Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast

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 UpdateWe 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 AwardThis 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 SwimrunWe 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 UpdatesOur 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. InterviewNow 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.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 also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.

22 Okt 20201h

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 ThoughtsIt’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.

20 Okt 202025min

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 UpdateWe’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 OutsThis 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 AwardOur 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 SwimrunWe 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 UpdatesÖdyssey 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. InterviewNow 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 TipsPlan 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 existsCommunication 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.

15 Okt 202053min

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 UpdateAir 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 OutsThis 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 AwardOur 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 SwimrunWe 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 UpdatesÖdyssey 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. InterviewNow 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.

8 Okt 20201h 4min

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 UpdateSo 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 OutsThis 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 AwardOur 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 SwimrunWe 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 UpdatesÖdyssey 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. InterviewNow 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 NatureÖTILLÖ Swimrun Malta 2019 – The BreakwaterÖTILLÖ The Swimrun World Championship 2019 - SpeechlessÖTILLÖ – The Dream 2020ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Catalina 2020- Welcome to AmericaYou 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.

1 Okt 202055min

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 ImpressionsThe 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 PaddlesHistory of Using Swim Paddles in SwimrunAs 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 SwimrunThis 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 opinionFinally, 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 turnoverTempo or longer and harder = medium size paddleEndurance or aerobic pace long sessions= large paddles to just build strengthAfter 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 cadenceStrokemaker- tried and true and huge range of sizes, very durableAlso 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 UsingChipper: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 ThoughtsWe 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.

29 Sep 202045min

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.

24 Sep 202040min

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 UpdateOur 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 OutsThis 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 AwardOur 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 SwimrunWe 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 UpdatesOur 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.InterviewNext 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.

17 Sep 20201h 1min