Breaking Records: Live Podcast with Daniel Wiffen, Ireland’s Swimming Sensation

Join us for an electrifying live podcast event featuring none other than Daniel Wiffen, the trailblazing Irish swimming phenomenon who recently shattered Grant Hackett’s longstanding 800 freestyle world record. In this exclusive session, we delve into the mind of a record-breaker, exploring Daniel’s journey, the challenges he overcame, and the dedication it took to etch his name into the annals of swimming history.

From his humble beginnings to his meteoric rise on the international stage, Daniel Wiffen has captured the hearts of swimming enthusiasts worldwide with his unparalleled talent and unwavering determination. Now, you have the chance to hear directly from the man himself as he shares insights, anecdotes, and invaluable wisdom gleaned from his remarkable career.

Whether you’re an avid swimming enthusiast, aspiring athlete, or simply curious about the inner workings of elite-level competition, this live podcast promises to inspire, educate, and entertain. Don’t miss your opportunity to witness history in the making as we sit down with Daniel Wiffen to unpack the secrets behind his record-breaking success.

Tune in live and be part of the conversation as we celebrate the extraordinary achievements of one of Ireland’s brightest sporting stars. Mark your calendars, set your reminders, and prepare to be inspired as we embark on this unforgettable journey with Daniel Wiffen.

[Laughter] Welcome to the swim smooth podcast Mr Daniel whiffin thank you very much how you doing mate yeah good how are you doing yeah not too bad not too bad how’s uh you just got back from from DOA obviously um how was the trip back did they fly you first

Class no I know actually I think it was F I think the plane was full but uh I think is actually tried but um no I just phone eom me sadly but uh no it was good came back and also raced our British University championships and then uh

Just fresh off the back of a week off as well so where did they Hur at the the weekend after where or yeah yeah where sorry yeah um in Sheffield oh okay yeah right pwn Forge right yeah yeah okay cool cool all right mate well um yeah W welcome to the uh to

The show so for anyone who’s missed me waxing lyrical about Dan swimming on our blog our Instagram and uh YouTube Today’s guest Dan wiffin broke Grant hackett’s longest standing 800 freestyle world record back in December with a crazy quick 7 minutes 20 seconds point4 six to Eclipse hackit 2008 world record of

72342 now coincidentally that previous record was set less than a week after Dan’s seventh birthday and during the Super Suit era as well which just demonstrates just how long it stood for Dan’s also as I mentioned just beforehand Dan’s also just back from the world championships in deart where he

Won the 800 and the 1500 double and is looking to do the same in Paris this summer I’d say this just about makes you the world’s best male distance freestyle swimmer at the moment mate and it’s it’s an absolute pleasure to have you on the show Dan um now that you’re back what

Does the training look like I would imagine you being absolutely under the pump with um media requests and those sort of things yeah so uh we actually got we did all the media stuff after so soon as I finished world champed uh obvious went and raced and then I got a week off

Where we Tred to get every single bit of media done so then we can just get sh out training but this week we’re starting off slowly doing like um 60k this week so not too big and we’re starting I think we started on 5K and we’re just going to finish the week off

With a couple 6ks and then on Sunday we head to Arizona uh at flag South where we’re going to be going uh for altitud Camp four weeks and we’re going to hit some big meters there do you know do you know what altitude that is Dan there two

Faes and 100 meters I think right okay yeah have you ever been higher than that at all or S NADA think 2,250 M that’s the highest I’ve yeah okay cool and how do are you quite a good responder to those sort of conditions and stuff

Or uh yeah I think um they were saying how uh they sorry I saw some of the comments my TR Partners in the uh but um the I saw sorry what I was saying was um yeah so we I think love BR do some we do

Some testing on pre and post alud and they told me that I have some of the like uh best responses from the altitude training they’ve ever seen so uh it works for me I guess which is great yeah yeah no absolutely absolutely I’ve never I’ve never done much of it myself when

We were at bath University they put in like a uh an altitude chamber where we had to do like a running on a treadmill in the morning but I I absolutely hated it it just felt really claustrophobic in there so um I can imagine what it’s like

There I’ve been to Boulder in Colorado but I think that’s only about 1,600 meters something like that um but but I even then I felt like I struggled a little bit with it but uh yeah there we go right okay well so firstly Dan um I’d

Love to know uh if you don’t mind sharing with us what it was like breaking hackets world record in December um you mentioned beforehand about the boosters and stuff and I love how you’re still so passionate about University sport in the UK I remember racing the 1998 booer 1500 short course

Final in a time that would have seen you lap me six times in that 25 met pool um funny story but I went out of 62 that day and died a death and it was my swim coach Dave lyes who told me about this amazing Australian swimmer called Grant

Hackit and uh and Dave said to me he said uh Nome that was absolutely rubbish you need to go and study hackit and his impeccable pacing strategy and this actually then fueled my love for longdistance swimming Believe it or Dan and uh and coaching as well um so it’s

Really great that I now sat here talking to you about about this all these years later on so tell us if you will what it was like breaking that 800 uh yeah so I mean it was obviously pretty amazing I had my sites on it after the year before so the year before

I went 7259 and I broke the European record in uh Dublin uh for our like National short course meter championships and then I knew the next time I swim it I would um break it it was just uh waiting basically the year

To do it but uh yeah so I mean it was at the European champ short call me to championships in Romania and uh we started off the week we we we this is the first time I ever did the 400 meter uh like like a international competition

Whatever and it sh meter so we won I became European champion on the first night in the for freestyle with a 3:35 low then e think was quite CL I actually should give a bit of backstory to this as well we actually raced two days we raced two days before in um

Where were we we were in the Netherlands and we it was a long course hit hit out because we wanted to get some long course in because it’s the Olympic season uh and uh we went in and I did a double 1500 so I did the 1500 Heats 500

Final I went 1455 and 1448 uh in the in those I did 800 Heats where I went 7:45 and that was a long course and then two and then I flew out from Netherlands to Romania uh two days later saw I’m a 400 freestyle short

Course when I went uh 3:35 then I think there was a day break and then I had a was there a day break it’s the next was it the next day I think it was the next day or a day off no it’s definitely the next day had the 800 Heats just casually

Made it back I don’t know what time I went and then sorry the 1500 Heats I and then I went SW 1509 to become European Champion for the second time in the 500 which I was okay with the time but I would have liked to have been a bit

Faster um I think I had I sight set on that world record as well but uh my pacing was a bit off and then I got to the 800 at the end of the um the a week uh we went at the world record obviously and uh it was pretty tough time of

Racing I think it was like over 10 days I did 4500s 3 800s and two 400s so I Al world record so I mean I was pretty up yeah that’s absolutely amazing that’s yeah um when when you said you were racing in uh in the Netherlands was

That um I saw one of your YouTube videos with yourself and and Nathan on your on your whiffin twins um YouTube channel which is excellent by the way everyone if you haven’t watched it and tuned into it Dan and Nathan absolutely riff off each other and I remember listening to

You guys talking about the 00 and and Nathan kept saying to you you know oh Dan your leg kick is it could have been so much better or your turn could have been and I was like hang on he just broke the world record like you know

Give him a little give him a little bit of slack sort of thing but but um you were also over in in einhoven was that was that in connection with the Netherlands race or was that a way way back Beyond there that was in September so this was in

End November December einhoven was to it’s they have a tank in there with a load of cameras in and they have sensors and it’s for technique basically but now this is uh we were um I forgotten the place where we were uh but it was at the

Top of the Netherlands and S B yeah okay okay now you mentioned just before we got on the on the chat here that um you feel like you’re your Technique has gone maybe a little bit backwards between the world Champs last year and the world Champs I can’t believe that seeing well

You swam just in DOA but but tell us a little bit about that and and was that why you were in in Hoven working on that uh so no we were going to I was always going to go to einhoven and we had the trip booked in for about six months

Before uh so even before I went to the world chance but really um so my technique has like obviously it’s going to change I think um maybe because I was probably still I’d done more events and stuff like that this world championship I had the 400 in and uh maybe I was a

Little bit tired towards theend the end of the meet but yeah I don’t know I felt like it looked a lot smoother in the last World Champ in this one but um certain areas the reason why I went faster in the fifth in of this one than

Last one was um I think to do with turns uh where we’ve improved a lot of time on I think I don’t know how much I’m knocked off but it’s a lot and it’s mainly to do with um the we we test five in five out on the race videos so um

It’s just my five and five out was quicker and I think it was all to do with attack and the walls more at this well champs yeah right right I know certainly after the uh after watching you smash that 1500 which we’ll get on

To with a little bit of a an analysis of that if you didn’t if people didn’t watch that it was just absolutely mind-blowing you wouldn’t buy nearly 25 meters over the 1500 and uh I remember going to the pool the next morning I did a I do a 10400 set every Monday morning

I’m a bit religious about doing that and I I set an absolute cracker of a set that day because I was just trying to mimic what you were doing in and out of the walls a little bit and uh you know trying with that two be leg kick which

You talked a lot about in in one of your YouTube videos there as well so um anyway before before we dive into a series of questions then like where we get really down down and dirty if you like with your swimming your preparations I know listeners are going

To love all of that and I just want to start off it feel wrong for me not to start off without apologizing for my very embarrassing mistake the other week Dan U you see I was so fueled up after having remixed yours and Nathan’s Instagram post with you talking about

Your two beat leg geick and how you found a stroke which works really well for you and that’s what we’re all about here at at swim smooth you know finding the right stroke for you um that I rush to put out an analysis of yours and Simona cadell’s wins in do obviously she

Won the 800 and 1500 double two um and then I’m mistakenly picked up Sven Schwartz’s um swim from he’s from Germany uh in the video clip who’s got almost the exact same TW beat leg kick as yourself but he’s on the opposite side of lane four now I I’ll give myself

A little bit of slack it was at 2: a.m. in the morning morning when I was actually producing that that video but uh I didn’t actually realize it until someone put up a comment on the YouTube video and I felt absolutely terrible initially I thought I can’t got it wrong

Can’t got it wrong um but then I realized I had so uh and as we had already started talking about doing this podcast together I then had to come to you with tail between my legs U and I just wanted to say thank you because you were very gracious you didn’t say who

The hell is this crazy idiot um so thanks for me and sorry about that and I’ve since added an an edit into the into the video Dan so um yeah I I don’t know if you want to add anything to that because you you said you’d saw it You’ seen it yourself

And um and you picked straight away I watched I actually watched the video I don’t know you put I watched it in between my 1500 heat and final I my mom sent it to me and uh well I knew instantly it wasn’t me uh who was in the

Video but uh but my because my parents didn’t know and I told them you know that’s not me actually the analysis of technique and and I just left at that I didn’t want to I didn’t really think it need to be publicly said but I did it

Really well that was very gracious of you Dan because like I I felt like an absolute idiot I have to say so uh I’ve been telling all my mates about it over coffee after a swimming session and they said oh he’s never going to come and

Have a podcast with you now I was like oh well anyway everyone makes mistakes right but just show just shows how similar or distance swimming is at the moment to be honest how everybody is doing that to big leg kick there absolutely and you know that that was

Really the point of the analysis right was to actually demonstrate the fact that um I think you said in your in your original video with uh with Nathan you talked about the idea that that’s the way that distance freestyle is going with a two beat kick and um and you know

And and not so much of a push push and drive off the off the wall which was quite different I was watching back um the actual video footage of Grant hackit in 2008 when he set that record and very different sort of style you know longer stroke much stronger six speeed leg kick

And obviously wearing one of the suits as well um you wouldn’t have got to experience any of that suit era at all would you when when when did you actually get I’ve worn one you’ve worn one I’ve worn one in train yeah uh yeah I mean well no I I

Never experienced definitely stopped in 2009 was it when they yeah 2009 yeah yeah no I wasn’t I wasn’t really swimming Capac until 2013 but um no yeah it was weird uh I mean it’s definitely more buoyant I I think it’s similar to Open Water sick that’s I damn it so yeah

And that’s probably a good point to ask you this question because I know everyone who’s listening into this would probably be dying to know you you do the 400 you do the 800 you do the 1500 a lot of the guys that you race against especially in the 1500 transfer across

Into the Open Water as well are we going to see you out there in the Open Water anytime soon do you reckon yeah in Paris Olympics I’ll be doing the 10K you will be doing the 10K that’s fantastic yeah oh wow so you doing you’re doing all four events

Uh maybe to be confirmed to be confirmed all right okay fair enough we’ll leave it at that wow wow okay cool cool and um where in the UK where or UK and Ireland where would you get your Open Water practice in or we do it mainly maybe on a

Training camp you know when you’re when you’re away or whatever oh I’m not going to do any uh uh I’m just going to go in that my Paris will be my first ever Open Water Swim and um I I mean I do the m i do the

Similar training to more Su as I continue I can tell you I back myself to be able to hold the same Pace as everybody it’ll just be if I can maintain concentration for two hours basically will be my uh struggle but no I I’m pretty I we sometimes stick Boys

In and the pool and lebra uh either end of the 50 meter and go around that on our long aerobic sessions where we do like 2,000 straight stuff like that or Andy loves to to give us like time swims on a Friday morning so we will do like

Like uh a set where we go like 30 minutes swim and then like 41150s I don’t know like mix of freeb and then a 25 minute swim and then uh so you just kick you on the C but it’s meant to be like aerobic but um me and like to race

It so um I my best is like I can hold 102s for a while or something like that so it’s totally mental yeah yeah 102 wow wow I think the um you know seeing you over there in Paris like before anybody sort of uh starts going how can he be

Doing this first ever open water swim in the Olympic in Olympic Games final for the 10K just before anyone gets on their high horse regarding that David Davies who we’ve had on this podcast as well the Welsh swimmer um actually did his second ever Open Water Swim at the

Beijing Olympics in 2008 and finished Silva he was leading for most of the race and you know a little bit of a tactical error potentially at the end there otherwise he would have taken the gold medal in Beijing and that was only his second ever Open Water Open Water

Race and I know a lot of the guys that I coach over here you know we love to swim in the open water but I know a lot of the elite Open Water swimmers mainly training the pool yeah yeah um I know well all my training group we have uh we got two

Olympic qualifiers in the 10K we got two Robinson Hector Paro Hector Paro obviously bronze medalist at the most recent at the Doha World Championships in the 10K but they train in the pool but they do on a Sunday they swim in a lake close to lra but I won’t be

Partaking in any of that the pool is the priority the pool is priority for me so the add on a bit of fun where within the program I haven’t looked closely enough at the program not realizing you’re doing the 10K where does the 10K fit within the within the program uh on the

Schedule basis well the pools obviously the first 10 days of the Olympics and then I think it’s four days after the pool finishes the 00 final it’s the 10K yeah yeah let’s let’s assume that everything goes as splendidly as it’s looking like it’s going at the moment um

Would you ever get to the point where maybe after the pool you just think okay look I’ve had had a great time here I maybe leave 10K for another time or are you definitely dialed in for that no I’m definitely doing it it’s not about

Anything to do with uh that I want to be successful in the 10K I mean I’d love to win it but I mean I’m not going in with my first time doing a 10K expected to win the Olympics uh but I’m going in I’m only doing it really because my training

Group is doing it I mean my training Partners uh Felix albeck is doing it obviously the two Open Water guys who are very qualified and then Lucas heno if he qualifies in the 800 then he’s going to do the 10K hopefully and then maybe my brother Nathan if he qualifies

At the Irish trials in May he’ll also do the 10K so we could have a good amount of us there and we just doing it is like a fun swim because um it’s going to be I don’t know maybe I should say but it could be Felix’s last Olympics on or a

Lot of people people on my groups and we all want a race together one last time so the 10 perf opportunity that would be epic yeah yeah yeah we’ one of the local guys kyl Lee has just qualified for the 10K here in from wa uh and he’s an

Absolute Beast so itd be great to see you go head-to-head with him he’s definitely hasn’t got your speed over the short stuff but he’s got quite a bit of experience in the uh in the open water and obviously one of the other Summers who was there in da who you know

I guess if you said you’re the king of distance freestyle there in DOA the queen would have been Simona cadella winning the 8500 double she’s got a little bit of experience in open water as well and apparently she’s actually since decided just to go back to the

Back to the pool did you have chance to speak with her much after the racing and stuff do you do you speak any Italian or did he yeah were you in any interviews together no I’ve never spoken to her um oh you haven’t no no Ah that’s a shame I

I was I had these pictures of you guys both being sort of heralded as distance freestyle swimmers of the of the world type thing king and queen but obviously not um so with respect to the uh the pool swims then the 48 and the 15 which would you say is actually your favorite

Distance and and why would that be uh so short course 800’s my favorite long course 500 my favorite the reason why it’s like different because uh short for 5 J makes me feel sick uh there way way to many turns and you got you’ve got to really whip the walls to be honest

When you’re in short course and yeah it just takes a lot out of you especially on the legs and then long C 1500 I feel like that’s the best I I get into a really good Rhythm and I just enjoy racing it to be honest yeah okay okay

Yeah yeah I mean again keep going back to that 1500 which we’re going to look at in a moment and um that was the thing that sort of stood out to me more than you I get quite geeky when it comes down to the the technique and stuff and uh and what

You’re actually doing underneath the water and all that but the the big thing that really stood out to me on that 15800 was just the fluidity and the Rhythm that you had there I think that was the the for me personally was the really inspiring thing and it was the

Thing that pushed me onto a great 10400 set the the next morning so thanks for that Dan it was really appreciated yeah cool all right so um now one of the things that I’ve really come to love about your approach Dan is your entry onto the pool deck I know you

And Nathan have talked about it on your you YouTube channel and we’ve seen the call home gesture you won the 800 and the watch check when he came on for the nearly breaking the 1500 world record um to me you’ve made distance freestyle fun to watch again um so thanks for that as

Well I think that a bit of that sass is actually really cool thing and do you work on it do you actually work on those moves going on to the pool deck with Nathan and or anything like that is it is it something you do at

Home uh no it’s nor like a night before thing uh it I like yeah I don’t actually tell anybody like before the so before the 800 I told everybody I was going to do the phone and then um and then after the uh for the 00 I just told everybody

I was going to do Summit but they didn’t know so everybody was really like wanted to watch what I was going to do but now n Nathan thought of all those ones for World Champs and uh I think before I broke the world record we did like

Shooting guns but I didn’t really think that was appropriate to do again so we did um we so yeah for I guess the next competition where we’ll do as probably Olympics but Nathan told me I’ve got to think of them all myself now because I’ve been stealing these ideas

So but who’s the oldest between you and Nathan then obviously uh I am by three years uh three months uh three minutes sorry three minutes three minutes minutes yeah right okay yeah three months would be an interesting one for sure if you you poor mom but yeah yeah

Wow okay okay so so um yeah no I just thought it’s it’s really cool because I mean everyone when you watch some of the other guys walking out I won’t mention any names particularly but um there’s a lot of very serious faces coming out

Onto the P deck on that 1500 and uh it’s just nice to see a little bit of a little bit of sass a little bit of bravado and stuff I think it’s a I think it’s a cool thing yeah yeah you won’t ever see me looking serious walking

Out that’s really good that’s really good and now I happen to have read on on your website that not only have you appeared with Nathan and your sister in the uh sister Beth in the Game of Thrones um which you can maybe tell me about a bit in a moment but you’ve also

Done some work with the famous Yorkshire actor Shawn Bean on the on a Frankenstein adaptation um are we likely to see you do that electrocution scene on one of your walkouts maybe could that may maybe be one of the the new ideas going forwards well that would look a

Bit weird but uh yeah we we child acting when we were younger not that many people actually know I have a sister so uh there you go but uh know no I don’t think I’ll be going back into acting anytime soon swimming takes up too much

Of my life yeah absolutely but what was it like being part of the Game of Thrones yeah amazing um I obviously got to see all the sets and everything I mean I was like I don’t know how old I was like 12 or something like that maybe

Less maybe like 10 when I did it so I don’t remember a lot of it but my mom’s got all the photos and stuff like that so uh they just I could look back at them and then we’ve recently visited the studios again I got invited back uh to

Go a look around after all the swimming success I’ve had they finally noticed me uh but then obviously working with sha me was pretty cool on uh it was on Netflix actually that show and on BBC on ITV as well but uh yeah that that was a

Pretty cool thing we had a pretty big part in that TV show but uh yeah it’s kind of all gone over my head now because I can’t really remember what actually did we just had a comment pop up just saying Dan within will be the next James Bond how’s that how’s that

Sound yeah I mean yeah amazing I reckon that’ be I reckon that’d be pretty cool I was actually just over in in De brodnik um racing a big Marathon swim over there back in October and I don’t know if you’ve been to De brnik but the whole town is all

It’s like Game of Thrones mad basically which was where many of the scenes were actually filmed have you been there no not been there well well worth a bit of a bit of a walk down memory Memory Lane sort of thing but there we

Go yeah all right okay so back to the uh the swimming what we’re here to talk really talk about um do you have a favorite swim session um and why and equally um what is a swim set that you perhaps dread um if you do it on a fairly regular

Basis uh yeah I mean we we never really repeat sets to be honest uh we always have different we I I think I we maybe only do the only set we’d probably do would be uh we do 31s a lot well not a lot I probably do them like three times

A year maybe two times a year and uh but we do them we don’t do them as like 31 say like off 130 uh we do them like kind of a crazy way uh we do them like start five so in blocks of five but you don’t

Get any any rest in between it’s just so the first five on five on 115 then on 120 then a 125 and it’s works out in my head and then you go back down so it’s like almost like a to start off yeah and then you go back down and

Then uh what but my favorite set I don’t really that set okay uh so 31’s is like an average distance set that everybody does uh I don’t know who started it was it Kieran Perkins started it or was it yeah I don’t know or was it Grant hacker

I don’t know one of the two I always remember seeing that when I was younger but uh they uh and but my favorite set is six 500s off um 530 long course 6 500s off 530 yeah and you got to be sub five wow that’s crazy and are you ever

Suited for those or or is it always yeah yeah i’ I I’d suit for that set um we we only suit we only suit up in training really uh we don’t suit up up until like this season we suited up a lot earlier because of the world Champs so we

Started suting up in January just before but I’m you’re talking we wouldn’t start suting up until probably around like May time uh we when we start putting suits on in practice Yeah right okay cool and I know that you’re obviously sponsored by phice and we’re big fans of them them

Here too I’ve been um talking about and educating people on the use of their products for for many many years now do you have a a favorite bit of their kit that you tend to use on a regular basis yeah well I’ve got I’ve got a couple uh

Uh one of my favorites obviously the hydro X um obviously it’s like well I always say it’s the fastest suit in the world because obviously K makavo wonning it on the 50 uh in the world champion fukoka and then I won the 800,00 in it in uh so it’s it’s an all

Round suit basically that’s what I say and uh 50 to, 1500 and then uh I I love that it’s obviously a really great piece of equipment really good at keeping hips up I find not it’s just got the right amount compression because like I find with some other suit BRS that like uh

Since I don’t use my legs and when I swim really that much uh I kind of find like they’re getting circulation cut off when they’re just sitting there so finish the hydro X is obviously really good I feel like for that and then uh uh

The the smart go is good but I want to say that I don’t use it like the conventional way okay you got a special way using it yeah so obviously I’ve got um that I like I wear I like the goggles because um they’re really comfortable

But uh I sometimes just don’t I don’t put the chip in the goggles because obviously I’ve got Andy timing me all the time I’ve got a coach and I feel like for the that product it’s more for people who guess are on that high performance elevant who they don’t have

A coach constantly standing over them timing them because you can get your splits obviously on the screen and the garles but I just put the chip in my cap sometimes because of the data is really good and also um you know what we use it for they have a head 3D tracking system

For your swims so um I can basically it tells me when I move my head and I’m like a swim effort on the app so it’s actually really useful yeah very useful indeed yeah and again that was one of the things I noticed about you 1500 technique just how smooth the head

Position was as well it looked really really quite good again I think Nathan was ribbing you a little bit for the 800 saying your head’s moving around too much I was like really I can’t really see that but anyway well it’s all yeah at at the top level of like uh technique

And like going and like distance coming it’s all like little little things to be honest for sure little things in distance something turn out to big chunks of time getting knocked off if you get them right so absolutely absolutely do you ever out of Interest one of the um one of the fin

Bits of pieces that we use quite a lot is the tempo trainer do you ever use that for any pacing or stroke rate work at all uh so I actually the only one in my group who does out of 13 people I’m the only one who doesn’t use one uh

Because uh I don’t know I always find Tempo really easily that’s just uh how I I I never really but for other people obviously it’s great but yeah for for me I actually I never use it but everybody else who does in our distance Frey group

A love for uses one which is kind of hard because obviously I’m the F sponsored athlete I don’t use it but everybody else is using it so yeah yeah fair enough yeah yeah I I we use them quite a lot actually within our within our program what we do and stuff but uh

It’s interesting is that the I think what would be really cool we we often use it in mode one so we can actually set the um interval per 25 so you can work out what pace you want to do for 25 and just dial that in and if anyone’s

Listening to this you’ve got a Tempo trainer what you should do is have a go at dialing in Dan’s 25 meter pace and see how far down the pool knowing that that’s where he would be turning at 25 and most of us will probably get to

About 10 or 15 met I would I would imagine you’d be pulling away I like I I was I did this really hardcore threshhold session just before we got on the call tonight and I absolutely smashed myself and and I worked out that if you were in the pool with me side by

Side doing it you’d you’d literally be about I don’t know 15 meters over every hundred ahead maybe even 20 meters over every hundred meters ahead and I was absolutely crucifying myself and and swimming you know as an age grouper swimming reasonably well so it just really puts it into context so if you

Got a Tempo trainer and listening to this darling Sumer Dan’s times it’s around about 58 seconds per 100 met or you know 29 seconds per 50 m it’s it’s truly truly insane um anyway um Dan I’m I’m actually a little bit curious uh you share the pool there in lro with uh with

Marathon swimming icon uh and dare I say it absolute beef cake uh Ross Edgley H do you guys ever do any uh weight training together do you see him on the pool deck he’s training up some big long swims at the moment oh yeah I’ve seen him once to be honest I

I’ve never SP uh I think he’s more more talking to the Open Water group we train at different times the Open Water group so uh they uh they train in like uh just a session after us because uh basically there isn’t enough PO space for Andy to

Have like we’ve got an IM group a distance freestyle distance men and distance women and if we add an Open Water like four time different people he’s different squads he basically has their time so they go in their own session after us they br out the 10K

Sessions well I’ll be sitting there on my eight 8ks yeah yeah fair enough I I just wondered whether or not you’d actually seen him in the gym as well but maybe not he’s he’s I don’t he’s absolutely massive and uh I think he’s training up for the world’s longest swi

Again or something like that yeah absolutely yeah um I’m actually going to be in lepr in may actually when I get there will I see a big blown up poster alongside Adam P yourself Dan you know down at the end of the delain there would you like not not not me no um

Hopefully my world record plaque will be up on the pool but uh no I don’t I don’t think they’ll be changing those banners until maybe next season because uh the people up there are still swimming and might be a bit disrespectful take of down all right fair enough yeah fair

Enough yeah um so uh just before we have a little look at this 1500 to wrap things up then um I’m interested in your average training week if you’re able to sort of share just very very briefly what does that look like in terms of the type of session you mentioned that you

Don’t really repeat many sessions um but what sort of volume is typical for yourself and I think a lot of people listening as well would be curious to know whether or not you mix in some butterfly backstroke and breaststroke I’m sure you probably do um do you do

Much Sprint work Dives turns that type of thing even if it’s just a very brief overview yeah um so we um uh so I’ll run for the whole week basically so we start off on a Monday morning it’s like a getting back into getting the week started it’s an aerobic with a little

Bit of kick and a bit of short speed uh so talking like U no more than a a me a kick uh on a Monday morning and uh the short speed 50 meter efforts stuff like that and then the aerobic is like typically between 3 to 500 three tr00

Reps so you could do like 10 fours I don’t know or five fives I don’t know it’s whatever then in the evening we’ll have a heart rate uh right now we’ll have a heart rate session uh if it’s early on the season we don’t we don’t go heart rate

Until after Christmas uh we just go fresh to threshold and um so um we have heart R session it changes it could be um 500s it could be hundreds 200s it could be in I think it’s why around rights for the day uh then on Tuesday

Morning um we have a kick set which is around about 2,000 meters of kick total and and then the rest of it easy something aerobic and how you go when when kicking just by when you k Sorry to jump in but when you’re kicking just by itself you mentioned obviously when

You’re racing you don’t really kick that much more of a 2B kick if you’re doing a pure kick set by itself are are you good are you fast slow not bad somewhere in the middle how do you go uh I’m like uh

So we we have Lanes set out of a of CB a A plus times of like to make a kick out I don’t know what times it’d be say like uh an a time would be going 100 on 130 for kick uh I would sit between the A

And the B uh okay yeah all right so I wouldn’t be the worst but I wouldn’t be the the best definitely anywhere I wouldn’t be anywhere near the best to be honest there’s guys on my um Lucas who made a comment there in the chat he’s uh

Insane it kick or hecto they’d be kicking times I couldn’t even get near to be honest definitely able to hold sub 110 anyway for ages yeah that’s I get I get the the message now then so he said how important is kicking distance swimming

So that was a little bit of a a rib was it I mean to be fair uh I if I had a choice I wouldn’t do any kick sets to be but it’s the fastest way to get fit in swimming and we do do we do do a couple

Kick sets but they’re not massive you know what I mean and they’re definitely the worst session of the week as well cuz uh yeah I’m just I just I just don’t like kick uh I think a lot of people listening to this would sympathize with that and then so carry on Tuesday night

Is um like our just like an aerobic IM session if you know what I mean so um that’s where we probably do the we do a bit of fly bit of back bit of breast uh not that much breast stroke because um so my knes can’t really do that stroke

To be honest and then uh then we go Wednesday morning where we have a race Pace session where we go like the quickest we go down to is 200 in race pace and we’ probably be hitting between 400 to 200 race Pace on those sessions and it’ll just be 50s and 75s sometimes

And um yeah that that’s what we do that day then we go to Thursday morning where we have a rainbow session so that’s obviously where we work on the color systems in lafra where heart ratees measured by color so okay yeah we have got white pink so our lowest color would

Be white but we have a and we need to make up a new color because uh for our testing for the colors we do a 3K for time and um that’s how you get your then Andy puts it into this um I don’t know spreadsheet and it gives us these times

Or whatever but our white times are too quick for what the color systems meant to be like I don’t know for example M 102 for like a wal white heart rate like one 15 140 to 150 I think heart rate uh so this all long course by the way

And um so um we have to make up a new color so the white because uh you can’t swim at a one or two piece for your whole life you know what I mean so uh we’ll do that and then we have pink we have red and then we have blue and then

We have purple and then uh we have gold for 15 meter Sprints green is more for kick uh for like Max effort kick reps stuff like that but uh so the rainbow basically goes from white to purple uh and that could be that’s normally around 400 200 to 400 reps we

Descend down to Short Course meter sorry I should have said as well Tuesdays and Thursdays are short course me today oh okay get shifted yeah yeah and then uh Thursday night we have a allite recovery session uh where it’s very low level uh nobody’s racing each other everybody’s

Mutually agreed to go slow and uh we we put the cameras in and we have a look at our technique as well on a Tuesday as well we get in our very expensive camera system and lra like 360 view of your stroke I think it’s like quarter of a

Mil of a cost but uh on on a Tuesday we do that that’s where we really look at the technique what and stuff like that and then on a Thursday it’s dropping cameras where they just technique checking not changing anything just checking out because on the other camera

System you get angles and everything it’s really cool but um I mean I don’t know how to work it I just watch it and I get told what to do basically uh and then on Friday morning yeah that is definitely I prefer to be honest i’ way

Prefer somebody come on very good I think Listen to Everybody uh if somebody has even if I met them for the first time they tell me that that I should try some else um I will definitely listen to it and uh I I might try I might not I’ll

I’ll talk to Andy about it see his opinion but I’m always quite open on listening to what people say because I mean somebody could say something that could absolutely improve my stroke and drop me 15 seconds or something like that on the 1500 so it’s always good to

Listen I think and then onto that we have the Friday morning our long aerobic which I explained earlier about how we could have like 25 minutes swims straight and um stuff like that and then the Friday night is another heart rate set similar to Monday night and then

Saturday morning is our biggest kick set of the week where um it’s really all just focused on Kick and then we have a little bit of recovery after sorry I didn’t tell you the either uh it’s around um about 80k we do a week

I’d say and um we do yeah so it’s around our long aerobic session would be our highest amount it’s either 8.5 or 9k on a Friday morning we’ll be our highest session but then when we go to altitude they all thr out the bin because we go way higher

So I bet you’re looking for that forward to that then wow that’s a that’s a monster a monster session monster weekly schedule I should say yeah now I’m going to bring up this 1500 we’re going to have a a real quick dive through that just as I bring it up hopefully this

Shifts over here can you see that now Dan just um yeah I can I should also mention that I do three gym a week as well and I do two call circuits as well man that’s a lot of training a lot of training but obviously the the results

Are coming in one of the questions I was going to ask and maybe we can just go into this what we’re just tuning into this here um you’ve obviously mentioned Andy Manley on on many occasion there you coach at lury University you’ve obviously made some absolutely fantastic um improvements over the last little

While um which is which is fantastic to see um big shout out to Andy obviously on that just just very briefly um prior to that have you have you had lots of other coaching influences over the years and stuff or have you mainly just stayed with one one or two

Coaches uh no I’ve had I’ve had a lot of coaches but uh I I only seen major Improvement through Andy to be honest I mean when I came to Andy I was a 1539 swimmer and then obviously last season 15 well and this season 14 34 so I

Dropped over a minute with Andy which is kind of incredible because obviously I’ve been dropping this my fourth year here and every year I’ve dropped at least 16 seconds in the year on the 1500s so absolutely incredible in fact Bobby hurly who’s commentating on this over here in Australia makes really good

Mention about how how uh Ste and linear that sort of improvement has been for you over the last sort of three or four years so yeah like I say big shout out to to Andy and the guy and rest of the guys in the team there at luy University

So this is you just coming on to the pool deck here just checking your watch uh the commentators at that point were saying oh it looks like he wants to get on with this but I’m assuming in your head there at that point you’re thinking

I’ve got the eyes on the on the world record here is that right uh no no it’s actually I’ve it’s all about the time basically I’m not saying I’m going to break the world record I’m saying like I’m going for my own time you know what I mean it’s my

Time okay yeah fair enough yeah yeah cool cool um slightly more serious look on your face on that one just walking in here but uh ready to rock and roll and obviously when the other the other swimmers come on the pool deck there’s Spen FS who I got mixed up with I do

Apologize about that feel really bad about that romanchuk as well who’s been um he still got the 1500 short course world record is that right Romano I know it’s Flor and wild Brock who has the world record well BR big a pardon big a pardon yeah um anyway

Everyone coming out to the out to things so there’s our lineup going into the into the start of it obviously your seed there is uh is a little bit lower down um it looked like maybe in the Heats you you backed off a little bit is that right to

Conserve yeah 100% uh I think well I don’t know maybe I can say I don’t know how the others feel but I definitely felt like I went the easiest in the heat out of everybody and I think that kind of played into my advantage in the final

Because I knew that I was just chilling out in the heat it’s kind of to say to be hon going 14 54 and how easy it felt but I mean it was just how it felt in the race yeah well perfect perfect um so here we go we’re all getting stripped

Down ready to rock and roll so as soon as the gun goes off here you very quickly um start to forge a little bit of a lead here with the Tunisian swimmer um after around about 200 meters then you start to break away from him what’s

Going through your head right now I mean like it’s really hard for probably people listening to this podcast and watching it on YouTube to really understand what it means and what it feels like to move as fast as what you’re moving for 1500 meters but what

Does it feel like for you in that first couple hundred meters is it quite is it quite steady quite comfortable or or what yeah I’m chilling out I’m chilled out uh I’m not trying to work too hard because if he work too hard at the start

Of the race you ain’t going to be there at the end so it is really just about being as easy as possible to be Hest uh yeah I mean right now I’m thinking um well right now I might and I think I probably got my eyes closed I swim with

My eyes closed a lot uh I don’t know why it’s just how I was how I’ve always swam and um yeah I find myself doing that quite a bit as well actually I’ve never I’ve never really had that discussion with anyone about it but yeah okay that’s interesting really interesting um

Obviously first split just under the world record Pace there 2709 and uh and then we got a little bit further into the swim now if we just I say what I was thinking I was thinking this guy better move away from me on the on my outside Lane that’s what I was

Thinking at the start of the race move away from you like laterally or move away as in like move back behind you you mean or move back faster um he obviously one of um would it be one of ahed hau’s teammates I presume no he’s Turkish that guy on the

Outside l oh he’s Turkish oh sorry I beg your part yeah of course yeah yeah yeah I’m getting everything wrong tonight um so here we go we’re starting to break away this is what I was looking at with the uh with the head position here yeah it just looks silky smooth

There yeah yeah yeah I think um so the way Nathan’s not talking about uh the the height on like the world record he’s not talking about where my head is sitting on the water it’s more my breathing position when I breathe my head when I breathe tends to drift to

The side a bit so it goes out of body line and then follows it does it almost look like you’re looking slightly back behind you would you say or yeah because I know my head ends up coming like this so I’m like end up my

Body moves with it and it makes me look like I’m snaking a bit when I swim yeah okay okay fair enough yeah um so here we go look we got a couple of we got probably like two or three body lengths ahead and we’re only at just coming up

To 300 meter marker um at what point did there come a point where you know okay I’ve definitely got this in the bag now it’s all about time how how early did that come within the race um I mean I don’t want to sound like arrogant or but probably like 200

300 meters I knew I had the race one um I just knew what pace I was going and I might pretty good at no pacing I know what uh how everybody else swims the race and I knew that i’ have this race won at 300 meters because nobody

Else was going to be able to make that big they would have to hold 28 mids and it was never going to happen yeah yep absolutely and this is when you were talking obviously about the about the two be kick we can just get a tiny little snip of it there’s never enough

Underwater footage from these championships as great as the footage is you know I just I just live for the underwater footage and um obviously just coming into the wall here if we just watch this and in and out of the wall it’s a very very little kick off

The wall there it’s like a tiniest tiniest little thing but you can see Dan’s two beat kick action going along there is that something have you always done that or is it something that you tried to develop as you develop the technique for longer distance freestyle no I’ve always done that I’ve

Never been told to kick when I swam uh I honestly I don’t think you need kick when you swim it’s whatever works for you you always see these videos go around on everywhere saying that everybody should kick while they swim because it’s easy speed but to be honest

If you actually look into it the legs are the biggest muscle group in your body so then can create the most lactate and if you’re kicking for 1500 and you have all that extra lactate that really you don’t well it’s obviously depends on the person but if you’re a two beat

Kicker you’re going to create a lot less lactate obviously it depends on your physiology the person is six feed kicking so that’s why um a lot of distance suers don’t uh use their legs the whole way and uh that’s also a good gear to go to at the end on the last 50

Kick your legs to go a bit faster you know absolutely and you can certainly see you doing that at the especially at the end of the 800 freestyle in DEA was was really quite impressive here so we get a little bit further into the uh into the swim now you mentioned earlier

On if look at this the the Gap here is absolutely amazing so bearing in mind it’s like 1:00 a.m. in the morning over here in Perth I can’t shout and scream and stuff like that but I was I was shouting at the TV going my God this C

This is amazing this is absolutely crazy crazy crazy how well you were going there at that point it’s like nobody else was seemingly in the race alongside you did you did you ever hit a point during the 1500 you knew you had the race won by this point but did you hit a

Point at any point there where you felt like I’ve blown up now or it’s really starting to pinch and hurt uh never that I blown up but around now the 800 meter Mark I was thinking damn it’s got a long way to go and um tapped into the kind of cow noise to

Be honest and I knew because I wasn’t feeling the best and sometimes in the race you feel really good and sometimes you don’t feel good at all and now was kind of like not feeling good but I knew I could hold a pace till the end and I

Knew then I wasn’t going to be able to push on when I wanted to for the uh to get the world record but um I mean I was just then going for the a best time that’s what I was going for you mentioned that you swim with your eyes

Closed quite a bit but um is there any a point when you you got may have them open just for smidge in and you can see Andy or whoever it might be on the pool deck calling out splits or just giving you a bit of an urge on do you ever do

You ever see any of that or is it more just the crowd noise that you can hear um basic I’d say that it’s like um like my split time going and stuff like that but the crowd noise does help because if you’re on world record place

The crowd are going to be cheering so that’s kind how you know sorry I think I just dropped out accident that’s all right that’s right we’re g we’re gonna wrap up in a moment anyway mate but um yeah so just just talk us through the maybe the final 100 meters then of of

The swim you you’re gunning for home and stuff and um obvious feeling pretty good about it when he touched the wall what what does that feel like am I right in thinking your parents were there in D watching you or yeah they were my parents were there um I mean touching

While obviously it was special in the 800 because it was my first time becoming a world champion uh but this time to I didn’t even know how much I want it by uh I was just um really I was in my own mind and when I touched the wall I was just like

Oh this is great I wanted to see the time more I saw that I got a PB and then I was just like all right now we need to finish the celebration off yeah absolutely I mean you can see there obviously that’s the 25 meter marker I

Don’t you can see my cursor just on the screen but uh the red markers there and we’ve got fourth place there at the at the red markers so uh second place um would be probably 20 MERS or 19 meters behind it’s an absolutely massive massive margin and uh and yeah something

Something to be really really proud of as as I’m sure you are mate so uh anyway there we go right so I’ll just bring it back to this uh this screen over here and uh it’s um it’s been an absolute honor speaking with you Dan uh really

Appreciate all the time you’ve given us today and uh thanks for supporting me through the little hiup there at the start getting things uh getting things started and uh and equally uh my mismatch with yourself and Spen FS underneath the water I don’t think I’m ever ever going to live that one down

But anyway everyone gets uh gets things wrong sometimes but uh I just just want to ask one final tiny little question um I’m thinking um it’s it’s been about 25 years 26 years for myself since I actually left University um when I left University at bath un I was swimming

Around about 18 minutes for500 um I would love to try and get myself down to that point I reckon I’m around about 18 308 45 at the moment to knock another 45 off where would you say myself or anybody else listing here where would you find say we best try and find that

That extra 45 minutes 45 seconds I should say yeah so um the turns I think uh it’s everybody’s uh like that’s the easiest way I think to knock off time uh if you want a little tip uh me and my brother Nathan have always played a game so uh I

Don’t know if you’re in a training group or whatever but if you’re swimming side by side with someone and for example I swam side by side with Nathan my whole life and uh we will always play a game of who can turn faster five in and five

Out so if you ever beside someone just go race them and beat them five in five out and start a little race and see how many like we tally up at the end of a session of how many times we won and lost and uh we see who wins at the end

Of the session so there’s a little game if you want to play that to improve your turns and how’s your tally against Nathan yeah I beat him a lot to be fair he beats me now right okay it must be awesome just having that that brilliant training partner though and somebody can

Sort of bounce off with and uh I’m assuming you your roommate and stuff uh when you go on on uh training camps and World Champs and those type of things yeah we live together so as well we do have a friend together so um perfect yeah it’s great that’s awesome that’s

Awesome well Dan thanks every so much for your time mate and uh it’s been great chatting with you and maybe maybe I’ll see you in lra um when when I head back over there in in may it be awesome to see you properly live in action that sounds great great stuff thanks Dan