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

Welcome to episode 331 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

Four months out from the 20th anniversary of Ötillö, the Swimrun World Championship, and we are leaving no stone unturned. The physical training is building nicely. Chris just finished the London Marathon in 3:37 and downing 90 grams of carbs per hour, and Chipper has been stacking consistent weeks. Orcas Swimrun is at the end of the month. The build is very much on.

This episode is about training the thing most people ignore until it is too late — the mind. We brought back Dr. Erin Ayala, sports psychologist and host of the Feisty Women's Performance Podcast, who joined us last year right after Ötillö to help us process the other side of the mountain. This time we asked her to come back four months out and answer the harder question — how do you actually prepare mentally for a race like this before you get there?

Here is what we covered. If there is one thing you take from this episode, Dr. Erin says it is mindfulness and meditation — and she has the numbers to back it up. The effect size for consistent mindfulness practice on sports performance is 1.35 standard deviations, which puts it well above most physical interventions. Three times a week, five to ten minutes at a time, is enough to start. Her top free recommendation is the Healthy Minds app out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which removes all decision fatigue and walks you through a structured user journey.

On visualization — the number one mistake people make is visualizing success. What actually works is visualizing reality. The anxiety at the start line, the chaos of a mass start swim, the moment three quarters through a long run when you want to walk. You plan for those moments, visualize your response to them, and on race day it is easier to execute because you have already been there. For Ötillö specifically, that means the jellyfish at the first swim, the cold water on your face, the sighting into the sun, the sharp rocks coming out of the water. Make it vivid and make it real.

On team psychology — communication is everything. Dr. Erin walks through the pre-race conversations every swimrun team should have, including what you each need on race morning, transition quirks, how you want to be supported when things get hard, and what your partner's body language looks like when they are struggling. The hive mind Chip and Chris describe at their best races is a skill you build, not something that just happens.

On navigating the noise — the athletes and coaches worth following are the ones who say it depends, who are willing to be wrong, and who are not selling you a system. Major in the boring. Consistency with hydration, nutrition, sleep, and strength training is 95 percent of the work. Everything else is optional.

Follow Dr. Erin at @scattisportspsychology on Instagram and check out the Feisty Women's Performance Podcast.

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 330 of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast.

A few weeks ago we did our in memoriam for Max Andersson. This week we are going back to the vault to share our first solo conversation with him, originally recorded on June 30th, 2022 — just a few months before he and Hugo Torment would go on to win every single ÖTILLÖ World Series race that year, set a course record of 7 hours and 1 minute at the World Championship, and become the first team ever to run the table in a single season.

This conversation is from Episode 130. Max talks about how he first got into swimrun in 2017 on a dare with a friend, at a time when he had never swum a proper freestyle stroke in his life. He talks about the process of going from complete beginner to world class athlete through consistency, coaching from Ko Lundin, and guidance from Oscar Olson. He shares what it was like to partner with Hugo, what draws him to the sport beyond the results, and how he sees swimrun continuing to grow.

What comes through in every minute of this is exactly what so many people have shared since we lost him in April. He was warm, generous, funny, and genuinely in love with this sport and the people in it. Competitive as anyone, but always in it for the right reasons.

We are grateful we got to know him. We hope this gives anyone who never got the chance a sense of who he was.

In memory of Max Andersson. Gone too soon. Our thoughts remain with his family and the entire swimrun community.

That's it for this week's show. If you have questions or want to reach us, send us a dm or an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and on YouTube, and check out our website for swimrun resources including gear guides, tips, how-to videos and so much more.

Chip and Chris