Welcome to episode 356 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

With ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Austin coming up and a big crew of Wildies heading to Texas, we reach back into the vault for the tenth installment of our Throwback Mixtape series. This one originally ran as episode 276 in April 2025. It's our conversation with Helen Ostet, co-founder of WILD Swimrun and one of the kindest people in the sport. Before we roll the tape, we talk about our history with WILD going back to episode 10, the Wildies on this year's ÖTILLÖ World Championship podium, The Wild Ones podcast from Viv and Sarah, and our seventh straight ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Austin.

Helen shares what WILD is all about. It's a low threshold into swimrun for women and kids, with loaner gear so nobody has to buy anything to try it, and a reminder that swimrun can be a fun activity in your own backyard as much as a tough race. We talk about getting more women into the long races, the race weekend WILD builds around Utö with a course preview, gear testing, and a team dinner, and the WILD collab paddle from our friends at Frank Paddles.

Helen also takes us inside a WILD camp. They run Thursday to Sunday and include a gear day, transition training tethered behind a World Championship podium finisher, and a Saturday A-to-B adventure along the Mallorca coast. We trade stories about partner communication and pull buoys left on backs at the first swim.

Then Helen opens up about her own journey, from a smoker who had never been active, to volunteering at races, to three shoulder surgeries and the road back to swimrun. Her take: finishing the experience course can be your world championship, depending on where you are on your journey. Fika, swim, run, friends. We're making the t-shirt. In the original episode we also kicked off our fundraiser to send a new woman to a WILD camp.

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 rating and review since that's the best way for people to discover the show and the sport of Swimrun. You can find us on **Apple Podcasts**, **Spotify**, and on **YouTube**. Check out our **website** for Swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much more. Also make sure to check out our meme page **@thelowtideboyz** on Instagram. If you have any suggestions for the show or questions for us, send us a dm or an email at **lowtideboyz@gmail.com**. 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 355 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

The mailbag is back! We get questions in our DMs, in our inbox, and in person at races, and when the same ones keep coming up, it's time for another round of our Swimrun 101 series. We answer these with 30-plus swimruns under our belts since 2018, and our advice is always the same: start where we recommend, then find your own way from there.

First up is metrics. Chip walks through his simple race-day watch setup (total time and distance, lap time and distance, plus a 20-minute fueling timer), and we explain why we skip Garmin's swimrun mode and log races as a run with the lap button instead. We also talk about using HRV and sleep data as weekly trends rather than daily verdicts, why we lean more on perceived effort as we get older, and how friend of the show Mario Fraioli cuts through the noise: forget stride oscillation, can you hold pace when it matters?

Next we update our shoe advice. Start with the trail shoes you already own, run the bucket test, and skip drilling holes. We also talk about the Kebab League crew racing in marathon super shoes, bust the blister myth, and share the socks we race in from CEP and Swiftwick. Then we answer the pull buoy question (yes, use one) and explain why even strong swimmers benefit when they're swimming in shoes.

Super intern Dave from Dave's List asks about the mental side of racing solo versus as a team, and we share what changed for each of us when we raced without a partner. Chip also shows off his latest paddle hieroglyphics method using Gorilla Tape and a silver Sharpie. For more on that, go back to episode 106.

We finish with the races we're most excited about: Swimrun Lake James returning in 2027 and the brand new Bellingham Swimrun Festival from race director Brent Molsberry, a three-day event with the first kids swimrun in the US, an eliminator race, a dusk swimrun, and more. Next up for us is ÖTILLÖ USA Austin, our seventh year in a row. Keep sending your questions, and check out the Knowledge Base on our website for more Swimrun 101 answers.

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 rating and review since that's the best way for people to discover the show and the sport of Swimrun. You can find us on **Apple Podcasts**, **Spotify**, and on **YouTube**. Check out our **website** for Swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much more. Also make sure to check out our meme page **@thelowtideboyz** on Instagram. If you have any suggestions for the show or questions for us, send us a dm or an email at **lowtideboyz@gmail.com**. 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 354 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We sit down for another fika with Coach Liz, a swimrun coach who works with swimrunners and returned to the ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Championship this year with her partner Jacob. We shared a good stretch of the course with them in Sweden, so we start with a race report from their second time racing it, including a faster finish than last time and what it took to get there with a toddler at home.

Liz walks us through how she and Jacob trained for the same race by sitting down at the start of the week, trading second shifts, and splitting the long sessions between Saturday and Sunday. Then we talk about coming back to training after pregnancy: building up slowly, making strength training a priority, the signs that tell you to back off, and the 24-hour rule she uses with her athletes. She also shares how 20 to 30 miles of running a week, plus a five-mile run, StairMaster and strength session, carried her through ÖTILLÖ.

We also answer a listener question about using an off-the-shelf triathlon plan for swimrun. We talk through knowing your available hours, being honest about your fitness level, laying the plan over your work and family calendar, and knowing the intention of every session. When time is short, Liz explains what works with 35 to 45 minute swims and 20 to 30 minute strength sessions, and why the shorter ÖTILLÖ distances make a great way in.

Liz spent the summer testing AI coaching with her TrainingPeaks files, so we get her take on what it got right, where the workouts missed, and why honesty matters with any coach. Her roster is nearly full with a few slots open for next year, and you can find her on Instagram.

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 rating and review since that's the best way for people to discover the show and the sport of Swimrun. You can find us on **Apple Podcasts**, **Spotify**, and on **YouTube**. Check out our **website** for Swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much more. Also make sure to check out our meme page **@thelowtideboyz** on Instagram. If you have any suggestions for the show or questions for us, send us a dm or an email at **lowtideboyz@gmail.com**. Finally, you can support our efforts on **Patreon**...if you feel so inclined.Thanks for listening and see you out there!Chip and Chris