Listener Questions and Swimrun Mailbag 2

The mailbag is back. Your questions show up in our DMs, our inbox, and at the finish line of races, and we keep seeing the same ones pop up. So we pulled the big ones together for the latest installment of our Swimrun 101 series.

We answer these as swimrunners with 30-plus races since 2018. Our take: start where we recommend, then make your own adjustments as you figure out what works for you. There are plenty of ways to do this sport, and this is a solid starting point.

We cover which Garmin metrics actually matter on race day and in daily training, why we skip the swimrun activity mode and log races as a run with the lap button (your Strava followers will thank you), and how we use HRV and sleep data as weekly trends instead of daily verdicts. Friend of the show Mario Fraioli weighs in by proxy with his take on stride oscillation: can you hold pace when it matters? From there we get into updated shoe recommendations, the Kebab League crew racing in slippery marathon super shoes, the bucket test, why we never drill holes in our shoes, socks from CEP and Swiftwick, and the blister myth. Then the pull buoy question (yes, you need one), super intern Dave's question about the mental game of racing solo versus as a team, and how Chip uses Gorilla Tape and a silver Sharpie for paddle hieroglyphics.

We wrap with the races we're fired up about: Swimrun Lake James returning in 2027 and the new Bellingham Swimrun Festival from race director Brent Molsberry, which brings the first kids swimrun in the US, an eliminator race, and a dusk swimrun. Next up for us is ÖTILLÖ USA Austin, our seventh straight year at Pace Bend Park, and there's still time to register.

00:00 Intro
01:00 The mailbag is back and where our answers come from
03:20 Q1: Which training and racing metrics matter for swimrun
05:40 Skipping Garmin swimrun mode, the lap button, and Strava
07:20 Daily metrics: HRV, sleep, and training by perceived effort
12:15 Q2: Updated swimrun shoe recommendations and the bucket test
14:50 Drilling holes, socks, and busting the blister myth
16:40 Q3: Do you need a pull buoy?
18:50 Q4: Mental techniques for racing solo vs. as a team
22:15 Q5: Paddle hieroglyphics with tape and a silver Sharpie
24:40 Q6: Races we're excited about, Swimrun Lake James 2027
26:10 The new Bellingham Swimrun Festival
27:45 Wrap up and ÖTILLÖ USA Austin

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