Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast

Welcome to episode seventy-nine of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!This week’s show is all about swimming. We were super lucky to be able to chat with Gemma Hollis of PushGlideKick. She’s a swim stroke and mechanics expert and we pick her brain on all things swimming for Swimrun. Get your notepads out for this one.More on this interview later in the show.Training UpdateWe’re stuffing as much hay into the barn as we can the next few weeks during our last training block for Casco Bay. (Friendly reminder: use the code LOWTIDE15 to save 15% on your registration to any Ödyssey Swimrun 2021 event.) Long Swimruns, long pool sets, and long-ish runs are all on deck the next few weeks so that should be fun.  #LFGShoutoutsThis week we’re shouting out the Country of Switzerland. In the last few weeks, they have cracked the top ten (in terms of show downloads by country) and we’re super stoked on that. It’s also fitting since ÖTILLÖ Engadin is happening this weekend and it’s a race that is 100% on our bucket list.Feats of EnduranceThis week’s winner is Oskar Boberg who participated in the Slottsrundan Swimrun and raced the 29k long course over the weekend. We looked up that race after seeing his post on Strava and it didn’t look easy! Strong work Oskar!Need some inspiration in your training life? Then join the LTBz Strava Club and connect with fellow Swimrunners as they train and race all over the world.This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)Here’s all the Swimrun news that’s either fit to print or that we were able to glean from Instagram.As we mentioned above, the Slottsrundan Swimrun took place over the weekend and it looked like a dope event. The event takes place on the coast of Lake Mälaren and the course stretches along Rosersbergs, Steninge Castle, and Sigtuna. Fun factoid: Lake Mälaren has 594 reviews on Google with an average rating of 4.5 stars. Who knew that you could review a lake?It’s race week for Breca Swimrun’s Coniston event. This will be their first race in the UK in 20 months and we’re stoked for them to be back hosting events! Check out their hype video on Youtube to see why this race looks amazing!In ÖTILLÖ world, all eyes are on Switzerland this week with Engadin taking place this weekend. This was the first ÖTILLÖ race outside of Sweden and helped launch the international Swimrun movement. Want to know more about this event? Check out our Engadin Course Preview episode and learn why we are already trying to convince our wives that we need to go to Switzerland.In the bummer portion of the news, ÖTILLÖ 1000 Lakes has been cancelled for 2021. Registered participants should be getting info from ÖTILLÖ regarding their options. Germany has general elections on that weekend and the City of Rheinsberg informed ÖTILLÖ that they were unable to get enough volunteers to support the races. Registered participants will either receive a refund of 95% of the entry fee or they can move their registration to another ÖTILLÖ event. In other news, We Swimrun has a couple of events on deck that look pretty cool. First, on September 18 they are hosting the Tal Y Llyn Swimrun in Snowdonia National Park in Wales. This race has a cool format where Swimrunners will run on a loop course consisting of two swims and two runs and they have 6 hours to see how many laps they can complete. Less than a month later, We Swimrun is hosting the Dyfi Swimrun (pronounced Dovey) on October 2. Registration for both events is open now so if you’re in Wales or want to go to Wales, check these events out!That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.UpdatesIf you’re looking to show your Low Tide pride, head over to our website to get yourself some LTBz apparel and other stuff. We’ve also got something totally new in the store that we recently soft launched that we’re super stoked on but we’ll just leave it at that.Are you racing Casco Bay in August? If so, come join us at our inaugural LTBz post-race after party, co-hosted by Ödyssey Swimrun at Lone Pine Brewery. We’ll be there from 5:30ish until they close at 8pm. We’ll be sharing more details about that as we get closer to the race but mark it on your calendars!Our Conversation with Gemma HollisWe first heard about Gemma from Lars at Ödyssey Swimrun and figured since he went to her for swim analysis then we should definitely be chatting with her. She was great to chat with and her passion for swimming was definitely on display. We spoke with her about her journey to becoming a swim coach, her thoughts on teaching swimming to adults, her opinions on optimal stroke rates and form for swimming for Swimrun, and finally, the amazing pool in her backyard. This interview is action packed and Gemma was awesome. Enjoy!Make sure to check out the PushGlideKick website for more info on getting Gemma’s expert advice.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.Thank you for listening and see you out there!-  Chip and Chris

8 Juli 202153min

Welcome to episode seventy-eight of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast! (It’s also episode 101 of total podcast content!)So it is fitting that we have what we think is one of our best shows ever, maybe even the best show. This week we have Bonnie Tsui on the show. She is the author of Why We Swim (an amazing book about swimming, water, and life that we’ll talk more about later), a New York Times contributor, a surfer, and a Bay Area local. We were totally honored and humbled that she agreed to come on to our super niche podcast to talk with a couple of random dudes about her book. She was awesome to chat with and we can’t wait to share our conversation with you!More on this interview later in the show.Training UpdateWe’re continuing to ratchet up our training for Casco Bay and we’re feeling pretty good about where our run is at. Swimming is the type of thing that we will never totally be happy with so we’re putting in the time and following the process. All in all, we had another good week of training this past week with a long Swimrun practice over the weekend focusing on some longer swims with fast running mixed in.  #LFGShoutouts/Feats of EnduranceThis week we’re shouting out and giving the Feats of Endurance award to our friend Tobias Rop. Toby crushed the Austria Extreme Triathlon over the weekend finishing in the top 15! Strong work!Need some inspiration in your training life? Then be like Toby and join the LTBz Strava Club and connect with fellow Swimrunners as they train and race all over the world. This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)Lots of Swimrun news to share this week.Envol Coaching’s Big “Battle” is done! Congrats to all the Swimrunners around the world that participated and bonus congrats to the Dutch Swimrunners team for winning the battle. Pretty sure that they Swimran more in a month than most people have in their entire lives.The ÖTILLÖ Utö hype video is out and Rasmus Lodenius, our friend and former guest of the show, produced yet another awesome film. Make sure to check out our Utö race recap episode with Helena and Åsa if you haven’t listened to that yet. Up next for ÖTILLÖ is their Engadin event happening on July 10-11. Listen to our course preview episode to get all the details on that amazing location and course.Speaking of ÖTILLÖ, they announced this week that they will introduce a SOLO division for their World Series distance events. Their purpose for the move is to open up the races to more people and to grow the sport of Swimrun. The SOLO racers will not get ranking points and they will not get points in the World Series standings. No change to the World Championship format where only teams may qualify.Love Swimrun recently announced that all their events for 2021 are open for registration. If we’re ever in North Wales we will definitely be checking out their events. The Holy Island Swimrun on Sept. 11th looks particularly magical.In the category of random events that we learned about from Instagram, NZ Swimrun is hosting a 3-day Swimrun camp in Whangamata, New Zealand on August 20-22. This is an all-inclusive camping experience and it looks awesome. We don’t know anything about it other than that but if you’re in the area, it might be worth checking out.That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.UpdatesOur latest episode of Gear Talk with the Swimrun Labs is out. We did our full review of the ARK Sports’ latest opus, their new ORNÖ X Swimrun Wetsuit. This suit is worth the hype in our collective opinion so check out that show, if you haven’t already.We know that we’ve been mentioning our Ödyssey Swimrun discount code a lot since we got it but that is only because we love their events and think that you will too! Use the code LOWTIDE15 to save 15% on your registration. By the way, Casco Bay is 80% sold out so if you’re the type of person to wait until the last minute then now is your time to shine...and join us at the start line.Our Conversation with Bonnie TsuiWhat can we say about this interview? It might be our best work but not because of anything that we did. Bonnie was a great guest and we loved chatting with her about her book, Why We Swim. We covered a lot of ground in this interview where she discussed what inspired the book, what blew her mind the most in her research for the book, and so much more. Make sure to check out her book Why We Swim. The new paperback edition is out now.Learn more about Bonnie Tsui on her website.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.Thank you for listening and see you out there!-  Chip and Chris

1 Juli 20211h

Welcome to Gear Talk with our friends Annie and Brooke from Swimrun Labs.In this episode, we have another wetsuit review. This week we do a deep dive on the brand new Ark Sports ORNÖ X Swimrun Wetsuit. This suit was just released a few weeks back and we were lucky enough to get 4 suits sent to us to test by our friends at Ark Sports.Our complete review is coming later in the show.Gear UpdatesBrooke finally realized that she is small and not a medium as she previously thought after using Trista’s Ark Sports KORP suit. That small fit much better and resolved her issues of water entering the suit.Chipper just picked up 3 pairs of the Magic5 swim goggles. These are allegedly custom-made and are sized to fit your face by using a facial recognition-type app to get the sizing right. Chipper also is trying out the Hoka One One Torrent 2 as his new Swimrun shoe. More updates on how that goes in the coming weeks.Annie also got a set of the Torrent 2’s and will report back as well.Chris recently updated his “team” race kit by replacing his trustworthy compression bandage with a new slimmer H&H Mini Compression bandage. It’s a lot slimmer than the old one and capable of being worn in a kangaroo top due to its design.Untethered ThoughtsThis week’s untethered thought comes courtesy of Greg Dierksen of the Boston Wet Sox. He DM’d us with the observation that there is very little information about “the tether” out there and recommended that we do a Gear Talk show on the tether. Great observation and suggestion and we will be releasing that show soon! Thanks Greg!ARK SPORTS ORNÖ X Wetsuit ReviewCheck out our first impressions video here to get our first look at the ORNÖ X wetsuit.Here’s how ARK describes the ORNÖ X:ARK Sports ORNÖ X is an evolution of our flagship model ORNÖ which has been tested and trusted by the Worlds best swimrun athletes since its launch in 2017. A pioneering suit positioned as the most thermal and buoyant suit in the ARK Sports line without compromising of keeping the lowest weight. What came to be the world's fastest swimrun suit, has now been developed, optimized, and revolutionized for the start of the 2021 swimrun season.The suit retails for $710 and features premium Yamamoto Limestone neoprene, running+ bottom, thermal+ foam waist belt, and comes with arm sleeves. A men’s medium weighs just 510grams and a women’s medium weighs 500grams.Out of the box, this suit looks and feels premium. But how does it perform?Swimming ImpressionsChris and Chipper tested the ORNÖ X during two long Swimrun practices where the water temps were around 55 degrees. The suits worked amazingly. The suits felt properly warm and the thermal+ belt really helped to keep the core warm. The shoulder mobility was excellent. The anti-leak neckline worked as advertised. The running+ bottom felt like it was providing some warmth which might be due to the neoprene material lining of the running+.Annie tested the suit with both a pull buoy and without. She felt that the ORNÖ X provided some buoyancy even without a pull buoy. She was surprised by how great the shoulder material felt during the swim. The shoulder material also feels more flexible and stretchy compared to the ORNÖ 02 which might mean that it will have better durability (read: fewer armpit holes requiring repair).Brooke got her mind blown by the suit. She felt like she was swimming in a second skin and a perfect suit for the Pacific Northwest. She thought that just how it performs in the swim makes it well worth the money. Transition ImpressionsBasically a non-issue. Everyone thought that the suit performed great coming in and out of the water. The zipper size felt sturdy. Cabbing down and up was a little challenging, partly because of fear of tearing the suit.Everyone loved the new design of the rear pocket on the suit. It was really well thought out and worked as advertised. Similar feedback for the zipper size of the suit.The .5mm arm cuffs were another innovation in the suit that everyone thought was great. They help the suit stay in place and keep the arm sleeves well-positioned to create a good seal to keep water out.Running ImpressionsEveryone thought that running in the ORNÖ X Suit was great. The running+ material that ARK uses allows for complete running freedom and no one had any major complaints about the run performance of the suit. Chris runs hot and felt like he had to cab down/lower the zipper on most runs. Chris also experienced a tiny amount of chafing with one of the seams on the inside by the leg opening but it was barely noticeable and nothing a little bit of body glide wouldn’t fix.Brooke continued to get her mind blown running in the suit.Pull Buoy Rankings RankingsBrooke 5 Pull BuoysShe was smitten by the ORNÖ X Suit. A joy to run in, a joy to swim in, and she can’t wait to race in it.Chris 5 Pull BuoysHe thought that this suit is the pinnacle of technology for the sport and ARK Sports once again raised their own high bar. Next to the VIGG, it was the best wetsuit that he’s ever worn.Annie 5 Pull BuoysShe thought that this was the best suit that money can buy and worth every penny.Chipper 5 Pull BuoysChipper wants to use this suit all the time. It was a joy for him to train in and he is looking forward to the next time that he can wear it...whether to a Swimrun or not.Overall ImpressionsThis is definitely a milestone for us. The ORNÖ X is the first item to be reviewed that received 5 Pull Buoy ratings across the board. While it’s an expensive suit, it has all the latest innovations in terms of design and materials that raises the bar on what’s possible in a Swimrun wetsuit. Major kudos to the DaVinci of Swimrun, Daniel Sand, for once again raising the bar of what is possible in wetsuit tech! 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.

29 Juni 202155min

Welcome to episode seventy-seven of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!ÖTILLÖ made its return to hosting events this past weekend on the Island of Utö...and what a triumphant return it was. The races looked super fun and the fields were stacked with a lot of the heavy hitters in the sport in attendance. We are super stoked to share our race recap with you and share a special guest race report with Helena Bjälkemo and Åsa Ehrnholm of Team Helena and Åsa. They were just the coolest and it was super fun to chat with them.But first... Training UpdateOur training for our Fall race schedule is going well. The intensity is picking up a bit with several rounds of fast intervals at our latest Swimrun practice and we didn’t die so that’s good. A lot of work still to do before Casco Bay but we’re having fun...so is it really work? Want to join us at Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay? Use the code LOWTIDE15 to save 15% on your registration. Shoutouts/Feats of EnduranceBlanket shoutout and Feats of Endurance awards to everyone who raced ÖTILLÖ Utö this past weekend. Special bonus shoutout to our friend Oscar Olsson (and previous guest of the show) for his great interviews and commentary all weekend long as part of the livesporttv.se crew.The FOMO was real for us but it was great to see so many members of our Strava club racing.Speaking of which, make sure to join the LTBz Strava Club and connect with fellow Swimrunners as they train and race all over the world.ÖTILLÖ Utö 2021 RecapSwimrun season finally feels like it’s officially open with ÖTILLÖ’s first race of the year on the island of Utö. Not only was the sport of Swimrun essentially born on this island in the Stockholm Archipelago but it’s also just an amazing location for Swimrunning. Due to COVID restrictions the race was split up over two days with the Experience and Sprint races taking place on Saturday and the Sunday World Series distance race being broken up into three races with the Men’s, Women’s, and Mixed team races being split up over the course of the day to be in line with local rules. (We’re going to focus on the World Series distance but you can see the results for all the races over the weekend on the ÖTILLÖ website.)The World Series distance race was 26,2k (16.3 miles) of total distance with 22,05k (13.7 miles) of mostly technical trail running and 4,150k (4,538yds) of swimming. The longest run was around 6k and the longest swim was 400m.As we mentioned at the beginning, all three World Series races were stacked with some of the best athletes in the sport and the podiums definitely reflected that.Women’s Team Podium:1st Place: Team Envol Anna & Desirée (Anna Hellström and Desirée Andersson) 2nd Place: Wild Swimrun West Coast (Therese Bergling and Evelina Järvinen)3rd Place: ARKswimrun. (Helena Sivertsson and Kristin Larsson)Mixed Team Podium:1st Place: ARKswimrun (Ulrika Eriksson and Peter Oom)2nd Place: ARK Swimrun (Marika Wagner and Alexander Koller)3rd Place: Team Envol Switzerland (Sabina Rapelli and Alexis Charrier)Men’s Team Podium:1st Place: Öckerö Rörläggeri (Adriel Young and Max Andersson) 2nd Place: Kraken Swimrun (Pontus Lindberg and George Bjälkemo)3rd Place: ARKswimrun 1 (Lars Ekman and Fredrik Axegård)Overall, the weather was perfect for race weekend and the vibe of the entire event was one of celebration. This event has been a long time coming for Michael, Mats, and the rest of the ÖTILLÖ team and we’re super stoked that they are back to hosting events! Congrats to everyone that raced over the weekend and we can’t wait to be at the starting line of this race at some point in the (hopefully) near future.Special Race Report with Team Helena & ÅsaIt was really fun to sit down with Helena Bjälkemo and Åsa Ehrnholm the day after they raced the World Series distance race to get their take on how it all went down. (If anyone thinks that Helena’s last name sounds familiar it is because the reigning men’s world champion and two-time guest of the show, George, is her husband.) We’ve been fans of Helena and Åsa since we started following a bunch of Swedish Swimrunners on IG and their attitude towards training, racing, and the sport is a great representation of why the Swimrun community is the best!We spoke with Helena and Åsa about their athletic backgrounds, how they became Swimrun partners, and how they trained (or didn’t train) for Utö during the pandemic. We also chatted with them about how their Utö race went, got the lowdown on the whole vibe of the race, and what is up next for them. We loved having them on the show and think that you’ll really enjoy this interview.You can follow Helena and Åsa on Instagram.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.Thank you for listening and see you out there!-  Chip and Chris

24 Juni 202140min

Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay Course PreviewWelcome to episode seventy-six of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!On this week’s show we have a super comprehensive course preview for Ödyssey Swimrun’s Casco Bay race. We raced Casco Bay in 2018 and we’re super stoked to be going back this year to race the long course again. We will be focusing on the long course in this show but the short course follows most of the same course so we will make sure to cover everything the short course Swimrunners will want to know. Putting together a course preview for Casco Bay is a challenge because the course has changed every year since it started in 2016 but that’s part of the allure. Casco Bay was the first European-style Swimrun (i.e., Island to island and point to point) in the United States and the brainchild of legendary race director Jeff Cole. Jeff and Lars Finanger partnered up to put on the first race 5 years ago and the rest is Swimrun history. When Jeff passed away in 2018, Casco Bay was renamed “The Cole Classic'' in his honor. It’s safe to say that Jeff would be super stoked with how the sport of Swimrun has grown in the U.S. With that as a prelude, let’s get into our course preview for Casco Bay. THE GREAT ATLANTIC NORTHEAST (IS THAT TERM A THING?) The Casco Bay islands are situated off of the coast of Portland, Maine. The islands are relatively easy to get to via ferry or water taxi service and there are plenty of activities to do for the whole family. Most Swimrunners will be staying on the mainland in the City of Portland which is a great spot with lots of really good restaurants, lobster shacks, donut shops, and tourist destinations. We definitely ate our way through town before and after our race! Getting to Portland is pretty straight forward. Folks can either fly into Portland directly or fly to Manchester, New Hampshire or Boston, Massachusetts and then drive up to Maine. NOW FOR THE “MAINE” EVENT (COURSE OVERVIEW) For a general overview of the Casco Bay course, we asked Lars to share his take on the course and what athletes can expect out there. Let’s break down the Casco Bay course for 2021. As we mentioned at the start of the show, the course changes every year so we will try to be as general as possible about the specific islands that Swimrunners will be crossing so they can be referenced in the future in case they are used again in following years in a different order. As we talk about the course you will notice that we will emphasize that all the distances are approximate because, well, that’s how it goes with Swimrun. The Casco Bay Long Course clocks in at 21.65ish total miles with 17ish miles of running and 4.65ish miles (7,465m/8,164ish yards) of swimming. The Short Course is 12.1ish total miles with 10ish miles of running and 2.1ish miles (3,400m/3,718ish yards) of swimming. The Short Course starts at Long Island (Run 7 on the Long Course) so athletes racing that course can skip the first bit and get a snack and jump back in when we start chatting about Long Island and onward. We recommend pulling up the course map on the Ödyssey Swimrun website and follow along the legs as we break them down. We are lucky to have a couple of course experts to walk you through the course instead of us. Joining us for this portion of the show are John Stevens: Multisport coach with PurplePatch Fitness and Casco Bay race director/course designer and Matt Hurley: Multisport coach and Co-Founder of Black Sheep Endurance Project. They have raced and won all four editions of Swimrun Casco Bay so we can’t think of a better duo to walk us through the course. Annotated Long Course Leg by Leg Breakdown with key features of each leg: R1: Peaks Island (2.0mi)Neutral start for everyone for the first .5 mileRace starts on low tideRocky entrance to first swimS1: Peaks Island to Cushing Island (965m/1,055yd)First swim will at low tide R2: Cushing Island (2.3mi)It’s a private island that we get to run through Only run that has any significant elevationS2: Cushing Island to House Island (645m/705yd)This swim might be longer than 700ydsVery rocky and slippery swim exit so take extra precaution to make sure that you have good footing and maybe be on all 4s if needed R3: House Island (.4mi)Another private island you run through an old war fort so don’t freak out by that S3: House Island to Little Diamond Island (965m/1,055yd)First “long” swim of the dayJohn Stevens thinks that this swim will be closer to 1,300ydMight be a longer or shorter swim depending on where the swim entrance is locatedSwim exit is on a beach by a dock R4: Little Diamond Island (.8mi)Swim exit has a short and steep hillFun factoid: John Stevens lives on this island S4: Little Diamond Island to Great Diamond Island (325m/355yd)This might be a sandbar run for fast and mid-packer racers R5: Great Diamond Island (1.3mi)A fun run S5: Great Diamond Island to Cow Island (200m/219yd)Nice and short swim R6: Cow Island (.5mi)There is a rope that athletes will need to climb one at a time to get onto the trailLook out for campers from a Ripple Effect (They are an awesome non-profit that will be volunteering at the race) S6: Cow Island to Long Island (965m/1,055yd)Likely the longest swim of the day, more likely closer to a mile than what’s on the course mapSwimming directly into the Sun if it’s cloudlessCurrent will be going from right to left and will be stronger closer to Long IslandR7: Long Island Part 1 (1.6mi) THE SHORT COURSE STARTS HERESome road running on this island S7: Long Island to Vail Island (270m/295yd)This is a good swim to push on since it’s shortGood place to make up some time R8: Vail Island (.5mi)AKA, Happy Fun Island!Most technical run on the whole race“Teamwork” is requiredLots of poison ivyStay lower to the ground and watch your footing S8: Vail Island back to Long Island (880m/962yd)Deceivingly long swim with a little sandbar break about 250 yards where you run for 30ish ft and then jump back in the waterThere will be a strobe light to help athletes sight the swim exitSwim exit is a tricky rocky outcropping onto the lawn of a private residence R9: Long Island Part 2 (1.6mi)Back on roads for about .5 miles and then you go straight uphill for a bit and then some cool trailsPay attention so you don’t get lost S9: Long Island to Little Chebeague Island (640m/700yd)Strong current pushing from right to left...so aim rightMight be the strongest current of the dayPay attention to which direction the lobster buoys are bending to get a sense of the direction of the water R10: Little Chebeague Island (.4mi) S10: Little Chebeague Island to (Big) Chebeague Island (560m/612yd)Depending on when you get to this swim it might be a sandbar run or a wade/dolphin jumping or swim across to Big Chebeague R11: Chebeague Island (Run 1) (4.25mi)Longest run of the raceSome cool new trails debuting for the first time at this year’s raceGood place to make up some time if you’re a fast running team S11: Chebeague Island (Swim 1) (650m/711yd) R12: Chebeague Island (Run 2) (.8mi)Get used to some sand running! S12: Chebeague Island (Swim 2) (400m/437yd)Swim will probably be closer to 500yds R13: Chebeague Island (Run 3) (.55mi)This run is on sand!Finish line is at a cool boatyardLars shared some bonus leg breakdowns for some of the course with us. Specifically, he breaks down the Cow Island, Vail Island, and Chebeague Island sections of the course. He also shares some final words for everyone racing Casco. IT’S PRONOUNCED “LOBSTA” (TRAINING AND TACTICS) This is a swim heavy course that will favor strong swimmers. It’s about 5 miles of swimming with mostly flat and non-technical running (except for Vail Island). Everyone we talked to said to swim a lot to prepare for this event. John Stevens recommends doing race simulations to make sure that you are ready for some of those long swims with short runs in between. Check out our episode with Matt and Lauren Hurley for some swim sets that you can do to prepare for race day. For race strategy, we brought in a team that has raced Casco Bay every year and they are literally the most dominant Swimrun mixed team in the United States. Of course, we are talking about our friends Bronwen and Greg from Team Boston Wet Sox. They share their tactics for executing your race plan.  SEE YOU AT THE SHACK (Final Thoughts) Well, there you have it! Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay in a glorious nutshell. We hope to see a bunch of new and familiar faces in Maine. If you were on the fence but we managed to convince you to sign up, use the code LOWTIDE15 to save 15% on your registration for Casco Bay and every other 2021 Ödyssey Swimrun event. We’re always trying to improve these types of shows and we’d love to hear your feedback, so let us know what you think. We wanted to give a final thanks once again to Lars Finanger and John Stevens and the rest of the Ödyssey Swimrun crew, Matt Hurley of Black Sheep Endurance Project, and Bronwen and Greg Dierksen of the Boston Wet Sox for their help in getting this course preview together.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.Thank you for listening and see you out there!-  Chip and Chris

17 Juni 202147min

Welcome to episode seventy-five of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!This week we head to “The Shire” (New Hampshire, not Tolkein’s Middle Earth) to chat with Keith Lundquist and Kanoa King of Team Keith and the Unicorn. These guys are one of the up-and-coming American teams and we’re super stoked to introduce them to our listeners.More on this interview later in the show.Training UpdateThe training continues and we put in a 2 hour-plus Swimrun practice over the weekend and we’re definitely feeling like we are making progress. Our transitions are pretty much dialed in and our overall pace is feeling good. It’s almost as if all the swimming and running that we are doing is paying off! Weird! Casco Bay, here we come! #LFGShoutoutsThis week we’re shouting out the ten folks from the swim club Pool2Lake who all completed their first Swimrun this past weekend at The Box End Bedford Swimrun put on by our friends at As Keen As Mustard events. We have no idea if they listen to the show or not, but either way we are stoked that they all came out to race their first event. Feats of EnduranceWe are going back to the Netherlands for this week’s FoE winner: Elly Dijk. She’s taking part in the Envol Coaching’s “Big Battle” and literally did eight Swimruns last week. Eight!Need some inspiration in your training life? Make sure to join the LTBz Strava Club and connect with fellow Swimrunners as they train and race all over the world. This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)Lots of Swimrun news to share this week.First off, we’ve got something special to share with everyone. We are debuting our “Notes from the Field” with guest correspondent Shane Chaplin. Former guest of the show (Episode 43) and our favorite Aussie living in Sweden was present at the ARK SUPERSPRINT put on by EX Swimrun a few weeks back and he shares his expert analysis of how the race went from his perch atop a stand-up paddle board on the swim leg for the event. Thanks Shane for your special report!Ödyssey Swimrun released their latest course overview zoom recording for Luddington last week. Check it out on YouTube to get all the info you need to convince you to sign up.It’s race week for Swimrun Knox! If you’re in the general vicinity of Tennessee or are willing to travel, registration is open for either the short or long course distance taking place on June 13th.Week one of Envol Coaching’s “The Big Battle” is officially in the books! Make sure you follow @envolswimrun on Instagram to see how all the teams are progressing. They also have a leaderboard with all the standing at envolcoaching.net for folks that want to check that out. (In case you’re curious about how Team Löw Tide Böyz is doing but are too lazy to go to Envol’s website, our team is not in last place.)Our friends at As Keen As Mustard events had their first race of the year over the weekend and the Box End Bedford Swimrun did not disappoint. (Fun fact: Google Maps describes Box End Park as a leisure park.) Good times were had by all at their first event of the year. Their next event, Nene Park Peterborough Swimrun is coming up on June 20th, so if you’re in the U.K. and are keen to try Swimrun, we can’t recommend a more welcoming event series. If you want to learn more about As Keen As Mustard events, check out our interview with the mother and daughter race directing duo, Nicky & Chelsea Bailey, on Episode 56 of the show.The Stockholm Swimrun took place over the weekend. The field was limited to 150 participants for this ÖTILLÖ Merit Race but it looked like a lot of fun. In other news, their winner’s trophy was humongous!The race (and city) whose name I’ve been butchering for weeks, the  Jönköping Swimrun powered by Speedo, took place over the weekend. This race had some heavy hitters in the field and the competition for this ÖTILLÖ Merit Race looked fierce. Shoutout to Marie Anderzén, Annika Westin, and Anders Nyberg from our Strava Club who all raced on Sunday.In a little bit of a bummer, ATOBE events recently announced that they need five more teams to sign up for the epic ATOBE Ultra at their Immeln Swimrun for it to happen on August 21st. We haven’t chatted with them about this but we’re taking it on as a personal mission to try to get five teams to sign up for this 108km (97km running, 11km swimming) ultra by June 15th so that we can experience the FOMO from the U.S. Registration is open on raceid.com. (if you sign up after listening to this, send us a DM!)That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.UpdatesWe know that we’ve been mentioning our Ödyssey Swimrun discount code a lot but that only because we love their events and think that you will too! Use the code LOWTIDE15 to save 15% on your registration. Looking to waste some time on YouTube? Check out the LTBz channel and check out our new How to Practice Smooth Transitions and our Pull Buoy Mounting Options Overview videos. Let us know if you’re liking this type of content so that we can justify it to our wives why we need to get camera equipment in addition to our podcasting gear.As a programming alert, we will be releasing our Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay Course Preview episode next week so stay tuned for that.InterviewIt was great to chat with Keith and Kanoa about their Swimrun journey. While it hasn’t taken them long to start winning races, they definitely passed the Swimrun vibe check and it will be cool to see them at the start line (and then at finish line a few hours after they are done) at a bunch of races in the Fall. In this interview, we chatted with them about how they found Swimrun and each other, the genesis of their Swimrun team name, how they’ve approached training and racing, and even got a mini-race report from their Swimrun Lake James long course win. We also talked about beer miles, gave them wetsuit recommendations, and more. This was a fun one. Enjoy!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.Thank you for listening and see you out there!-  Chip and Chris

10 Juni 20211h 1min

Welcome to episode seventy-four of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!This week we have the Founder of Synergy Wetsuits, Stefan Laursen. Get ready to learn about Stefan’s fascinating background, his ambitious Swimrun program, and get a behind-the-scenes look at the research and development process for making their new Swimrun wetsuits.More on this interview later in the show.Training UpdateWe’re feeling like a couple of Swimrunners lately. Our pool was closed so last week was open water swimming week for us and we managed to get in three Swimrun practices since our last show. With Ödyssey Swimrun Casco Bay just two months away, it’s time to do some work!ShoutoutsThis week we’re shouting out Adrian Cameron. He rocked a 3rd place finish at the CapTex triathlon in Austin over the weekend and was rocking his Löw Tide Böyz shirt on the podium. Strong work out there dude!For folks who don’t know who Adrian is, check out the addendum to Episode 38 of our Ödyssey Swimrun Austin course preview show where Adrian scoped out the course at Pace Bend Park and then shared all his intel with us and our listeners.Feats of EnduranceThis week’s winner is Piet Wisse from the Netherlands. This guy just casually cycled 193.44 miles in just over 10 hours. Double centuries are something that we are familiar with and they are never a piece of cake but Piet made it look easy!Need some inspiration in your training life? Make sure to join the LTBz Strava Club and connect with fellow Swimrunners as they train and race all over the world. This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)Lots of Swimrun news to share this week.The Bellingham Swimrun, hosted by Quest Races and friend of the pod Brent Molsberry, is happening this coming Sunday, June 6th. You can get all the details on their website.Ödyssey Swimrun recently released their latest course overview video on Casco Bay. Anyone that registered or interested in registering for the original Ödyssey event should definitely check it out on YouTube.In international news, Swimrun Sumin took place over the weekend in Sumin, Poland. It’s great to see races coming back and this one looked like a lot of fun with a mix of terrains. On a side note, the course description infographics on their site are really cool.Swimrun Edmonton, where your’s truly won a prize at their virtual edition last year, announced that this year’s (non-virtual) edition is taking place on July 25 at Terwillegar Park. Registration is open now!In the category of “They did what now?,” a bunch of Swimrunners from Swimrun Côte D'azur completed the 6th edition of their Ultraswimrun of the Maritime Alps. This was a 78k (67k of running and 11k of swimming) coastline Swimrun from Le Trayas to Beaulieu-sur-Mer or basically from west of Cannes to East of Nice in Southern France. Amazing!Speaking of Swimrun Côte D'azur, their main event is now scheduled for October 24th in Beaulieu-sur-Mer and registration is open now! They offer 8k, 17k and 30k distance options and they have a really cool refund policy in place where all participants will get 100% of their registration fee refunded in the case of a COVID lockdown. If you want to learn more about the Swimrun scene in the South of France, check out Episode 48 with Laurene William and Irina Kondratieva of Team Swimrun Mermaids.Finally, Envol Coaching’s “The Big Battle” has officially begun! Make sure you follow @envolswimrun on Instagram to see how all the teams are progressing. Swimrunners can still sign up and join a team so don’t let the FOMO take hold and sign up at envolcoaching.net.That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.UpdatesSo last week was a big week for LTBz. We took over Ödyssey Swimrun’s Instagram stories and put out all sorts of content including the release of the short film, Swimrun Confessions, featuring the acting debut of Chris’s wife, Susan. If that wasn’t enough, friend of the show (and our guest on Episode 28 of the show) Adam Skolnick rocked his LTBz hat on the bi-weekly podcast Roll On that he co-hosts with Rich Roll. We’re big fans of Rich and Adam and it was a major thrill for us to see our tiny show get mentioned and it was an even bigger thrill to see all our fans be as super stoked about the mention as we were.Looking to race an Ödyssey Swimrun race this year? Use the code LOWTIDE15 to save 15% on your registration. We will be at Casco Bay, Orcas, and Austin this year so come join us! Mark your calendars if you’re in the Bay Area because we are going to be holding an “Intro to Swimrun” session and practice at Aquatic Park in San Francisco this Saturday, June 5th at 7:30am. Precision Hydration will be providing free hydration packets for everything to check out and we have some bonus swag that we’ll be giving away as well. So if you’re new to Swimrun or just want to practice with some other people, then join us on June 5th!InterviewStefan Laursen was an awesome guest. Stefan’s passion about wetsuits and performance is only matched by his extensive experience and deep knowledge of the industry. In this interview we chatted with Stefan about his background and how he came to design and build his own wetsuit at age 13, how he became a pro triathlete and ultimately transitioned to making wetsuits full-time, how Synergy grew to being the wetsuits of choice for elite athletes, and why he chose to enter the Swimrun space. We talked at length about the research and development process for their new entry-level Swimrun wetsuit and their plans for an elite Swimrun wetsuit coming out soon. In short, this interview is an education on wetsuit R&D.Need another reason to check out Synergy? Use the code SRLABS25 to save 25% off their new Swimrun Wetsuit.You can find Synergy at Synergywetsuits.com and on all the socials. 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.Thank you for listening and see you out there!-  Chip and Chris

3 Juni 202146min

Welcome to Gear Talk with our friends Annie and Brooke from Swimrun Labs.In this episode, we break down the new Synergy Swimrun Wetsuit. At $200 this suit is an intriguing entry-level suit that looks and, more importantly, performs great. We would like to thank Synergy for sending us four of their new suits for us to test out.Our complete review is coming later in the show.Gear UpdatesAnnie swam in the Ark Sports KORP Wetsuit for the first time and only had good things to say about the suit. She tested it in pretty chilly water and didn’t experience any water pooling in the suit that others have experienced.Brooke tried to go full commando under her wetsuit for the first time...and she wasn’t a fan.Chris and Chipper got to try out the new Summer Smoc from Smoc Smoc. These bamboo fiber smocs are great for the summer months and make it really easy to change into and out of your Swimrun gear. Untethered ThoughtsThis week’s untethered thought comes courtesy of Amy Bush. She asked us why our Gear Talk show isn’t called the “Löw Tide Töyz” show. We discussed this at length and will consider the suggestion and try to incorporate “labs” in there somewhere.Synergy Swimrun Wetsuit ReviewWe all got to use the suits and have some well-formed opinions about the Synergy Swimrun Wetsuit. You can watch our first impressions video here to get a general overview of the suit.The suit costs $200. It comes with three pockets (two internal pockets in the front and one large zippered pocket in the back), a whistle on the zipper, and male and female-specific sizing. The Synergy website describes the suit as follows: The Synergy Swimrun is a high-quality suit with the essential features; long front zip, total of 3 accessible pockets, and graded/variable neoprene thickness to allow best flexibility while retaining buoyancy for swimming and enough insulation to keep you warm.Given that this is an entry-level suit, we thought that it would be important to calibrate our review with other similar entry-level suits with a similar price point such as  the ORCA Core and the BlueSeventy Alliance Swimrun Wetsuit. It’s worth noting that this suit does not come with arm sleeves.Swimming ImpressionsChipper was worried about chafing with the collar of this suit but those concerns didn’t come to pass. The suit fit great and he thought that it kept water out well and kept him warm. He did feel that the velcro portion to secure the collar was a bit small and would have liked it to be a bit larger since it came undone during a swim and he had to adjust it.Brooke was also worried about the suit collar. She tried the suit on when it arrived and thought that the neckline felt a little “chokey” because it came up pretty high. She didn’t experience any chafing. She did experience some water entering the suit from the arms and flushing through the suit. (We all think that this was a fit issue.)Annie did not have any water entering into the suit and thought that the fit was spot on. She did experience some chafing. There is a seam on the collar that had some extra reinforcement but it did lead to some chafing. Chris’s expectations for the suit were low when he took it out of the box because at first glance it appeared that it was using a Gen 1-style design with thick neoprene on the legs instead of a more Gen 2 approach that is more run-forward. The suit definitely exceeded his expectations. The suit was great in the water and easy to swim in with good seals to keep water out and shoulder mobility wasn’t a problem. Transition ImpressionsChipper and Chris didn’t have any issues with transitions. The zipper was good for cabbing down and zipped smoothly.Brooke and Annie thought that transitions went fine. Annie was able to cab down no problem in the suit. Brooke felt like she was carrying some water with her but that could be because of the sizing issues that she was having.Running ImpressionsAnnie and Chris were pleasantly surprised with the run performance. Out of the box the suit felt stiff and had neoprene running down the entire front. They didn’t feel restricted at all during the run.Brooke felt very comfortable on the run and didn’t feel like she would overheat in the suit. Sizing down may have resolved some of the bunching issues that she was having.Chipper was very worried that he was going to cook in the suit because it seemed pretty thick. Just like everyone else, he was pleasantly surprised with how the suit performed on the run. He felt that the legs did ride up a bit but it wasn’t a deal-breaker. He did have some concerns about the front pockets not being super useful when cabbed down.Pull Buoy Rankings RankingsChipper 4.5 Pull BuoysChipper thought that for the price point, this suit was good enough for him to race in the suit. He said that he would be fine racing in the suit. This was the top of the heap in terms of entry-level wetsuits and it was a great suit for most Swimrun conditions.Chris 4 Pull BuoysChris thought that for an entry-level suit, the Synergy is great! A lot of thought and intention went into making this suit and for $200, this suit definitely delivers. He would use this suit over any other entry-level suit that he has tried.Brooke 3.5 Pull BuoysBrooke doesn’t think that anyone should listen to her review. She thinks that she had the wrong size and didn’t enjoy it as much as she wanted to. She would maybe give it a higher score if she had the right size. She did think that this is a great suit for folks starting out and/or for training.Annie 4.5 Pull BuoysAnnie gave it a high score for the value that it presents for $200. It totally delivered and exceeded her expectations for the price point. It has a great balance of swim buoyancy and run mobility. She would feel totally fine racing in this suit.Overall ImpressionsWe were all pleasantly surprised with how the new Synergy suit performed and we would all recommend this suit to both beginners in the sport and more experienced athletes looking for a durable suit to train or race in.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.

1 Juni 202157min