Gemma Hollis

Welcome to episode seventy-nine of the Löw Tide Böyz - A Swimrun Podcast!This week’s show is all about swimming. We were super lucky to be able to chat with Gemma Hollis of PushGlideKick. She’s a swim stroke and mechanics expert and we pick her brain on all things swimming for Swimrun. Get your notepads out for this one.More on this interview later in the show.Training UpdateWe’re stuffing as much hay into the barn as we can the next few weeks during our last training block for Casco Bay. (Friendly reminder: use the code LOWTIDE15 to save 15% on your registration to any Ödyssey Swimrun 2021 event.) Long Swimruns, long pool sets, and long-ish runs are all on deck the next few weeks so that should be fun.  #LFGShoutoutsThis week we’re shouting out the Country of Switzerland. In the last few weeks, they have cracked the top ten (in terms of show downloads by country) and we’re super stoked on that. It’s also fitting since ÖTILLÖ Engadin is happening this weekend and it’s a race that is 100% on our bucket list.Feats of EnduranceThis week’s winner is Oskar Boberg who participated in the Slottsrundan Swimrun and raced the 29k long course over the weekend. We looked up that race after seeing his post on Strava and it didn’t look easy! Strong work Oskar!Need some inspiration in your training life? Then join the LTBz Strava Club and connect with fellow Swimrunners as they train and race all over the world.This Week in Swimrun (Powered by Raceid.com)Here’s all the Swimrun news that’s either fit to print or that we were able to glean from Instagram.As we mentioned above, the Slottsrundan Swimrun took place over the weekend and it looked like a dope event. The event takes place on the coast of Lake Mälaren and the course stretches along Rosersbergs, Steninge Castle, and Sigtuna. Fun factoid: Lake Mälaren has 594 reviews on Google with an average rating of 4.5 stars. Who knew that you could review a lake?It’s race week for Breca Swimrun’s Coniston event. This will be their first race in the UK in 20 months and we’re stoked for them to be back hosting events! Check out their hype video on Youtube to see why this race looks amazing!In ÖTILLÖ world, all eyes are on Switzerland this week with Engadin taking place this weekend. This was the first ÖTILLÖ race outside of Sweden and helped launch the international Swimrun movement. Want to know more about this event? Check out our Engadin Course Preview episode and learn why we are already trying to convince our wives that we need to go to Switzerland.In the bummer portion of the news, ÖTILLÖ 1000 Lakes has been cancelled for 2021. Registered participants should be getting info from ÖTILLÖ regarding their options. Germany has general elections on that weekend and the City of Rheinsberg informed ÖTILLÖ that they were unable to get enough volunteers to support the races. Registered participants will either receive a refund of 95% of the entry fee or they can move their registration to another ÖTILLÖ event. In other news, We Swimrun has a couple of events on deck that look pretty cool. First, on September 18 they are hosting the Tal Y Llyn Swimrun in Snowdonia National Park in Wales. This race has a cool format where Swimrunners will run on a loop course consisting of two swims and two runs and they have 6 hours to see how many laps they can complete. Less than a month later, We Swimrun is hosting the Dyfi Swimrun (pronounced Dovey) on October 2. Registration for both events is open now so if you’re in Wales or want to go to Wales, check these events out!That’s it for this week. Feel free to email us to tip us off to any events or Swimrun news that you’d like for us to share on the show.UpdatesIf you’re looking to show your Low Tide pride, head over to our website to get yourself some LTBz apparel and other stuff. We’ve also got something totally new in the store that we recently soft launched that we’re super stoked on but we’ll just leave it at that.Are you racing Casco Bay in August? If so, come join us at our inaugural LTBz post-race after party, co-hosted by Ödyssey Swimrun at Lone Pine Brewery. We’ll be there from 5:30ish until they close at 8pm. We’ll be sharing more details about that as we get closer to the race but mark it on your calendars!Our Conversation with Gemma HollisWe first heard about Gemma from Lars at Ödyssey Swimrun and figured since he went to her for swim analysis then we should definitely be chatting with her. She was great to chat with and her passion for swimming was definitely on display. We spoke with her about her journey to becoming a swim coach, her thoughts on teaching swimming to adults, her opinions on optimal stroke rates and form for swimming for Swimrun, and finally, the amazing pool in her backyard. This interview is action packed and Gemma was awesome. Enjoy!Make sure to check out the PushGlideKick website for more info on getting Gemma’s expert advice.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 review. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, and on YouTube. You can also follow our meme page on Instagram. Email us at [email protected] with any feedback and/or suggestions. Finally, you can support our efforts on Patreon…if you feel so inclined.Thank you for listening and see you out there!-  Chip and Chris