Welcome to episode 334 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

It is race week at Orcas Island, and we are going back to the vault.

Episode 334 is Throwback Mixtape number five — a re-release of our 2021 Orcas Island race report from Episode 91. This race is one of the chapters in the book of the LTBz. Chipper showed up banged up from a fall, bonked hard somewhere in the middle of the course, and spent the better part of four hours getting dragged around one of the most brutal swimrun courses in the US by Chris. This is one of the races we are most proud of. The course is savage. The community was incredible. The pizza after was legendary.

Before we roll the tape we share our current thoughts heading into race week — what we have learned since 2021, why neither of us feels the need for redemption anymore, and why we just want to go back and have a great day on a great course. Our friend Tommy is back as driver, photographer, bodyguard, and emergency medic. We are ready.

If you are heading to Orcas Island on Saturday May 30th, come find us at the start-finish area at 11am for a fika with the LTBz and Wild Swimrun with Sarah and Viv, then join us at the Envol shakeout swimrun in the afternoon. Details on the Instagrams.

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 333 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

Triple threes. We are officially in taper mode for Ötillö Orcas Island, and we brought back one of our favorite guests to help us make the most of what is left in the build.

Brian Johns is Head of Coaching Science at FORM Swim and a three-time Canadian Olympian. He is also the brains behind the FORM training plans that Chris has been running almost exclusively for two years with excellent results — including some very generous feedback from the master swim coach on deck who keeps gassing up his form score. We had Brian back on to talk about what is actually happening inside those plans, how to read and act on the data the goggles give you, and how to design swim training specifically for a race like the Swimrun World Championship.

On the product side, FORM has the new Smart Swim 2 LT at $149, which gets you the heads-up display and the full coaching platform. The Pro 2 is their top of the line with Gorilla Glass lenses and high-end anti-fog. And Head Coach Insights — their newest software feature — gives you direct feedback on your swim after every session, including what to work on and why.

The coaching conversation is where this one really takes off. Brian walks through the two levers of swim speed — stroke length and stroke rate — and how to manipulate them for open water racing. He explains why tracking your form score length by length beats tracking it by interval, how the goggles can give you real-time feedback that even a coach on deck cannot, and how to use success-based training to progressively build your interval length without grinding through bad swimming. His framework is simple: find the distance you can hold well, own it, and then extend it.

For swimrun specifically, the conversation gets into how to structure brick sessions — swim before and after your long run, nothing fancy, just getting the body comfortable transitioning — and our favorite pool set for mimicking race conditions: 10x100s with a deck-up after each one. Brian had the same workout in his notes before we even mentioned it.

On race tactics for Ötillö — Brian did his homework watching YouTube footage of the course, and his read is the same as ours. You cannot win the race on the first mile swim, but you can absolutely lose it. The swim is front-loaded, the racing is tactical, and quiet confidence going into the water is worth more than brute force.

If you are heading to Orcas Island, come find us Saturday at Rosario Resort. We are hosting a fika with Wild Swimrun starting around 11am, and the shakeout swimrun with Marcus Barton and Team Envol follows in the afternoon. Details on the Instagrams.

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

This month is Orcas Island month, and we are kicking it off with someone who is, safe to say, super stoked on swimrun. Julia Dinesen is a multi-discipline endurance athlete from British Columbia who found the sport via an Ötillö Instagram ad, signed up for the World Series distance at Whistler on her first ever attempt, and has been hooked ever since.

Before we get to Julia, we share a few tips for getting the most out of your swimrun practice sessions as we head into race season. Have a plan before you show up. Decide what you are testing. And do transition drills — the Boston Wet Sox, the best US team in history, are still doing them deep into long practice sessions, which tells you everything you need to know.

Julia found swimrun the way a lot of people do — an Instagram ad showing someone running off a cliff in their running shoes into the water. She saw it, looked up Ötillö Whistler, realized it was an hour and a half from her house, signed up, and loved it. In this conversation she shares what that first race was like, what she learned from it, how the 859-day running streak actually works, what it is like to be a swimrunner in Western Canada where nobody has heard of the sport, what gear changes she is making for Orcas, and what she would tell anyone who is on the fence about signing up.

One moment worth flagging for anyone who has ever talked themselves into finishing something: Julia once rode 25 kilometers on a flat tire at a triathlon in the Okanagan, finished an hour after everyone else, and ended up qualifying for age group world championships in Australia on the roll-down. Her take on getting through hard things — it is more embarrassing to quit than to come last, the training is where you get all the benefit, and crossing the finish line is just the proof that you did the thing.

FORM Goggles are sponsoring us all month as we build toward Orcas. The new Smart Swim 2 LT is their entry-level goggle — $149 for the heads-up display and full access to their training platform. Send us a DM if you have questions about it.

We will see Julia — and a lot of you — at Orcas Island at the end of the month.

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