Cause I felt like, you know, cause you’re watching yourself as you do it and you’re imagining yourself doing it. And when I kind of do the drills, I kind of picture the person in the video trying to do them and trying to like mimic like those different art movements and stuff. And so it, I think it definitely, definitely made a huge difference. But I remember like, you know, you want to like, I was progressed, you know, digressing. And so I was like, I remember being like just like around 136 for 100 yards. When I first started that five day catch challenge and by the end, like, and I gauged myself off of doing that four by a hundred meters, I think you had with like 30 seconds rest. And so my average when I first started was like 136. And when I finished, I was down to like 125 at the end. But and I did it on five consecutive days because I was like, you know, that’s what it’s set up for. It’s set up for a five day challenge.

So I did it in five consecutive days. And I saw like, welcome to the effortless swimming podcast to show that helps swimmers and triathletes love the water, become a better swimmer and live a better life. Here’s your host, Brenton Ford.

Welcome to the effortless swimming podcast. This is episode number two hundred and three. And my guest today is Chris Namoli. Chris, welcome to the podcast. Oh, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. I wanted to get you on the podcast together the last couple of months and seeing some incredible improvements on your end. So I wanted to get your take on what what’s made the difference for you. Because I think when people have made those improvements and they share what’s made a difference for my fine, there’s a lot of takeaways for for the listeners of the podcast. So I want to get you on for that and to chat about some of the successes that you’ve had. So what’s your your background with swimming? So you’re a triathlete, but what’s your background with swimming? When did you start 2018? I have never I’ve never done competitive swimming or done any kind of like real swimming. I just watch people do it. And so I was able to kind of just do it to survive out in the water.

I do some surfing and stuff. And so I am able to swim just enough to be able to survive out in the water and get myself back in the shore. But as far as being a competitive swimmer and doing it for full for fall for the for full lengths and long lengths of time, I just I’ve never done it until 2018. And you just picked that because it’s a necessary enabling triathlon that’s that. Yeah, yeah. So I was yeah, I was coming off a foot injury and running. I was having a set of in the foot issue. And so I wasn’t seeing the the drop in weight that I was hoping to see in my training after six weeks. And so I was like, all right, you know, instead of pushing being over 40 and being close to 40, I was like, I didn’t want to be able to like start hammering miles and like really press the envelope. So I was like, all right, I’m not going to be racing for a while anyway. While I do some triathlons, it’ll give me a chance to do some cross training.

And then that I can I can add that as cardio to be that I’ll be able to see the results that I’m looking for. And I don’t have to push the running side of it and increased mileage too fastly. I could still be patient because I was coming off a good break where I missed like two to three months of running. And so I was just trying to do like a slow build up backup. And so that’s how I got into the triathlons. And I knew and eventually the future would be that way because I don’t want to continue to be like, you know, I eventually figure I’ll break down eventually running wise and like I won’t be able to train, you know, the 70, 80 miles a week that I normally would like to run. So, you know, triathlons, I figure would be able to be in the future anyway. So it was a good time to kind of start. And once I started, I had like a really good fall season in 2018. And then I did it again in 2019 and had a better fall.

So it was just like it just became a no brainer to just do it in the summer because it’s just fun to kind of like focus on something different. Yeah. And so your background’s running.

Yeah, yeah. I’ve always been a runners.

And because I mean, just looking at your half Ironman runtime, was it was it a one an hour, 15 hours, 16? Yeah, I was 75, 12 for the half Ironman. That’s quick. That’s very quick.

And and so with your swimming, when you started swimming for triathlon, what was your experience like and what sort of like training plan where you’re following when you first began to just rock up at the pool and cut a few laps or do you have exactly what it was? It was so my so the first triathlon that I was doing was going to be obviously a sprint that had a quarter mile swim. So my goal was, all right, I need to be able to swim at least 400 meters. So literally the first. So I want to say I started training in May and the race was in July. So the first month and I was just making stuff up. So I was just like, all right, I just need to do four by I was literally I was doing four by 100s with 30 seconds rest. And that was my swim. I did that for about a month, two to three days a week. And then I got to the point where I was like starting extending it. So I was now I was doing four by 400. I would do four by 100 and then I would swim for 200.

And then I would swim for 300 and then swim for 400. And so that was like that ended up being the way that I trained for that first Ironman. I mean, not first Ironman, first triathlon was probably not a bad like not a bad way to go about it, just that steady build up of distance. And when you first got in the water was did you have much an idea of what you should be thinking about with your technique? Did you have any one helping you or any advice for friends? I didn’t have anybody helping me. I didn’t I didn’t use my GoPro at the time yet. I was just just I was just getting pointers from people and really just trying to survive and just trying to, you know, all right, I did this, I’m looking at this time. All right, this was good. This was good. I didn’t really start diving into this techniques and stuff until I got done that those first two races. So I had done two that first summer and it was one in July.

And then the next one was in August. And then I didn’t do another one again until the following year. And then it was sometime in December because I was like, oh, I did the same. I can keep swimming during training and stuff and use it as like instead of doubling, I can now like train doubling for running. I can now just swim instead of like running and that’ll just save me even more pounding on. So my plan was so I went and got a swim analysis done by a local guy who does like swim clinics and stuff around here. And that’s where I started first making some of the adjustments that I was kind of able to start making. And what pace were you for those first two triathlons? Can you remember roughly where you were? I was right at eight minutes for the quarter miles.

For the quarter mile. So it would be about four hundred meters. So about two minutes. Two minutes, yeah, per hundred meters, I think. Yeah, based on it. So and when I was doing the four hundreds in the pool, my goal was to break eight minutes. And I was like eight, oh, ten, the first couple. And then like got down to like eat something and then I was down. Then I finally right before the race, I think I just swam like 750 or something like that. Yeah, yeah, nice. And then just for context for those listening, your recent half-iron man was about 130. I’m trying to think of the pace. 134, 135 pace, 100 meters. 29, 32 for the 1.2 miles. So I think that was like right around 130, 132. Yeah, nice. So yeah, that’s a significant improvement even just sort of working with you and working to develop your stroke. We’ve seen some really good changes over that time. And maybe going back to when you had the first analysis by the local swim coach,

what were some of those things that he pointed out to you? He said I was swimming flat. So my hips were flat when I was swimming. I was late breathing because it was like when my arm was coming, like when I went to go do my recovery, I was coming up late to breathe. And I was coming too far back. And so it was like making my also hips kind of like sinking everything.

He mentioned that, you know, I had a high turnover and he said my aerobic engine, like the only reason I was able to swim the way that I was was because of my aerobic engine and had nothing to do with any kind of technique or anything. It looked like I was a drowning fish like just wallowing in the water.

But with the drills that he had given me to do it was like holding on to a kickboard vertically or horizontally and then kind of like just swimming with one arm, grabbing it and then going back with the other one and grabbing it and then like swimming that way. So to kind of like slow the stroke down and kind of like introduce that pause

and then doing where you have like the one arm on the kickboard and you’re just using kind of like one arm to swim to kind of like and that those were mainly more to help. I think one it was to help with my catch, but two was also to help with my breathing. So that was the other thing. My arm was dropping too far when I was going to breathe. So that’s what one of the things he was saying is that so I was late breathing because my arm was dropping down too far. And so that was forcing me to have to come all the way back up. I wasn’t breathing enough out of my nose

to do that. And then the hips thing was the one thing that he was like really. So it was like those drills and then just kicking on one side with things with my head, with my one arm out just to get a feel for that. So those are the first few drills that I had to do that he gave me when I first started. And can you remember how long it took you to make those changes or to feel a difference with them?

I did another analysis with him. I want to say right before the next triathlon season.

So I want to say like maybe May of either, like March or April of 2019 was when I did the next one. And so I was really working with him. So I worked with him again and he was like, you’ve made incredible improvements. Like, you know, my hips were still flat, he said. And so that was like, you know, and that leads into like kind of like where when I started first started working with you saying that I was over rotating my hips because I was like, all right, I really need to get these hips rotating. And so I think I kind of like over did everything. And then I started swimming really well. I started like I got, I was doing like, so I was back then I just changed up from doing workouts and I would just swim straight for like 2,400 meters or something like that. And then I got down to like, I was going under 30 minutes for 6, for 20, you know, for two, no, that doesn’t make sense for 1,600 meters. I was going under 30 minutes for 1,600 meters.

And I was like, oh, that’s, and that was like right before this race I did in August in Atlantic City that was in Olympic tri-distance roughly. And I, so usually I was a big, I would usually be like three minutes behind my friends that were in the races that were just as good as bikers but they weren’t as good as runners. So it would always like be a race to see who, if I was going to be able to catch them or not depending on how bad my swim was. And so I remember that day, I was only like a minute and 45 seconds behind them and it was a three quarter mile swim. So it was a 1,200 meter swim and I was like just under 20 minutes. I think I was 1930 or something like that. And so that was like, so I was seeing a lot of improvement there but I think like looking back on it, some of the things that I was still doing wrong is like my arm was still coming straight down.

I was still not breathing correctly. I don’t think, and I was still crossing over doing, still doing the crossover stuff. Yeah. Yeah, well, and what’s it like now? So when you look back at that, you’re throwing minutes behind down to a minute 45 and with your swim where it is now for that half Ironman around just over 130 pace. Did you feel like that was possible a year, two years ago? Did you just be able to make all the improvements? So that’s when, so I really started getting into swimming last year with the pandemic and everything because it just, everything was shut down

and the good thing where I’m at is that we have the Jersey Shore that’s just an hour away from me. So the fact that I was biking inside, I had really bad plantar fasciitis going on so I wasn’t running and I was just like, I need to get out of the house, I need to do something. So I asked my, so my friends that I’d swim with there, they have a place down on the Jersey shore just north of Atlantic city and there’s a place where they do open swims there. It’s just in like this little bay in this little area where they go to dock boats and it’s a no wake zone. So we just throw on our floating buoys and swim around 50 yards per loop. So I was just going down there and just doing, I’d swim two loops, take 30 seconds, swim in other two loops and then drive home. So I was doing that like four days a week. And then on Sundays, we found a group that goes in a different Jersey short town that where they just do these big long swims

on Sunday mornings for like at least an hour, hour and 20 minutes. And so we’d go down and swim with them. And it was kind of like, so it’s like you go in, it’s like in behind houses and stuff where they have like boats that dock them behind houses and all these rich million dollar houses and stuff. And so you just swim up and down these channels that they have made in there for these houses and stuff. And so it all led up to like this big race that they had, this big swim race that they have at the end of August, that’s a 2.4 mile swim. And so I ended up doing that at the end of last year. And that’s what kind of like convinced me that I could probably do some of these Ironman slight distance races. Yeah, nice. And then when you contacted me, you, so had you seen some of the videos that we’d posted on maybe Instagram or something? And that’s when you decided to get into it. That’s what happened. So last year, at the end of last year,

I started really getting into swimming and like I started videotaping myself and showing it to my friends. Like a couple guys got inducted into like, you know, there’s some, so they have like division three swimming here like for colleges. Like the one guy got inducted into the school’s hall of fame for his university hall of fame for swimming and stuff. And so these guys kind of looking at my swim and like telling me what I’m doing wrong what I’m doing right. And then somebody had shared a video that you had done. And so then I just became obsessed with like looking at the videos, trying to make those changes, doing this, that and the other thing. And so that’s when I really started like figuring out breathing from the diaphragm, you know, breathing more out of my nose from techniques that I had kind of like seeing from you and seeing from your videos and everything that were on there. So I had done like, like I said,

I was really, I had really seen big improvements last year. And then I started, so I was like, oh, I’m going to join master swim. Like I should be good enough now to join the master swim class. And so I joined the master swim to get ready. Fantastic as I was doing in April. And I started actually getting worse at this master swim class. And I started not, I started like when I got there, you know, with drafting and everything I was doing a hundred intervals with like 15 seconds rest in like 125, 130. And then all of a sudden I was swimming like 140 and not even be able to like recover, you know. So I was like, you know, so I just started getting into my head and like, and I need to do this, this and this. So I’m like, I just need to start working with people. I need to start from the get go. I need to start, you know, so I stopped. And then I talked to like one of this guy that’s like, he was a former division one swimmer

for Clemson who does like, who’s really good triathlete and everything. So I was talking to him and he’s like, oh, see, you know, at the pool that we’re at, where we swim at, you know, talk to Tyler, Tyler can help you. So I worked with Tyler and I got some changes from him that kind of like helped still kind of like in my head. And then it was when you did that five day catch challenge, I saw that being populated and market it. And I was like, you know what? I’m like for 10 bucks, what can I lose? Like, you know, worst, worst things I’ve, I’ve wasted 10 bucks more at a bar on a Friday night than I would like, you know, taking a swim, you know, taking a couple of like swim lessons and stuff like that. And it wasn’t until that that I was like really sold on like work one to work with you personally and like see how far I could go with this. And what do you think you got slower with the Masters Club?

I think it was just more because I was more focused on speed and not focused on technique. And I do think I’m better in the open water because then I’m not like, every, every time I swim in a pool, I don’t do flip turns. So it’s like, I’m just stopping, kicking off, floating. And then I have to get back into that rhythm again. When I’m in the open water, I can at least like, I’m more cognitive of what I’m doing over longer distances of time and distance. So I can actually like really hone in like, I keep doing this, keep doing this, keep doing this. But when I’m in a pool, I can’t do that. And I was so focused on trying to keep up with everybody and be faster, faster, faster that I think it just made my technique worse and worse and worse. It’s, I was just out of curiosity really because I’ve seen that with a couple of other swimmers that I’ve coached before. And I’ve have found that personally as well in some squads that when I do swim in a squad,

there might be a lot of people. And if people are leaving like two or three seconds apart and it’s just on the feet, like my technique definitely gets worse when I do that. I think fitness-wise I can, it often increases, fitness does, but then the technique element falls away a bit and just depends on what’s more important individual, I think at that time. But yeah, that’s interesting. I, yeah, I’ve seen that with a few others. So, and then, so when you first started, you sent your first video. Can you remember some of those things that you then took away and went to work on? So, yeah, I remember specifically, like at least in the five day catch challenge, the first thing was to entry into the water. So I wasn’t like going, I don’t know. I was thinking I was more slapping and I don’t think I was reaching out as far as I should have been. So I was kind of like going in and then reaching out and like, cause I was told was like,

you need extension, extension, extension. So I would put my hands in, but then I would like reach out as far as I could. And I think that’s, I was causing myself to over rotate. And then, so I knew, so once started working with the entry, I wasn’t, and I was listening to kind of like, how you describe them with the videos did. I found myself not rotating as much, but I could feel that when I put my hand in and it was time to like go to the next phase that I could feel like I was definitely setting up better for the catch. I think one of the things that I was really doing was that I still was coming straight down. And so with the catch part, cause we were doing the doggie paddle drill, I could feel that I was really getting a feel for the water. And so it kind of like sold me on drills. I was kind of like drills or drills, you know, what are they gonna do? Like even with like running drills, I kind of, I felt like I kind of just go through the motion

and it kind of just like kind of like woke me back up again, like, oh, I really need to do like, not only swim drills, but I can really, I should really get back to like really focusing on my running drills and my running technique and things like that. Cause it just kind of like woke me up to everything. Yeah. Yeah, that’s interesting. And even now, like you feel,

you can say the benefit of doing the drills and- Yeah, I started loving the drills there and the parts that I’ve really looked forward to because I could really, cause I felt like, you know, cause you’re watching yourself as you do it and you’re imagining yourself doing it. And when I kind of do the drills, I kind of picture the person in the video trying to do them and trying to like mimic like those different arm movements and stuff. And so it, I think it definitely, definitely made a huge difference. But I remember like, you know, you wanna, like I was progressing, you know, digressing. And so I was like, I remember being like just like around 136 for a hundred yards when I first started that five, they catch challenge. And by the end, like, and I gauged myself off of doing that four by a hundred meters, I think you had with like 30 seconds rest. And so my average when I first started was like 136. And when I finished, I was down to like 125

and I did it on five consecutive days because I was like, you know, that’s what it’s set up for. It’s set up for a five day challenge. So I did it in five consecutive days. And I saw like a little digression on like day three, but I think that was like more like fatigue issue just for swimming three days in a row. But by the end of the fifth, by the end of the fifth day, I was down to 125 and the four by a hundred. Wow, that’s awesome.

And what about how you, how you feel through the stroke when you’re swimming? Now, is there any difference there from a couple of months ago to now, just in how you feel you’ve got a hold of the water or you’re getting better at catching fish? Yeah, I feel a lot stronger. I definitely feel a lot stronger in the water. I definitely feel like I can increase pace, decrease pace. Like before, for me, it was just like, I only had one speed and so I started out and then I would just swim until I got to the finish line. And so there was obviously like a huge digression, you know, a huge drop off in pace. Cause I’d be, you know, I didn’t know how to pace myself or anything like that. So now I can actually like pace myself and be able to like focus in and I can, I can turn it on and turn things off. Like I can with like running and stuff like that, which I wasn’t able to do previously. And what do you think that’s down to?

What’s helped you develop those different keys?

One, the technique stuff, but two, just doing certain different drills. Like I know I’ve never done, like I never knew the explanation of like doing builds, build sets. Do this one at a smooth rate, do this one, these next two at an easier rate, slightly harder rate and then just go hard for the next one. So just learning different, learning how to pace myself through different techniques. Like, all right, you know, we’re breaking it down each hundred, you know, say we’re doing a hundred and say, all right, this 25 is easy, the next 50 is medium and then the last 25 is hard. And I think it kind of like really helped me kind of like figure out like what’s sustainable and what’s not sustainable when doing an actual swimming and stuff, yeah. Yeah, that’s a good way to put it. I like that explanation because I’ve seen that with a lot of others who have just included some of that variable pace training in their workouts because if everything’s just done

at the same pace, it’s great for developing your ability to swim at that pace, but then it just doesn’t give you any options. And I think when you’ve got the confidence and the ability to gauge how much effort you can put in for the return on your speed, you then have confidence going into a race and a much better sense of the heart rate and the effort that you can sustain for the race distance. And yeah, it’s great to see that. Did you feel that, let’s say in the half-iron man the other week, did you notice that when you were racing that you had a good… Yeah, so I actually had like, that was like, I don’t know, I forget if I had like ran this by you or not, but I had felt like when I did age group nationals and at the beginning of August, I felt like I didn’t have as good as a swim that I could have had, but it was still a huge improvement on what I have done previously. I had swam 24 flat for 1500 meters,

which I think is like 136 or something. I forget what exactly it is, but…

But so, I was like, all right, so then I, so gauging off of that, I was expecting like a 32 at main 7.3, what I did there.

Going into main, I was like, all right. You know, I was like, it’s, I had kind of like done the swim and I figured out kind of like where the bill, I was like, all right, you know, the first bill is roughly 600 yards and then you got to swim, you know, I’m not, you know, then you’re like a thousandth this way and then like another 600 back in. I was like, so my goal, so my plan was, all right, you know, go hard to that first billy because I’m like, all right, I’m not gonna die. So just go hard to that first billy, hit the left. And then once I get to the left and smooth out the stroke, make sure that I’m really getting like good pulls but don’t really worry about like, you know, fast turnover, just make sure you’re getting strong pulls. And then when I made the left to go back in and it was like, all right, you know, now let’s finish this off and then try to like pick it back up again and like close out the race.

So I was definitely super shocked when I like, so I had my watch set to go off every 500 yards and every 10 minutes. So I had not heard that that third beep go off yet for the minutes. And so I was like, I can’t believe this. I was like, I’m gonna be under 30 minutes. I’m gonna be, so I crossed that line and I saw it was under 30 minutes. I was like, this is game on, this is game on. I was like, I’m done the hardest part now. Now we’re into my wheelhouse. Like, let’s go.

That’s awesome. I was stoked when I read your message about the swim. I was like, it’s so good to see those sorts of things after the work you’ve put in and stuff. So yeah, love seeing that. And then as you know, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. It doesn’t mean that every race from here on is gonna be, gonna be amazing.

Especially when it’s not, it’s gonna be legal.

So we, and then you had Iron Man on the weekend and they didn’t quite go to plan, but everything’s a learning experience. So do you wanna talk a bit about that Iron Man swim and then what happened there? Yeah, just I had gone in thinking that, all right, I can swim. I had done a 3,200 meter time trial in the pool where I was right around, which would have put me at like 66 minutes. So I was like, okay. I was like, if I put on a swim, a skim suit and I was like, the lake, everybody talks about how flat the lake is there because it’s a man-made lake. So there’s no current, there’s no nothing. It’s just like, it’s just water that they filled in there. So I was expecting to kind of go in that 65 to 66 range. And so when I got smacked in the face and my goggles and cap come flying off and so immediately the heart rate goes up because I’m like, all right, you know, I’m like, I should be, you know, in my mind, I’m like, I have a shot at a kind of spot

and there’s only two there. So I’m like, all right, you know, I’m like, now I know, now I’m like really nervous and like my heart, it shoots up because now I’m panicking because I don’t like, I gotta look for where my goggles are, I’m pausing. People are now like, you know, swimming into me because I’m just standing still. So if I get my goggles on and so I have, I’ve had troubles keeping swim caps on. So I always put my goggles underneath.

So that the, so if the swim cap slips off then it can just like go off and I don’t have to worry about like, because I’ve been in a race where I had my goggles over the top of it. And now I just have like this thing being held on by my goggles and my creating drag and stuff. So, so when my goggles came off it flipped my cap off too. And I didn’t know if I really needed it or not with this being my first Ironman. So yeah, I got those. And then it was windy that day. So I definitely like didn’t expect as much chop that was on there, but there was a lot of chop and I was kind of just taking on water and it wasn’t, it was not wetsuit legal. So I was in a skim suit, which for us swimming deficit people that puts me in a little disadvantage to a lot of other people.

But yeah, so it was a learning experience. So, but yeah, it was a lot more violent than I expected than I experienced at other races and definitely a lot more, a lot harder than I had imagined to it to be. But I was like, right around, I was just under 75 minutes for that. So about 10 minutes off when I thought I was gonna swim. I was like, I remember coming, I was like, oh man, I was like, I’m so embarrassed to tell Brian what I did in the swim, he’s gonna swim. I was like, I’m like, we got the podcast. I was like, I’m gonna embarrass myself instead of that.

So it’s all good. I think, I think, you know, people, everyone goes through it. Everyone has a bad race here and there. And especially being your first Iron Man, you know, when I went into my first Iron Man, I thought there’s no way I’m gonna mail every single section of this. And I’m just gonna have to wait until afterwards to see what are those learnings that I can take from it. And something’s bound to go wrong. And inevitably it did because I had no experience to really draw on apart from friends and a few coaches that I know. But yeah, that’s all part of it. And especially those choppy waters and choppy conditions without a wetsuit on, being beat up as you’re trying to put your goggles on, like it’s everything that you can then take into the next race. If you experience something similar, you’ve got that experience of drawing. You can know that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, do I have a better swim next time?

But yeah, that’s, I thought when I hadn’t heard from you on Monday, I thought, yeah, I reckon he hasn’t probably had his best swim.

I was like, ah, I’ll just save it. I was like, I’m so embarrassed. I was like, I’ll just save it for the party. Yeah, yeah. I didn’t get to follow in myself for the rest of the race. So I just went and got like really drunk on Sunday watching the American football games.

Well, you got to reward yourself part of such a massive event like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s what, and that’s what I kind of like, I kind of see myself for those, for those big, those big races. Cause I’m like, all right, you know, you’re going to feel like crap the next day anyway. So you might as well give yourself an excuse on why you feel like crap. Yeah, that’s right. I remember sitting down after my man went out for dinner with his family that came along and I was sitting there, was eating my meal for 15 minutes and then I just started sweating profusely. I couldn’t stop myself from sweating. I don’t know what happened, but my body just didn’t know what was going on. And I was a little bit lightheaded. I’m just like, oh, I’ve got to, I’ve got to go, go back to the apartment and just, just relax. And yeah, I was too tired, too exhausted to actually stay up past about eight o’clock, but I couldn’t sleep either.

It was a problem. So that’s what happened with me. Well, I got, we finished, I met my fiance, we got some, I got a burrito at the after thing and we just walked right back to the apartment and she had a glass of wine and then I passed out in the bed and we were just out. And I think I woke up at like four o’clock in the morning and I’m like, all right. I’m like, I need to figure out how I got to get my bike. And then I said, I go on the athlete’s guide thing and it’s like your bike was supposed to be picked up at one a.m. And I’m like, crap. I was like, I’m like, I gotta go get, so I’m like getting dressed and I’m like walking over to probably help me for the rest of the day because it kind of like loosened me up, got rid of some of that junk and stuff. So I was able to kind of like get fluid. So I was able to pick, you know, luckily the people in Ironman were just awesome and they just, they packed all my stuff back into the bags that we had there

and my bike was with a bunch of other bikes that were on a rack. And so I was easily just able to grab it, bring it right back to the place. Went back to sleep for a little bit and then I dropped it off for the transport thing that I had. And then I was off, I was off, but then that next day, yeah, that Sunday I was able to go and like actually get some food in me and actually go and have like some celebratory alcoholic beverages. Yeah, nice. And well, going back to the cap thing actually, are you just wearing the silicone cap? Whatever they give me, yeah, yeah. So my, yeah, I’ve always had a problem where I was just like, I don’t know, I have like a pretty oily head. Like I just produce a bunch of oil. So if I do a fresh shave like near the start of the race, then there’s nothing to kind of like grab it and that oil just kind of like sometimes like slips right off of it. So I just have to remind myself not to like shave my head the day before.

Give you some friction. It’s the other thing you can do there is if you get a silicone cap, put that. So I normally go goggles and then a silicone cap and then the race cap. And it’s not perfect, but it’s better than just a silicone cap. So they’ve got, they might be called like dome silicone caps. Like there’s a few different cuts that you can get and they sort of dome ones are pretty tight, but they stay on, stay on well. So that’s another option. If you, if you have trouble. Yeah, my net, what I was gonna look at too, this off season was like trying to look into like kids sizes because I just had this small peanut head too. And I think that like, when I put it on and I try to like get it as tight as I can, like the eyes are like down here. And it’s like down. Yeah, really. So it tends to be like a little big for my head. So I ended up kind of like just rolling it up. Yeah, gotcha. Although I reckon those, one of those dome silicone caps would be,

would be good. Like if you’re probably on, I don’t know, one of the swimming competition, like maybe swim out later or something, they’d probably have like a plain black one or something like that. That’d be worth trying because I’ve had my issues with caps coming in the past. I remember that I did a race and I think it was like a small local race and I think I won it, but they were considering disqualifying me because my cap came off. I was like, there’s only so much you can do to keep one of those crappy caps on your head. I like getting some of the races, some of the races give out orange caps and I’m like, I’m not even wearing it. It’s the same color as my head. Yeah. Like bald as orange.

And looking forwards, what do you feel like the next stage of your improvement can come from in the swim? What do you feel like is possible for you over the next six to five months? So definitely still working on like that catch phase, but I think also, I think there’s a lot that I can do with, obviously still technique, but I think there’s a lot that can be done with like my kick because I still don’t know what I’m kind of like doing there. So I try to like, so the whole time I’m just doing like a slow fluttering kick and so I don’t know if that’s really proper or not proper. Like I look at like some videos and I think I feel like watching some people, like their leg feet like never come below their hips, but I watch myself and my feet are like coming below my hips. So I feel like I was watching a video that you did of like Sam Long and you mentioned that his foot was probably causing some of his drag that was in his swim

and like where he can improve and stuff like that where he kind of called you out asking you if you could like fix his swim or if you can analyze his swim and you pointed out how his foot was kind of like probably causing some drag because it was like hanging down a little too much. So it turned out to be. I kind of noticed that with me and then I think just getting more and more like distance under my belt and just like doing that type of stuff. I think I felt like after the Ironman I was like, okay, I’m like, hindsight thing is like, I definitely need to be doing more just getting in an open body of water and just like swimming for long periods of time and just like doing that so that you’re just used to this swimming for, cause you could do all the long workouts that you can but there’s like breaks in between and stuff like that and nothing can really like simulate just going out for like a long period of time and just swimming.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. And I guess just a technical question on how you film yourself. The question I get asked people is how do I take footage of myself and you do this pretty easily by the look of it and the footage you send through is great for sending to me. So how do you go about recording yourself? So I have an iPad, I have a GoPro that has a tripod with bending legs and stuff. So I hook it onto the side of the wall that like I have that I swim flowing into it. So that takes my front on part. When I do the above shots, I put it on top of the starter blocks. So that’s how I get the above shot. And then I try to go at a time where I know that there’s gonna be, that it’s kind of gonna be kind of empty. And then if you do the side, so then I do the tripod, colleagues, I put that on the lane separator but I go one lane over. So I don’t put it on the side that I’m on. I put it on the one lane over side. And then that kind of gets like,

at least two to three strokes inside like one frame. So you can kind of see almost the same, the full thing happening within like two strokes instead of just like having to pause like each section and seeing it come through. Like if you put it on the lane separator, that’s on your lane. Yeah, it’s too close isn’t it? If you’re on that, on your own lane. And then after that you upload, you download it through the iPad, who’s saying? So yeah, so I take it, I put it on my, I take the disk out. So I don’t, I started trying to use like, trying to upload it to the iPad and like my iPhone and then putting it on. But you tend to like, it’s the files are just so huge that I ended up just getting a mini USB port and then just putting it in that mini USB port and then just uploading it to my computer. And then the computer puts it right onto YouTube and it’s just that simple. Yeah, cool. Yeah, it’s just one of those things

that people ask all the time. So it’s good to hear how you do it because, and that’s how I’ve, most of the swimmers who get their own footage, that’s how most of them tend to do it with a GoPro or underwater action cam with those, with a bendy lead tripod. Yeah, and I mind the GoPro seven. So it’s not like you need the latest and greatest. Yeah. The seven I think was like one of the first ones that you don’t need the underwater cage if you want it or something like that. So I don’t use an underwater cage over top of it. I just use the actual, the camera just goes right into the holder and it just goes right under. So, you know, you get yourself a good, like use GoPro seven. And I’m sure it’s probably like, you know, 100 bucks, 150 bucks or something like that. Yeah, not too expensive at all. And just, and finally, so for the next season, because it’s obviously off season for you now, the next season you’ve got world champs over in Dubai.

In, is it November? Yeah, I think it’s somewhere around November 15th, the age group nationals for the Olympic distance, for standard distance. And then World 70.3 at the end of October, October 28th, 29th, I think. Fantastic. Well, thanks so much for being on the podcast and for sharing your journey over the last couple of years with your swimming. I’m sure that a lot of athletes listening will get a lot from it and be able to perhaps take some of that on board and maybe adjust what they’re doing. So thank you and yeah, appreciate it and looking forward to working with you towards nationals and worlds and see what we can get this swim down to. Yeah, yeah, I appreciate it. I thanks for having me on. I’ve really enjoyed the process and I’m really excited to see what happens over the next year. Awesome. Thanks very much, Chris. Yup, you’re welcome. Thanks for listening to the Effortless Swimming Podcast. If you’d like us to help you become

a faster, more efficient swimmer, go to www.effortlesswimming.com.