Low Tide Boyz, a Swimrun Podcast

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 **[email protected]**. 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 **[email protected]**. 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 353 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We have another race report for you, and this one is a first. Chris just did his first ever solo swimrun at Swimrun Cape Cod, and we sit down a day and a half after he gets home to talk about it. Chris has never been shy about giving solo categories a hard time, so we get into whether that still holds.

Swimrun Cape Cod is in its fourth edition and only its second running, and this year adds a long course. Then a storm rolls through, the park pulls the permits on three ponds, and the 30K turns into about 15 miles of kettle ponds, single track, and way more climbing than you would expect on the Cape.

Chris walks us through his gear, one last run on the old pull buoy, and a new fueling plan with CARBS gels and extra caffeine. Then we go leg by leg, from the first ponds to the bluff over the Atlantic that had everyone wishing for a phone, to the back-to-back swims and a fall on the last run. The swimrun gods asked for a blood sacrifice, and Chris paid up.

He finishes in 2:51 for fourth place in the solo men's division, and we get his verdict on solo versus team racing. We also talk about a big weekend for swimrun in the US, with ÖTILLÖ Colorado the same weekend and the Kancho Boyz coming out of retirement to win the sprint distance. Next up for us is ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Austin in early November.

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 **[email protected]**. 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 352 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

The 2026 One Water Race is done, and we have been wanting to talk about it since the live stream ended. We obsess over this race, have zero interest in racing it, and love watching it unfold. Joining us is Chris Wright of Team USA France, who raced the inaugural edition in 2022 and finished this year on his third start, touching the Landsort lighthouse at 2:30 in the morning with the whole One Water crew still cheering.

Chris takes us through the year behind it. He explains how he decided to go back, why swimming with paddles filled his training, and how his team kept the same plan but executed it better. We talk about the 30-second debrief with the boat captain at each island, staying about four and a half hours behind the leaders to beat the eight-hour cutoff, and the 8.5K Danziger Gat swim, three hours in three to four foot waves with a single feed at the 90 minute mark.

We also get into the stuff you wonder about from your couch. Chris shares what 70 hours awake sounds like, how three wetsuits help and hurt, why swimming-induced pulmonary edema worries every team, and how a fueling plan of ramen, chips and about 100 fun size Snickers kept the engine running. He describes the 4 PM start, the A/B checkpoint decisions, the community Thomas builds on Råholma, and the burger and beer waiting at the finish.

Before the interview, we run through race week in the States: Swimrun Cape Cod, ÖTILLÖ Colorado in Fort Collins with the Concho Boys back on the sprint course, and ÖTILLÖ Austin in early November. After the interview, Chris tells us what is next, from Orcas and Bellingham to a little unfinished business at ÖTILLÖ.

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 **[email protected]**. 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 351 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we pull another gem from the vault for our Throwback Mixtape series, rolling back to Ep 240, "Taking on Big Challenges w/Susie Moonan," recorded about a year ago on the eve of her One Water Race, one of the longest and toughest swimrun-style adventure races in the world. Coming off ÖTILLÖ this conversation felt like the right one to bring back, whether ÖTILLÖ is your someday goal or you are staring down your own big challenge right now.

Susie is a performance coach with Envol Coaching, a longtime swimrunner, and someone we have had on the show three times now. She recently finished ÖTILLÖ in fourth place in the mixed division and is currently prepping for an English Channel crossing, so she knows a thing or two about taking on huge goals. In this episode she walks us through what it was like getting the call to join Team Four for the One Water Race, the wave of doubt that followed saying yes, and how she worked through it using acceptance and by breaking the race and the preparation down into manageable pieces.

We dig into her crisis plan for the inevitable dark moments in a race like this, the emotions versus actions framework she leans on, and how she trains her mind for the kind of sleep deprivation that comes with racing for 50 plus hours straight. She also shares why leaning on thoughts of her family, something that used to give her energy, stopped working after 24 hours, and what she replaced it with instead. We talk through the team she raced with, Robert, Fredrik, and Marika Wagner, and how they built the kind of psychological safety that lets everyone speak up when they are struggling.

Whether you are training for your first swimrun or your tenth big challenge, Susie's approach to preparing your head as much as your body is worth coming back to.

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 **[email protected]**. 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 350 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

You just wrapped your A-race for the season. Maybe it was ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Championship, maybe it was your local A-race, and now you are standing there wondering what to do with yourself. We get this question a lot, and after our own trip to the World Champs, we figured it was time to lay out exactly what we do once the race is over.

This is another edition of our ad hoc Swimrun 201 series, where we get into the more advanced corners of the sport. Consider it an elective. It is not going to make or break your training, but it will help you close the loop on your season the right way.

We cover our top five tips for the post-race window. First, the 48-hour rule: give yourself a set window, anywhere from 24 to 72 hours, to celebrate a great race or process a rough one before you move on. Second, show real gratitude to the people who made your race possible, your coach, your partner, your family, your circle. Third, give yourself an honest assessment of how the race actually went across swimming, running, transitions, nutrition, and gear, without judgment and without self-deprecation. Fourth, turn that assessment into a short list of things to work on rather than trying to fix everything at once, and know which fixes are quick wins and which are long-term projects. Fifth, sign up for your next race, once your 48 hours are up.

We also talk about our race at the World Champs, why building swim confidence changes how big water days feel, and what is on deck for us next with Swimrun Cape Cod, ÖTILLÖ Colorado, and ÖTILLÖ Austin.

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 **[email protected]**. 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 349 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

The 20th edition of ÖTILLÖ, the Swimrun World Championship, is in the books, and this one lives up to every bit of hype. A headwind held on for the entire day, conditions that longtime competitors and former world champions called the hardest they had ever seen, similar in difficulty to the famous 2017 edition but with the wind working against instead of with the field. We walk through the proper pig swim, a hip flexor lockup that left Chipper stuck in the water, our fueling missteps, a low point on the run through Ornö and the conversation that got us through it, and cramping that hit Chipper on the approach to Ornö.

Before the race, we visited our sponsor Precision Fuel & Hydration at their UK headquarters, toured their performance lab, and got new data on our own sweat rates before making our way to Stockholm for our annual fika and Sweden's first ever social swimrun, held to celebrate the race's 20th anniversary. We also share the wetsuit troubles that hit us right before the start.

We cross the finish line in 11 hours and 5 minutes, our third time completing this race, and share some of the biggest stories from the day, including a medical emergency on course and standout finishes from Hugo Tormento and Adriel Young and Team Wild Vermamas, the first all-American women's team to podium at the World Championship.

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

Welcome to episode 348 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

The final countdown. Zero months and only days away from the 20th edition of the ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Championship. This is the last stop in our countdown series before we head to Sweden. We check in with hows the body, hows the mind and the hay already in the barn, and we share how we have been leaning on old race reports and course breakdowns to settle the nerves.

Then we welcome back our friend Dominik Leu, ÖTILLÖ race director, for our annual race prediction show. Dominik gives us the full picture of the 20th anniversary weekend, starting with Saturday's Social Swimrun and fika in Stockholm, an open, no pressure loop built around the wildcard program that brought back so many past racers for this milestone year. He also breaks down what it took to bring a full live production to TV4 for the first time, with drone and runner coverage on the lead teams across all three categories and a free stream available worldwide.

From there we get into the good stuff, a full category by category breakdown of who is lining up for the women's, mixed, and men's races. Dominik walks through the new pairings, the returning champions, and the storylines worth watching once the gun goes off on Monday.

This episode is brought to you by Precision Fuel and Hydration, who we will be spending time with on site in Sweden. Head to their website for free education and athlete profiles to dial in your race day nutrition.

We are as ready as we are going to be. Time to go race a world championship.

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 [email protected]. Finally, you can support our efforts on Patreon...if you feel so inclined.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

Welcome to episode 347 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

We're throwing it back all the way to 2022 for our ninth installment of the Löw Tide Böyz Throwback Mixtape. This one comes from our second annual Partners Month, and re-listening to it gave us all the warm and fuzzies all over again.

Chrissy and Bill Lankford, known to the community as Team Mr and Mrs B, join us to talk about swimrun as both life partners and race partners. They found the sport through the Toadman World Series, a set of local races near their home in Cambridge, then worked their way through the Isle of Scilly and Rockman before deciding to take on the ÖTILLÖ World Championship, a huge jump in distance and duration from what they had raced before.

We get into how they trained with almost no access to real swimrun terrain, how they communicate and lean on each other when a race gets hard, the mantras that carry them through the tough stretches, and the hip flexor injury Bill raced through after a rough transition. We also talk gear, wetsuits, transitions, and their ongoing effort to bring more people into the sport.

Bill and Chrissy have since gone on to race multiple ÖTILLÖ World Championships, Rockman, and ÖTILLÖ Öland together. Real gems of humans, and a conversation worth revisiting.

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 [email protected]. Finally, you can support our efforts on Patreon...if you feel so inclined.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!

Welcome to episode 346 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we welcome Jen Schnell, a Bay Area swimrunner and designer who came into the sport from eight years of competitive triathlon. Jen first heard about swimrun on the Rich Roll Podcast, carved out space to try it, and got hooked right away with a solo race at Folsom. From there she raced Whistler solo, found her first partner in Kayla Kobelin at Austin, and this year has raced her way into the Ötillö Elite Program through the wild card process, competing at Orcas Island, Engadin, and Casco Bay with a different partner at every start.

We talk through how her coach restructured her training to add paddle strength and swim volume while pulling work out of her bike sessions, the mechanics of tethering and the swim slingshot move, and what she has learned about compatibility and shared goals from racing with a new partner each time out. Jen also shares what surprised her about the vibe at Engadin compared to racing in the States, including the staggered women's start and just how established the sport feels in Europe.

Jen is sitting out Ötillö this year to focus on the Elite Series final in Cannes, with her sights already set on Worlds in 2027. We also catch up on our own final prep before Sweden, our fika meetup plans, and the limited edition stickers we will have on hand.

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 [email protected]. Finally, you can support our efforts on Patreon...if you feel so inclined.

Thanks for listening and see you out there!