Welcome to episode forty-one of the Low Tide Boyz - A Swimrun Podcast!

This week we have Ben and Rhian Martin of Team Precision Hydration UK. You can probably guess where they are based out of by this point but what you might not know is that they were the number 1 ranked mixed team in the Ötillö World Series in 2017 and 2018. They’ve traveled all over Europe to race and they share their wealth of experience in this interview. Get your notepads ready for this pro-tip bonanza! More on the interview later in the show.  

Training Update

We’re back to our regularly scheduled programming…in terms of training. With Ödyssey Swimrun Austin around the corner, we are sharpening our knives/rusty machetes with a big Swimrun practice this weekend. Yeehaw!

Shout Outs

This week we’re shouting out our newest Patron on Patreon, Team Max Mockermann, AKA, G Flo, and Tobias. They have been friends of the show since our early days and we really appreciate all their feedback and insider product reviews that they’ve been sending our way. Much like us, they take Swimrun and Swimrun gear seriously but don’t take themselves seriously and we can’t wait to be able to race with them at some point. Thanks again for the support guys! 

Feats of Endurance Weekly Award

Our award this week goes out Sarah V. She did something that has been on our bucket list over the weekend that was pretty much a shoe-in for getting the award: a rim to rim to rim Grand Canyon run. Make sure to join our Strava Club to be part of the action. 

This Week in Swimrun

We have a fun report this week.

Keen As Mustard Events in the U.K. was at it again this past weekend with Box End Bedford Swimrun. It was looking chilly out here but hey, it could be way worse! At least that’s the look that people had when they crossed the finish line.

Swimrun Portugal hosted the 4th edition of Swimrun Madeira and it looked amazing. We checked in with Race Director Bruno Safara (and former guest of the podcast) after the race and he told us that he got his mind blown with how perfect the weather was. The water was 23 degrees Celsius (73 Fahrenheit)!! 

Gravity Race Lake Annecy looked like a dope event. (Fun fact: Lac d’Annecy is basically the next lake over from Lac du Bourget to the northeast where last week’s Swimrun Aix-les-Bains) The courses and the views looked great. The event had a 44k distance that looked particularly sporty. They also had over 550 participants which would have seemed huge in 2019 but in 2020 it’s just bonkers!  

Finally, ÖTILLÖ Cannes is happening this weekend. After the Utö bummer fest a few weeks back, it will be great to see Ötillö back to hosting a Swimrun! Check out last year’s hype video, The Force of Nature, to see what it’s all about. (The video was produced by our former guest of the show, Rasmus Lodenius) 

We’re sure that we may have missed some events. Send us an email at lowtideboyz@gmail.com and tip us off if there’s a race that you are doing and we’ll do our best to include it.

LTBz Updates

Ödyssey Swimrun Austin is closing in fast! Join us in Texas, if it’s safe for you to do so, and use the code LOWTIDEBOYZ and save 25% on your entry!

Our friends at Precision Hydration have turned on our discount code again so make sure that you use the code LOWTIDEBOYZ to save 15% off your order. We recently re-upped on our supply and are looking forward to testing out our new (and much improved) hydration strategy at Swimrun Austin in a few weeks. Precision Hydration is the official hydration partner of Ödyssey so we won’t be able to use hydration issues as an excuse for our “race performance.”

Finally, head over to our website to pick up some cool Löw Tide Böyz gear and show your Low Tide Pride. 

Interview

Now for this week’s interview with Team Precision Hydration UK. Ben and Rhian Martin are the second husband and wife Swimrun team that we’ve had on the show. They took up the sport in 2015. They quickly became the fastest team within the UK in the early years and became the number 1 ranked mixed team in the Ötillö World Series in 2017 and 2018. They’ve raced many of the Ötillö and Breca Swimrun races including Isle of Scilly, Germany, Croatia, Malta, Wales, and qualified for the Ötillö World Championships 4 times.
 

We had a great conversation that covered everything from training and racing while coordinating schedules as they were growing their family, to great pro-tips for Swimrunners coming into the sport. 

There were so many pro-tips that we just thought we’d list them here:

Advanced Swimrun Tips

• Plan out your nutrition and your hydration strategy in detail for the event that you’re racing and estimate how much gels and salt to take on. 

• Know what’s available at the energy stations of your race (and where they are located on the course) and plan accordingly from there.

• Write down your nutrition plan for when you plan to take on gels and salt and have it with you on race day.

• If you’re carrying both caffeinated and non-caffeinated gels, have one partner carry the caffeinated ones and the other partner carry the non-caffeinated gels so that there’s no time wasted trying to read the label to make sure you’re not getting wired at the wrong stage of the race.

• Plan ahead of time where you think that you’ll be cabbing down during a race. For example, if you know that you’ll be cabbing down if a run is longer the few miles, make that part of your race plan so that you and your partner can be in sync during the transition.

• Unexpected things are likely to happen during a race so keep your wits about you and solve problems as they arise. Know what exists

• Communication is key.

• Practice your transition routine for going in and out of the water and have a clear understanding of which team member is doing what during the transition. This can save teams a lot of time so have a strategy for transitions laid out.

• The more you know about the currents of the race course the more it can be really helpful in saving a lot of time during a race.

As mentioned at the start, a veritable bonanza of pro-tips for Swimrunners! 

Rhian recently started her own coaching business and is working with Triathletes and Swimrunners so check that out at www.rhianmartinfitness.com if you’re looking for coaching. If you have any Swimrun questions for Ben and Rhian you can send them a DM on Instagram.

That’s it for this week’s show. If you are enjoying the Löw Tide Böyz, please be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify and Google Podcast. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram and on Twitter. Email us at lowtideboyz@gmail.com with any feedback, suggestions, and/or meme suggestions. Finally, you can also support us on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.