Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast

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!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.

2 Aug 20221h 3min

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.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

28 Juli 202235min

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!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

21 Juli 202250min

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 MoreSwimrun 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 NeedIt’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 GearWe 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 MindsetAs 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 VibesBy 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.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

14 Juli 202225min

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 ColtingJonas 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.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

7 Juli 20221h 13min

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 UpdateTraining 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! ShoutoutsThis 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 EnduranceThis 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 SwimrunWelcome 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.UpdatesCheck 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 AnderssonIt 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!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

30 Juni 202252min

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 UpdateÖdyssey 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.ShoutoutsThis 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 EnduranceThis 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 SwimrunWelcome 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.UpdatesLooking for some “Gourmet Shit of Swimrun apparel?” Then head over to our online store for hats, shirts, hoodies, and other stuff. Nicholas Roman, EX SwimrunIt 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.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

23 Juni 202241min

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 UpdateÖdyssey 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.ShoutoutsThis 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 EnduranceWe 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 SwimrunWelcome 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.UpdatesFor 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-CoedIt 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!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

16 Juni 20221h 1min