After being diagnosed in 2015 with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), a painful inflammatory arthritic condition, Kylie Frost was advised to move her body to keep mobile. She began exercising multiple times a week, then decided she needed a goal. She started entering triathlons and set her sights on IRONMAN NZ (a 3.8km swim, 180km bike ride and 42km run), which she completed in 2021 after six years of building her strength and stamina. The time limit to complete the event was 17 hours and she managed it with 70 seconds to spare, with her support crew cheering her on.
Kylie has since qualified as a triathlon coach and founded the Twisted Sisters Club, which helps beginners to achieve their goals – whether it’s a short swim in the sea or entering their first triathlon. As the website puts it: "Our mission is to empower women through sports, assisting them in overcoming any barriers to reach their objectives ... We all progress at our individual pace, celebrating every victory, regardless of its size."
In this episode Kylie talks about her diagnosis at age 40, her initial search for a coach who was able to support a beginner with a chronic health condition (she found triathlete Tony O’Hagan, who sadly passed away in 2020), her experience of working towards and completing IRONMAN NZ, becoming a coach herself to support a range of abilities, and the founding of the Twisted Sisters Club and what it offers for women who want to take those first steps (or strokes) in the sea.
Twisted Sisters Club Facebook page
NZ Ocean Swim Community Facebook group
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
Kyota and welcome to Swim Chats,a podcast about ocean swimming.
I'm Shona Riddell, a writer, former journalist and swimmer
from Wellington, Altero in New Zealand.
For each episode, I talk to a different guest from our swim
community. Remember, if you have any
questions, thoughts or suggestions, you can e-mail me
at swimchatswithshona@gmail.com or follow Swim Chats on
(00:31):
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(00:52):
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The link is in the episode show notes and in the podcast
(01:12):
description. But if that's not an option for
you, that's totally fine. Being a listener is.
Also awesome. Thank you.
Hello Kylie, Welcome to Swim Chats.
Hi, great to have you on the show.
And I first heard about Twisted Sisters from the Facebook group,
(01:37):
I think it's called New Zealand Ocean Swimming Community.
There's been a few posts on there.
And I've also heard you being interviewed on RNZ about your
your swimming and amazing triathlons.
Yeah. So I'm keen to talk to you about
all of that. Yeah, I guess maybe if you're
comfortable with it, first tell us about when you first started
(02:01):
entering triathlons and the circumstances around that.
Yeah, I. Have a form of arthritis that
I've had probably dates back from when I was 11, but I wasn't
diagnosed till I was 40. And I had a rheumatologist who
was very, very good but there was really wasn't any treatment
(02:23):
options he could do. And he sent me to a physio who
in the physio wanted me to get more active and I was very, very
weak all over. So he put me in the hydrotherapy
pool. He actually said don't swim,
you've got no strength in your arms, you're likely to drown.
Oh wow. Yeah.
So it was very slow, steady progress.
(02:45):
And somebody one day at the local swimming pool behind the
counter, I said, are you workingtowards something?
Do you have a goal? Because she'd see me there 3
mornings a week. And after talking with them,
they gave me a pass for the gym.And I came home and told my
husband I was going to do a triathlon, which I'd always want
(03:06):
to do. And that didn't go down very
well. Only because he was worried I'd
get hurt. Right?
Yeah. And was this about, are we
talking about 10 years ago? Yeah, in 2015, I believe, early,
almost exactly 10 years ago now,I was swimming three days a
week. And then I started using the gym
(03:27):
as well. And I'm still using the
hydrotherapy pool a lot and still seeing the physio
regularly and things like that. And what I found is the days I
swam, I had a lot more movement in my arms and my shoulders and
my back didn't hurt so much and I had more energy and, and it
just all gradually progressed. It did take me, I think early
(03:50):
2016 was the first try I try. I did at Maritai and my husband
did it with me because I, I wentdown and did the banana boat
swim in Rotorua in the Blue Lake.
And I had a very, very bad reaction to the cold water with
my chest because it's in my rib cage.
(04:10):
And it sounds a bit like listening to someone who's got
asthma having an asthma attack. And it's pretty scary.
Well, for me and the afterwards they had chest pains.
So the ambulance did an EKG and my doctor wasn't happy and I had
to go through all these tests and but I end up being a race.
But I said to my husband, right,you do it alongside me just as
(04:32):
a, as a safety blanket in case there's any issues, which he
did. And afterwards he said, Oh no,
no, no, triathlon's not for me. I'll stick to my ocean swimming.
And then the next thing you know, he'd signed up for Iron
Man, which I'd never even heard of.
And then I watched him do the Iron Man a year later, and it
just kind of snowballed from there.
(04:54):
I was hooked. That sounds credible.
So so I I haven't personally done an Iron Man, but I was
reading about it and so it's 3.8kilometer swimming and 180
kilometer bike ride. That's right and.
And then a 42K run. So marathon, Marathon.
At the end, yeah. Amazing.
(05:15):
And so you saw him do it, and then you thought, that's what I
want to do. It did take me another year or
two to would actually admit to myself, let alone anyone else,
that I wanted to do it. But it was kind of niggling in
the back of my head. It's like I wonder if I could do
that one day. Yeah, just sort of ignited that
spark. Yeah, what I found the longer
distances, I didn't have to be as fast, I didn't have to work
(05:36):
quite so hard. I just had to have the endurance
to keep going. So the longer distances actually
suit me better than the sprints and the Olympics, right?
Yeah. I in fact, I've never even done
an Olympic. Have you ever done the Olympic?
Distance yet? Yeah.
And so did you have someone coaching you at that time or did
you have to look for a coach? Yeah, originally I was doing it
(05:59):
on my own. I did get a lot of a lot of
local coaches that I approached,but as soon as I mentioned I had
any sort of health impact, health issues, they didn't
really want to know or or they just didn't feel they had the
experience to help. I was very, very lucky to come
(06:20):
across Tony O'hagan though online.
I looked him up through I think either Iron, it might have been
Ironman New Zealand or TriathlonNew Zealand, one of them.
And I liked the sound of him andI rang him that day and within
half an hour I had a training program and I was watching it.
I was watching from my end as heformed it on his end.
(06:42):
And as you said, well, yes, you can do it, but we're going to
have to train differently. You're going to have to talk to
me every day, Tell me how you'refeeling.
And I worked with him until he passed away a couple years ago.
And he was just amazing. He, he really gave me the base
that I needed to believe in myself and, and to actually go
(07:02):
out there and do the longer stuff.
And he taught me how to work around everything, which was
really good. Yeah.
And was was his style sort of gentle encouragement or more
firm? Or definitely, yeah, yeah,
definitely. The only negative for me was
probably I needed a bit more pushing, but he was very yeah.
(07:25):
He really understood everything as well when I explained to him
what was going on with my, my rib cage affecting my lung
capacity and how it affected me on the bike, on hills and things
like that. He, he understood it.
So he would then modify whateverI was doing to make it work for
me so that we'd still get the same result, but by doing it a
slightly different way. And as he said, you, you'll be
(07:48):
able to do it, but you'll have to have a really, really long
ramp up. It ended up being six years till
I was strong enough to do it. So it did take a long time.
Yeah. And then when he passed away, I
went with my husband's coach, who I knew quite well anyway,
Andrew Mackay. We got the news that Tony had
(08:10):
passed. And then within about, I think,
36 hours, I had a phone call from Andrew saying don't worry
about your training, I've got your back.
Leave it up to me. I'll look after you.
I'll get you there. You just focus on on getting
through it at the moment, which was really good because I was
devastated. Tony O'hagan, I felt was a good
(08:31):
friend and it was a shock. So Andrew kept me going and he
stayed with me through to Iron Man and a bit longer than that.
Yeah. And his was not so much the
gentle approach, but by the end I probably needed that.
And and what was that experiencelike for you of completing the
(08:53):
Iron Man? How long did it take?
It I finished with 70, you have 7017 hours to finish in Iron
Man. There are cut offs along the way
and I knew the swim I would be fine for which I was.
I had ample time. I knew the bike cut off would be
(09:14):
OK so long as everything went right, which it did.
But it was the run was the biggest issue because I have a
lot of pain in my ankles and it it hurts to run.
So the run was the was the big, big issue for me.
And I ended up finishing with 70seconds to spare.
So a minute and 10 seconds and Ihad on the the last lap I had
(09:38):
Andrew riding on the bike with me, my coach, I had my husband.
I had a couple of one lady from Palmerston who had been on the
bike course all day as a volunteer and I've known her for
years. She came out on the course with
me holding her phone because I had no, there were no lights and
at that point I couldn't get my special needs.
So I had no kid torch and she's shown the light and she ran with
(10:01):
me for probably a good 36 KS or the 42 it's.
Amazing. And yeah, so because I was one
of the last finishes and by the time you get to that point they
just want you to finish, they'rea bit more relaxed when comes to
people being around you and giving assistance.
So I still had to do it all by myself, but I did have people
there if I needed anything. And one of them had my special
(10:24):
needs bag with, I had painkillers and I had gels and
all sorts in there. But by then I was just really
focused. I was just in my own little
world. And it was they had these Rd.
cones and I can remember just repeating to myself, run the
cone, walk the cone, run the cone, walk the cone and all the
(10:46):
way through it. And at one point my husband
tried to say something and I andI yelled at them.
I I just he tried to touch me and I didn't want to be touched.
And yeah, you were just in the zone.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Congratulation.
I mean, that's phenomenal to complete an Iron Man event.
And was it after that that you decided yourself that you wanted
(11:07):
to become a coach and support other people, or did that take?
Yeah, after Iron Man, because mine was part of the Tony
Jackson Scholarship. And part of that is you get a
free entry and I already had an entry that was a deferral
because of an injury. So I never, the next year they
said to me or do you want the free entry?
(11:29):
And I was going to do it again. And I even got part way through
the January training and it's like not I'm done.
This is just too hard. I just can't do this.
One was enough. I'll stick with 1.
And I started doing some other stuff, but I, I got injured.
(11:50):
I was training for Tara Weira and I tore all the ligaments in
my ankle on the beach one day. And it took me about two years
to be able to, I couldn't even swim, I couldn't ride my bike, I
couldn't do anything. It was really bad.
So it's, it set me back a long way.
And during that period I thought, well, if I can't do
this anymore, which I'm not going to be able to do it
(12:10):
forever, then what could I do instead?
And I still wanted to be involved.
So the idea of coaching and helping people like myself sort
of evolved because I had a hard job finding a coach that would
be willing to take on someone, one, with my health issues, and
two, that was a true beginner that really didn't know
(12:31):
anything. Most coaches are great to work
with if you've got a bit of experience, and there are a lot
out there that will work with people just starting out.
But most people just starting out would be too nervous to go
to them, yeah. That's right, yeah.
You don't have the confidence to.
No, no, yeah. And I was really lucky that
(12:52):
Andrew Mackay, my coach from Boost Coaching, he sort of, I
won't say he sponsored me, but he wrote a letter of
recommendation for my coaching certificate, which was awesome.
And he's always there in the background to offer me help and
support. And I kind of work now with the
people beginning and then often I'll feed them to him for
swimming advice or lessons or the more, if they want to go to,
(13:15):
the more the bigger races I'll, they'll go to him for the more
experienced coaching. So it actually works quite well.
We sort of help, yeah. He sort of helps me out a bit.
And so let's talk about the Twisted Sisters Club.
So when, when did that come about and how did the idea for
it get started? OK, so I wanted to do a
(13:39):
triathlon with my daughter. She's now 13 and at the time she
was 11 and the ones in Auckland,you had to be 12.
And we found the woman's try down a tower on.
I had an 11 age, age cut off. So I thought, OK, we can go down
there, we can do the woman's tryher and I.
And then we found they had a mother daughter category, which
(14:02):
I thought was really awesome. And talking to a friend whose
daughter was 16, I sort of said,well, why don't you guys do it
with us? You know, we in order to
motivate them to do it, we jokingly said, you know, ha ha,
ha, you'll never beat us. You know, we'll challenge you
to, to, for you 2 to beat us, which they did.
(14:23):
And then talking to other friends, I found other people
when you were doing it. And then Moore said, well,
we'll, we'll come down and we'lldo it with you.
We ended up, we had seven of us and we're all in different
accommodation and along the way training for it.
I had put together some basic training sessions and we were
doing brick sessions together and we were doing ocean swims
(14:45):
and things and we weren't finding.
There was a lot of support and encouragement out there.
The people in that, in that really beginning stage, we're
not the people that we knew anyway.
And afterwards we had formed such good friendships from going
down as a group and doing the race, even though we're in
(15:07):
different categories or different waves and stuff.
We had such a good time and we were talking online and we sort
of said, well, we should put a Facebook group together, you
know, rather than having a message thread where everything
is getting lost, we could do it on Facebook.
And we came up, well, one of theladies, Anita, came up with the
name Twisted Sisters, and it kind of stuck.
(15:30):
Yeah. So we originally we only had the
Facebook group and it was ladiesonly so that we can support and
encourage each other, you know, offer motivation.
And I was offering a bit of support and guidance and things
like that. And then I, my dream is to put
on a beginner triathlon, and I mean a total beginner triathlon.
(15:52):
Think Wheat Becks kids, but for adults.
We've we've got the location, wehave tentative council approval,
we don't have the funding and I've sort of keep putting it off
thinking that we'll look at it next year.
We've got a bit more money. And then we decided, well, if we
(16:12):
are a actual club recognised club in New Zealand, we can
apply for funding grants, which is what we did.
So we officially became a club on the 23rd of August last year.
So it's nearly a year to the day.
And we had to have a minimum of 10 members, which we're now
(16:34):
sitting just under 50, which is pretty good for a year.
We have over 305 people on our Facebook group and they're from
all around the world. And yeah, it's just been the
response from the community has been awesome.
We've just got our first fundinggrant, which is for wet suits
and swim caps for the season to help some of the ladies out.
(16:56):
Cool. So Team Line is going to be
cutting out at least 10 of the ladies with wet suits and
everyone's going to have TwistedSister's swim caps.
So we can move from a safety point of view, we can keep an
eye on everyone in the water. Our Saturday swims were sitting
at about nearly 40 people last Saturday each week.
Cool, so tell me about the Saturday swims.
Are they all year round? This year they weren't, but from
(17:20):
next year they will be. Yeah.
We do still have some ladies going and swimming on a
satellite when the weather's OK and the the the safe swim flag
is green. We did swim last weekend.
It was about 14°. It was pretty cold so it was
only 1/2 hour swim. It wasn't very long.
(17:40):
And that's at Takapuna. Is that right in Auckland?
So we meet with the toilet blockis at Takapuna.
We don't charge anything for theswim and you don't have to be a
member. We do advise that you just let
us know you're coming along beforehand.
This coming season, the swim caps will be mandatory.
So if you're not a member, the only cost will be purchasing a
(18:03):
swim cap. And that's so that we know you
are part of our group and you have to fill out a emergency
safety form so that we have yourdetails if anything happens, if
we can contact somewhere for you.
And that way we know if you've got allergies, that kind of
thing. I take the.
Yep, sorry so I'm not very familiar with type of preneur.
Is there like a swim boy that you can swim out to?
(18:25):
There is, they've got the pink boys which are a bit closer and
then they have the yellow 5 knotmarker boys.
At high tide it's roughly 300 meters out to the boy.
So we meet at the toilet block. We all go in together over
summer. It's about 7:00 we start.
We have a safety brief beforehand so everyone knows
(18:46):
what the plan is. We have a sign in board so that
everyone has to have their name and and that on the board.
We know and then when you come out, we'd mark off that you've
returned. We do prefer tow floats and
things like that just for safety, but it's not mandatory.
The the bulk of them swim out tothe yellow boys and then swim
(19:07):
down the boy line. Any new swimmers or anyone
really nervous or anything like that, they stay with me.
We have a beginner group that stays near the shore.
We usually swim down the beach, but then as they gain confidence
it's my job to get them out to the boys and get them out
swimming with the main group. So usually for most swimmers, I
(19:29):
find it takes them 3 or 4 weeks just to get that confidence and,
and you know, be able to get offfrom the shore and, and figure
out how it all works and how, what it feels like to swim in
the sea and not be so nervous and, and that kind of thing.
It doesn't take too long for most people.
And how do you, how do you know when they're ready to swim out a
bit further? Do they say or do you just get
(19:51):
get sort of the feeling? You, you sort of know.
You can tell. You can tell by the expression
on their face if they're really looking nervous.
Then we tend to stay near the shore because I don't want
anyone panicking. Yeah, you sort of know by the
way they're acting. And we do stop and regroup all
the time. And just to say, hey, are you
(20:12):
OK? You know it.
I also explained to them it doestake about 10-15 minutes when
you first start off just to get acclimatized to the water, to
the temperature, to let your breathing settle and really get
into that, that, that flow. And then once they've got
through that, I noticed most of them actually realized, well,
(20:33):
actually this isn't as scary as I thought it was going to be.
And it's actually pretty cool. And then you get out to that
marker boy for that first time and just the expression on their
face, they all go up and they all hit it with their hand like
sort of high fiving it. Sometimes we get pitches out
there if we can, and everyone will sit around with the marker
boy going, oh wow, this is just so cool.
(20:56):
Yeah, especially with the sun coming up behind Regatodo.
Be so beautiful. It must be so rewarding for you
to see that, yeah. Oh yeah, yeah.
I love how you, I read on your website that you have like a
gear library as well. So if you're in the twisters,
this is quite. That's such a good idea because
lots of people have different gear that they're not using or
(21:16):
using any more. And yeah.
We were very lucky. We got gifted a couple of bikes
and we had one lady that came tome about November last year and
said there's a triathlon coming up, I wouldn't mind doing it, I
don't have a bike. I was like there you go, you can
take the bike. The deal is they have to be a
(21:37):
financial member and they get the use of it for three months.
Obviously they can't sell it andthey've got to try and return it
in roughly the same condition and then we can pass it on to
someone else. This happens to be a very, very
nice bike with quite a lot of money, so we were very lucky.
But she she went and did I marryTamaki in Ojai Hubei and she
(22:00):
absolutely blitzed it. She just did amazing and then
gave the bike back and said no, that's it.
I've done my one try. We're done.
We know how to do other stuff. But the average person wants to
do a triathlon, they're not necessarily going to have the
money to go and buy a a bike or know what they need or.
What makes it? It's a big investment to then
(22:22):
decide, yeah, not actually, no, I've done one.
I'm happy with that. I'm not going to.
And then the bike sits there anddoesn't get used.
I've got another lady that's been using a, a Garmin Phoenix
five that we got donated. She is, they're, they've got
young kids, they just don't haveextra money.
(22:44):
So she's used that for a while. And she's just had her 30th
birthday and family have gifted her not a brand new one, but her
own, her own watch. So she's going to give that
back. That's now going to be passed on
to someone else who's been usinga Samsung.
And they can't always download the stuff to the coaching
platform. So they want to look at using a
(23:05):
Garmin and they just want to tryit out first.
So all sorts of stuff. And we've now got a couple of
our club shirts too. So if you're doing a race, you
can borrow the shirt and run in the shirt, that kind of thing.
So it, it does make a massive difference for some folks.
The idea is it's, it's not something you get to keep.
It's a, it's a loan while you decide what gear you want and
(23:27):
while you save the money to get your own gear so that you can.
But it means meanwhile you can start training.
Yeah. And you get to try it out and
see if it works. Exactly.
Yeah, and you recently, I think it was even just last week had
the girl boy swim challenge. So boy, as in BUOY.
Yeah, as in Macca boys, it was actually beginning of April.
(23:48):
Oh, beginning back it was. The beginning of April, yeah.
It was probably one of the nicest weekends we had for the
end of the season. So the Girl Boy swim challenge,
we were trying to think of a waylast season to challenge these
ladies who were swimming out to the boy and back, which was
about 600 meters. We wanted them to be able to go
(24:08):
further and we wanted to give them a goal for the season.
And I thought, well, the ultimate would be to swim to
Cable Boy and back, which is down the far end of the beach.
So you've, there's five of the yellow 5 knot boys and then
there's cable Boy, which is about four or five times the
size. All up it would be probably
about 3.3 K. So it's not an, it's not a short
(24:31):
swim. And we thought, well, if you
were swimming the boy line and you get to trouble, you're only
ever 300 meters offshore. But we didn't want it to be a
race. There's enough races out there.
If you want to do a race, you goand do one of the banana boats
or one of those. This was going to be more of a
personal challenge. And we came up with all sorts of
(24:53):
ideas like nominating which boy you were going to swim to in the
middle would have that number and, and in the end that was a
bit too complicated. So we said right, we're going to
have two distances, the first group is going to swim to to the
first boy and down and back. The second group was from to the
second boy and down and back. So it cut about 800 metres off
(25:15):
the course for them. So for the ones that were really
new or really nervous, they did the shortest one.
We kept it at 60 people because we weren't out in the shipping
lanes. We didn't need harbour master
approval and council said don't worry about council approval
because it's not on land. There's no Rd. crossings.
We had we had kayaks for water support, we divided them into
(25:39):
three groups depending on their pace, so 20 per group with two
kayaks per group. And we also had a boat with two
people in it and we had a first aid responder on the beach.
So it was run as if it was a race, a full race, but it wasn't
a race. And at the end they all got a
medal. And then we all had a shared
(26:00):
morning tea and the atmosphere was just incredible.
I think there was 56 ladies did it.
Yeah, Which? I love that, yeah, I love, I
love that it's just non competitive and everybody's just
doing it for themselves and to be part of the group, yeah.
Yeah. So the really, I mean the the
last group to go. So we set off the the slower
(26:21):
people went first obviously. So they're all finishing around
the same time. The very last two swimmers to
come in, one of them had had surgery a couple of months
before and hadn't been on a swim, and she was adamant she
was going to get it done. So it's really cool.
So I think she got the biggest chair when she finally finished,
yeah. Yeah.
(26:42):
So that's a big support group. Yeah, and we're doing it again
this coming March. We'll be doing it again.
Again, we're capping the numbersat 60.
We're going to keep it at that. We'll probably have a couple of
extra paddle boards or somethinglike that.
So the idea being if you get, ifyou get to a marker boy on the
way back and you just think of enough, you'll have someone to
(27:03):
escort you to shore so you're not on your own.
They still got the middle even if they didn't finish, so long
as they reach cable boy, becausethat was the goal.
So yeah. And we finished afterwards and
everyone's like, when can we do this again?
Yeah. So we will begin with again,
yeah. They mentioned you've got sort
of 50 or so people in the club itself, but hundreds of people
(27:26):
in the Facebook group, yes, including people out of
Auckland. So do you have plans to expand
the club? Like for example, I live in
Wellington and I would love to join.
I would, I would love to. If we get enough people, I could
see it becoming a bit like the park run scenario where you
have, you have little groups maybe in the main centers.
(27:51):
We do do a lot of online stuff like, so we do online bike rides
and we're just about to introduce some strength sessions
online. And once a month we have I, I do
a session online where people can come on board and just say,
right, I'm training for this or I've got this question and it's
(28:12):
all to do with coaching races, nutrition gear, any help or
advice they need. And I usually I'm usually on
there for an hour or two, which,which is quite good.
There's often a race coming up that someone's looking at and
they just want help or advice. So we do do a lot of other stuff
that does work for those people that aren't in Auckland.
(28:33):
But yeah, ideally I'd love to see it in other centres.
But the problem is because I personally take a lot of the the
training, the one-on-one training sessions or the in
person ones, should I say I needto find someone like me in these
other areas that could do it. And that's where the that's
where the challenge is, yeah. You were talking about how you
(28:54):
support people in the water who are just sort of getting in and
they're new to it, and it's, youknow, big and scary, and they're
getting used to the feeling of being in the ocean.
Like, how do you support them? What sort of things do you say
to them to help them relax and get more confident?
I think the first thing I usually do is most of them will
have a wet suit of sorts, or they'll have a tow float, and
(29:17):
the first thing we do is literally just get in the water
and we'll get them to relax, getthem to realize they're not
going to sink. There's nothing scary.
There's nothing coming up to nibble on their toes or anything
silly like that. They're not that far offshore.
They can go back anytime they like and they just need to
relax. Swimming is all about technique.
(29:38):
So if you're relaxed and you useyour technique, you don't have
to be out of breath, you don't have to be stressed.
It's just stuff like that. I mean, I usually will.
I'm not. I wouldn't say I'm an expert
when it comes to helping some ofthe swimming.
I'm not. But I can look at what they're
doing and just give them a few pointers of things that they can
(30:00):
do to make it easier. Our club president, Anita, the
very first time she swam at Mission Bay with me, she got
into the water thinking it'd be really, really easy and she
started swimming, got really outof breath, started to panic.
I literally got her to stop and blow bubbles like what they get
the kids to do because she was holding her breath.
And it's like, no, you need to relax.
(30:22):
And I just got her putting her face in, breathing out and then
face out of the water. Breathe in, face in the water,
breathe out. And we did that until she calmed
down and then she was OK. And then occasionally, even now,
she she'll stop and do the same thing just to clear that panic.
There's another lady, Mika, who gets very, very nervous when she
(30:44):
hasn't been in the water for a while, so she actually goes down
and starts swimming while we're doing our safety briefing,
purely because she actually needs to be in the water on her
own, coming down first. So different things work for
different people, and as you getto know someone, you actually
figure out, OK, this. I usually give them different
suggestions and it's just what works for them.
(31:05):
Yeah, that's such a good point that everybody's an individual
and we have different things that we're thinking about and
that we need to focus on. Yeah.
And I think most people basically they get out of breath
when they first start swimming and they think, oh, this is
really hard and they start panicking and that makes it
worse. And then you explain to them,
well, that's your body adjusting.
(31:26):
You're using your muscles, You need more air.
You need to breathe in and out abit faster.
But you notice it because you'rein the water.
You're not actually having, you're not panicking.
It's not a problem. Give it 10 minutes.
That's going to settle your breathing all come right.
And they all say that that's brilliant.
They didn't realize that. And within 10 minutes they're
they're usually off, but they'vegotten in the water, gotten out
(31:50):
of breath, panicked and thought,this isn't for me.
But it's it's just a matter of overcoming that.
And what sort of things do you say to people who are, you know,
they're thinking about entering their first triathlon, but
they're, they're they're not feeling confident.
Like how, what would you say to encourage them and the way that
(32:12):
you you had to think about when you first got started?
I always say that if you want something badly enough, no
matter what the issues are, you'll find a way around them.
Whether it's lack of gear, whether it's health issues like
I had. But you have to want it badly
enough to put the time and the effort in because everyone
thinks I'm going to do this and they start off really motivated.
(32:35):
But it's in a month or two when the motivation wears off.
You have to have that reason fordoing it.
Andrew, my coach used to say, what's your why?
You have to know why you're doing it.
And it has to be something really, really important to you.
And it's really individual because when it gets really hard
(32:56):
or you've got to go for a run and it's pouring with rain and
you really don't want to go out there, that why is what's going
to get you out the door. It's what's going to keep you
going and keep you motivated when the motivation wears off.
So find your, find your why, decide why you want to do it and
make it a really, really good one.
(33:16):
And then it's stepping stones along the way.
You're not just going to suddenly go, I'm going to go do
Iron Man and you'll go out and do it in a week's time.
You have to build up to it. And it's about building
endurance. It's not.
I believe most people could actually do it if they really,
really wanted to, but most people don't want to, which is
(33:38):
fair enough. Most people wouldn't be silly
enough to want to. But I, I do believe anyone could
actually do an Iron Man if they wanted to and with the right
help and the right guidance and putting the, putting the effort
in and knowing what you need to do.
And that's where having a reallygood coach who understands and
(33:59):
understands how it's going to work for you, understands that
you've got family, you've got work.
You need to make the, the time you got to fit things in around
your, your life. You can't just say, right, OK,
I'm doing Iron Man. So for the next nine months,
sorry family, so you're not going to see me and I won't be
going to work. You have to fit it in around
(34:20):
being at a plan. So I used to often on a Sunday,
sometimes make lunches for a whole week that I could freeze
because I knew that I'd be busy at work.
I wouldn't get a decent lunch and I needed to eat so that I
could then go and do a training session at night and then have
dinner afterwards. So it's it's all that planning
that goes into it and scheduling.
(34:45):
Yeah, that's such a good point, remembering your why I was
thinking about this question in the morning.
I had swim squad and it's cold, rainy, dark day here in
Wellington. And so and I was at the pole and
I was thinking, I wonder what Kylie's going to say when I ask
her this question about, you know, how do you stay motivated
on these days? I do love swim squad but it was
(35:07):
just one of those days where youI had to push myself just that
little bit harder to get there. Yeah, I usually find I funnily
enough, I had squad this morning.
It was exactly the same. I was already awake and I was
listening to the rain thinking why the hell am I going out in
this? But I always remind myself too
that one, if I don't go, I'm going to feel guilty for the
(35:29):
rest of the day and that I hate that feeling.
And two, I know I'll feel betteronce I go.
Like for me, physically, I feel better.
It helps with my my aches and mypains and that and my energy
levels. I'm lucky at the moment that my
husband and I are both going to the same squad twice a week, so
I've got him dragging my butt out of bed.
(35:52):
He was away recently and Kim's doing Iron Man over there and I
didn't go the whole week he was away, which showed.
I actually need someone still tomotivate me a bit.
Yeah. We, I think we all need someone
like that. Just someone who sort of pushes
us to, Yeah, keep going. Yeah.
For me with the coaching, because I have to go and I have
(36:12):
to meet other people and I'm taking the session, so therefore
I have to be there, I don't get that out, which is really good.
So making a plan to meet someoneso you have to go because you've
told them, yeah, you've committed to it.
And I think that's really important.
Commit to the race, sign up for it.
(36:34):
Tell family and friends you're doing it.
Tell social media you're doing it.
Oh, that's a good way to commit.Yeah.
Oh yeah. The very first try I try I did
and because I was having issues with my breathing, I literally
dog doggy paddled the 500 the the swim.
Oh, sorry, it was the Sprint, not the try try.
I doggy paddled the 500 meters and I remember being halfway
(36:56):
through and I have a Facebook page that has about four and a
half thousand followers. And I was halfway through
thinking, oh man, I've really screwed up because I can't quit
this because all these people are watching and they're going
to know I quit. Oh boy, what have I got myself
in for? And it suddenly dawned on me
(37:18):
that so many people following what I was doing that was going
to hold me accountable. I had to get through the race,
otherwise I don't know that I would have.
Yeah. Did you feel a sort of
responsibility? Oh yeah, definitely, definitely.
And it was the same with Iron Man.
There were so many people that supported me to get there.
(37:39):
I actually had on the bike in the run.
I had a Locket with Tonya Hagen's picture in it, and his
belief that I could do it helpedas well.
So I figured, well, we started together, we were going to
finish together. So that's why his picture was in
the Locket, so that he would be there to.
Yes, I didn't say earlier, I'm very sorry for your loss.
(38:01):
I mean, he sounds like a really special person.
Oh, he meant a lot to so many people.
I think my daughter was just as devastated.
She used to come to squad on a Saturday with me and after Iron
Man, not the one I did, but the other ones he would often the
lane would be quiet. He'd later jump in and she'd
swim a couple of the sessions with us on The Saturdays.
(38:22):
And she was intending that when she got to 10, she would go and
train with him. So she had plans for for doing
training with Andrew, with Tony.And she was devastated when he
when he died. She's still talking about doing
Iron Man when she's 18, but. But we'll wait and see.
Yeah, that's cool. And I love how you had this
(38:43):
picture with you when you're completing the event.
I mean, that's so meaningful. Yeah, it it.
Nobody knew he was there but me.I put it on a really long chain
so it could sit down well under my Tri suit so it wouldn't get
in the way. And I practised a couple of my
longer rides to make sure it would fit, you know, and it
(39:04):
wouldn't chafe and it wouldn't irritate me or anything.
It was in, it was attached to mybike.
So when I came out of the swim Ijust had to put it over my head.
It was that big that I could just slip it over.
And it was important to me that he that he was there when I
crossed the finish line because there were quite a few races
that I'd cross that finish line and he'd be there waiting for
(39:24):
me. Yeah, so.
Well, that's really special and he obviously inspired you a lot.
He did. And now you're a coach yourself,
and you're inspiring other people.
So who? Who inspires you these days,
apart from your husband? Motivating, yeah.
And training. I, I have to say the, the ladies
(39:44):
I'm training with that I'm swimming with and all that,
there's four of them down doing run the forest tomorrow and
getting pictures of them down there.
And it's like, I'm really jealous I'm not with them.
And then one of the ladies is doing, we've got a big group
going to I marry down in Napier this year.
(40:05):
I am signed up for the half, butwe'll see.
The bike training is not going quite so well at the moment
unfortunately, but I'm actually coaching several of the ladies
that are going down there to do it, which is really cool.
But what? Sorry, what distance is the Iron
Mountie like? So the half is a 70.3 and then
(40:26):
the quarter is basically an Olympic.
So I figured I'd give myself to the end of August and if I can't
get the bike training up there, then I'll possibly look at
swapping to the quarter or delaying a year just because the
swimming and I can't run at the moment, but I can walk that
distance. The swimming is a piece of cake.
It's just the riding. And at the moment I'm just being
(40:49):
winter, I've got a lot, a lot more pain than normal and a lot
more fatigue and I'm just not able to get out on the bike.
And because it is the 1st of November, I'm not going to have
much time to get the distance up.
So we'll, we'll see how we go. Watch the space.
Of the three different sports, is the swimming your favorite?
(41:10):
I mean, I'm not towards swimmingbecause this is the swim
podcast, but I mean, it's the the lowest impact.
Yeah. And it's a piece of cake.
Is it? Is that something you enjoy
particularly? I don't enjoy the long distance
swimming like my husband will get in there and do.
Take a poon or two, narrow neck which is or or Cheltenham which
is like 6 1/2 K's. He would happily go and swim
(41:32):
that. I couldn't do that, but I do
love being in the water. I think because it takes all the
pressure off my joints and it I can move better in the water.
So I can get in and happily Aquajog in the water and do a really
hard run session in the water for an hour or two.
But I couldn't do that on land and I do find it the easiest.
(41:57):
I used to love getting out on mybike at like 5:00 in the morning
and going down the cycle way andwatching the sun come up and it
was really magical that time of day.
So I do miss that, although I don't miss the early mornings
and I do like riding on the windtrainer.
My bike after Iron Man. She had a her name is Faith and
(42:21):
she went through a lot to get methrough Iron Man, my poor little
bike. And she had a custom paint job
and she's now blue with the red Iron Man logo and of course the
top bar. It says anything is possible
with a little faith. And of course she's an extra
small Sevilla. So it was kind of a play on
(42:42):
words. And she's really pretty and I
love her. I've never felt that way about a
bike. So I do miss not being able to
get out there. But so I would like to be able
to do more of the cycling and I'll get, I will get there.
It's just going to take a bit oftime, I think.
Yeah. One thing I was going to ask you
about the swimming, obviously when you're ocean swimming,
you're going in different conditions, you know, in rainy
(43:04):
days and windy days, and it sounds like you're meeting once
a week with your group. How do you find coaching people
to swim in the different ocean conditions?
We're very lucky at Takapuna that there's a bit of a Bay, so
if it's really rough, you can actually stick into the Bay and
it's still rough but you're close to the shore.
(43:28):
So usually what we do is if it'sreally rough, I'll get them to
swim towards the boat ramp whereit's, it's a little bit more
sheltered. We do still tend to go out if we
can, but we do look at the safe swim.
So safe swim will tell us the direction of the waves and it'll
give us an idea of how big they'll be depending on the the
(43:49):
strength of the wind and also the pollution levels obviously.
So if it's really bad, we don't,what we will do before Ironmarry
is we will probably do a few swims over towards Mission Bay
Coe way because it is actually rougher over there.
And we've been out to Maritai a few times just for different
conditions. It's getting in in different
(44:12):
times, different conditions. And so that you're, you're used
to everything, if you know what I mean.
That's why it's been really goodgoing in this year with the in
the winter, with the cold, because I marry down an acre is
still quite cold that time of year.
So I want them to be used to thecold and still able to swim.
(44:33):
We've just adapted slightly. We've got neoprene booties and
caps if they if they need them. And there's a trick that Tony O
Hagan taught me. You tip, warm tip water down the
front of your suit sort of creates that, that warm layer of
water before you get in, which helps.
Oh, that's good tip. Yeah, yeah.
And I tell you what, if you've got a four litre of water in the
(44:55):
back of your car, there's nothing better over the top of
your head afterwards if it's warm.
Yeah. I have a friend who brings a
bottle and she likes to tip overher feet after a cold.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Get all the sand off.
Yeah. So it's basically just a matter
of getting out in lots of different conditions and
experiencing them all. And that way, because you never
know what you're going to get onrace day, you don't know if
(45:16):
it'll be rough. It'll be calm.
We get, we do get conditions down there that are so calm.
I say it's like being in a saltyswimming pool because it's just
absolutely mirror surfaces and that's just absolutely magical.
But we also get days where it can be quite rough.
And yeah, like you say, you'd need to prepare for all
eventualities. Yeah.
(45:36):
You don't know what you're goingto get.
Yeah. Yeah.
Rough. Can be quite good because then
you can get them practicing starts and finishing and like
getting in and out when it's rough, getting out past the
waves and actually diving under them or being able to lift your,
your knees up out of the water enough to get over the top.
If you're close to shore. You know, dolphin dives, you can
(45:57):
practice a lot of stuff, even ifit's a little bit rough and we
sort of make a bit of a, a bit of a fun thing of it.
You know that Then that helps with the nerves.
If everyone's laughing and giggling and carrying on and,
and being bowled over by waves. You can't be, you can't be
nervous and scared if you're if you're laughing.
That's such a good idea because swimming in choppy water is
always something I need to work on.
(46:18):
So yeah, that sounds like great practice for me.
Oh, Kylie, I've really enjoyed talking to you.
Well, I'll make sure that I linkto the Twisted Sisters website
and the show notes in your Facebook group.
Is there anything else you want to mention that I we haven't
(46:38):
already covered? We do have lots of people in
other areas so if anyone is after help and support we can
still help. I've got, I've got a lady at the
moment I'm coaching in Taronga and there's another ladies from
Towering also that's approached me.
(46:59):
So like we can often help put you in touch with other people
from your area or, or help put you in touch with other coaches,
other groups and that kind of thing.
It's not like we say no, you have to stay with us.
It's like we'll point you in theright direction and offer any
help and guidance you need. Yeah.
(47:21):
That's good to know and is the best way for people to get in
touch with you just through yourwebsite.
Yeah, if you flick us a message to the website and then if you
want to join the Facebook group,we can send you a link to that.
The only thing we ask is that you do fill out the the three
little questions that are there just so we know that you are a
real person and you're not just a bot or anything silly like
(47:44):
that. And then we know a little bit
about you. So yeah, that's the only thing
we ask is you just fill those questions out.
Perfect. All right, well, thank you
Kylie, and next time I'm up in Auckland I'll try and come along
for a swim with a Twister Sisters.
We do get that. I've got a lady that comes up
from Coromandel. We had, I think a lady from
Wellington recently and yeah, they, they let us know when
(48:07):
they're going to be in the area.And sometimes during the
weekdays we can organize an extra swim.
We do that for people and we have a group to come along and
swim with them. Yeah, good to know.
Yeah. All right.
Well, thanks so much for your time.
No worries, thanks for having me.
Thanks for listening to this episode of Swim Chats.
Please remember to follow or subscribe to the podcast so you
(48:27):
don't miss an episode. And if you enjoyed it, you can
leave a five star rating and review which helps other people
find it too. Enjoy the water and we'll see
you next time.
Kyota and welcome to Swim Chats,a podcast about ocean swimming.
I'm Shona Riddell, a writer, former journalist and swimmer
from Wellington, Altero in New Zealand.
For each episode, I talk to a different guest from our swim
community. Remember, if you have any
questions, thoughts or suggestions, you can e-mail me
at swimchatswithshona@gmail.com or follow Swim Chats on
(00:31):
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The link is in the episode show notes and in the podcast
(01:12):
description. But if that's not an option for
you, that's totally fine. Being a listener is.
Also awesome. Thank you.
Hello Kylie, Welcome to Swim Chats.
Hi, great to have you on the show.
And I first heard about Twisted Sisters from the Facebook group,
(01:37):
I think it's called New Zealand Ocean Swimming Community.
There's been a few posts on there.
And I've also heard you being interviewed on RNZ about your
your swimming and amazing triathlons.
Yeah. So I'm keen to talk to you about
all of that. Yeah, I guess maybe if you're
comfortable with it, first tell us about when you first started
(02:01):
entering triathlons and the circumstances around that.
Yeah, I. Have a form of arthritis that
I've had probably dates back from when I was 11, but I wasn't
diagnosed till I was 40. And I had a rheumatologist who
was very, very good but there was really wasn't any treatment
(02:23):
options he could do. And he sent me to a physio who
in the physio wanted me to get more active and I was very, very
weak all over. So he put me in the hydrotherapy
pool. He actually said don't swim,
you've got no strength in your arms, you're likely to drown.
Oh wow. Yeah.
So it was very slow, steady progress.
(02:45):
And somebody one day at the local swimming pool behind the
counter, I said, are you workingtowards something?
Do you have a goal? Because she'd see me there 3
mornings a week. And after talking with them,
they gave me a pass for the gym.And I came home and told my
husband I was going to do a triathlon, which I'd always want
(03:06):
to do. And that didn't go down very
well. Only because he was worried I'd
get hurt. Right?
Yeah. And was this about, are we
talking about 10 years ago? Yeah, in 2015, I believe, early,
almost exactly 10 years ago now,I was swimming three days a
week. And then I started using the gym
(03:27):
as well. And I'm still using the
hydrotherapy pool a lot and still seeing the physio
regularly and things like that. And what I found is the days I
swam, I had a lot more movement in my arms and my shoulders and
my back didn't hurt so much and I had more energy and, and it
just all gradually progressed. It did take me, I think early
(03:50):
2016 was the first try I try. I did at Maritai and my husband
did it with me because I, I wentdown and did the banana boat
swim in Rotorua in the Blue Lake.
And I had a very, very bad reaction to the cold water with
my chest because it's in my rib cage.
(04:10):
And it sounds a bit like listening to someone who's got
asthma having an asthma attack. And it's pretty scary.
Well, for me and the afterwards they had chest pains.
So the ambulance did an EKG and my doctor wasn't happy and I had
to go through all these tests and but I end up being a race.
But I said to my husband, right,you do it alongside me just as
(04:32):
a, as a safety blanket in case there's any issues, which he
did. And afterwards he said, Oh no,
no, no, triathlon's not for me. I'll stick to my ocean swimming.
And then the next thing you know, he'd signed up for Iron
Man, which I'd never even heard of.
And then I watched him do the Iron Man a year later, and it
just kind of snowballed from there.
(04:54):
I was hooked. That sounds credible.
So so I I haven't personally done an Iron Man, but I was
reading about it and so it's 3.8kilometer swimming and 180
kilometer bike ride. That's right and.
And then a 42K run. So marathon, Marathon.
At the end, yeah. Amazing.
(05:15):
And so you saw him do it, and then you thought, that's what I
want to do. It did take me another year or
two to would actually admit to myself, let alone anyone else,
that I wanted to do it. But it was kind of niggling in
the back of my head. It's like I wonder if I could do
that one day. Yeah, just sort of ignited that
spark. Yeah, what I found the longer
distances, I didn't have to be as fast, I didn't have to work
(05:36):
quite so hard. I just had to have the endurance
to keep going. So the longer distances actually
suit me better than the sprints and the Olympics, right?
Yeah. I in fact, I've never even done
an Olympic. Have you ever done the Olympic?
Distance yet? Yeah.
And so did you have someone coaching you at that time or did
you have to look for a coach? Yeah, originally I was doing it
(05:59):
on my own. I did get a lot of a lot of
local coaches that I approached,but as soon as I mentioned I had
any sort of health impact, health issues, they didn't
really want to know or or they just didn't feel they had the
experience to help. I was very, very lucky to come
(06:20):
across Tony O'hagan though online.
I looked him up through I think either Iron, it might have been
Ironman New Zealand or TriathlonNew Zealand, one of them.
And I liked the sound of him andI rang him that day and within
half an hour I had a training program and I was watching it.
I was watching from my end as heformed it on his end.
(06:42):
And as you said, well, yes, you can do it, but we're going to
have to train differently. You're going to have to talk to
me every day, Tell me how you'refeeling.
And I worked with him until he passed away a couple years ago.
And he was just amazing. He, he really gave me the base
that I needed to believe in myself and, and to actually go
(07:02):
out there and do the longer stuff.
And he taught me how to work around everything, which was
really good. Yeah.
And was was his style sort of gentle encouragement or more
firm? Or definitely, yeah, yeah,
definitely. The only negative for me was
probably I needed a bit more pushing, but he was very yeah.
(07:25):
He really understood everything as well when I explained to him
what was going on with my, my rib cage affecting my lung
capacity and how it affected me on the bike, on hills and things
like that. He, he understood it.
So he would then modify whateverI was doing to make it work for
me so that we'd still get the same result, but by doing it a
slightly different way. And as he said, you, you'll be
(07:48):
able to do it, but you'll have to have a really, really long
ramp up. It ended up being six years till
I was strong enough to do it. So it did take a long time.
Yeah. And then when he passed away, I
went with my husband's coach, who I knew quite well anyway,
Andrew Mackay. We got the news that Tony had
(08:10):
passed. And then within about, I think,
36 hours, I had a phone call from Andrew saying don't worry
about your training, I've got your back.
Leave it up to me. I'll look after you.
I'll get you there. You just focus on on getting
through it at the moment, which was really good because I was
devastated. Tony O'hagan, I felt was a good
(08:31):
friend and it was a shock. So Andrew kept me going and he
stayed with me through to Iron Man and a bit longer than that.
Yeah. And his was not so much the
gentle approach, but by the end I probably needed that.
And and what was that experiencelike for you of completing the
(08:53):
Iron Man? How long did it take?
It I finished with 70, you have 7017 hours to finish in Iron
Man. There are cut offs along the way
and I knew the swim I would be fine for which I was.
I had ample time. I knew the bike cut off would be
(09:14):
OK so long as everything went right, which it did.
But it was the run was the biggest issue because I have a
lot of pain in my ankles and it it hurts to run.
So the run was the was the big, big issue for me.
And I ended up finishing with 70seconds to spare.
So a minute and 10 seconds and Ihad on the the last lap I had
(09:38):
Andrew riding on the bike with me, my coach, I had my husband.
I had a couple of one lady from Palmerston who had been on the
bike course all day as a volunteer and I've known her for
years. She came out on the course with
me holding her phone because I had no, there were no lights and
at that point I couldn't get my special needs.
So I had no kid torch and she's shown the light and she ran with
(10:01):
me for probably a good 36 KS or the 42 it's.
Amazing. And yeah, so because I was one
of the last finishes and by the time you get to that point they
just want you to finish, they'rea bit more relaxed when comes to
people being around you and giving assistance.
So I still had to do it all by myself, but I did have people
there if I needed anything. And one of them had my special
(10:24):
needs bag with, I had painkillers and I had gels and
all sorts in there. But by then I was just really
focused. I was just in my own little
world. And it was they had these Rd.
cones and I can remember just repeating to myself, run the
cone, walk the cone, run the cone, walk the cone and all the
(10:46):
way through it. And at one point my husband
tried to say something and I andI yelled at them.
I I just he tried to touch me and I didn't want to be touched.
And yeah, you were just in the zone.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Congratulation.
I mean, that's phenomenal to complete an Iron Man event.
And was it after that that you decided yourself that you wanted
(11:07):
to become a coach and support other people, or did that take?
Yeah, after Iron Man, because mine was part of the Tony
Jackson Scholarship. And part of that is you get a
free entry and I already had an entry that was a deferral
because of an injury. So I never, the next year they
said to me or do you want the free entry?
(11:29):
And I was going to do it again. And I even got part way through
the January training and it's like not I'm done.
This is just too hard. I just can't do this.
One was enough. I'll stick with 1.
And I started doing some other stuff, but I, I got injured.
(11:50):
I was training for Tara Weira and I tore all the ligaments in
my ankle on the beach one day. And it took me about two years
to be able to, I couldn't even swim, I couldn't ride my bike, I
couldn't do anything. It was really bad.
So it's, it set me back a long way.
And during that period I thought, well, if I can't do
this anymore, which I'm not going to be able to do it
(12:10):
forever, then what could I do instead?
And I still wanted to be involved.
So the idea of coaching and helping people like myself sort
of evolved because I had a hard job finding a coach that would
be willing to take on someone, one, with my health issues, and
two, that was a true beginner that really didn't know
(12:31):
anything. Most coaches are great to work
with if you've got a bit of experience, and there are a lot
out there that will work with people just starting out.
But most people just starting out would be too nervous to go
to them, yeah. That's right, yeah.
You don't have the confidence to.
No, no, yeah. And I was really lucky that
(12:52):
Andrew Mackay, my coach from Boost Coaching, he sort of, I
won't say he sponsored me, but he wrote a letter of
recommendation for my coaching certificate, which was awesome.
And he's always there in the background to offer me help and
support. And I kind of work now with the
people beginning and then often I'll feed them to him for
swimming advice or lessons or the more, if they want to go to,
(13:15):
the more the bigger races I'll, they'll go to him for the more
experienced coaching. So it actually works quite well.
We sort of help, yeah. He sort of helps me out a bit.
And so let's talk about the Twisted Sisters Club.
So when, when did that come about and how did the idea for
it get started? OK, so I wanted to do a
(13:39):
triathlon with my daughter. She's now 13 and at the time she
was 11 and the ones in Auckland,you had to be 12.
And we found the woman's try down a tower on.
I had an 11 age, age cut off. So I thought, OK, we can go down
there, we can do the woman's tryher and I.
And then we found they had a mother daughter category, which
(14:02):
I thought was really awesome. And talking to a friend whose
daughter was 16, I sort of said,well, why don't you guys do it
with us? You know, we in order to
motivate them to do it, we jokingly said, you know, ha ha,
ha, you'll never beat us. You know, we'll challenge you
to, to, for you 2 to beat us, which they did.
(14:23):
And then talking to other friends, I found other people
when you were doing it. And then Moore said, well,
we'll, we'll come down and we'lldo it with you.
We ended up, we had seven of us and we're all in different
accommodation and along the way training for it.
I had put together some basic training sessions and we were
doing brick sessions together and we were doing ocean swims
(14:45):
and things and we weren't finding.
There was a lot of support and encouragement out there.
The people in that, in that really beginning stage, we're
not the people that we knew anyway.
And afterwards we had formed such good friendships from going
down as a group and doing the race, even though we're in
(15:07):
different categories or different waves and stuff.
We had such a good time and we were talking online and we sort
of said, well, we should put a Facebook group together, you
know, rather than having a message thread where everything
is getting lost, we could do it on Facebook.
And we came up, well, one of theladies, Anita, came up with the
name Twisted Sisters, and it kind of stuck.
(15:30):
Yeah. So we originally we only had the
Facebook group and it was ladiesonly so that we can support and
encourage each other, you know, offer motivation.
And I was offering a bit of support and guidance and things
like that. And then I, my dream is to put
on a beginner triathlon, and I mean a total beginner triathlon.
(15:52):
Think Wheat Becks kids, but for adults.
We've we've got the location, wehave tentative council approval,
we don't have the funding and I've sort of keep putting it off
thinking that we'll look at it next year.
We've got a bit more money. And then we decided, well, if we
(16:12):
are a actual club recognised club in New Zealand, we can
apply for funding grants, which is what we did.
So we officially became a club on the 23rd of August last year.
So it's nearly a year to the day.
And we had to have a minimum of 10 members, which we're now
(16:34):
sitting just under 50, which is pretty good for a year.
We have over 305 people on our Facebook group and they're from
all around the world. And yeah, it's just been the
response from the community has been awesome.
We've just got our first fundinggrant, which is for wet suits
and swim caps for the season to help some of the ladies out.
(16:56):
Cool. So Team Line is going to be
cutting out at least 10 of the ladies with wet suits and
everyone's going to have TwistedSister's swim caps.
So we can move from a safety point of view, we can keep an
eye on everyone in the water. Our Saturday swims were sitting
at about nearly 40 people last Saturday each week.
Cool, so tell me about the Saturday swims.
Are they all year round? This year they weren't, but from
(17:20):
next year they will be. Yeah.
We do still have some ladies going and swimming on a
satellite when the weather's OK and the the the safe swim flag
is green. We did swim last weekend.
It was about 14°. It was pretty cold so it was
only 1/2 hour swim. It wasn't very long.
(17:40):
And that's at Takapuna. Is that right in Auckland?
So we meet with the toilet blockis at Takapuna.
We don't charge anything for theswim and you don't have to be a
member. We do advise that you just let
us know you're coming along beforehand.
This coming season, the swim caps will be mandatory.
So if you're not a member, the only cost will be purchasing a
(18:03):
swim cap. And that's so that we know you
are part of our group and you have to fill out a emergency
safety form so that we have yourdetails if anything happens, if
we can contact somewhere for you.
And that way we know if you've got allergies, that kind of
thing. I take the.
Yep, sorry so I'm not very familiar with type of preneur.
Is there like a swim boy that you can swim out to?
(18:25):
There is, they've got the pink boys which are a bit closer and
then they have the yellow 5 knotmarker boys.
At high tide it's roughly 300 meters out to the boy.
So we meet at the toilet block. We all go in together over
summer. It's about 7:00 we start.
We have a safety brief beforehand so everyone knows
(18:46):
what the plan is. We have a sign in board so that
everyone has to have their name and and that on the board.
We know and then when you come out, we'd mark off that you've
returned. We do prefer tow floats and
things like that just for safety, but it's not mandatory.
The the bulk of them swim out tothe yellow boys and then swim
(19:07):
down the boy line. Any new swimmers or anyone
really nervous or anything like that, they stay with me.
We have a beginner group that stays near the shore.
We usually swim down the beach, but then as they gain confidence
it's my job to get them out to the boys and get them out
swimming with the main group. So usually for most swimmers, I
(19:29):
find it takes them 3 or 4 weeks just to get that confidence and,
and you know, be able to get offfrom the shore and, and figure
out how it all works and how, what it feels like to swim in
the sea and not be so nervous and, and that kind of thing.
It doesn't take too long for most people.
And how do you, how do you know when they're ready to swim out a
bit further? Do they say or do you just get
(19:51):
get sort of the feeling? You, you sort of know.
You can tell. You can tell by the expression
on their face if they're really looking nervous.
Then we tend to stay near the shore because I don't want
anyone panicking. Yeah, you sort of know by the
way they're acting. And we do stop and regroup all
the time. And just to say, hey, are you
(20:12):
OK? You know it.
I also explained to them it doestake about 10-15 minutes when
you first start off just to get acclimatized to the water, to
the temperature, to let your breathing settle and really get
into that, that, that flow. And then once they've got
through that, I noticed most of them actually realized, well,
(20:33):
actually this isn't as scary as I thought it was going to be.
And it's actually pretty cool. And then you get out to that
marker boy for that first time and just the expression on their
face, they all go up and they all hit it with their hand like
sort of high fiving it. Sometimes we get pitches out
there if we can, and everyone will sit around with the marker
boy going, oh wow, this is just so cool.
(20:56):
Yeah, especially with the sun coming up behind Regatodo.
Be so beautiful. It must be so rewarding for you
to see that, yeah. Oh yeah, yeah.
I love how you, I read on your website that you have like a
gear library as well. So if you're in the twisters,
this is quite. That's such a good idea because
lots of people have different gear that they're not using or
(21:16):
using any more. And yeah.
We were very lucky. We got gifted a couple of bikes
and we had one lady that came tome about November last year and
said there's a triathlon coming up, I wouldn't mind doing it, I
don't have a bike. I was like there you go, you can
take the bike. The deal is they have to be a
(21:37):
financial member and they get the use of it for three months.
Obviously they can't sell it andthey've got to try and return it
in roughly the same condition and then we can pass it on to
someone else. This happens to be a very, very
nice bike with quite a lot of money, so we were very lucky.
But she she went and did I marryTamaki in Ojai Hubei and she
(22:00):
absolutely blitzed it. She just did amazing and then
gave the bike back and said no, that's it.
I've done my one try. We're done.
We know how to do other stuff. But the average person wants to
do a triathlon, they're not necessarily going to have the
money to go and buy a a bike or know what they need or.
What makes it? It's a big investment to then
(22:22):
decide, yeah, not actually, no, I've done one.
I'm happy with that. I'm not going to.
And then the bike sits there anddoesn't get used.
I've got another lady that's been using a, a Garmin Phoenix
five that we got donated. She is, they're, they've got
young kids, they just don't haveextra money.
(22:44):
So she's used that for a while. And she's just had her 30th
birthday and family have gifted her not a brand new one, but her
own, her own watch. So she's going to give that
back. That's now going to be passed on
to someone else who's been usinga Samsung.
And they can't always download the stuff to the coaching
platform. So they want to look at using a
(23:05):
Garmin and they just want to tryit out first.
So all sorts of stuff. And we've now got a couple of
our club shirts too. So if you're doing a race, you
can borrow the shirt and run in the shirt, that kind of thing.
So it, it does make a massive difference for some folks.
The idea is it's, it's not something you get to keep.
It's a, it's a loan while you decide what gear you want and
(23:27):
while you save the money to get your own gear so that you can.
But it means meanwhile you can start training.
Yeah. And you get to try it out and
see if it works. Exactly.
Yeah, and you recently, I think it was even just last week had
the girl boy swim challenge. So boy, as in BUOY.
Yeah, as in Macca boys, it was actually beginning of April.
(23:48):
Oh, beginning back it was. The beginning of April, yeah.
It was probably one of the nicest weekends we had for the
end of the season. So the Girl Boy swim challenge,
we were trying to think of a waylast season to challenge these
ladies who were swimming out to the boy and back, which was
about 600 meters. We wanted them to be able to go
(24:08):
further and we wanted to give them a goal for the season.
And I thought, well, the ultimate would be to swim to
Cable Boy and back, which is down the far end of the beach.
So you've, there's five of the yellow 5 knot boys and then
there's cable Boy, which is about four or five times the
size. All up it would be probably
about 3.3 K. So it's not an, it's not a short
(24:31):
swim. And we thought, well, if you
were swimming the boy line and you get to trouble, you're only
ever 300 meters offshore. But we didn't want it to be a
race. There's enough races out there.
If you want to do a race, you goand do one of the banana boats
or one of those. This was going to be more of a
personal challenge. And we came up with all sorts of
(24:53):
ideas like nominating which boy you were going to swim to in the
middle would have that number and, and in the end that was a
bit too complicated. So we said right, we're going to
have two distances, the first group is going to swim to to the
first boy and down and back. The second group was from to the
second boy and down and back. So it cut about 800 metres off
(25:15):
the course for them. So for the ones that were really
new or really nervous, they did the shortest one.
We kept it at 60 people because we weren't out in the shipping
lanes. We didn't need harbour master
approval and council said don't worry about council approval
because it's not on land. There's no Rd. crossings.
We had we had kayaks for water support, we divided them into
(25:39):
three groups depending on their pace, so 20 per group with two
kayaks per group. And we also had a boat with two
people in it and we had a first aid responder on the beach.
So it was run as if it was a race, a full race, but it wasn't
a race. And at the end they all got a
medal. And then we all had a shared
(26:00):
morning tea and the atmosphere was just incredible.
I think there was 56 ladies did it.
Yeah, Which? I love that, yeah, I love, I
love that it's just non competitive and everybody's just
doing it for themselves and to be part of the group, yeah.
Yeah. So the really, I mean the the
last group to go. So we set off the the slower
(26:21):
people went first obviously. So they're all finishing around
the same time. The very last two swimmers to
come in, one of them had had surgery a couple of months
before and hadn't been on a swim, and she was adamant she
was going to get it done. So it's really cool.
So I think she got the biggest chair when she finally finished,
yeah. Yeah.
(26:42):
So that's a big support group. Yeah, and we're doing it again
this coming March. We'll be doing it again.
Again, we're capping the numbersat 60.
We're going to keep it at that. We'll probably have a couple of
extra paddle boards or somethinglike that.
So the idea being if you get, ifyou get to a marker boy on the
way back and you just think of enough, you'll have someone to
(27:03):
escort you to shore so you're not on your own.
They still got the middle even if they didn't finish, so long
as they reach cable boy, becausethat was the goal.
So yeah. And we finished afterwards and
everyone's like, when can we do this again?
Yeah. So we will begin with again,
yeah. They mentioned you've got sort
of 50 or so people in the club itself, but hundreds of people
(27:26):
in the Facebook group, yes, including people out of
Auckland. So do you have plans to expand
the club? Like for example, I live in
Wellington and I would love to join.
I would, I would love to. If we get enough people, I could
see it becoming a bit like the park run scenario where you
have, you have little groups maybe in the main centers.
(27:51):
We do do a lot of online stuff like, so we do online bike rides
and we're just about to introduce some strength sessions
online. And once a month we have I, I do
a session online where people can come on board and just say,
right, I'm training for this or I've got this question and it's
(28:12):
all to do with coaching races, nutrition gear, any help or
advice they need. And I usually I'm usually on
there for an hour or two, which,which is quite good.
There's often a race coming up that someone's looking at and
they just want help or advice. So we do do a lot of other stuff
that does work for those people that aren't in Auckland.
(28:33):
But yeah, ideally I'd love to see it in other centres.
But the problem is because I personally take a lot of the the
training, the one-on-one training sessions or the in
person ones, should I say I needto find someone like me in these
other areas that could do it. And that's where the that's
where the challenge is, yeah. You were talking about how you
(28:54):
support people in the water who are just sort of getting in and
they're new to it, and it's, youknow, big and scary, and they're
getting used to the feeling of being in the ocean.
Like, how do you support them? What sort of things do you say
to them to help them relax and get more confident?
I think the first thing I usually do is most of them will
have a wet suit of sorts, or they'll have a tow float, and
(29:17):
the first thing we do is literally just get in the water
and we'll get them to relax, getthem to realize they're not
going to sink. There's nothing scary.
There's nothing coming up to nibble on their toes or anything
silly like that. They're not that far offshore.
They can go back anytime they like and they just need to
relax. Swimming is all about technique.
(29:38):
So if you're relaxed and you useyour technique, you don't have
to be out of breath, you don't have to be stressed.
It's just stuff like that. I mean, I usually will.
I'm not. I wouldn't say I'm an expert
when it comes to helping some ofthe swimming.
I'm not. But I can look at what they're
doing and just give them a few pointers of things that they can
(30:00):
do to make it easier. Our club president, Anita, the
very first time she swam at Mission Bay with me, she got
into the water thinking it'd be really, really easy and she
started swimming, got really outof breath, started to panic.
I literally got her to stop and blow bubbles like what they get
the kids to do because she was holding her breath.
And it's like, no, you need to relax.
(30:22):
And I just got her putting her face in, breathing out and then
face out of the water. Breathe in, face in the water,
breathe out. And we did that until she calmed
down and then she was OK. And then occasionally, even now,
she she'll stop and do the same thing just to clear that panic.
There's another lady, Mika, who gets very, very nervous when she
(30:44):
hasn't been in the water for a while, so she actually goes down
and starts swimming while we're doing our safety briefing,
purely because she actually needs to be in the water on her
own, coming down first. So different things work for
different people, and as you getto know someone, you actually
figure out, OK, this. I usually give them different
suggestions and it's just what works for them.
(31:05):
Yeah, that's such a good point that everybody's an individual
and we have different things that we're thinking about and
that we need to focus on. Yeah.
And I think most people basically they get out of breath
when they first start swimming and they think, oh, this is
really hard and they start panicking and that makes it
worse. And then you explain to them,
well, that's your body adjusting.
(31:26):
You're using your muscles, You need more air.
You need to breathe in and out abit faster.
But you notice it because you'rein the water.
You're not actually having, you're not panicking.
It's not a problem. Give it 10 minutes.
That's going to settle your breathing all come right.
And they all say that that's brilliant.
They didn't realize that. And within 10 minutes they're
they're usually off, but they'vegotten in the water, gotten out
(31:50):
of breath, panicked and thought,this isn't for me.
But it's it's just a matter of overcoming that.
And what sort of things do you say to people who are, you know,
they're thinking about entering their first triathlon, but
they're, they're they're not feeling confident.
Like how, what would you say to encourage them and the way that
(32:12):
you you had to think about when you first got started?
I always say that if you want something badly enough, no
matter what the issues are, you'll find a way around them.
Whether it's lack of gear, whether it's health issues like
I had. But you have to want it badly
enough to put the time and the effort in because everyone
thinks I'm going to do this and they start off really motivated.
(32:35):
But it's in a month or two when the motivation wears off.
You have to have that reason fordoing it.
Andrew, my coach used to say, what's your why?
You have to know why you're doing it.
And it has to be something really, really important to you.
And it's really individual because when it gets really hard
(32:56):
or you've got to go for a run and it's pouring with rain and
you really don't want to go out there, that why is what's going
to get you out the door. It's what's going to keep you
going and keep you motivated when the motivation wears off.
So find your, find your why, decide why you want to do it and
make it a really, really good one.
(33:16):
And then it's stepping stones along the way.
You're not just going to suddenly go, I'm going to go do
Iron Man and you'll go out and do it in a week's time.
You have to build up to it. And it's about building
endurance. It's not.
I believe most people could actually do it if they really,
really wanted to, but most people don't want to, which is
(33:38):
fair enough. Most people wouldn't be silly
enough to want to. But I, I do believe anyone could
actually do an Iron Man if they wanted to and with the right
help and the right guidance and putting the, putting the effort
in and knowing what you need to do.
And that's where having a reallygood coach who understands and
(33:59):
understands how it's going to work for you, understands that
you've got family, you've got work.
You need to make the, the time you got to fit things in around
your, your life. You can't just say, right, OK,
I'm doing Iron Man. So for the next nine months,
sorry family, so you're not going to see me and I won't be
going to work. You have to fit it in around
(34:20):
being at a plan. So I used to often on a Sunday,
sometimes make lunches for a whole week that I could freeze
because I knew that I'd be busy at work.
I wouldn't get a decent lunch and I needed to eat so that I
could then go and do a training session at night and then have
dinner afterwards. So it's it's all that planning
that goes into it and scheduling.
(34:45):
Yeah, that's such a good point, remembering your why I was
thinking about this question in the morning.
I had swim squad and it's cold, rainy, dark day here in
Wellington. And so and I was at the pole and
I was thinking, I wonder what Kylie's going to say when I ask
her this question about, you know, how do you stay motivated
on these days? I do love swim squad but it was
(35:07):
just one of those days where youI had to push myself just that
little bit harder to get there. Yeah, I usually find I funnily
enough, I had squad this morning.
It was exactly the same. I was already awake and I was
listening to the rain thinking why the hell am I going out in
this? But I always remind myself too
that one, if I don't go, I'm going to feel guilty for the
(35:29):
rest of the day and that I hate that feeling.
And two, I know I'll feel betteronce I go.
Like for me, physically, I feel better.
It helps with my my aches and mypains and that and my energy
levels. I'm lucky at the moment that my
husband and I are both going to the same squad twice a week, so
I've got him dragging my butt out of bed.
(35:52):
He was away recently and Kim's doing Iron Man over there and I
didn't go the whole week he was away, which showed.
I actually need someone still tomotivate me a bit.
Yeah. We, I think we all need someone
like that. Just someone who sort of pushes
us to, Yeah, keep going. Yeah.
For me with the coaching, because I have to go and I have
(36:12):
to meet other people and I'm taking the session, so therefore
I have to be there, I don't get that out, which is really good.
So making a plan to meet someoneso you have to go because you've
told them, yeah, you've committed to it.
And I think that's really important.
Commit to the race, sign up for it.
(36:34):
Tell family and friends you're doing it.
Tell social media you're doing it.
Oh, that's a good way to commit.Yeah.
Oh yeah. The very first try I try I did
and because I was having issues with my breathing, I literally
dog doggy paddled the 500 the the swim.
Oh, sorry, it was the Sprint, not the try try.
I doggy paddled the 500 meters and I remember being halfway
(36:56):
through and I have a Facebook page that has about four and a
half thousand followers. And I was halfway through
thinking, oh man, I've really screwed up because I can't quit
this because all these people are watching and they're going
to know I quit. Oh boy, what have I got myself
in for? And it suddenly dawned on me
(37:18):
that so many people following what I was doing that was going
to hold me accountable. I had to get through the race,
otherwise I don't know that I would have.
Yeah. Did you feel a sort of
responsibility? Oh yeah, definitely, definitely.
And it was the same with Iron Man.
There were so many people that supported me to get there.
(37:39):
I actually had on the bike in the run.
I had a Locket with Tonya Hagen's picture in it, and his
belief that I could do it helpedas well.
So I figured, well, we started together, we were going to
finish together. So that's why his picture was in
the Locket, so that he would be there to.
Yes, I didn't say earlier, I'm very sorry for your loss.
(38:01):
I mean, he sounds like a really special person.
Oh, he meant a lot to so many people.
I think my daughter was just as devastated.
She used to come to squad on a Saturday with me and after Iron
Man, not the one I did, but the other ones he would often the
lane would be quiet. He'd later jump in and she'd
swim a couple of the sessions with us on The Saturdays.
(38:22):
And she was intending that when she got to 10, she would go and
train with him. So she had plans for for doing
training with Andrew, with Tony.And she was devastated when he
when he died. She's still talking about doing
Iron Man when she's 18, but. But we'll wait and see.
Yeah, that's cool. And I love how you had this
(38:43):
picture with you when you're completing the event.
I mean, that's so meaningful. Yeah, it it.
Nobody knew he was there but me.I put it on a really long chain
so it could sit down well under my Tri suit so it wouldn't get
in the way. And I practised a couple of my
longer rides to make sure it would fit, you know, and it
(39:04):
wouldn't chafe and it wouldn't irritate me or anything.
It was in, it was attached to mybike.
So when I came out of the swim Ijust had to put it over my head.
It was that big that I could just slip it over.
And it was important to me that he that he was there when I
crossed the finish line because there were quite a few races
that I'd cross that finish line and he'd be there waiting for
(39:24):
me. Yeah, so.
Well, that's really special and he obviously inspired you a lot.
He did. And now you're a coach yourself,
and you're inspiring other people.
So who? Who inspires you these days,
apart from your husband? Motivating, yeah.
And training. I, I have to say the, the ladies
(39:44):
I'm training with that I'm swimming with and all that,
there's four of them down doing run the forest tomorrow and
getting pictures of them down there.
And it's like, I'm really jealous I'm not with them.
And then one of the ladies is doing, we've got a big group
going to I marry down in Napier this year.
(40:05):
I am signed up for the half, butwe'll see.
The bike training is not going quite so well at the moment
unfortunately, but I'm actually coaching several of the ladies
that are going down there to do it, which is really cool.
But what? Sorry, what distance is the Iron
Mountie like? So the half is a 70.3 and then
(40:26):
the quarter is basically an Olympic.
So I figured I'd give myself to the end of August and if I can't
get the bike training up there, then I'll possibly look at
swapping to the quarter or delaying a year just because the
swimming and I can't run at the moment, but I can walk that
distance. The swimming is a piece of cake.
It's just the riding. And at the moment I'm just being
(40:49):
winter, I've got a lot, a lot more pain than normal and a lot
more fatigue and I'm just not able to get out on the bike.
And because it is the 1st of November, I'm not going to have
much time to get the distance up.
So we'll, we'll see how we go. Watch the space.
Of the three different sports, is the swimming your favorite?
(41:10):
I mean, I'm not towards swimmingbecause this is the swim
podcast, but I mean, it's the the lowest impact.
Yeah. And it's a piece of cake.
Is it? Is that something you enjoy
particularly? I don't enjoy the long distance
swimming like my husband will get in there and do.
Take a poon or two, narrow neck which is or or Cheltenham which
is like 6 1/2 K's. He would happily go and swim
(41:32):
that. I couldn't do that, but I do
love being in the water. I think because it takes all the
pressure off my joints and it I can move better in the water.
So I can get in and happily Aquajog in the water and do a really
hard run session in the water for an hour or two.
But I couldn't do that on land and I do find it the easiest.
(41:57):
I used to love getting out on mybike at like 5:00 in the morning
and going down the cycle way andwatching the sun come up and it
was really magical that time of day.
So I do miss that, although I don't miss the early mornings
and I do like riding on the windtrainer.
My bike after Iron Man. She had a her name is Faith and
(42:21):
she went through a lot to get methrough Iron Man, my poor little
bike. And she had a custom paint job
and she's now blue with the red Iron Man logo and of course the
top bar. It says anything is possible
with a little faith. And of course she's an extra
small Sevilla. So it was kind of a play on
(42:42):
words. And she's really pretty and I
love her. I've never felt that way about a
bike. So I do miss not being able to
get out there. But so I would like to be able
to do more of the cycling and I'll get, I will get there.
It's just going to take a bit oftime, I think.
Yeah. One thing I was going to ask you
about the swimming, obviously when you're ocean swimming,
you're going in different conditions, you know, in rainy
(43:04):
days and windy days, and it sounds like you're meeting once
a week with your group. How do you find coaching people
to swim in the different ocean conditions?
We're very lucky at Takapuna that there's a bit of a Bay, so
if it's really rough, you can actually stick into the Bay and
it's still rough but you're close to the shore.
(43:28):
So usually what we do is if it'sreally rough, I'll get them to
swim towards the boat ramp whereit's, it's a little bit more
sheltered. We do still tend to go out if we
can, but we do look at the safe swim.
So safe swim will tell us the direction of the waves and it'll
give us an idea of how big they'll be depending on the the
(43:49):
strength of the wind and also the pollution levels obviously.
So if it's really bad, we don't,what we will do before Ironmarry
is we will probably do a few swims over towards Mission Bay
Coe way because it is actually rougher over there.
And we've been out to Maritai a few times just for different
conditions. It's getting in in different
(44:12):
times, different conditions. And so that you're, you're used
to everything, if you know what I mean.
That's why it's been really goodgoing in this year with the in
the winter, with the cold, because I marry down an acre is
still quite cold that time of year.
So I want them to be used to thecold and still able to swim.
(44:33):
We've just adapted slightly. We've got neoprene booties and
caps if they if they need them. And there's a trick that Tony O
Hagan taught me. You tip, warm tip water down the
front of your suit sort of creates that, that warm layer of
water before you get in, which helps.
Oh, that's good tip. Yeah, yeah.
And I tell you what, if you've got a four litre of water in the
(44:55):
back of your car, there's nothing better over the top of
your head afterwards if it's warm.
Yeah. I have a friend who brings a
bottle and she likes to tip overher feet after a cold.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Get all the sand off.
Yeah. So it's basically just a matter
of getting out in lots of different conditions and
experiencing them all. And that way, because you never
know what you're going to get onrace day, you don't know if
(45:16):
it'll be rough. It'll be calm.
We get, we do get conditions down there that are so calm.
I say it's like being in a saltyswimming pool because it's just
absolutely mirror surfaces and that's just absolutely magical.
But we also get days where it can be quite rough.
And yeah, like you say, you'd need to prepare for all
eventualities. Yeah.
(45:36):
You don't know what you're goingto get.
Yeah. Yeah.
Rough. Can be quite good because then
you can get them practicing starts and finishing and like
getting in and out when it's rough, getting out past the
waves and actually diving under them or being able to lift your,
your knees up out of the water enough to get over the top.
If you're close to shore. You know, dolphin dives, you can
(45:57):
practice a lot of stuff, even ifit's a little bit rough and we
sort of make a bit of a, a bit of a fun thing of it.
You know that Then that helps with the nerves.
If everyone's laughing and giggling and carrying on and,
and being bowled over by waves. You can't be, you can't be
nervous and scared if you're if you're laughing.
That's such a good idea because swimming in choppy water is
always something I need to work on.
(46:18):
So yeah, that sounds like great practice for me.
Oh, Kylie, I've really enjoyed talking to you.
Well, I'll make sure that I linkto the Twisted Sisters website
and the show notes in your Facebook group.
Is there anything else you want to mention that I we haven't
(46:38):
already covered? We do have lots of people in
other areas so if anyone is after help and support we can
still help. I've got, I've got a lady at the
moment I'm coaching in Taronga and there's another ladies from
Towering also that's approached me.
(46:59):
So like we can often help put you in touch with other people
from your area or, or help put you in touch with other coaches,
other groups and that kind of thing.
It's not like we say no, you have to stay with us.
It's like we'll point you in theright direction and offer any
help and guidance you need. Yeah.
(47:21):
That's good to know and is the best way for people to get in
touch with you just through yourwebsite.
Yeah, if you flick us a message to the website and then if you
want to join the Facebook group,we can send you a link to that.
The only thing we ask is that you do fill out the the three
little questions that are there just so we know that you are a
real person and you're not just a bot or anything silly like
(47:44):
that. And then we know a little bit
about you. So yeah, that's the only thing
we ask is you just fill those questions out.
Perfect. All right, well, thank you
Kylie, and next time I'm up in Auckland I'll try and come along
for a swim with a Twister Sisters.
We do get that. I've got a lady that comes up
from Coromandel. We had, I think a lady from
Wellington recently and yeah, they, they let us know when
(48:07):
they're going to be in the area.And sometimes during the
weekdays we can organize an extra swim.
We do that for people and we have a group to come along and
swim with them. Yeah, good to know.
Yeah. All right.
Well, thanks so much for your time.
No worries, thanks for having me.
Thanks for listening to this episode of Swim Chats.
Please remember to follow or subscribe to the podcast so you
(48:27):
don't miss an episode. And if you enjoyed it, you can
leave a five star rating and review which helps other people
find it too. Enjoy the water and we'll see
you next time.
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