SwimRun Advice!

Do you need some SwimRun Advice?

Are you new to SwimRun? We know what it's like!  

As experienced marathon runners and triathletes we decided to try the new endurance sport of SwimRun a few years ago. Advice can be hard to find for beginners, so we've set up this website  to introduce people to this exciting world of swimming and running from island to island - running in your wetsuit and swimming in your running shoes!

So far, we have competed in 4 SwimRun events -  in Hvar, Croatia; Engadin in Switzerland; Bologna in Italy, and the full-distance Ötillö World Series race in the United Kingdom, 30 miles out into the Atlantic Ocean on the Isles of Scilly.

MARCH 2020 UPDATE 

As various countries around the world limit movement of people in an effort to limit the spread of infection,  many of us will have difficulty keeping fit and training. For example, here in Spain all swimming pools are closed, gyms are closed, and we are not allowed to leave the house to go running or cycling.

What can we do to stay fit? Have a look at our new page about the options available.

Don't forget, if you are reluctant to leave your home for whatever reason, you can do all your weekly shopping from the comfort of your home at Amazon - just click here to go to the Grocery department and choose your items from the list on the left of the screen!

SwimRun Advice

In the photo below we are on the left, with Ötillö race director Mats Skott on the right of the picture. This image was taken at the prize giving after completing the Sprint distance event at Engadin, Switzerland. But don't be too impressed - we hadn't won our group, but we DID come 2nd in the raffle for some SwimRun gear!

SwimRun Advice

At first,  we found ourselves wondering what equipment we needed, what to wear and where to find events for this new sport.  Choosing a suitable wetsuit is one of the biggest challenges - Mogsy even had to have a suit custom-made to her own measurements, to get a fit that would be comfortable for up to 8 hours of wear! You can read about our own wetsuits  here.

Wetsuit Reviews

We have carried out a review of the best dedicated SwimRun wetsuits to help newcomers see what's available. For our SwimRun Wetsuit Reviews page, click HERE.

BUT we've found that you don't ALWAYS have wear a wet suit. We took part in a great event in Italy, the Bologna SwimRun 2017, where it was warm enough in the Italian lakes to wear triathlon suits. It was a hot day, and we were grateful to escape from the wet suits for our 5 1/2 hour event!  Read all about our race here!

We have found that there is a small but significant risk of picking up SwimRun injuries during training and racing, especially in salt water events. Discover what might go wrong at our page on SwimRun Injuries HERE. And be sure to read all the way to the bottom to find out about the most dangerous risk!

SwimRun Advice

SwimRun World Rankings

Once you get into SwimRun, and become competitive, you may start to figure in the results of each race. If you take the sport seriously, and want to get the best results you can over a series, you may wonder how you can compare your overall results against other swimrunners.

There IS a way to see how you match up against the other regular competitors. It's called the TSR Global Ranking System.

If you compete in the "long distance" race at an event, you will score points in the TSR Global Ranking System.  You can check out your World SwimRun ranking at the TSR site HERE.

But now let's get back to the basics! You'll need to find out about all the issues involved in SwimRun before you can become competitive in races.

Look at the drop-down menu above to see the various areas we are covering, from

• how to start , including a special beginners guide,
  


•  events calendars,
  


• equipment reviews,

• race reviews,


• and our own personal journey.
  

Our most recent event was the long-distance Ötillö World Series race in the Isles of Scilly, United Kingdom, which took place on June 9th 2019.

We estimated that this would take us from 7 to 8 hours to complete, and so we incorporated a marathon into our training plan, to build up our endurance. The Marathon was in Milan, at the beginning of April. We finished at a comfortable pace, bearing in mind that we were treating this as another training session. Check out our Milan Marathon race report HERE.

We think that training for a full marathon or a half marathon is excellent endurance work before a long-distance SwimRun event, (say, over 30km). You can read about other marathons we have personally completed HERE.

SwimRun Advice

It's also good to look for dedicated swimming events or series, to focus on swimming for a short period. We entered the Barbados Open Water Festival in early November 2019, which involved 5 swims over 5 days. Read about the event - and our training - HERE.

We have a new page about Nutrition, Sport & Fitness. It looks at ways of boosting your training with top-quality dietary supplements, as used by professional triathletes Nicole and Lothar Leder. Read all about Nutrition Sport Fitness HERE.

The most important page on this site is probably Race Day Advice. It's full of information on pre-race preparation, and tips and tricks for during the event too. Some are borrowed from our marathon running experience; others are hard-earned gems from our SwimRun races in 4 very different environments. Click on the race day advice link to see what you can learn.

For our BIG race of 2019, in the Isles of Scilly, UK, we kept a training log. You can read about how we planned and carried out our training at SwimRun Training.

Of course, don't forget to read  'About Us'  to find out who's writing this site - anyone can put up a website, but it's good to know that the authors of this site are genuine SwimRunners!

This website - SwimRun Advice - is very active, and we are updating it continuously.

So do bookmark this page or add it to your RSS feed and come back soon!

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