Brian Johns, Head of Coaching Science at FORM Swim
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!
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Thanks for listening and see you out there! Chip and Chris