Team Mr. and Mrs. B

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.

21 Maj 202037min

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 SuitOverall, 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 TestWe 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 ReviewWe 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 BuoysChipper 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 BuoysChris 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 ImpressionsOverall, 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.

19 Maj 202013min

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.

14 Maj 20201h 2min

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.

7 Maj 20201h 4min

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.

30 Apr 20201h 3min

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.

23 Apr 202044min

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.

16 Apr 202056min

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.

9 Apr 202056min