hip flexor region. The suit goes for $399.

LTBz Pull Buoy Ranking

Chris: 3.5 Pull Buoys

It’s a great suit. For the price point, you’re not getting so much more for the money. It performed well in the water and on land and is pretty durable. If you’re an Orca fan, skip the Core and get the RS1.

Second Iteration/Generation Orca Swimrun Wetsuits

Since we’re on the topic of Orca wetsuits, we thought it would be instructive to discuss the new suits that Orca has released since Chris and Brooke got their suits. Orca’s new offerings are the ORCA Perform and new RS1. As expected, the new suits follow the newer style of swimrun suits that other brands are making where the entire lower half of the suit (from the lower waist down) is a thinner material designed for ease of running and the upper part of the suit is where the traditional neoprene is placed for warmth and buoyancy. The new RS1 has what looks like a new style of zipper. We couldn’t totally figure out how it worked so we can’t tell if it was a positive or negative. (If anyone listening has used it, let us know what you think!)

Orca also makes a separates suit where tops and bottoms are sold separately. We didn’t know what to think about this, but it seems like a good idea to get a good fit if you have an odd body type.

Other Orca Swimrun Products

Orca offers a bunch of accessories for swimrun including calf guards, a pull buoy with Velcro straps, a neoprene undershirt with storage, belts and a tether.

Overall Impressions

If we’re talking about affordability, you really can’t go wrong with either the Orca Core Wetsuit or the blueseventy Alliance Swimrun Wetsuit (you can listen to our review of that suit here) for the price point. We think that the decision should be based on where the swimrun wetsuit will be used. If you’re in a cold climate, then go with the Alliance. The Core is a more versatile suit for warmer conditions.

Overall, Orca is doing some cool stuff in the swimrun space and they are definitely trying to innovate that we totally appreciate.

That’s it for this week’s special edition show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 21 Jul 2020 07:00:06 +0000

Adam Skolnick

Welcome to episode twenty-eight of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

This week we have journalist and swimrunner, Adam Skolnick. We had a great chat with him about his super interesting life and his Swimrun origin story. More about Adam later in the show.

Training Update

Training continues to go well. A lot of swimming happening lately and we’re ramping up to take on Nicolas Remires’s 3-hour Engadin swimrun workout. You can check out that workout at around minute 48 of our Engadin Course Preview show. That should be fun…and painful.

For shout outs this week, we’re tipping the hat to our friend Ray who we convinced to come out to do a swimrun practice with us. We had a wetsuit for him and he was sold after the first transition.

Feats of Endurance Weekly Award

For this week’s Feats of Endurance, we congratulate Nancy and Denise from upstate New York that had a cool swimrun practice last weekend. Nancy also sent us a nice email with feedback for the show so thanks so much for that. We love hearing from our listeners. If you want to get in on the Feats of Endurance be sure to join the Low Tide Boyz Strava Club.

LTBz Updates

The main update this week is that our second column in Triathlete Magazine, “What’s the Deal With the Swimrun Tether?” is out now. Check it out and give us a thumbs up if you liked it. We’re always on the hunt for ideas, so let us know your burning swimrun questions and we’ll answer them…or find smarter people than us to answer them.

Vivobarefoot ECS Tempest Review

We also wanted to give a mini-review of the new Vivobarefoot ECS Tempest that that folks at Vivobarefoot sent over for us to try out. Check out our interview with Asher Clark if you want all the details about the Vivobarefoot Tempest. We thought that we would give everyone a short review and then plan to do something longer at some point.

Our initial impressions of the shoe after testing them on a couple of swimrun practices are that they are definitely amazing swimrun shoes…with a caveat that we’ll talk about in a bit. The shoe fits true to size and were great in the water and on land. In the water, it felt like you weren’t wearing shoes and in transitions they didn’t collect sand or rocks. We ran with them on trails and road and they performed well on every surface. The main caveat for these shoes is that you need get comfortable with running in minimal shoes. If you’re already on that train, then we can’t recommend them enough. If you’re not on that train, you need to make sure that you take it easy as you transition to minimal shoes.

Adam Skolnick Interview

Now for our interview with Adam Skolnick. He’s an award-winning independent journalist and author covering adventure sports, environmental issues, travel and human rights for The New York Times, Outside, Playboy and Lonely Planet. He’s traveled the world, contributed to 35 Lonely Planet travel guides and is the author of One Breath: Freediving, Death and the Quest to Shatter Human Limits. If that wasn’t enough... Adam was the ghost writer and narrator of David Goggins’ hit memoir and audiobook Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds, which has sold over two million copies and counting worldwide. Notably for Swimrun, Adam wrote the New York Times article chronicling Rich Roll and the Ötillö World Championship in 2017 and the article about the inaugural Ötillö Catalina event earlier this year.

We had a great conversation that hit on a lot of topics. Adam shared with us how he became a journalist and how he wrote his first book. We also chatted about how he met David Goggins and ended up ghostwriting the book that has sold millions of copies worldwide. We also discussed how Adam ended up writing the story for the New York Times about the 2017 Ötillö World Championship and how writing that article led him to sign up for the Experience distance at the Inaugural Ötillö Catalina in 2020. Finally, we chatted about Adam about becoming father in a few months and how plans to keep swimrunning.

You can learn more about Adam on his website. You can also listen to Adam on the Rich Roll Podcast “Roll On” episodes twice a month.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 16 Jul 2020 07:00:05 +0000

Desirée Andersson

Welcome to episode twenty-seven of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s guest doesn’t need much of an introduction. Within Swimrun circles if you just say the name “Desirée” and everybody knows who you are talking about. Hailing for Stockholm Sweden, she is the reigning two-time Otillo Swimrun World Champion (2018 & 2019) with her partner and friend of the show Fanny Kuhn (she was on the show in Episode 10). Most recently they won the inaugural Ötillö Catalina race and they are ramping up to defend their world title in August.

Training continues to go well. We actually did a Swimrun practice this past weekend and it was fun even though the water was a little gross because it was very low tide, too low. (The irony is not lost on us) The swimming and running will continue at this beach for sure because it’s a very good spot for working on what Nicolas Remirez (from Episode 14) calls Swimrun technique.

For our shout out this week, we are tipping the hat to our friend John Hayato for his amazing 12 hour run around the block of his house in Denver to raise funds for KEEN USA. KEEN helps kids with physical and cognitive disabilities enjoy exercise. It’s a great a cause and John raised over $2,000 while running almost 50 miles!

His feat of endurance got us thinking…something that is dangerous for us. But alas, we are super stoked to introduce a new segment to the show: The Löw Tide Böyz Weekly Feat of Endurance! Every week we will shout out a member of the Löw Tide Böyz Strava Club for a workout or race that they post. The feats can be either epic, funny, cool route, great photo or any combination therein. The weekly winner will receive a special edition bumper sticker. All you have to do to be a part of it is join our Strava Club. (This week’s winner is John Hayato)

If that wasn’t enough, we are also starting the Löw Tide Böyz Feat of Endurance Hall of Fame! We figured that this was a worthy title for people who shouldn’t be eligible for the weekly award because they are such beasts. Our first HOF inductee is Amber Ferreira of Team Better Tethered Together. Not only has she recently “Everested” on her bike, she’s consistently crushing everything she does. Congrats Amber! You’re awesome!

In other news, our next column in triathlete magazine is dropping soon so make sure to look out for that. We were also recently interviewed for Trimax Magazine. The piece is in French so just take our word for it that it’s a nice little article if you can’t read it. Finally, Ötillö Engadin is still happening! Check out our Ötillö Engadin course preview episode if you’re going to be racing but make sure that you check on the Ötillö website to get the latest info regarding quarantines and travel restrictions.

We wanted to give a plug for our recent Swimrun Undergarments special episode with The Swimrun Labs. A lot of great info in that episode so make sure to check it out to get all your burning questions answered about how to prevent, uhm, chaffing burns, what to wear under your wetsuit and so much more.

Finally, we wanted to give everyone a quick reminder that we have some discount codes from former guests that are still good. You can use the code SWIMRUN at blueseventy.com for 20% off your order. You can also use the code LOWTIDEBOYZ at precisionhydration.com for 15% off your order. Support these great companies and make us look good in the process!

Now for our interview with Desirée!

We chatted about her athletic background, how she found Swimrun and how she ended up teaming up with Fanny to become the powerhouse Otillo World Championship winning duo. We spoke about what it’s like to always be a favorite to win and how she handles it in competition. We also chatted about what her typical training week looks like, how she trains for races when her partner lives in another country and how she will alter her training for the length of the World Championship course.

We covered a lot of ground in this episode and we learned a lot from Desirée. We really enjoyed this conversation and think that you will as well. You can follow her on Instagram here.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 9 Jul 2020 07:00:29 +0000

Swimrun Undergarments

Welcome to the fourth Low Tide Boyz swimrun gear review show! This review is once again co-hosted by our friends at Swimrun Labs and this is going to be a regular thing going forward to we’re very happy about that.

Like our swimrun shoe Shoedown episode, this episode covers that nebulous category of Swimrun gear that goes beneath your Swimrun gear. Think undershirts, bras, undies, nothing, and socks! Welcome to the Underwear episode.

Let’s get right to it!

Global Considerations in Selecting Undergarments for Swimrun

Chaffing Abatement

Warmth

Storage Capacity

“Bogginess” (wet diaper effect)

Chaffing a big issue so we broke this down a bit. Body Glide, Vaseline, 2Toms Sports Shield or Tri Slide are essential to try to keep your wetsuit from chaffing your neck, arms or thighs. Brooke uses multiple layers of Body Glide and 2Toms on her skin and separately her wetsuit. Lubing up neck, armpits, any other opening, bra line and the “nether regions.” Another option for abatement which we learned from Team Envol Baywatch (listen to Episode 6 with them here) is the use Rocktape or KT Tape around the neckline where the wetsuit would make contact.

Anyway, chaffing is annoying and can get debilitating the longer the event. Take it seriously and avoid it like your life (or at least your skin’s life) depends on it!

Next, we’re going to breakdown undergarment choices going from head to toe.

Head

The main thing in this region is wearing something under your race swim cap if the conditions call for it. There are neoprene caps (with or without chin straps) that Roka, Blue Seventy, Ark Sports and others make and non-neoprene caps like TYR Warmwear caps.

“Wetsuit Region”

One challenge with Swimrun is the gear that you need to carry on board for longer races and the lack of storage capacity in most Swimrun wetsuits. Ark Sports and NU make special undershirts that have kangaroo pockets for extra storage under the wetsuit. NU also makes some sports bras for women (or men we guess) that also have a pocket in the front.

For warmth, an undershirt would help. For ladies, one product that worked for Brooke was the Smartwool Merino Wool racer back sports bra.

A question that we get a lot is “what do you wear under your swimrun wetsuit?” There are a lot of options to choose from but we recommend something with compression and made of synthetic fibers so that they don’t ride up under the suit and also wick water away. Sporty underwear should be the first place you look at. The main thing to about is anything with big seams (due to the potential for chaffing) or things that might ride up and create rolled-up material that would be super uncomfortable.

Feet

The question that we get the most is what socks to wear for Swimrun. We recommend NOT using cotton socks or socks that have extra padding or cushioning in the footbed or toes (to prevent bogginess). Using a wicking sock like a thin running or cycling sock that is higher than ankle length is the way to go. Ankle socks could lead to getting more rocks or sand in your shoes. A couple of brands that we like are Gococo (the official sock of Ötillö), CEP, Stance (the run infiknit socks) or Swiftwick (Aspire is the best model that we found for Swimrun).

Brooke uses neoprene socks for racing, specifically, ankle neoprene socks called the Seavenger Zepher. Blue Seventy makes booties that can also be used. This is definitely an area where you want to test to make sure that using booties is going to work for you in a race.

So…

This was a lot of information and we covered a lot of ground. The main takeaway should be that there are a lot of different ways to get to the finish line. All four of us used different products and were happy with it. We suggest starting with what you have and experimenting from there.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 7 Jul 2020 07:00:03 +0000

Thor Hesselberg

Welcome to episode twenty-six of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we have Thor Hesselberg, endurance athlete and race director of Rockman Swimrun. We have a fun chat with him about the Swimrun scene in Norway and talk about his truly epic race. More on that later.

We wanted to give everyone a quick reminder that we have some discount codes from former guests that are still good. You can use the code SWIMRUN at blueseventy.com for 20% off your order. Check out our chat with the CEO of Blueseventy John Duquette. You can also use the code LOWTIDEBOYZ at precisionhydration.com for 15% off your order. If you missed the episode with Andy Blow the co-founder of Precision Hydration that is one not to miss! Support these great companies and make us look good in the process!

We have dual shout outs again this week! First, we wanted to give a big congrats to Amber Ferreira (of Team Better Tethered Together) for crushing her Everesting attempt on June 20th. For those who don’t know what that is, she cycled the total elevation of Mt. Everest (29,029 feet) in one ride. Check out her Strava file to see her stats for the ride.

Second, we wanted to give a special shout out Rob Sainsbury, who has been a supporter from day 1. Rob (so_aero on Instagram) wrote a post about swimrun on the VJ Shoe blog. Thanks for spreading the good word about swimrun and the Low Tide Boyz!

Our training has definitely picked up now that our pool is open and we will be embarking on some local Swimrun adventures in the coming weeks. Make sure to join our Strava Club to see us bite off more than we can chew.

Now for this week’s interview with Thor Hesselberg. An endurance athlete that focused on extreme triathlons and naturally found out about Swimrun in his travels and instantly fell in love with the concept.

Thor became involved in Rockman when members of his swim club in Norway were putting together the first edition of the event. He volunteered by hosting a pre-race BBQ and volunteering during the fjord crossing swim. The rest is Swimrun history.

We chatted about how Rockman has evolved over the years and the rationale for all the awesome hype videos to showcase the event. (You can check out their hype videos here.) We discussed how he grew the race to now being one of the most recognizable Swimrun events in the world.

We also chatted about how he sees the sport of Swimrun evolving and his thoughts on how to keep growing the sport the right way. He feels that the sport needs to stay honest to the original spirit of Swimrun and keep leaving no footprint or environmental impact.

Finally, we chatted about the mythology around Rockman (and the 4,444 step climb at the middle of the race) and the experience that awaits anybody that chooses to take on the challenge. We also talked about bison.

You can learn more about Rockman here and start planning your trip to Norway! If you need some extra epic photos in your life, check out the Rockman Instagram page here.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 2 Jul 2020 07:00:27 +0000

Andy Blow, Co-Founder Precision Hydration

Welcome to episode twenty-five of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show, we have Andy Blow, the Co-founder of Precision Hydration. We did a major deep dive into hydration for Swimrun and chat about his quest to solve his own performance issues and how that led him to start PH. More on that later in the show. But we have to tell everyone that Andy was cool enough to set up a discount code for our listeners for 15% off online orders with the code LOWTIDEBOYZ. This code is good through the end of July so place an order and help make us look good while properly hydrating for your training and racing.

We have dual shout outs this week! First, we wanted to give a shout out to Tim Fleming of the Endurance Performance Training Center in Mill Valley. As prep for our interview with Andy for this week’s show, he hooked us up with an appointment to get a legit/advanced sweat test. Tim conducted the test and was incredibly knowledgeable. We learned a ton and could have chatted with him for hours. We really appreciated all the time he gave us and we will definitely have him on the show at some point because he is a wealth of knowledge on all things endurance performance.

Second, we wanted to give a special shout out to an entire country. The country of Japan has started listening to our Swimrun 101 episode this last week at a super high rate. Somehow the word got out and a bunch of swimrunners or soon to be swimrunners are going to be getting after it in Japan. Konnichiwa and Arigato!

We wanted to remind everyone to join our Low Tide Boyz Strava Club. It’s been a fun way to see what everyone is up to training and racing-wise and we make a promise that every person in that group is guaranteed to get kudos from us. So if anyone really wants an extra two kudos for every workout plus the probability of funny comments from us, join up.

Now for some exciting news, our pool has finally opened! (Queue the pearly gates music) We are excited to destroy our shoulders and build back up our swim fitness. We are loosely following a training plan from an article from Triathlete Magazine about returning to swimming after a long layoff.

Speaking of Triathlete Magazine, make sure to check out our monthly column on all things Swimrun! If you have any suggestions for topics or have questions that you want to be answered, feel free to reach out to us.

Now for this week’s interview! Andy Blow has a few top 10 Ironman and 70.3 finishes and an Xterra World Age Group title to his name. He has a degree in Sport and Exercise Science and was once the Team Sports Scientist for Benetton and Renault F1 teams. He raced his first Swimrun (the Ötillö World Championship) in 2014.

He founded Precision Hydration in 2011 to help athletes solve their hydration issues. PH became a sponsor and official hydration partner for Ötillö in 2017.

Andy’s draw to Swimrun was the idea of being able to race in pairs. After knee surgery and essentially backing away from triathlon, he asked his training partner Elliot if he wanted to check it out. They then reached out to Mats and Michael at Ötillö to get into the 2014 race. (They finished in the top 10) Part of the attraction to Swimrun for Andy was the wild west/infancy stage and the adventure.

We chatted about how he started PH by basically trying to diagnose and solve his own fueling problems in races. The idea for the company took shape after helping a bunch of athletes with a lot of success. We also chatted about the misconceptions about hydration and how a lot of symptoms that athletes experience during and after events can be solved by taking proper amounts of sodium.

We did a deep dive into how to calculate sweat rate and properly hydrate and how to unlock better race performances. We broke down the different theories around hydration and why hydration now can be much more individualized and effective. Andy explained to us why they designed their products to have three levels of sodium formulas—1500, 1000, 500—and how to determine which to use and when.

Finally, we talked about how to properly hydrate endurance events generally (they have a great blog post on their website about this) and specifically for Swimrun. Since teams are limited in what they can carry onboard, properly using aid stations to make sure that sodium levels are kept at optimal levels. We closed out the conversation talking about how to properly recover sodium levels after workouts.

Andy and the Low Tide Boyz encourage everyone to take a free sweat test on the PH website and reach out to them with questions at hello@precisionhydration.com. PH also provides free consultations to help individuals get their hydration strategy dialed in which is super cool! Don’t forget to use the discount code LOWTIDEBOYZ that’s good for 15% off through the end of July!

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 25 Jun 2020 07:00:14 +0000

Swimrun Shoes "The Shoedown"

Welcome to our third Low Tide Boyz swimrun gear review show! This review is co-hosted by our friends at Swimrun Labs and we’re super stoked to have them back for another episode.

This show is all about swimrun shoes! Instead of doing a specific review of a product this week, we thought it would be helpful to take a big picture look at Swimrun shoes and all the considerations that should go into selecting the right pair for everyone.

Let’s get right to it!

Global Considerations in Selecting a Swimrun Shoe (or a pair of shoes to use for Swimrun training or events.)

Drainage

Tread

Cushioning/Stack Height

Buoyancy

Good Fit

Particle Size Impermeability/Water Permeability

In general, you shouldn’t do anything different for swimrun than you wouldn’t do for trail running. If you’ve never run in Hokas or minimal shoes, then you shouldn’t go all in because there is a risk of injury. From a medical perspective (courtesy of Annie and Brooke from Swimrun Labs) is to make sure that you take a graded progression to make sure that you don’t go down an injury rabbit hole. Another consideration is that studies have shown that runners that train in various models of shoes have seen a reduced occurrence of injury by 39%.

With all that, let’s talk about specific considerations for Swimrun.

Swim Considerations

Overall, shoe performance in the water should be a net neutral. Swimming with shoes is an unnatural experience and they create a lot of drag. Some of this is mitigated by using a large swimrun pull buoy but at the end of the day you are swimming with shoes and the best that you can hope for is that they are a non-factor.

The features of the shoes should be considered based on the general considerations above. For example, Asher Clark of Vivobarefoot mentioned in Episode 23 of our podcast that they used bright orange on the soles of their swimrun shoes so that partners could easily spot their partner swimming in front of them.

Rule of thumb: you shouldn’t feel annoyed while swimming.

Run Considerations

Obviously, shoes are pretty important on the run.

A great place to start is looking at what shoes you already have and preferably a trail shoe since most if not all Swimrun events are on trails. Not all shoes are created equal so you should make sure to try a couple of shoes because a sloshy shoe will get annoying quickly and not all shoes will feel this way. Does the shoe drain well? Do they retain a lot of water and feel waterlogged?

It is important to test the shoes on various terrains (after swimming in them) to make sure they will work. You can also get technical and soak the shoes in a bucket and then weigh the shoes, wait 2 minutes and then weigh them again to see if they shed a lot of water.

Getting into the water is also loaded with considerations. Speaking of loaded…do your shoes load up with rocks and sand? This can get annoying quickly but it doesn’t happen with every shoe. This is where particle size permeability can come into play and help you have a better race experience. Basically, you want particle impermeability and water permeability.

Another consideration is having an integrated insole in the shoe that you settle on. Removable insoles are basically sponges for water that can lead to sloshiness on the run. Depending on the course, a shoe with a rock plate or a tough sole to prevent sharp rocks from causing discomfort.

Roundtable Discussion, A.K.A. “Shoedown”

This is probably the best part of the show but it’s too much good intel to write it all down. So just listen to the show for all the golden nuggets of wisdom shared.

Overall Impressions

If you haven’t figured it out already, shoes are an individual decision and there are a lot of options to chose from. It’s best to start with what you currently have and experiment in training to make sure that they meet all or most of the general considerations mentioned at the outset. If you have a couple of shoes that work well all the better for injury prevention and for having options depending on the terrain of your next swimrun event.

Feel free to hit us up if you have any questions about this special episode and/or reach out the Annie and Brooke from the Swimrun Labs on their website or on their Swimrun Labs Facebook Group.

Handy List of Shoes Mentioned on the Show

Altra Superior

Altra Vanish XC

Hoka One One Evo Jawz

Hoka One One Speedgoat

Hoka One One Speedgoat Evo

Inov-8 X-Talon 212

Inov-8 X-Talon 220

Merrell All Out Crush

Salomon Amphib

Salomon S-Lab Amphib

Vivobarefoot ECS Tempest

VJ Shoes IROCK 3

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 23 Jun 2020 07:00:03 +0000

Ötillö Engadin Course Preview

Welcome to episode twenty-four of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

We’ve got something completely new this week! For this week’s show we’re doing a deep dive into Ötillö’s Engadin World Series race. We thought that since this was the first major race to happen after shelter in place orders have lifted that it would be cool to test out a new format for race previews.

We definitely couldn’t have done this without the help of Lauritz and Mats Skott from Ötillö, Nicolas Remirez of Envol Coaching, Helen Wikmar of Ark Sports and Daniel Hansson. If almost all of these names sound familiar is because with the exception of Daniel, Mats, Nicolas and Helen are previous guests on the podcast.

The idea for this format kept coming up in feedback from friends and listeners. Way back when we started the show we thought that it would be could do race previews and all the feedback kept convincing us that this would be fun content to produce and share. We spent three weeks getting everything together and we hope that you enjoy and are inspired to add Engadin to your Swimrun bucket list. (We definitely have it on ours!) So let’s dive in.

FIRST, WHERE IS ENGADIN?

Located in southeastern Switzerland and situated in a high alpine valley at an elevation of around 1800 meters or 5900 feet Engadin is a long high Alpine valley region in the eastern Swiss Alps located in the canton of Graubünden in most southeastern Switzerland with about 25,000 inhabitants. Engadin means “Valley of the Inn People” and the En (pronounced Inn) is the river that flows through the valley and ends in the Black Sea but not before passing through some amazing looking lakes. This region is known for skiing, hiking, trail running, water sports and since 2014—Swimrun.

Travel to Engadin is pretty straight forward. The closest major city is St. Moritz and it’s about 200km or 124 miles from Zurich and 175km or 109 miles from Milan. Flying, driving and railway are all ways to get to the race location. And uhm, what a location! Situated in a high alpine valley at an elevation of around 1700- 1800 meters or 5500-5900 feet the Swiss Alps look like a painting. Check out this race hype video by Ötillö to get a sense of the region and race course.

Ötillö describes this destination a fairy tale. It is the race that launched the international swimrun movement in 2014 as the first Ötillö race ever outside of Sweden. “A unique race in a unique place, hosted in the fantastic Engadin Valley in Switzerland.”

We sat down with Mats Skott who chose the location and designed the course for his take on all things Engadin.

Why Engadin?

Up until the Engadin race in 2014 Ötillö (which means island to island) was only taking place in the Stockholm Archipelago and they wanted to show that swimrun could be done anywhere where there is water to swim in and trails/roads to run on. He said that the beauty of the region and the challenge of mountains serve to highlight both that Swimrun is a versatile sport and that it can be truly international. It is now one of his favorite races to produce year after year.

Key features of the course?

Mats took into account the natural beauty of the region and used the valley and mountains surrounding the valley for great swimming and a lot of climbing on the run legs. Athletes traverse three lakes as they start in Maloja and make their way towards the finish in Silvaplana.

Important info for swim runners considering racing Engadin?

It’s important for folks to know that the race is in the mountains and as such, athletes need to prepared for sudden changes in weather and account for cold water temps. Having the right equipment and being properly trained is key to have a great experience. Athletes also need to recon with the elevation of the race and the technical/steep climbs and descents on the run legs. Training technical downhill running is key aspect to train for this event.

Ötillö Race FACTS (World Series Distance)

Total race distance: 45.4 km (28.2 miles)

Trail-running: 39.6 km (24.6 miles)

Run sections: 9

Swimming: 5,800 m (6,343 y)

Swim sections: 8 (12.8% Swimming)

Longest swim: 1,400 m (1530 y)

Longest run: 8.5 km (5.3 Miles)

Total elevation: 1,499 m (4918 feet)

The World Series race starts near the town of Maloja and ends in the town of Silvaplana. (The hub for all pre-race activities including packet pickup, course briefings, etc.)

Sprint and experience distance events take place in Silvaplana the day before the World Series distance event.

Average race times:

Based on 2019 results, the winning team finished in 5:27:29 (Team Simployer.) Daniel Hansson and Helen Wilkmar who we interview later in the show each finished second in 2019 with their teams ARK Swimrun for Daniel and ARKsouls for Helen. The last team finished in 9:21:31 in 2019. 5 teams missed cutoff times at aid stations. 13 teams did not finish.

Fun fact: 29 countries were represented at the 2019 event.

Weather on Race Day

In the middle/end of July, it is usually summer in the Engadin Valley with daytime temperatures of around 20 degrees Celsius (68 Fahrenheit). The elevation of the course is around 1700-1800 meters (5,500-5875 ft) and this means that there could even be snowfall. Water temperatures will be between 10-14 degrees Celsius (50-57 degrees Fahrenheit) depending on where you are along the course.

Ötillö recommends making sure that teams dress accordingly and consider wearing something under your wetsuit if you tend to get cold on the long swims. Use a Neoprene cap if you are not used to cold water.

Ötillö’s describes the course as “challenging and beautiful. The varied course, the altitude and the very strong group of participants will challenge everyone to put in their best performances.”

“The start is in Maloja, at the top of the valley and finish is by the lake in Silvaplana. The course passes Sils and Silvaplana along the way. The running sections are on dirt roads, single tracks, rocks and with some challenging steep sections to climb. The uphills are rewarded by amazing views. This is tough.”

We chatted with Daniel Hansson who has raced the event four times for his tips on the course. He tries to arrive early to Engadin to start acclimating to the elevation and taking it easy when he arrives with some light hikes and easy swims. He also keeps a closer eye on his effort on race day to make sure that he’s keeping his heart rate from exploding to be able to race well. He encourages everyone to take the time to enjoy the beauty of the region.

World Series Course Leg Breakdown

Leg 1: Maloja to Lej Cavloc 3.2k run (1.9 miles) (110m or 360ft of climbing)

Leg 2: Lej Cavloc 300m swim (328 yards)

Leg 3: Leg Cavloc to Sils Lake Malija 7.6k run (4.7 miles) (330m or 1082 ft of climbing in this section narrow single track technical section)

Leg 4: Maloja 500m swim (546 yards)

Leg 5: Camping to Isola 6.5k run (4 miles) (210m or 689ft of climbing) (uphill all the time)

Leg 6: Isola to Chaste Point 900m swim (984 yards)

Leg 7: Chaste Point-Chaste Second Swim 600m run (.4 miles)

Leg 8: Chaste 2nd Swim 600m swim (656 yards)

Leg 9: Chaste to Lej Silvaplana 6.3k run (3.9 miles) (150m or 492ft of climbing)

Leg 10: Lej Silvaplana 600m swim (656 yards)

Leg 11: Lej Silvaplana loop 3.2k run (2 miles) (210m or 689ft of climbing)

Leg 12: Lej Silvaplana 2 800m swim (875 yards)

Leg 13: Lej Silvaplana to Silvaplana 1.9k run (1.2 miles)

Leg 14: Lej Champfer 1400m swim (1530 yards)

Leg 15: Lej Champfer Loop 8.5k run (5.3 miles) (375m or 1230ft of climbing) (Lots of switchbacks in this leg on the climb up and a gravel fire road on the way down)

Leg 16: Lej Champfer 2 700m swim (765 yards)

Leg 17: Shore to finish line Silvaplana 2k run (1.3 miles)

We were lucky to be able to get Nicolas of Envol Coaching to give us a course breakdown and mini-race report. There are a lot of nuggets of wisdom here for anyone considering racing this event.

Engadin Race Reports

We asked Helen and Daniel to give us their respective race reports from 2019 to help everyone get a sense of what the course would be like on race day. More great nuggets of wisdom for everyone to stock away.

Training for the Engadin World Series Distance

We asked Nicolas for his advice on training for Engadin. He gave us a lot of tips about training for the elevation and the weather conditions. He recommends athletes try to train at least a few sessions in altitude to get a sense of what the race effort could look like. He recommends long hill repeat training sessions and swim straight after running downhills, if possible.

A key weekly session that he asks all of his coaching athletes that are racing Engadin to do every week leading up to the race is pretty intense: a three-hour workout with 30 minutes of steep hill repeats (last downhill really fast) followed by a 20 minute swim at race pace, then 25 minutes of hill repeats followed by a 15 minute swim at race pace, then 20 minutes of hill repeats followed by a 10 minute swim at race pace, then 30 minutes of hill repeats followed by a 15 minute swim at race pace and finally 15 minutes of hill repeats.

The other key weekly session is to find the steepest hill in your area and do hill repeats for one hour non-stop.

Summary

So with that, we hope that everyone found some value in this race preview. Again, we could not have produced this show without all the help that we got from Lauritz and Mats Skott from Ötillö, Nicolas Remirez of Envol Coaching, Helen Wikmar of Ark Sports and Daniel Hansson. We were truly humbled that so many people were willing to give us some of their time to help make this show great and we hope that you find value in listening to it and, ultimately, that you are inspired to add this race to your bucket list.

We’d love to hear your feedback so let us know what you think!

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 18 Jun 2020 07:00:07 +0000

Asher Clark of Vivobarefoot

Welcome to episode twenty-three of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show, we have Asher Clark, the Co-founder of Vivobarefoot. We will be talking about the origin story of the company and do deep dive into the new Vivobarefoot ECS Tempest Swimrun shoe. (We also talked about surfing, which is awesome!) More on that later in the show.

We added another thing to the list of “things the Low Tide Boyz are doing” with the first swimrun column at Triathlete Magainze! Be sure to give it a read and share it with your networks.

Training is about to get a kick in the pants as it appears that pools are starting to open and open water swims are now fully allowed at our usual spot. RIP to our shoulders! We also just dropped our ARK Keel Swimrun Pull Buoy Review, so be sure to check that out as well.

We wanted to give a shout out this week to Helene from Sweden. She has been sending kind words and feedback along since the very beginning. Thanks for the support Helene!

Now for this week’s interview. We’re stoked to get to chat with Asher of Vivobarefoot. If you’re not familiar with Vivobarefoot, they are a minimalist shoe company and are a staple in the Swimrun space. The company was started in 2010 with a simple idea to make shoes that allow feet to do their thing and, in effect, respect human movement.

We chatted about the origins of the company and the simple/profound idea that feet should be allowed to unleash their natural potential and the shoe should be as minimal as possible and be as sustainable as possible by using a few materials as possible. Vivobarefoot had the goal of being sustainable since the beginning. The foundation of making a sustainable shoe for Vivo is to make sure that the shoe functions to allow for natural movement. The guiding light being regenerating as a concept and not just being sustainable as a company to get closer to the ultimate goal of mimicking nature.

Vivobarefoot got into Swimrun while they were developing their Primus trail shoe. They tested the prototype of the shoe with some elite athletes in Sweden. Asher then met with Mats Skott and Michael of Ötillö in 2015 and went for a short 10k Swimrun (No wetsuit, cold water) and Asher was hooked. Swimrun to him was one of the most visceral ways to be connected with nature. It’s human locomotion over land and you hit the coast and you keep going. The first Swimrun shoe was released soon after adapting the Primus Trail shoe for Swimrun with the now iconic orange sole.

The new Tempest shoe was a few years in the making. The ESC (Extreme Survival Collection) Tempest is basically the best Swim Run shoe on the planet, for the amphibious athlete. It is inspired by nature's aquatic animals and blended with modern technology, Vivobarefoot created a lightweight organic cage to provide flexibility, drainage and protection. The sole was developed in collaboration with Michelin to provide super grip to the ground in both slick and dry conditions. The shoe sounds awesome and looks like it would work in every race condition easily.

The main caveat to using minimal shoes is that the Tempest isn’t for everyone because there’s not a lot cushioning and if your feet aren’t used to running in barefoot or minimal shoes, you can get hurt. Like anything, it’s a journey and Vivobarefoot has a guide to transitioning to barefoot-style shoes on their website to help people transition to running well in their shoes.

Make sure to check out the Tempest shoe. They are available now!

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 11 Jun 2020 07:00:01 +0000

Erika Rosenbaum

Welcome to episode twenty-two of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we have Erika Rosenbaum. She’s a key historical figure in the sport of Swimrun with two claims to fame: she coined the word swimrun and produced the first swimrun event (Swimrun Hellas) that wasn’t Ötillö in 2012. She’s an amazing human being and we really enjoyed chatting with her.

We wanted to give a shout out this week to Iain from the UK. He’s given us great feedback on the show and explained the UK Swimrun scene to us. There are certainly some events that we’ll want to check out there in the future. Thanks for taking the time to write us Iain!

We also just dropped another bonus swimrun gear review episode. We reviewed the ARK Keel swimrun pull buoy.

Now for this week’s interview. After starting a family, Erika started running in 2007 to get back into shape. She started running and it turns out that she was good at it. She then turned to triathlon and raced her first Ironman distance event in 2010 after mastering the Olympic distance. (She has since raced 8 Ironman distance events) She’s a running coach

She raced her first swimrun race in 2011: Ötillö (The only swimrun event in the world.) And she just loved that race! She came home after a 3rd podium finish thinking of how this activity has to be available to all people, not only the long-distance athletes. So she said that this has to be a sport and it’s going be called “Swimrun.” (She has since raced the World Championship 5 times and finished third place three times!)

First, she thought the sound of the word Swimrun was really corny, but every word she came up with was corny so she said Swimrun 100 times to herself so it would sound more normal. She then sent out invitations to Swimrun Hellas, made the course and started to bake. The first race was in June 2012 and many of the competitors from then are still racing. That race was officially the first swimrun event that wasn’t the Ötillö World Championship. More on Swimrun Hellas later in the show.

She now races marathons and swimrun events with her daughter Maja and hopes to race the Ötillö World Championship with her one day.

When she first heard about Ötillö she thought that it sounded impossible, so it was definitely the race for her. She instantly fell in love with the sport, the Stockholm Archipelago and being in nature. She also loved not having to have as much gear as triathlon. At that race, she had the epiphany that this sport should be accessible to everyone and there should be shorter races for people to discover swimrun without having to commit to race 75km.

After coining the name swimrun, Erika had thoughts about trademarking the name. Instead she had a conversation with Michael Lemmel and Mats Skott of Ötillö and she agreed when they asked her to use the name for their event. Other events also reached out to her to use the name and she said yes. She, in effect, gave a name to the sport and then shared it with the world so that the sport could grow. Now there are 1,500 swimrun events in the world.

Erika is happy with how the sport has been growing and really appreciates the attention to every detail that Ötillö takes with each of their events. It’s been fun to see all the races popping up all over the world. Swimrun is such a great way to for people to exercise and be with nature. She now races swimrun events one or two times per year with her daughter.

In 2012, when she started Swimrun Hellas, her goal was create a course that people could try out the sport and do “social sport.” Hellas is a national park near Stockholm with a marked course that people can go visit and train for swimrun. Her event sees World Championship winners racing alongside beginners and sharing the love for the sport with everyone. By creating the first short-course swimrun event, Erika was the catalyst for the evolution and growth of the sport that we all enjoy and love today.

We encourage everyone to check out the Swimrun Hellas website, Erika’s Swimrun Family facebook page and follow Erika on Instagram.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 4 Jun 2020 07:00:08 +0000

Ark Sports Keel Swimrun Pull Buoy Review

Welcome to our second Low Tide Boyz swrimrun gear review show! This week we are reviewing the Ark Sports Keel Pull Buoy. This review was co-hosted by our friends at Swimrun Labs and we think that you will enjoy this review as we left no stone unturned for this one.

We first learned about the Keel while researching swimrun brands to interview for show and quickly became obsessed with this pull buoy once we bought one a put it through its paces. Ark Sports is a great company that we are really rooting for. If you want to learn more about Ark Sports, check out Episode 7 on our podcast where we interview the co-founder of Ark Sports, Christofer Sundberg.

The Pull Buoy

By way of introduction, Ötillö rules state that the maximum size that a pull buoy can be to be “legal” for any race is 32 cm x 30 cm x 15 cm. You can even use more than one pull buoy but the total size needs to be the same.

The Ark Sports Keel Pull Buoy comes in at 28 cm x 26 cm x 12 cm. It costs 45 Euros or 50 dollars plus shipping to the U.S. from Sweden. (Ark Sports is currently working on setting up U.S. distribution so the shipping costs will come down in the near future.)

According to the Ark Sports website, the Keel was developed and optimized by the world’s best swimrun athletes and the swimrun community. Its distinctive shape claims to minimize drag and maximize floatation in order for you to move as fast as possible through water.

The pull buoy is made of EVA foam provides massive floatation with a rating of 46.1 Newtons. (The force of gravity on Planet Earth is only 9.8 Newtons.) Needless to say…this pull buoy really floats!

The Test

We all tested the buoy extensively in training and raced with the Keel.

The Swim Review

Have we mentioned that this pull buoy is super buoyant? So buoyant that you want to be careful in the water because if you’re not bracing yourself, you could flip over in the water. The Low Tide Boyz tested the Keel with other pull buoys in the pool it was pretty clear that the Keel was faster than the Ark Sports Pontoon, the Roka Pro Swim pull buoy and a TYR Swim Float buoy by about 5 seconds per 100 yards (this was not a super scientific study).

The ladies of Swimrun Labs also put the Keel to the test in a much more controlled trial…that took five days…where they tested 4 types of pull buoys and 1 calf flotation device and found that the Keel was the fastest option. (You can see the results of their study here.) They also found that the Keel was a great leveling agent because it put you in an optimal position for swimming. They experienced some chaffing from the shape of the buoy and the girth of the buoy did require some adductor work to keep the buoy in place. This appeared to be mitigated by using the lasso system to keep the pull buoy in place.

The Transition Review

Swim to Run:

This was mostly a non-issue with the Keel. Due to the massive floatation we all recommended making sure your bracing yourself as you come out of the water because the Keel will explode out of the water to the surface and that can be interesting if you’re not ready for it. The shape of the buoy was also conducive to placing it on the hip or back depending on a swimrunner’s preference.

Run to Swim:

This transition was a bit more complicated. Given the buoyancy of the Keel, it was important to make sure that we were ready to enter the water and start swimming because if not the pull buoy would affect entry into the water. In effect, you have to drown the pull buoy to place it between your thighs if you already waded into the water before being set to swim. Getting horizontal immediately is the best way to get going without having the buoyancy affect you. One point of note is that since the pull buoy is asymmetrical you want to make sure that it’s point the right direction.

The big zoom out is to get to know how the pull buoy acts in the water because it requires a bit of practice to understand how it works.

The Run Review

Running with the Keel takes some forethought. If you’re using the thigh attachment method, it could cause problems on really technical trails getting caught on branches and brush. The lasso/back method resolves that problem, but It takes some getting used to as well. The material of the pull buoy doesn’t slide around and stays in place which is nice.

Low Tide Boyz’z Rankings

Chipper: 4.5 Pull Buoys

Chipper thinks that the Keel is the gold standard of swimrun pull buoys. It looks good and it durable. He docked some points for the cost and for training with the Keel to make sure that you know how to wield it by the time race day comes around.

Chris: 4.5 Pull Buoys

Chris loved the Keel but docked some points for the cost and the fit. It’s not as comfortable as it could be due to the design. That being said, this pull buoy does make you faster. Similar to how the Nike 4% running shoes essentially make you faster (if you know how to run in them) over the marathon distance due to the technology on board, the Keel pull buoy will make you faster in the water.

Swimrun Labs’s Rankings

Annie: 4.5 Pull Buoys

Annie thought that the Keel is a super powerful pull buoy, that looks cool and increases performance. She docked it .5 pull buoys because of those slightly overdesigned elements that could lead to some discomfort for certain body types.

Brooke: 4 Pull Buoys

Brooke agreed with Annie’s take on the Keel. She arrived at 4 pull buoys by docking .5 pull buoy lost for being overdesigned and another .5 for the cost of the Keel. It’s a little cost prohibitive for people getting first into swimrun when you include shipping from Sweden. All that being said, the performance gains offered by the Keel in the water are undeniable.

Overall Impressions

Overall, we would definitely recommend the Arksports Keel Pull Buoy. It’s pricey but it checks off all the boxes for what a swimrun pull buoy should provide. While it might be slightly overdesigned and not as comfortable as it could be, it’s still an amazing piece of swimming technology. Not only will it literally make you faster in the water, you’re supporting a great brand that is synonymous with the sport of swimrun.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 2 Jun 2020 07:00:09 +0000

Swimrun Labs

Welcome to episode twenty one of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we have Annie and Brooke from Swimrun Labs. We had a great chat with them about their journey in the sport and their review website.

Training was interesting this week. Chipper remains sane and Chris ran from his house to a coffee shop 37 miles away hitting all the main peaks of Marin County. You can check out the run and our strava group here. We are also ramping up our bonus episodes where we do some swimrun gear reviews, so be sure to subscribe to get those.

Wild Swimrun hosted their first camp of 2020 in Sweden this past weekend. It looked like a great event with perfect weather and chilly water. You can learn more about the founders Mia and Fanny and Wild Swimrun on Episode 10 of our podcast and help support their efforts to grow female participation in the sport by buying some swag from our store. (100% of proceeds go towards the Wild Youth Initiative that provides scholarships for women and girls to attend a Wild Swimrun camp.)

We have two shout outs this week! First, we want to give a special shout out to Grace from St. Paul, MN for supporting us on Patreon. She’s a fan of the show and we appreciate her support to help keep the lights on.

We also wanted to give a shout out to Greg from team Boston Wet Sox. We interviewed Bronwyn and Greg on Episode 15 of the show and Greg recently sent us some great feedback and suggestions for the show that we will definitely take to heart. We love getting feedback because we are committed to growing the sport and understand our place in that process. It really helps us to make sure that we are creating content that folks will find helpful and letting us know is the best way for us to iterate to keep making the show better!

Now for this week’s interview. Annie and Brooke of Swimrun Labs are amazing ambassadors for the sport of Swimrun. Not only are they great athletes, they put out a lot of great information about Swimrun racing and gear on their website. They have competed in 9 swimruns together and qualified for the Ötillö World Championship in 2020.

Annie initially convinced Brooke to sign up for a race but Brooke pretty much taught her how to swim. They fell in love with the sport after their first race in 2016 at the Bellingham Swimrun in Washington. (Note: the race director of the event is Annie’s husband and that’s how she learned about the sport.)

They started their website in late 2019 to try to help educate people about the sport and help impart the love for the sport and differentiate the sport from triathlon. The main purpose to create the site was to create a space to help the sport grow in the “right way” and encourage everyone that comes along to help steward the sport. Given that swimrun is so different from any other type of event out there, describing that vibe and magic is really something that has to be experienced to sense. They apply a data-driven approach to the reviews to test products and help make the research digestible for people to make good decisions about their training and gear.

We chatted about their favorite races (Casco Bay and Orcas Island), race stories (listen to the show for that!) and what makes a good partner. They thought that having similar goals and temperament are the best qualities to look for. They encourage team pre-race dance routines and having as much fun as possible on the course.

You can learn more about Swimrun Labs on their website and on Instagram. Lastly, Annie and Brooke encourage everyone to sign up for a swimrun race! We second that sentiment.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 28 May 2020 07:00:05 +0000

John Duquette, CEO of blueseventy

Welcome to episode twenty of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we have the CEO of blueseventy, John Duquette. We had a great conversation about the brand and their expansion into swimrun.

For shout outs this week we are saying hi to Sossi! She’s a Bay Area swimmer and former triathlete that is a big fan of the show. She recently reached out to Chris to let him know that there was a swimrun team (in blueseventy Alliance swimrun wetsuits incidentally) training at Aquatic Park. While we appreciate the intel it was made funnier by two other of our friends letting us know that they saw a team out there on the same day! This week is also her birthday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOSSI!

Training continues this week with Chipper starting to ramp back up on volume and Chris keeps reliving the glory days with a lot of volume of running, cycling and cross-training. Make sure to join our strava club to follow along with our workouts and other LTBz fans.

Now for this week’s interview. We were lucky to get a chance to talk to John about the history of blueseventy and their development of their swimrun wetsuit.

John Duquette started racing triathlon in 1999 and since then has competed in multisport, running and cycling races all over the world. After working at a Seattle running store for 7 years he joined the team at blueseventy in 2007. In 2015 he was named CEO and purchased the brand in 2017. After 20 years in the endurance space he’s seen and experienced enough to tell stories well past last call in the local pub. While he still enjoys racing his mountain bike his primary focus now is making sure his two children develop a love for the outdoors and making sure his dog gets enough exercise to keep him from chewing up his running shoes.

The company was actually founded in 1993 as Ironman Wetsuits and did business under that brand name until 2006. The company rebranded as blueseventy in 2006 and John joined the team in 2007. blueseventy is a small company where everyone is an athlete and into open water swimming.

Swimrun first came onto the their attention from their distributors in Europe. They started working on a suit for 2 years before they ended up releasing their suit. Mike Orton, a former Olympic swimmer, was the chief designer of the suit that was perfect for swimming and geared for durability. The Alliance Swimrun wetsuit was the result. (You can read our swimrun gear review of the Alliance Swimrun wetsuit here.)

The next version in development will have a zipper on the front and the back, sleeves that are removable and re-attachable and better materials. They will also start working on a new performance-based suit. They are also working on additional products that are specific for swimrun like new swim paddle designs and larger pull buoys.

John and the folks at blueseventy were cool enough to set up a discount code for our fans to use for 20% off of the site. Just use the code SWIMRUN at checkout for 20% off everything on their site.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 21 May 2020 07:00:09 +0000

blueseventy Alliance Swimrun Wetsuit Review

Welcome to the first ever Low Tide Boyz swimrun gear review! This week we are reviewing the blueseventy Alliance Swimrun Wetsuit.

blueseventy was cool enough to send us a couple of suits to put through the paces and they gave us their blessing to do an unbiased review based on our experience and, admittedly mediocre, athletic abilities. Check out the suit at blueseventy.com and remember to use the discount code SWIMRUN for 20% off anything in the store.

The Suit

Overall, the blueseventy Alliance swimrun wetsuit is a great suit. With a bunch of key swimrun features such as two internal pockets, front zipper, built-in tether loops, large back pocket and rubberized neoprene for durability, this suit is definitely versatile and durable. It comes with fully taped long sleeves that athletes can cut to their desired length. (We didn’t cut the suits for reasons we’ll explain later.)

The blueseventy Alliance is available in men’s and women’s specific styles and retails for $270. This price point already makes this a very economical suit that is built to last. It comes in one colorway, black with orange elements. We weren’t huge fans of the orange but it is great for visibility in open water so we can’t knock it that much for that.

The Test

We tested the suits while doing our swimrun trainings leading up to Ötillö Catalina in the Bay Area. The water temps were pretty chilly and in all, we spent about 3-4 hours in the suits putting it through the paces of swimming, running and transitions.

The Swim Review

The suit was great in the water. Given how cold the conditions were when we were testing the suits, we definitely appreciated the thicker neoprene of the Alliance. As mentioned above, because of the cold conditions we ended up not cutting the sleeves we were liking having the extra coverage.

This is definitely a swimmer’s suit. Good buoyancy throughout the torso. The shoulder neoprene felt just right, not too thin and not too thick. The neck was comfortable and the zipper didn’t feel obtrusive in any way. As mentioned above, we were really appreciating the thickness in cold water but we were worried about potentially overheating if conditions were warmer.

The Run Review

We felt that this was definitely a swimmer’s suit…when we were running. Given the thickness of the neoprene, we experienced some overheating on the runs and on one occasion we stopped to cab down because Chipper was “roasting.” We also experienced some hip impingement while running. We felt that the neoprene in the hip flexor region was a bit too thick for long running efforts and thought that this could lead to run fatigue. That being said, we did see teams at the Catalina race run in the suits no problem so this issue might be athlete-specific.

Low Tide Boyz’z Rankings

(We’re unveiling are new pull buoy ranking system for our gear reviews! 5 pull buoys being the best and 1 pull buoy being the worst.)

Chipper: 3.5 Pull Buoys

Chipper though that the blueseventy Alliance swimrun wetsuit was good suit for certain races/ water temps but was worried about it in warmer races. It’s a good value swimrun wetsuit and its durability really makes this a perfect training suit. The suit could have used some exterior pockets in the thighs and more accessible areas for nutrition storage since the internal pockets we are bit tough to access without a lot of effort. Overall, he plans on training in the suit and maybe racing in it, if the weather conditions seem to indicate that the Alliance is the suit to use.

Chris: 4 Pull Buoys

Chris gave the Alliance 4 pull buoys for mostly the same reasons as Chipper. For him, the value of the suit at $270 (or $216 with the 20% off discount code SWIMRUN) made it a great suit for beginners or folks that want to have a more cold weather suit in their stable of options. He wasn’t a fan of the orange on the suit but he’s a diva and everybody knows that. Finally, if getting cold during a swimrun—especially towards the end of the race—then this suit is a great choice.

Overall Impressions

Overall, we would definitely recommend folks checking out the blueseventy Alliance swimrun wetsuit. We are definitely stoked on the suit and plan on using it in training pretty regularly. Check out the suit at blueseventy.com and remember to use the discount code SWIMRUN for 20% off anything in the store.

lowtideboyz.com

Tue, 19 May 2020 07:00:05 +0000

Lars Finanger

Welcome to episode nineteen of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we have Lars Finanger of Ödyssey Swimrun. This might be one of our favorite shows so far. (Every other show is tied for second place!)

We’re still under shelter in place and still training for life at this point. We’ve also committed for some reason to grow our hair out. Chris has already been on that train but Chipper just joined. Fans of the show can suggest what type of mullet Chipper should grow.

For shout outs this week we are virtually waving our hands to Sarah Fergot. She’s a Novato resident and stout swimrunner in her own right. She’s had a bunch of the races she had on the calendar get cancelled including a 50K and a 100 mile ultra. She’s channeling that energy positively and is currently running the virtual race across Tennessee. That race is a 1000 kilometers and she has until August 1st to cover that distance. Best of luck Sarah!

Now for this week’s interview. It’s safe to say that Lars has done a ton to help grow the sport of swimrun in the US. While in this interview we chat about his background as an athlete, writer and race director, we could dedicate an entire episode (and we shall) to talk about Ödyssey Swimrun (formerly Swimrun USA.)

Lars was born in Norway and grew up in Saudi Arabia. He participated in his first triathlon event in an Eighth Grade Physical Education class (it was organized by his Dad) and grew up playing baseball and endurance events. He has two kids and his wife Emily is a stout athlete in her own right (she won Norseman twice!)

Lars learned about swimrun when he was working for Slowtwich.com and Jonas Colting was commenting on the forum about that Mats and Michael were putting together. Fast forward to 2014, the timing was right to try to cover the event for the magazine that Lars was working for. When he reached out to Ötillö about getting an entry to the Otillo World Championship. They told him no but that he should come out and somebody might be injured and he might be able to sub in. Sure enough, there was a guy that got food poisoning before the race and he was in! His “teammate” was from Spain and didn’t speak much English and somehow managed to put together a decent race. Loving every minute, Lars was hooked but in 2014 there were only three swimrun races in the World.

Fortuitously, Jeff Cole reached out to Lars while he was still in Sweden to tell him about swimrun and about a course in Maine that would be a perfect venue. Right then and there the idea was hatched for Casco Bay Swimrun.

In addition to starting Ödyssey Swimrun, Lars still races a lot of swimrun events. He recently raced Ötillö Catalina with his partner John Stevens (a stout swimmer and athlete in his own right.) They had a great race experience in Catalina and add to that that they even chartered a giant sail boat to stay on. On Catalina, Lars unveiled the Kraken Collective, an online swimrun community for training and racing team. With COVID-19, the collective is on hold and we’re looking forward to seeing that re-launch once all the shelters in place orders have lifted.

We ended the interview chatting about why swimrun is so different from triathlon and why it’s such a unique experience. Lars wants to see the sport grow organically and keep the vibe that’s similar to gravel riding or ultrarunning. Swimrunning can fun and hard and not have it be super serious.

You can learn more about Lars and Ödyssey Swimrun here.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 14 May 2020 07:00:08 +0000

Marcus Barton

Welcome to episode eighteen of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we have Mr. Xterra (and Mr. Low Tide Boy for 2020) Marcus Barton. We had a great time chatting with him about his journey in swimrun and we think that you’ll really enjoy the interview! More on that in a bit.

Shelter in place continues in California and we’re still exercising and did some endurance antics this week. Chris ran a marathon on Friday for no reason and Chipper ran 33 laps around his block to celebrate his 33rd birthday. Fun times!

For shout outs this week we are tipping the hat to Bruno Frisch. He’s a Novato resident and stud athlete who’s been giving us great feedback on the show. You can find him on Instagram here.

We also have a special announcement: we are going to start producing some bonus content for everyone in the form of swimrun-specific gear reviews. Our first review will be on the Blue Seventy Alliance wetsuit. The folks over there were cool enough to send us a couple of suits to try out and gave us their blessing to put out our opinions. Not only did they do that, they also created a discount code for all our fans for 20% off on their site. Just use the code SWIMRUN at checkout on their website!

Now for this week’s interview. If you don’t know who Marcus Barton is, well you should. He’s a great ambassador for the sport and we had a great conversation chatting about his love for swimrun and his journey in the sport.

Marcus started racing triathlon in 2007 and his first race was XTERRA Uwharrie. He was instantly hooked on XTERRA events. He was part of the XTERRA Ambassador team for 7 years and in 2016, he was bestowed with the honor of being named Mr. XTERRA. In 2014, one of his XTERRA racing buddies, Dan Kimball, started talking to him about this crazy race called Ötillö. He started training for to race Ötillö in 2015 and raced his first swimrun in July of that year at Swimrun Rockman. They went on to race the Ötillö World Championship later that year. Since then he's raced a ton of swimruns with Ötillö Catalina this year being his 25th swimrun race. Racing with a varity of partners, his results in swimrun are usually at the top with his teams' efforts earning them the Top Ranked team title in the 2019 US Swimrun Rankings. Although swimrun is his focus these days, he also enjoys adventure races, off-road triathlons and trail running.

During the interview we decided to name Marcus “Mr. Low Tide Boy” for 2020. Not only has he been super supportive of our show and meme account but he’s opened a bunch of doors for us to be able to get interviews for the show. In all, it was great to hear from Marcus why he loves the sport of swimrun (spoiler alert: the connection with nature) and what he thinks needs to happen to grow the sport in the U.S. the right way.

You can follow Marcus’s adventures at his blog or on facebook.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 7 May 2020 07:00:10 +0000

Nate Helming

Welcome to episode seventeen of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we have Nate Helming. Nate is an endurance, strength and mobility coach and co-founder of The Run Experience. Lots of great training tips in this episode so be ready to take some notes.

We learned this week that the shelter in place order for the Bay Area where we live is going to be extended through the end of the month of May. While we are bummed, we know that we are doing our part to slow the spread of the virus. As usual, we encourage everyone to listen to the medical and science experts about best practices and hopefully we will be past this and back to racing soon.

For shout outs this week we wanted to give props to Brent Molsberry. His race report for Ötillö Catalina in an amazing read and we encourage everyone to check it out. Brent is also the Race Director for the Odyssey Swimrun Orcas Island race and it might surprise folks to read that Catalina was his first swimrun race!

Now on to this week’s interview. We were fortunate to get some time on Nate’s busy schedule to chat about the importance of strength training and mobility for endurance athletes. Nate has been Chris’s triathlon and endurance coach for years and we think that everyone will get some benefit from listening to this episode.

Nate has extensive running, triathlete and strength training experience and has channeled it all into his coaching. He believes that being fit means having the training that allows you to be a complete athlete. He preaches against sport specificity because training variety is what keeps athletes healthy and strong. After being injured and not being able to race the Ironman World Championship he realized that endurance athletes were slipping through the cracks with injuries because most endurance athletes were not focusing on cross-training and getting injured in their chosen sport.

Nate recommends adding strength and mobility to any endurance training plan. With just four basic movements athletes can start easing into strength work with. These movements are the squat, the pushup, the lunge and (everyone’s favorite) the burpee. Just adding these movements 2-3 times per week in addition to their endurance sport specific training. These sessions can be as short as 20-30 minutes and you can just do body weight and focus on technique. Nate has a ton of videos on their Youtube page that explain all the movements and provide training tips.

You can check out Nate and The Run Experience on their website or on Youtube. Finally, you can be a part of the “Together We Move” free daily programming on their app.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 30 Apr 2020 07:00:22 +0000

Mats Skott, Co-Founder Ötillö

Welcome to episode sixteen of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we have Mats Skott, co-founder of Ötillö. NBD!

Real talk: if you would have asked us when we started this show in January that we’d be interviewing anyone at Ötillö, let alone one of the founders, we would have lol’d. Yet, here we are! More on our most journalistic interview later in the show.

We’re still under a shelter at home order in California and trying to balance work, family and training. We’ve been at it for over a month at this point and we’re cautiously optimistic that we’ll be able to jump back in the pool soon. As usual, we encourage everyone to listen to the medical and science experts about best practices and hopefully we will be past this and back to racing soon. Until then, stay safe everyone!

For shout outs this week we wanted to let everyone know about Riding Easy Records. Based in Hermosa Beach California, this independent record label that focuses on metal and hard rock were cool enough to let us use one of their songs for our intro and outro music. While their music might not be for everyone’s taste, we think that we can all agree that this is a great time to support local businesses and we thank the crew over there for letting us one of their tracks for the show.

Now for this week’s interview. We are lucky to have Mats Skott, co-founder of Ötillö and basically the co-pioneer with Michael Lemmel of a new worldwide sport.

Mats was born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden. His sports growing up were Cross-country skiing and orienteering on a national level. In 1995, he started racing in Adventure Races around the world until 2008. His best results being a second place finish in the World Championship 2004.

In, 2006 Michael Lemmel and Mats started Ötillö. Neither of them were swimmers but when they heard about the idea from the “original four” and how to move in nature they loved it and they were tasked with organizing the first Swimrun race and named it ÖTILLÖ which means “island to island” in Swedish.

We chatted with Mats about his athletic roots and how he eventually discovered adventure racing in 1995. These races are between 300-1000 kilometers long and you race with a mixed gender team of 4 or 5 people and moving as a team through nature non-stop to the finish line. These races includes running, hiking, kayaking, mountain biking, horseback riding and rock climbing. To make it even better, a team would get the map to follow only 2 days before the race start and teams would only have a general idea of what disciplines to train leading up to the event. These events could be 4-6 days long.

We, of course, asked Mats about his version of the origin story of Ötillö and how Michael told him about the crazy bet and the “race” that took 2 days for the Original 4. (Now the race champions finish the race in around 8 hours.) Both Michael and Mats fell in love with the idea of how to move in nature. We also chatted about the first year of Ötillö and how their background in Adventure Racing really informed how they set up the race and shared some war stories about the early years and how they weren’t afraid to make changes to help grow the sport.

Mats is really happy and proud how the sport has grown and folks are finding a way to move in nature. There was also a tactical decision to have the name “swimrun” which was invented by Erika Rosenbaum be free (read: not trademark) so that the sport could grow freely. This decision turned out to be the best way to make it a worldwide sport and show a new way to move through nature.

We also chatted with Mats about his view of how the inaugural Ötillö Catalina went in their view. He was super happy with the race to say the least. It was great to put on a race in Two Harbors because it made the race feel like personal while having everything be as professional as possible. Mats favorite part is really about designing a great course that takes advantage of the challenges that nature gives you to make a unique race experience. Mats background in orienteering helps inform his ability to make the courses amazing. They may make some changes to course for the 2020 edition. Those changes will be announced soon!

Fast forward to the current state of affairs in the world. Mats talked about how Ötillö has worked hard with their team to figure how to move forward with COVID-19 and the stress of trying to make good decisions so that Ötillö can survive this period and be able to put on races once we are passed this pandemic. Listeners can read Ötillö’s updated event policies and new 2020 race schedule here. Some of the major changes to the 2020 race schedule are Isle of Scilly and 1000 Lakes events had to be cancelled. Mats is planning (and hoping) that these events returns in 2021. The major adjustment for teams that are trying to qualify for the 2020 Ötillö World Championship race is that the World Series race Engadin in Switzerland (which was postponed for three weeks to July 25-26) will now have 24 qualifying slots for the championship race.

In closing, we chatted about hoping that folks can get out to train for swimrun and enjoy nature again and then hopefully race in the future. Mats, for his part, is using this time to try to improve their existing events in every way that they can to move the sport forward once we are part the pandemic.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 23 Apr 2020 07:00:02 +0000

Boston Wet Sox

Welcome to episode fifteen of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we have the U.S.-based mixed team, the Boston Wet Sox! Bronwen and Greg are partners in swimrun and in life and we had a great time chatting with them about their journey in swimrun. More on that later.

We’re still under a shelter at home order in California and trying to balance work, family and training has been a challenge. As usual, we encourage everyone to listen to the medical and science experts about best practices and hopefully we will be past this and back to racing soon. Until then, stay safe everyone!

For shout outs this week we wanted to give props to Trista Mennen. She’s been a fan of the show for a while and gave us some great feedback for improving the show and that. Follow her on Instagram here.

Now for the today’s interview. We caught up with the mixed team, The Boston Wet Sox. Bronwen and Greg Dierksen are a married couple living in Boston with their 4 year-old daughter, Gwen. The couple grew up on opposite coasts but met in college at Boston University where they were both on the swim team.

They've been competing in Swimrun events since the inaugural Casco Bay Islands Swimrun in 2016. Their race resume includes two trips to the Ötillö World Championships, Ötillö World Series races at the Isles of Scilly and Catalina, as well as numerous North American races in North Carolina, Virginia, Maine, and Massachusetts. Their most recent challenge involves attempting to be more than mediocre employees, athletes, and parents inside a 940 square foot apartment during quarantine.

We met them on Catalina for Otillo Catalina in what feels like 3 years ago…where they placed 3rd in the mixed division and got their slot for this year’s world championship.

We has a wide ranging chatted about their journey in the sport and how they got hooked on swimrun at the Ötillö World Championship in 2017. They talked about how they have progressed in the sport and how they balance training with a family (spoiler alert: they train separately.) They shared tips on being good partners and they race strategies.

You can follow Bronwen and Greg’s journey on Instagram.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 16 Apr 2020 07:00:24 +0000

Nicolas Remires of Envol Coaching

Welcome to episode fourteen of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we chat with Nicolas Remirez of Envol Coaching about his love for the sport and training for swimrun. More on that later in the show!

We will be going back to every other week show posting schedule but we want your feedback on what you want to be listening to. We can do gear reviews, deep dive on events, specific guests to interview, etc. Reach to us on social media or shoot us an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com.

We’re still in the middle of the #coronapocalypse but training as much as we can while trying to follow the medical and scientific advice on the best way to get past this pandemic. Chris trespassed on some trails already and has been getting re-acquainted with his bike seat and Chipper is riding the Peloton and is being good about doing dry land workouts.

This week’s shout out goes to the Run for Tacos swimrun team. They are two buddies with one living in Toronto and one in Tucson. They are big fans of the meme page and they are training for their first race at Odyssey Swimrun’s Orcas Island.

Now on to our interview! Nicolas Remirez is a French multi-sports athlete and endurance sports coach in Stockholm, Sweden. He’s a stout athlete with an impressive resume, including racing the Ötillö World Championship 5 times, a ton of other swimrun events and triathlons, running and cycling events and most recently won Ötillö Catalina with his partner Francesc.

Nicolas created Envol Coaching where he works athletes of all levels for endurance events including triathlon, 5 km runs to ultra-marathon, open water swimming, swimrun and cycling. He also started Team Envol which is an international swimrun team were athletes get training advice, community to ask questions and support at events. (There were 24 Team Envol members racing in Catalina.)

In this interview we chatted with Nicolas about his endurance racing chops, his love for swimrun and his decision to go all in on the sport and start Envol Coaching and Team Envol. It was a great conversation with a lot of tangible tips for becoming a better swimrun racer both in training and on raceday.

One thing that we really liked about Team Envol was are the values that they promote and expect from their team members to abide by, including promoting team spirit, to respect, protect and clean the environment, help develop the community of Team Envol swimrunners and share experiences/knowledge about swimrun. It really is a global team of folks training for their events while trying to lift up the sport as whole.

We encourage everyone interested in training for Swimrun to check out Nicolas’s coaching platform at Envol Coaching and his group training group Team Envol. (Chris joined Team Envol and he’s been stoked! Well worth the price.) Nicolas is always happy to answer questions so reach out to him on facebook if you want to learn more.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 9 Apr 2020 07:00:19 +0000

Andy Hewitt

Welcome to episode lucky thirteen of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we chat with the Godfather of Swimrun in the U.S., Andy Hewitt. He put on the first swimrun event in the United States and was our first Patron on Patreon. (Spoiler alert: if you support us on Patreon you’ll likely be interviewed for the show!) More on the interview later in the show.

We’re still under a shelter-in-place order and we learned this week that the order is being extended until the end of April. As mentioned previously on the show, we encourage everyone to follow the guidelines of the WHO and their local authorities on what to do. While our pools and parks are closed we are keeping busy with running and other dry land activities.

Speaking of which, this week’s shout out goes to Drew Sapp. He’s Co-owner of Crew Racing and Rehab and he sent us some dry land workouts for bands after we posted up on IG that we didn’t know how to use them. Thanks for that Drew!

This got us thinking that we should host a bunch of these “pools are closed” workouts on our site. If anyone else has some cool dry land workouts that they want to share, send us an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com and we’ll get that up on our site.

In other news, our collab shirt fundraiser for the WILD Youth Initiative created by WILD Swimrun is still selling well! As a reminder, all proceeds from this apparel will go towards providing scholarships to help girls attend the WILD Swimrun camps. Have enough shirts (and/or pillows)? You can head over to lowtideboyz.com to donate to the WILD Youth Initiative on our homepage.

Now for this week’s show! Andy Hewitt grew-up in San Diego. Rowed Crew at UC Berkeley. He then spent 28 years as an Infantry Officer in the Marine Corps where he participated in 7 wars throughout the Middle East and Central Asia. He did an 8-year assignment at the US State Department and spent time in Renewable Energy, Defense Contracting and worked for 10 years as a “low-grade” Hollywood actor. He’s been married for 31 years to a Super-Lawyer and has two sons.

Athletically, Andy has completed 27 Marathons, 3 Ironman races, swam the English Channel, the Catalina Channel and swam around Manhattan. He has raced in 23 Swimrun events, including 5 Ötillö World Championships. He formed California Swimrun with Sean Durkin in 2015 and hosted the first race in United States on September 20th, 2015.

Finally, it bears repeating that Andy was our first Patron on Patreon.

In this interview we chatted about how he learned about Swimrun. How he pestered Mats and Michael to get into the World Championship with his friend Sean Durkin in 2015 and then hosted the first swimrun race in the U.S. 4 weeks later. We also chatted about how the sport is growing in the U.S. leading up to the first Ötillö race in California.

We chatted about the genesis for the California Swimrun “Rules of Swimrun:”

Tell everyone about swimrun!

Greet everyone you see while running

Stay with your teammate during runs and swims

Dog in and out of the swims (Funny story about this one!)

No complaining…ever

We also chatted about the genesis of Ötillö Catalina and the role that Andy and California Swimrun played in getting that race to happen. The team of Sean, Natalie Foote and Andy worked really hard to help design the great course that we all raced.

Finally, we chatted about Andy’s thoughts on how to best grow the sport in the U.S. while keeping the soul of the sport as it will inevitably grow in the U.S. Whether by supporting solo divisions to help introduce the sport to folks or showcasing local events, the future of the sport is about getting people to show up to the races. Andy feels that the team aspect of the sport is where the magic is. The biggest part is hosting swimrun events and the rest will take care of itself.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast player. We are on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow along on Instagram and Twitter. You can also support us on Patreon, if you are so inclined. If you want to drop us a line, email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 2 Apr 2020 07:00:19 +0000

Better Tethered Together

Welcome to episode twelve of the Low Tide Boyz Podcast, a Swimrun Podcast!

This week’s show should really have been episode number 2 for reasons that we’ll explain later but we are thrilled to have Amber Ferreira and Aryn Marsh of Team Better Tethered Together on the show. This is our last interview that we will be releasing that we recorded while we were in Catalina for Ötillö. More forthcoming.

Our top story this week again, and pretty much the top story in the world is still COVID-19. As the World continues to deal with the pandemic and more shelter at home orders are made, here in the Bay Area they have now closed most parks to vehicular traffic and outright closed others because people can’t take to heart the concept of social distancing. We encourage everyone to stay safe and keep listening to the scientists and doctors advice about what to do.

We wanted to send a shoutout to Dave Dammer this week for posting the IG photo with his Ark Keel Pull Buoy on his head and tagging us. We know it’s silly but these are tough times, might as well try to get some laughs in! Keep the posts coming!

We’ve gotten a little more press courtesy of Nancy Heslin for Ötillö Swimrun Magazine. You can check out that story here if you want to learn a little bit more our origin story.

Our collab shirt fundraiser for the WILD Youth Initiative created by WILD Swimrun is selling well! As a reminder, all proceeds from this apparel will go towards providing scholarships to help girls attend the WILD Swimrun camps. Have enough shirts (and/or pillows)? You can head over to lowtideboyz.com to donate to the WILD Youth Initiative on our homepage.

Now for this week’s show. Amber and Aryn of team Better Tethered Together met up with us in Catalina for a pre-race interview. They have been big fans of the show and it was great to have them on. It was a pretty vivid interview so we wanted to issue this warning: THERE IS TALK ABOUT POOP ON THIS EPISODE. It’s all in the context of racing Swimrun but we still wanted to warn anyone that might get the willies when hearing about that topic. We encourage people to fast forward a bit once it comes up if you’re not into it. That being said, this interview is a great story about one of the things that we love about the sport, the partner aspect. We chat about their race experience, how they see the sport of swimrun in the U.S., and their hopes for the future of the sport. We hope that you enjoy the interview.

Amber is a pro-triathlete that has raced triathlon professionally for eleven years, is an Ironman champion and has raced 70 Ironman events. Aryn is an elite swimmer that met Amber In New Hampshire and started swimming together soon after that. They knew right away that they wanted to train together and agreed to become a swimrun team. Aryn first learned about Odyssey Swimrun’s Casco Bay and raced the sprint race solo in 2018. They first raced together at Casco Bay in 2019.

Their first race together was quite a story. They were leading the women’s race for three hours when their friendship and partnership as teammates was put to the test…the poop test, if you will. You’ll have to listen to the show to get the details but it’s a pretty amazing story of quick thinking, perseverance and the fighting spirit. It’s also about a lot of poop! They still managed to finish in third place.

Despite the adversity that they faced at Casco Bay, they made it their goal to try to qualify for the Ötillö World Championship. They came to Catalina to try to podium and get their slot. (Spoiler alert: they qualified!)

You can follow their journey to the World Championship at Better Tethered Together, Amber Ferreira and Aryn Marsh.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 26 Mar 2020 07:00:13 +0000

Jonas Colting

Welcome to episode eleven of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we chat with the legendary Jonas Colting. We were pretty star struck when we interviewed him while we were in Catalina for Ötillö but he was an awesome guest and we think that you’ll really enjoy the interview. More on this interview later in the show.

Our top story this week, and pretty much the top story in the world is COVID-19. In the Bay Area, where we live, we’ve been instructed to shelter-in-place for the next three weeks and local gyms and pools have closed. In addition, a bunch of races have been getting canceled around the world. While this is always a huge letdown, be kind to your race directors and listen to the medical and public health experts and basically do what they say. We will get through this together.

In other news, we’ve officially launched our collab shirt fundraiser for the WILD Youth Initiative created by WILD Swimrun. All proceeds from this apparel will go towards providing scholarships to help girls attend the WILD Swimrun camps. Have enough shirts (and/or pillows)? Head over to lowtideboyz.com to donate to the WILD Youth Initiative.

Let me just start by saying that our guest today has his own Wikipedia page. We are honored and humbled to have had the one and only Jonas Colting on the show today.

Jonas has won six World and European medals in triathlon and has been competing in the sport since 1991. He won the Ultraman World Championships in Hawaii twice. (For those that don’t know what that’s a 320 miles [515 kilometer for our metric system fans] three-day competition.) He’s also won the Ötillö world championship three times and is the only person who has done the race every year since its inception in 2006.

Jonas launched his own wetsuit company, Colting Wetsuits, in 2016 and his brand has been innovating swimrun-specific gear since the beginning.

We chatted with Jonas about the origins of swimrun, which interestingly the sport wasn’t even called that until about 6 years after the original Ötillö race took place. As mentioned above, Jonas has participated in every Ötillö World Championship. He told us the story of the original race and how the sport evolved into the Ötillö that we all know and love today. The first couple of years were pretty interesting as you will hear. The gear and style of the race has been pretty consistent since 2008. The race saw exponential growth every year and Jonas gives a lot of credit to Mats and Michael for their vision for what this sport could be.

We chatted about the first race in Ötillö in the U.S. and Jonas thinks that giving endurance athletes a new extreme physical challenge and a change of pace for triathletes that might be tired of doing the same races over and over. Jonas came to Catalina to support Ötillö’s expansion to the U.S. and raced the World Series distance race.

Jonas started developing his own wetsuit after not being satisfied with all the options out there. He cemented his idea to start his own brand in 2015 while he was doing a charity swim from Stockholm to Gothenburg (640K or 400 miles away!!!!) and raised over $100,000. During that swim he ended up mostly swimming without a wetsuit because nothing was working. He launched his own brand, Colting Wetsuits, in 2016.

We talked about the future of the sport and the hope to keep some of the grassroots feeling about the sport, including how wild and crazy the sport is. We all agreed about the values of the sport to take care about the environment and the friendliness of everyone that competes in the sport made the sport really unique. Basically a love fest about swimrun and its future.

You can follow Jonas Colting and Colting Wetsuits on Instagram.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 19 Mar 2020 07:00:39 +0000

WILD Swimrun

Welcome to episode ten of the Low Tide Boyz Podcast, a Swimrun Podcast!

We’re stoked to have Mia Rohman and Fanny Kuhn on the show this week. Both our amazing athletes (Fanny is the reigning Ötillö World Champion) and they started an amazing organization called WILD Swimrun that we’re excited for you to learn more about. More on that later in the show.

We’re a couple of weeks past Ötillö Catalina but we’re still reveling in that post-race glow. The folks at Ötillö recently released their race report and short film for the Catalina race and you can check those out here.

We’re taking a break from swimrun to train up for the Lake Sonoma 50 miler next month but that doesn’t mean that we’re going to stop swimming. At least not this year. Chris (and Chipper will be following suit) finally broke up with the crappy pool and joined an outdoor 50m pool that is a major upgrade. Chris also recently joined Team Envol so that should be fun.

So now to this week’s interview. We recorded this interview while we were in Catalina and we feel lucky to have been able to chat with Mia and Fanny about their journey in Swimrun and their organization, WILD Swimrun. WILD Swimrun is a place where you find everything you need to get out in nature and enjoy Swimrun. They specifically work to get more women and girls to try the sport. You’ll hear more about this in the interview but we encourage folks to check out their WILD Swimrun Club. The WILD Swimrun Club is for those who wish to compete and do it together with a group of women from around the globe. Folks can sign up and pay membership fee on their website. Part of the fee goes toward their youth initiatives that provide scholarships for teens to attend their super successful women-specific swimrun camps. Their next camp on June 2-7 in Mallorca Spain and all experience levels are welcome.

We were definitely moved by their story and wanted to announce on the show that The Low Tide Boyz are going to host a fundraiser For the WILD Youth Initiative to help pay for scholarships for two teens (or more) to attend one of their camps. We’ll soon be launching a teespring store for folks that have been asking for Low Tide Boyz swag and proceeds from sales will go towards funding these scholarships. We’ll also be adding a donate button on our website. We thought that this would be a way for us to help support Mia and Fanny’s efforts and we hope that you’ll join us to help get more women and girls into the sport.

Without further ado, enjoy our interview with the Co-founders of WILD Swimrun. (Note: we recorded this episode on the wharf in Avalon so we apologize if the sound is a little off)

Fanny Kuhn was a collegiate swimmer and Swedish National Champion and after college she dabbled in triathlon before a friend asked her to do Ötillö Utö and they won the race! Mia started really swimming at age 38 and eventually did a swimrun in Costa Brava Spain and was hooked after that.

Mia and Fanny met through a mutual friend two years ago and they both really wanted more women to experience the amazing sport of swimrun they chatted about setting up a swimrun camp for women. Their first camp sold out in 48 hours! So they hosted a second camp, that also sold out. They didn’t have a website, they just posted it on facebook.

WILD Swimrun was born soon after that. (The name comes from the location of the first camp in Costa Brava which roughly translates to Wild Coast.) There’s now a WILD Swimrun Community that serves as a forum for women to share training tips and gear to help reduce the barrier to entry to the sport. They also have a WILD Swimrun Club that part of the membership fees go towards providing scholarships to get teens into the sport. Their main goal is to help the sport grow and inspire people to engage in the sport and support each other in the process.

A new program that they’ve started is the WILD Youth Initiative that works to try to get young girls into the sport. They got a donation last year to provide scholarships for two teens to go to their main camp in Costa Brava. They hope to expand this program and hopefully have a camp specifically for youth in the future.

Their next swimrun camp (that isn’t sold out yet) is in Mallorca on June 2-7th and they encourage all women, regardless of ability to sign up.

They are excited that Ötillö is now in the US and see a bright future in the sport and hope that the community of Swimrun will continue to grow in the inclusive and welcoming way that it began. They hope to host a Swimrun camp in the US one day and help even more people enter the sport and experience nature.

It was really great to have them on the this week’s show and we encourage everyone to follow them on facebook and Instagram and become part of their community.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Low Tide Boyz, please be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast player. We are on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow along on Instagram and Twitter. You can also support us on Patreon, if you are so inclined. If you want to drop us a line, email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 12 Mar 2020 07:00:04 +0000

Löw Tide Böyz Ötillö Catalina Race Report

Welcome to episode eight of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

This week’s show is all about Ötillö Catalina that happened this past weekend (Feb. 29-Mar. 1).

We have something special this week and have two parts to this episode. The first part will be the Low Tide Boyz report and the second part will be the race report from a Swedish Team, Team ARKsouls Addnature, that finished in second place female division.

So here we go! We had an amazing and busy weekend scheduled at Catalina. We were almost journalists. We recorded 4 great interviews that we will be releasing in the coming weeks. We met some great people, made new friends, connected faces to names and just had an amazing time. It’s hard to overstate how surreal it was to get so much positive feedback for the podcast and memes. It all started on the ferry ride to Catalina from Long Beach and really didn’t stop until we left. We tried to mention all the people that we connected with while we were there but we’re sure that we missed a bunch of folks. Overall, it was an amazing weekend and we can’t wait to back next year.

Episode 8: The Löw Tide Böyz Ötillö Catalina Race Report

We thought it would be helpful for folks that are thinking about doing the race next year to give a play by play of the World Series distance (31k or running and 7.7k of swimming) race. The course was very difficult and pretty much everything that you’d want in a swimrun race and nothing that you could find in a triathlon.

Leg 1: Two Harbors to Isthmus Harbor Beach (2.3 miles or 3.7 kilometers)

This leg was a pretty hilly run right off of the bat.

Leg 2: Isthmus Harbor Beach to Big Fisherman Cove (1640 yards or 1500 meters)

Nothing too tough about this. It definitely felt nice to get in the water after cooking on the run with the wetsuits on.

Leg 3: Big Fisherman Cove to Ballast Point Beach (2.9m or 4.8k)

This run was pretty straight forward. A little bit of a climb from the boat ramp but then it got very runnable.

Leg 4: Ballast Point Beach to Catalina Harbor Boat Ramp (440y or 400m)

This was the shortest swim of the day.

Leg 5: Boat Ramp to Parsons Landing (5.3m or 9.5k)

This was the hardest/longest run of the day. We dropped the suits as soon as we got out of the water knowing that we had a big climb ahead…which we pretty much just hiked/death marched up. (Shout out to the Swimrun Monks and Team Baywatch for the head’s up on this section) It was very steep for the first 2 miles. There was an aid station at the top of the climb (an aid station coming out of the water would have been nice.) Once we got to the top of the climb, we were pretty exposed and it got a bit chilly with the wind but it was nice to be able to run and then had a screaming downhill to get to the next swim at Parson’s Landing.

Leg 6: Parsons Landing Bay (765y or 700m)

This was the hardest swim of the day. It was very exposed and there were 4-5’ waves going in and out. This was a leg were the true spirit of swimrun really shined. We quickly made a plan of attack, agreed on who would do what and went on to execute. The whole process probably took 30 seconds but it exemplified a lot of what we love about the sport, namely, seeing an obstacle, communicating on how to tackle it and then going out and doing it. Did we mention that this swim was hard?

Leg 7: Parsons to Emerald Bay (1.1m or 1.9k)

This run was pretty chill and just what we needed after the washing machine-style swim that we just finished. This was about the half way point of the race with some very long swims coming up.

Leg 8: Emerald Bay to Howland’s Landing (1400y or 1300m)

This swim was pretty straight forward but the water temperature was dropping a bit.

Leg 9: Howland’s to Big Geiger Cove (1.3m or 2.2k)

This run was pretty uneventful. Just climbing out of the beach to a trail and then keep heading south towards the finish area. We ran this one easy since the biggest swim of the day was up next.

Leg 10: Big Geiger Cove to Lion’s Head Cove (1750y or 1600m)

This swim wasn’t very technical but it was long. It was also our fastest swim of the day.

Leg 11: Lion’s to Fourth of July Cove (2.2m or 3.6k)

We ran this swim pretty quickly, mostly to warm up but also because we were feeling pretty good. We passed several teams on this run. We saw our friend Christofer Sundberg from Ark Sports on the run so that also gave us a lift.

Leg 12: Fourth of July Cove to Isthmus Harbor Beach (875Y or 800m)

This swim was fine but it was a little hard to sight. Luckily there was a watercraft that pointed us in the right direction.

Leg 13: Isthmus Harbor Beach to Big Fishermen Cove (3m or 4.9k)

This was the last run of the day and we definitely knew that we had the race in the bag. We also saw our first wild animal of the day: a squirrel! (Read: we saw zero bison!)

Leg 14: Big Fishermen to Isthmus Harbor Beach (1530y or 1400m)

We were both pretty toasted by this last swim and we just grinded it out to the beach. Chipper really carried the load to get us to the beach.

Leg 15: Beach to finish line (.2 miles)

Crossing the finish line was a sweet as any race we’ve completed together.

Overall, it was a great experience and we will be back! We worked well together and supported each other well and achieved the goal. Hats off to Ötillö for putting on an amazing event. One of our friends Marcus Barton made a video of the race that you can see here to get a great sense of the vibes of the day. You can check out the official event photos on Flickr.

The Low Tide Boyz will be back next year!

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 5 Mar 2020 08:00:05 +0000

Team ARKsouls Addnature Ötillö Catalina Race Report

Welcome to episode nine of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

Team ARKsouls Addnature Ötillö Race Report

This week’s show is all about Ötillö Catalina that happened this past weekend (Feb. 29-Mar. 1).

Now for an actual race report! (Note: This interview was reported a couple of hours after the race on the beach in Avalon and we were pretty tired but it was great to get their view on the World Series race.) (Note 2: Our guests were extremely humble so it was hard to get some straight answers from them.)

We interviewed Isabella Hedberg and Helen Wikmar of Team ARKsouls Addnature.

Isabella and Helen are a top international women’s team out of Sweden and have been competing together for about a year. They’ve competed in many swimrun events together, including the Ötillö World Championships in 2019. They got 3rd place FYI. They were the 2nd Place Women’s team at the first ever Ötillö Catalina.

They thought that the race went well (obviously). There were highs and lows but they have a tactic that they use at all their races to pace and try to get stronger and stronger as the race goes on. They kept passing teams throughout the race and passed the third place team with about 500m left in the last swim.

Unlike a lot of swimrun events that they’ve raced in Europe where they are usually alone for long periods, there were a lot of teams bunched up and more competitive than they were used to. There was way less chitchat on the course as well.

They felt that the course was well suited for their strengths. The Parsons Landing Bay swim was what they thought was the most interesting swim. Helen admitted that she was a bit scared going into those waves. Overall, they had a great race and would recommend this race to anyone. While Catalina was a great race, they felt that it was hard to compare to other Ötillö events because every race is so different.

It was great to get the international perspective from Isabella and Helen. You can follow them on Instagram here and here.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 5 Mar 2020 08:00:04 +0000

Christofer Sundberg, Cofounder ARK Sports

Welcome to episode seven of the Low Tide Boyz,a Swimrun Podcast!

We are beyond thrilled to have Christofer Sundberg, a swimrunner and Co-founder of Ark Sports on the show this week. More on this later!

We’re just a few days away from the Ötillö Catalina race and we’re ready for some fun! Our training went as well as could be expected but we’re definitely stoked to finally race an Ötillö event and meet so many people that have become fans of the show.

We also wanted to give a special shout out to @westcoastswimrun, @swimrunlabs and @this_is_trista for sharing DIY pro-tips for pull buoys and swim paddles. We love getting and sharing this content so tag us and we’ll make sure to spread the word.

Now back to this week’s interview! This is the first time that we’ve had a gear and apparel manufacturer on the show and we think that you’ll enjoy this interview about Christopher’s personal journey and how swimrun literally changed his life for the better. He worked in the video game space since 92 and started his own company, Avalanche Studios in 2003. He co-founded Ark Sports with Dennis Blomberg and Daniel Sand in 2017. Ark Sports is a title sponsor of Ötillö and they just recently announced their entrance into the U.S. market. You can read the press release here.

After a near-drowning accident as a child and a slew of swimming schools later, Christofer signed up for a swimrun event in 2014 and was hooked on the sport ever since. It was only a few years later that he co-founded Ark Sports. As swimrun became his obsession, he learned that Dennis and Daniel were leaving Head Swimming in Sweden and they started getting their heads together in 2017 with the idea of why there wasn’t any swimrun equipment being manufacturered in Sweden using feedback from the athletes. After they developed their first prototype suits and the two teams that wore the new suits won the World Championship that year! The men’s team of Jesper Svensson and Daniel Hansson won AND broke the world record and the women’s team of Kristin Larsson and Annika Ericsson won by over 45 minutes over the next women’s team. Overnight the Ark Sports became “a company.”

Every product that Ark Sports goes through many levels of iteration and they are working to try to be as environmentally-friendly as they can, including the use of Yamamoto limestone-based neoprene. There is still a long way to go but Ark is constantly looking into new materials that could work for swimrun. For example, the Ark Pontoon pull buoy and hand paddles are made from recycled plastic and manufactured in Sweden.

When Ark got the opportunity to become a partner of the Ötillö Series, things really took off for the brand. Now they offer a wetsuit rental program at every race in the series where folks can rent a suit and then buy one at a reduced price if they end up loving the suit. This is a great way to reduce the barrier to entry to the sport. (Note: the rental program at the Catalina race is fully subscribed!)

Looking to the future, Christofer wants to grow Ark Sports to take on triathlon and the OCR markets and position the brand to grow both in endurance sports and with lifestyle products. A lot of people want to be associated with the brand and their personal touch when they meet with athletes has developed a lot of trust with their users and it’s become a cool brand to be wearing. (We agree!)

If you are going to be in Catalina for the race, make sure to stop by to meet the Ark Sports crew and check out their line of products and pick up a pull buoy or three.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the

Low Tide Boyz

, please be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast player. We are on

Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow along on Instagram and Twitter. You can also support us on Patreon, if you are so inclined. If you want to drop us a line, email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 27 Feb 2020 08:00:21 +0000

Ötillö Catalina Course Preview 2 & Swimrun Gear w/ Team Baywatch

Welcome to episode six of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

We are releasing another episode this week to give our listeners yet another Ötillö Catalina course preview and some more deep diving into swimrun-specific race gear. On this week’s show we chat with the Huntington Beach-based swimrun team Kawika and Blake, A.K.A. Team Baywatch, to discuss the world series course and all things gear with two veterans of the sport.

Before getting into the interview, we want to give a special shoutout to our first Patron on Patreon, Andy Hewitt of California Swimrun. He’s basically the Godfather of swimrun in the U.S. and it means the world to us to have both his blessing and support for two average dads that are trying to help grow the sport. We look forward to interviewing him soon for the show.

Now right to this week’s special episode! We are stoked to have Team Baywatch on the show this week. Not only are they super experienced and have raced a ton together, they are also total gear heads and share all their wealth of knowledge with our listeners. As if that wasn’t enough, they have been working with Andy Hewitt and the Ötillö folks to test out the Catalina course and have previewed the course several times already and they’ll share there knowledge with us.

Kawika found swimrun in 2016 and was hooked after his first race in San Diego. His first partner at that race was not hooked. Kawika then asked his friend Blake to partner up and the rest was history. Their first race together was the California Swimrun in 2017 and then signed up for Odyssey Swimrun’s Casco Bay long course event the same year. Since then they have competed at a ton of Swimrun races in the States and internationally and raced the Ötillö World Championships in 2019.

They chat about the Ötillö Catalina course on the show and provide a much of gems of wisdom for folks racing the World Series distance. They also chatted a lot about swimrun-specific gear. Everything from what type of swimcap to don to what shoes have worked best for them and everything in between.

Besides dropping serious gear knowledge, Kawika and Blake gave us a series of “pro-tips” that were so good that we needed to list them for everyone:

Wear goggles that you can easily grab and clear during the swim while wearing swim paddles.

Make sure you test out whatever swimrun wetsuit you plan on racing in to make sure that it doesn’t cause hot spots or chaffing.

Use 4 inch wide KT or Rocktape on your neck to help prevent chaffing from the wetsuit.

Timing chips can cause some chaffing so wearing tall compression socks can help with that.

We really appreciate Kawika and Blake for sharing their experiences with for our listeners and we look forward to having them back on the show in the future.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 20 Feb 2020 08:00:11 +0000

Ötillö Catalina Course Preview w/ The Swimrun Monks

Welcome to episode five of the Low Tide Boyz, a swimrun Podcast!

On this week’s show we chat with the San Diego-based swimrun team Sean and Phillip A.K.A., The Swimrun Monks.

But first…we wanted to thank everyone that’s been listening to the show and reaching out with questions and feedback. It has been great to see and even though there are people way more experienced than us we’ll keep trying to answer everyone’s questions. We also wanted to give a special shout out to Pepe And Florian from Sweden for being fans of the show and basically becoming our unofficial Swedish pronunciation coaches and meme suggesters.

We’ve hit some adversity in training with our collective kids being sick and Chris traveling for work but we’re still getting some good training in. We finally got in a swimrun practice in Aquatic Park in San Francisco which was fun. We practiced transitions and swimming with a tether, which is always good to do before race day on Otillio Catalina.

Speaking of Catalina, our guests on the show today helped design the course with the race directors. The Swimrun Monks, Sean and Phillip are pretty bad ass athletes in their own rights and came together in 2019 to race together. Both had interesting journeys to get to Swimrun and were introduced to the sport by Andy Hewitt and Sean Durkin. They raced the Ötillö World Championship in 2019 and have a stacked race schedule in 2020 as they gear up to hopefully race the World Championship again.

The Monks talked about what Ötillö races are like in Europe and how big of a deal it was that they were coming to the United States to put on their first event in Catalina. They also helped Andy Hewitt to design the race course and even put in an 11 hour “training day” when they went from Two Harbors to Avalon to see if that was possible. The official race course will start and end in Two Harbors and The Monks run us through what the course will be like. The water will be clean and clear and the running legs will be all on trails with some good elevation. They talked about race strategy and how to work together with their partner to have a successful race day.

We talked about finding and training together with a partner. The Monks train together 3-4 times per week and are always trying to get in some swimrun-specific training at least once a week. We geeked out about swimrun gear and talked about shoes (Hoka Speedgoat Evos are their current shows of choice), pull buoys (of course we chatted about buoys), wetsuits (they are fans of synergy wetsuits), shin floaties, etc. Finally, we chatted about how San Diego is a great place to train for swimrun and the cool crew that meets up to do workouts.

We really appreciated the guys coming on the show and look forward to seeing them at the start of some of our races this year…and then seeing them at the finish line since we’ll be way behind them on the course!

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 13 Feb 2020 08:00:19 +0000

Swimrun 101: Partners

Welcome to episode four of the Low Tide Boyz, a swimrun podcast!

On this week’s show we chat about finding a swimrun partner. We’ve received a lot of requests for this show from our fans so…here it is. Since swimrun is primarily a team sport, we thought that it would be a to try to cover all the details around finding a partner since the sport is so young in the US.

As you know by now, there’s are three team categories for swimrun events: Women’s, Men’s and Mixed. (Some races will also have solo categories.)

There are several initial considerations in selecting a swimrun partner. These include the following:

Overall endurance/fitness
Similar swim/running paces
Complementary personalities
Similar training/race goals
Ability to train together
Being ready for adventure

The take home message being that finding the right partner will be give and take of a lot of factors and your team’s ability to work together towards a common goal (whether that goal is qualifying for a World Championship, just having a great adventure or something in between) will be determined by how well you communicate your goals with your partner. Talking with your partner (or prospective partner) about your goals will be the best way to have your first experience in the sport be a positive one. Given that the races are all challenging in their own ways, finding someone that is up for the challenge/adversity will help ensure that you’ll have a great race, regardless of your finishing time.

So where can you find a partner if you’re the only person that you know that knows about swimrun? We think that there are several sources that make the most sense to access. These include your current workout buddies, swim/running/tri clubs, masters programs and gym/boot camps. It’s likely that someone else may have heard about the sport and just needed the impetus to get into the sport.

There are also some great online resources to learn about the sport and find a partner. Otillo and Odyssey Swimrum have some great videos that feature their events and the sports beautifully. There are also several Facebook groups, online forums and Instagram accounts where folks can go to look for partners and discover events in their area. Finally, races and race directors are great resources to find partners.

Swimrun Facebook Groups:

Swimrun International Community

OFFICIAL Swimrun Forum - World of Swimrun (WoS)

The Swimrun Experience

It’s really hard to overstate how welcoming the sport of swimrun is. There are swimrun groups popping up all over the US as well as new races. We encourage everyone to find and support your local race. This will be the best way to help grow the sport and maybe find your perfect race partner!

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 30 Jan 2020 08:00:11 +0000

Coach Mike Olzinski

Welcome to episode three of the Low Tide Boyz, a swimrun podcast!

On this week’s show we chat about ramping up our training for Catalina and our swim build workout plan that was written by this show’s special guest, Michael Olzinski. More about him later.

We started swimming at a great outdoor Olympic-sized pool that is a huge upgrade from our current crappy 25 yard pool at our crappy gym. Long course swimming has been a great addition to our training given that swimrun is all about swimming long. We’ve started dialing up the swim volume and have been putting in some diabolical sets, curtesy of today’s guest!

We’ve gotten some great feedback about our Swimrun 101 episode so thank you for that. It was also brought to our attention that we didn’t talk about socks and what to wear under a wetsuit. For both of these it comes down to personal preference and we recommend testing whatever you’re going to use before the race.

We are lucky to have Michael Olzinski on the show this week. He’s a multisport coach with Purple Patch Fitness. He’s a stout athlete in his own right, has a ton of coaching certifications and he’s joining us to chat about swimrun training. Mike first heard about swimrun when some of Purple Patch’s international athletes started asking for training plans to their races.

We chatted with Mike about how to best train for swimrun, focusing on the Otillo Catalina course…since that’s what we have coming up. Acknowledging that training for these events are really an experiment in training and while there are some analogies to events like super league triathlon, where there are multiple short sets of swimming, biking and running. The overarching idea though is that swimrun athletes have to be just that, athletes. As much as swimrun is a swimming and running sport, there’s a lot of room for strength training to handle the impact on your legs and shoulders from all the transitions. This is especially true for newer athletes to the sport. Mike also recommends combining running and swimming often and mix it up to develop the adaptation for transitioning back and forth.

Courses like Otillo’s Catalina World Series race be aerobic event but it will have a lot of spikes and drops in effort levels and, as such, training should have a lot of fartleks thrown in to simulate the spikes in effort that athletes will experience during a race. For swim workouts, Mike is a big fan of doing deck ups at the pool. These are great for getting the body adapted to transitioning from swimming to running. Mike also recommends that during swimming sets, that it’s not necessary to do all your swims with paddles and buoy. Use paddles and buoy mostly for key sets in the water. Adding an ankle strap is also great. Mike recommends trying some fartlek swimming in open water and using swim strokes to count off the sets, such as 30 hard and 30 recovery, then 20 hard and 30 recovery and so forth. Finally, Mike recommends doing a lot of strength and core work to help with maintaining proper posture during long endurance efforts in the water and on land. Mike thinks that everyone should be doing deadlifts. Full stop!

You can find Mike on Instagram, on the Purple Patch platform and at the Nth Degree Athletic Club.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 16 Jan 2020 08:00:11 +0000

Swimrun 101

We got some great feedback from listeners that they wanted a primer on Swimrun. So this week we’ve released a special episode to cover all the basics about Swimrun.

What is Swimrun?

A Swimrun is a multiple-stage competition which involves participants running and swimming over a race course or loop-course that involves at least two transitions between the swim and run stages of the race. All equipment used by participants has to be carried all the way to the finish line. (Thanks Wikipedia!)

When was it invented?

The sport was invented in 2002 in Sweden when 4 friends made a bet at a bar about who could get from the Island of Utö to the Island of Sandhamn (more that 75 kilometers away across 26 islands) using just their “4 limbs.” It took them more than 24 hours to complete the distance and the rest is history!

Who is it for?

This sport is really for everyone. Having an endurance background is very helpful but not required. Swim experience is definitely required and comfort in open water is a must. In general though endurance swimmers, trail runners, etc. are well suited for these type of adventures. Similar to how Spartan races or other OCR events are great ways for Crossfitters to use their fitness in different ways, Swimrun offers endurance athletes a way for them to use their training in more of an adventure setting.

The sport is very welcoming and chill while still creating challenging experiences for participants. We definitely encourage folks to find their local races and support the race directors that are trying to grow the sport in the US. You can see a list of events on our website.

How does it work?

The whole point of the sport is to get from A to B as quickly as possible. The sport allows for things like hand paddles, pull buoys and fins to be used on the swim to help get this accomplished. We will discuss equipment for swimrun later in the show notes.

The sport is mostly team based and there are four categories at most events.

Solo: Kind of the anti-team category. More events are offering this option to help grow the sport and encourage participation from people who may not have access to a partner or couldn’t get one in time for an event. (We don’t recommend this, we think that one of the things that makes this sport special is the team aspect of it.)

Men’s, Women’s and Mixed Teams: These are all self-explanatory.

These categories compete on a course that’s either short, long or very long. The courses are either a loop course or point-to-point with alternating legs of running and swimming. Each race will have its unique challenges, whether elevation on the run, “swim-heavy” or “run-heavy” courses, participants can essentially select what suits their strengths or try something outside of their comfort zone.

Race strategy for each event will be different and teams need to make sure that they have planned for such things as pacing, nutrition and water currents. The longer the course, the more race strategy will play a role in having a successful event.

Partner selection is also important. You want to make sure that you and your partner are pretty compatible pace-wise. Since the sport requires that teams be tethered together on the swim, a gross mismatch of swim ability might be problematic.

What equipment is required?

There is definitely gear that is required for the sport. Whatever you bring to a race must be carried at all times by the teams. We will outline the key gear below:

Wetsuit: There are Swimrun specific wetsuits that are designed for running and swimming. There are a bunch of companies in the space that are making these types of wetsuits, and similar to triathlon or open water swimming wetsuits, each brand will have its own take on sizing, cut and neoprene thickness.

Pull Buoy: Our favorite swimrun accessory! Most are DIY’d to make sure that you can carry it while running with most efficiency. You can now buy pull buoys that are already set up for swimrun but we recommend that new athletes to the sport make their own. We see this as a rite of passage in the sport.

Tether: Yes, a tether. As mentioned above, during the swim legs of an event partners are expected to be connected via a 3ish meter tether so that they remain in contact. This takes some getting used to so we recommend practicing in open water with your partner. More on this later. The tether is made of paracord and also be easily DIY’d.

Shoes: Yes, you swim with shoes on. They make swimrun specific shoes but in general you want shoes that have good drainage and some decent tread on the soles since most of the run courses will be on trails.

Paddles: The last piece of a swimrunner’s arsenal in the water are hand paddles. Paddles in conjunction with a pull buoy are the most helpful things to get through the swim legs of an event quickly.

Multisport Watch: This isn’t mandatory but it’s helpful to know distances and the like. We like watches like the Garmin Fenix 5 that have a multi-sport setting specific for swimrun.

Personal Flotation Device: Athletes competing in solo categories are required to use one of these during the swim legs of a race for safety.

Some optional equipment for race include collapsible cups, shin guards, shin flotation sleeves and fins.

There are also some mandatory items that most races require teams to carry throughout a race. These include a tether, compass, whistle, course maps and a first aid compression bandage. Make sure to check your events race rules to make sure that you meet their requirements.

How do you train for it?

Basic endurance training is obviously required but we recommend race-specific training. Swimrun bricks in open water and covering terrain similar to the race course is helpful to being ready for the adventure on race day. For example, if a course is “swim-heavy” then some longer steady state swim sets to match the course.

We also recommend testing out and practicing with your gear to make sure that you can race well with whatever gear you will end up racing with. Swimming with a tether early and often can’t be overstated!

If you are enjoying the Low Tide Boyz, please be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast player. We are on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow along on Instagram and Twitter. If you want to drop us a line, email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 9 Jan 2020 08:00:06 +0000

Kelly O'Mara

Welcome to the first official episode of The Low Tide Boyz, a swimrun podcast!

We (Chipper and Chris) will be covering a bunch of topics related to Swimrun from upcoming events and news, new gear and product reviews as well as our own journey in training and racing in this growing sport. We hope that folks will join us on our journey and that we will inspire everybody to sign up for Swimrun events in their area.

By way of background, we are an endurance team out of Northern California. We’ve been training together and racing endurance events for years and raced our first Swimrun event in 2018. This year our “A” race will be Ötillö Catalina (World Series course) and our “a” race will be Odyssey Swimrun’s Orcas Island long course. We might try to do some more events…if our wives give us clearance. Our upcoming Catalina race in late February will consist of 30k run and 7.6k swim or 18ish miles of running and 4ish miles of swimming. This will be our first hilly Swimrun race with over 4,000’ of climbing on the course so we are excited about that!

We’re about to really start “training” and we will be chronicling our built for Catalina on the show. We are hoping to have a good race, but have no delusions about winning anything, we’re just looking forward to working hard and experiencing an official Ötillö race. That disclaimer aside, we will be doing a pretty heavy swim build for this event and will be doing a diabolical swim program that will likely render us unable to do high fives…so we will see how that goes.

Our guest this week is Kelly O’Mara. Kelly is a writer and reporter in Northern California. She is also a professional triathlete. She’s the co-host of her own podcast called If We Were Riding (available everywhere) and is an all-around awesome human being. She joined us on the podcast to talk about her own journey in discovering and racing Swimrun and about how she thinks that the sport could/should grow in the US.

Kelly first heard about Swimrun from a friend at Triathlete Magazine who had done the Ötillö World Championship and she just heard a lot of buzz about those events. So she signed up for Casco Bay/ Cole Classic Swimrun event in Portland, Maine put on by Odyssey SwimRun in 2018 and returned to race in 2019. We hung out with her on the ferry in 2018 and that’s where she first met Chipper. (Chris and Kelly used to go on training rides together in Marin back in the day.)

Kelly sees 2020 as “the year of Swimrun” and thinks that there will be many more events coming online as folks learn about the sport. We agree! It will be interesting to see what happens now that Ötillö has their first event in the US and the growing trend of endurance athletes compete in a variety of things to get a variety of experiences.

lowtideboyz.com

Thu, 2 Jan 2020 08:00:03 +0000

Trailer

We are the Low Tide Boyz, a SwimRun team based in Northern California. Our podcast is a window into the sport of SwimRun that we want to grow in the U.S. We’ll share our love for sport while chronicling our own training and racing adventures, interview race directors, athletes and other folks in the space and try to have a lot of fun in the process. Follow along at lowtideboyz.com and subscribe where ever you consume your favorite podcasts.

lowtideboyz.com

Fri, 20 Dec 2019 03:26:48 +0000

0 則留言