Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast

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

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

But first...

Training Update

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

Shoutouts

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

Feats of Endurance

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

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

This Week in Swimrun

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Updates

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

Special bonus shoutout to Chet for the recommendation.

Gordo Byrn

We have to give a special shoutout to Lars Finanger for connecting us with...

Welcome to Episode 101 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

In this episode, we expound upon the various ways that Swimrun teams can qualify for ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. This episode is pretty self-serving since we were trying to figure this out to determine our own chances of qualifying for the World Championship and figured that we put it together for everyone before the application period opens on December 14th.

There are a total of 160 team spots available for qualification for ÖTILLÖ, The Swimrun World Championship. The race is held on the first Monday in September every year.

To be able to participate in ÖTILLÖ you have to race in a team consisting of two persons that are at least 18 years old and able to swim. Each team member needs to have valid insurance for swimrun or sports similar to swimrun. Some other things worth noting:

Your application is final and will not be reimbursed if a team is accepted. Use your insurance if you have a medical issue and need a reimbursement.

You are allowed to change one team member of the same gender. This can’t happen until after ÖTILLÖ Engadin.

No external sales of your entry is allowed.

There are five ways to get a spot at the legendary race. We will discuss each below:

1. Podium at ÖTILLÖ World Series Distance Race

Pretty self-explanatory here

9 spots available at each event, 3 for each category (Men’s, Women’s, and Mixed)

2. Direct Qualification

9 spots per event

This is essentially like a roll-down qualification

Spots are distributed between classes according to the number of races per class

E.g., 4 men, 3 mixed, 2 women

3. 7/24 Concept

Starting in 2017, The 7/24 concept is a guaranteed way of getting a spot at the Swimrun World Championship

You and your teammate have to race 5 World Series races & 2 Merit races in 24 months. It can be any of them and it can also be the same races two times. All you have to do is finish them. Then you apply and you will get a guaranteed spot

This way will also put you relatively high in the ranking which will allow you to apply in that category too

4. Race Directors Choice

10 spots at the race director’s discretion

Typically given throughout the year for sponsors, media and/or special circumstances

E.g., when Rich Roll/Chris Hauf qualified in 2018 it was through a director’s choice

5. Swimrun Ranking Points: (We’ll spend most of the time on this one since it’s the method that affects us)

78 Spots

The spots are distributed evenly between the classes according to the amount of applications per class

If you apply in more than one category we will select the team with the highest ranking in the respective category (Men, Women or Mixed)

Reserve lists will be made per class and are based on ranking

Presentation of teams on the first Thursday of February. The application opens on December 14th

Important to note for Race Directors and ranking slots:

The distribution of Ranking and Directors choice Spots will be done according to the amount of applications per category (men, women and mixed) so that we have an equal percentage between the categories.

In other words, if more women teams apply than in year’s past, there will be more spots assigned to that category. Wild Swimrun has a great article on their website explaining how this works.

How does the Swimrun Ranking system work?

It’s basically a points system. Teams register at swimrunranking.com and results are assigned points after teams either submit their finish times or they are auto-populated for ÖTILLÖ events.

The points are distributed based on the following criteria:

The system is built using inverse property.

40% of the points are based on your overall result in the race. No matter which class you are in.

60% of the points are based on your time in relation to the average time of all finishing teams. This means that teams finishing very close together get very similar “time points” in relationship to their position and vice versa i.e. performance driven.

Races are weighted differently. The base points are multiplied by a coefficient that are as follows: ÖTILLÖ World Series Races x 1,25 (ÖTILLÖ World Series Races before 2020 had the coefficient 1,1) and ÖTILLÖ merit races x 1,0.

All teams that finish a race get ranking points.

Your points will devalue with 75% after 365 days from getting them, after 24 mo...

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

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

How’s the Body? How’s the Mind?

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

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

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

Rich Roll’s 2017 ÖTILLÖ Experience

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

Anna Lundgerg

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

Andy Blow

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

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

Welcome to episode thirty-six of the Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast!

On the show this week we are talking with George Bjälkemo and Pontus Lindberg of Kraken Swimrun to chat about their epic 3-day Swimrun Adventure covering the entire Stockholm Archipelago. Yes, you heard that right. A total distance of 242km while traversing 79 islands in just 42 hours! George and Pontus are also the reigning Ötillö World Champs and just super cool dudes. More on all this later in the show.

Training Update

Our training plans are ramping up now that we are just two months away from Ödyssey Swimrun Austin race on November 8, 2020. There will be lots of Swimrunning in the near future as we dial in our technique after not racing since early March.

A quick reminder that we want to see you at the race with us! We’ll be the guys in the back of the race. Need some added incentive? Use the code LOWTIDEBOYZ and save 25% of your entry.

Shout Outs

This week we’re shouting out Justin. We’ve known Justin for years and he got hooked on Swimrun at the Sprint distance race at Ötillö Catalina. He sent us some lovely feedback on the show and we really appreciate him taking the time to do that.

Feats of Endurance Weekly Award

Our award this week goes out to Nuno. He raced Swimrun Zêzere over the weekend and it did nothing to help our FOMO for not being able to be there are chatting with the race director last week.

Congrats and thanks for being part of our Strava Club community.

This Week in Swimrun

A lot of folks were riding the good vibes from the Ötillö Sprint Final 15k race in Utö and jumped into races this past weekend.

Västerås Swimrun took place in Björnön, Sweden. The race was capped at 150 participants and similar to other events in Sweden, the race started in waves of 50 athletes at a time. Apparently, they had two Djs on the course blasting beats! There were some pretty funny team names as well including “Team Cold Soups and Abrasions,” “Team Half Decent Sea Lions,” “Team Latina Lovers,” and our personal favorite “Team Chips on the Couch & Cream on the Waffle.” (Honorable mention: “Team Earth, Wind & Water”)

Breca Jersey went down on Saturday on the island of Jersey. Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands located between England and France. This 20K race looked very epic based on our in-depth Instagram research. Dare I say that this race has been added to our already very long bucket list.

Finally, Zêzere Swimrun looked like a blast on the Zêzere River in Portugal. The event had two distances: Standard (31k) and Sprint (14.7k). We had Race Director Bruno Safara on the show last week and we can’t help but root for him as he grows the sport in Portugal.

We’re pretty sure that we may have missed some events. Send us an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com and tip us off if there’s a race that you are doing and we’ll do our best to include it.

LTBz Updates

Our latest column in Triathlete Magazine, “What’s the best ‘Full Spec’ Swimrun Kit?,” is out on the digital newsstands now! Check it out and let us know if you agree with our choices for the best top of the line kit choices in all the main categories.

We got some new merch in the works so make sure that you check out our website for the latest in LTBz apparel and stickers.

Interview

The interview this week is just epic. George Bjälkemo and Pontus Lindberg of Kraken Swimrun are reigning World Champs and elite athletes. You would think that would be enough to get them on the show. We didn’t even talk to them about that because they came on to talk about their journey traversing the entire Stockholm Archipelago.

This conversation is all about how they decided that since the Otillo World Championship wasn’t happening this year that they would embark on an “Ultra Swimrun Adventure.” And what an adventure it was! We chatted with them about how they came up with the idea, why they decided to do this, how the event almost got derailed because they couldn’t find a boat driver, and finally, we get their “race report” breakdown on how e...

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

On this episode, we answer a question that we got from several of our listeners: what GPS Wearable should I get for swimrun? We discuss everything that should be considered in choosing a GPS watch and share our personal favorites. But first...

Gear Updates/First Impressions

Annie ordered the Aquasphere Classic Pullbuoy that was mentioned on the Budget Swimrun Kit episode for $6 and free shipping. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as giant as advertised. It’s the size of a regular swim pull buoy. That being said, for $6 you can buy two of them and glue them together.

Ark Sports KORP

Brooke has continued to have water infiltration issues with her Ark Sports KORP wetsuit. She contacted Ark and they mentioned that she should have sized down...but didn’t offer to replace it for the right size since she had already used it in open water. While the KORP might run big, Chris mentioned that his VIGG suit might run small. So make sure that you are super confident about your size.

Ark Sports Keel+ Swimrun Pull Bouy

Finally, Chris and Chipper have started testing with Ark Sports Keel+ Pull Buoy (this item is sold out online). Chipper did a “scientific” test of 100 yard swims with nothing, a regular pool pull buoy, a Keel, and the Keel+. The Keel+ was definitely the fastest. Chipper also used the Keel+ in a swimrun practice and was a lot faster in a full kit. Chris did a longer non-scientific test of 500s with paddles alternating between the Keel and the Keel+ and his gut told him that the Keel+ was faster. It took some getting used to swimming with the Keel+ given the size and extra buoyancy in a pool without a full kit on.

We’ll have a full review on the Keel+ in a future show. In the meantime, you can listen to our complete review of the Keel Pull Buoy on Gear Talk.

GPS Wearables for Swimrun

Before getting into the details about the best GPS wearables and watches for Swimrun, we wanted to make some global statements about GPS watches.

First, having a GPS watch is not a necessity to participate in Swimrun or have fun out there so don’t let the lack of a GPS watch stop you from training and signing up for a race. Second, there are a lot of considerations about the technical features of the different watches. There is a better source for that type of analysis: DC Rainmaker is the gold standard for super in-depth reviews about specific watches. Finally, while most GPS watches have some form of heart rate monitoring and use different methods, either with a chest strap or wrist-based optical readers. Chest strap is the most accurate so if you’re looking for something for heart rate training and optical tracking is more for folks that aren’t totally devoted to zone training. Annie had some more thoughts on the matter that you can read below:

• Optical HR sensor accuracy can vary from individual to individual. Aspects such as skin color, hair density, and position can impact accuracy. The band should be snug. It doesn’t need to leave marks, but you shouldn’t be able to slide a finger under the band (at least during workouts).
• Chest strap will always be more accurate than optical. If you do a lot of steady state training, using a wrist based HRM is generally pretty reliable because there’s not much HR variation it needs to pick up. Still can be 2-10 BPM off though, which is a lot.
• If your training is based on shorter intervals and you rely on HR to guide effort frequently, as in tightly zone-based training, opt for chest strap over optical HRM and save some bucks on your watch as you won’t need this feature. Wrist based HR can have a delay in presenting changes in HR, so if for example you are doing a 30 sec interval at higher intensity, you may be done with the interval before your watch picks up the effort increase.
• One last note- 24x7 HR monitoring (am resting HR, avg resting HR) can be helpful for gaining a lens into when you may be over-fatigued, having trouble recovering from your training, or responding to other stressors in life. Fatigue and cumulative stress is an important metric to monitor for any athlete. Optical wrist HR does well with this application.

Some g...