Torpedo Swimtalk Podcast with Ingrid Trusler - The Inspirational Swim Journey of a Masters World Champion Swimmer

What happens when you defy the odds and rise above a career-ending injury? South African masters swimmer, Ingrid Trusler joins us on Torpedo Swimtalk Podcast and takes us on her inspirational journey of resilience and determination. From bouncing back after a shoulder injury, to re-igniting her passion for swimming and eventually becoming a multiple world champion at the Masters World Championships in Japan 2023, Ingrid's story is nothing short of extraordinary. 

Ever wondered what the atmosphere is like at a Masters World Championships? Ingrid gives us an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the intense pressure, the professionalism, and the fierce competition she faced. She also shares her unique training routine and the importance of maintaining a consistent, healthy diet. Hear how she mentally prepares for races, stays focused under pressure, and even triumphs as a long-distance swimmer among sprinters. If you're looking for a story about courage, passion, and dedication, tune in to hear Ingrid's phenomenal swimming journey.

Chapters

• 0:08 Ingrid Trusler's Journey
• 15:45 Preparing for World Championships
• 24:34 Training and Preparation for Swimming Competitions

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Hello Swimmers and welcome to another episode of Torpedo Swim Talk podcast. I'm your host, danielle Sperling, and each week we chat to a master swimmer from around the world about their swimming journey. Ingrid Trusler joins me on the podcast today, where she shares her journey from a major shoulder injury which halted her early swimming career to now being a multiple world champion at the recent Masters World Championships in Japan. I was really interested to hear from Ingrid about how she came back from that major injury and what she did in her training and racing that made such a difference. Let's hear from Ingrid now. Hi, ingrid, welcome to the podcast, great to be here.

Speaker 2: 0:59

Thank you, Daniela.

Speaker 1: 1:01

Yes, it's really lovely to have you. Where are you based in South Africa?

Speaker 2: 1:06

So I live in Pretoria, which is our capital city in South Africa.

Speaker 1: 1:12

Yeah, and if you live there all your life, what did you move there in your adult life?

Speaker 2: 1:18

I actually grew up in Johannesburg, and so that's where I swam as a child. Yeah, I was in Johannesburg, but I've been in Pretoria for the last 30 years.

Speaker 1: 1:29

yeah, Ah lovely. So can you share with us a little bit about your background in swimming? Obviously, you just mentioned you started swimming in Johannesburg. How did you first get involved in it and how far did you go with it?

Speaker 2: 1:43

So I went for my first swimming lesson when I was five, and the main reason that I went for a swimming lesson was is my dad wanted to put a swimming pool on our home, and my mom had had a near-draining experience as a teenager, so she just said there was no way he was doing that until the kids could swim. So off, my brother and I went to go and learn how to swim, and somehow others I just seemed to be able to do it.

Speaker 2: 2:17

I got there and the swimming teacher said well, do you want to try? So I said okay, jumped in the water I'm not quite sure what I did from the one side to the other, but I managed to do something and stay afloat, yeah, so it started there and I swam. So I was five. I swam for about 10 years until I was 15, and I accomplished quite a bit in that time period. I swam provincially from age nine and then I swam from 14, 15 and up to 16. I swam for South African schools and at that stage I was knocking on qualifying times for Olympics. I was in the three longer distance freestyle events, so the 200, the 400 and 800. And then, unfortunately for me, I got a major tater cuff injury. And many, many decades ago, unfortunately, the orthopedic surgeons just said there was nothing they could do to help me, and the best solution they had was is that I stopped swimming.

Speaker 2: 3:35

So, it was quite a trauma for me because I was swimming well and we were actually talking at the time and considering possibly moving to America to continue swimming career there. Because of the political situation in South Africa all those years back and the sanctions and so on, there was very little opportunity well, in fact no opportunity from South Africa to be able to participate in the Olympic Games or anything like that and so, but of course that all came to a grinding halt with this injury that I had, and so there, all of a sudden, from one day to the next, I wasn't swimming any longer and that was quite a toughie, but it was what it was yeah.

Speaker 2: 4:30

so that's when my childhood swimming career came to an end. It was just before I turned 16.

Speaker 1: 4:38

Right. And so, with that injury, how did you overcome that and get started in master swimming?

Speaker 2: 4:46

So at the time the orthopedic surgeon said that if he tried surgery, there was a good chance that I would lose the use of that arm. So my dad said, well then, that makes an easy decision for him, we won't have any surgery, we'll just leave it and see what happens. And so, because I wasn't swimming, you know, after about two years my arm felt fine and I could do basically anything I wanted. And then you know what happened. Eventually I got married and we have four children and of course I wanted to teach my children to swim, and there was, of course, a little deep hope in my heart that maybe one of them had caught a little bit of talent from me. And my youngest son did. He's a really good swimmer as well, and yeah, so what I did in as the kids were growing up taught them to swim.

Speaker 2: 5:41

And we have an event here in South Africa called the Mid-Mormal I don't know if you're familiar with it. It's one of the world's biggest open water events and so as the kids were growing up, I would train a little bit with them, thinking, well, we'll see how the arm goes or the shoulder goes, and so, and it seemed to be fine, and I'll swim a few mid-mormals with the kids as they were growing up. So it was very on and off. I would train for about two or three weeks before the event, which didn't really make me fit, but maybe it helped me psychologically that I'd actually been in the water and I did those few things when the children were growing up. But how I got into master's swimming?

Speaker 2: 6:30

Interestingly enough, I was actually in Australia and this was the end of 2018. And my husband was attending a conference and I, the one day of the conference, I wanted to actually go and visit a church in Sydney and hopped onto a bus and, driving along, I went past a centre called the Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre Was this huge building which had a swimming pool inside, and I was like, oh my word, we don't have things like that here in South Africa. And I was just totally blown away at this Aquatic Centre, you know, and I remember just in my heart saying you know God, could I have a second chance at my swimming? Is there a second chance for me? And later on that day I was telling my husband what I had seen and I said how did he feel about me?

Speaker 2: 7:40

Maybe for the next 10 years, if I can if my shoulder holds, you know, doing some training, and I said, no, go for it, you know. And so I got back to South Africa the beginning of December 2018 and went onto Google and Google South African Masters swimming, thinking I'm not quite sure if I'm going to find anything or what I'll find, and on the website there was a swimming coach who was offering a one week clinic just the week before Christmas and it happened to be in the whole of South Africa. It happened to be four kilometres from my house.

Speaker 1: 8:23

Oh, wow.

Speaker 2: 8:25

Wow, that's quite interesting. So I phoned her and I just said look, in a nutshell, this is my story. I don't know if I can swim my pond. So she said, well, come and do the clinic for the week and we'll take it from there, you know. And so I did do the clinic and she just said to me she said, you're really talented, you really swim well. So I said, well, I used to be okay when I was a kid. You know, I don't know if I can still swim recently. Now we'll see. You know how it goes. And so she became my coach Annamarie Dressler is her name, and that's how I started.

Speaker 2: 9:00

And I started training and, of course, we trained for 2019 and then, of course, into 2020, and then we had our COVID fund around the world. So that sort of changed things a little, but picked up as soon as we could. You know after that perhaps just to say something that I found out when I was in my early 20s that there was such a thing as master swimming, and I still thought to myself gee, I wonder if one day I'd maybe be able to try that. You know, I mean I was married and we had started our family and you know, I was in that space and so I think there was a little seed, that kind of settled in my heart, that maybe one day I would do some master swimming. And then in that space I found out that there were these world masters events and I thought to myself, if I could just go to one, I just want to attend one, because you know, in South Africa we don't have aquatic centers and fancy swimming pools, and you know we have pools but life's quite basic, you know, in that space.

Speaker 2: 10:12

And yeah, so I went to Japan now. So that was my first international event. I was blown away at just the excellence with which the whole event was run and just the privilege, absolute privilege, of being there. You know, I was just so, so grateful and and then I swam. Well, you know, it was such an interesting because when I was a little girl, if I had a good swim, then my dad would say to me I'm telling you, Ingrid, you have swam better than you know how. And I swam there in Japan and I'd get out the water, my dad passed away some years back and I'd say, dad, I'm telling you, I've just swam better than I know how.

Speaker 1: 10:58

That's all I've ever swam.

Speaker 2: 11:01

So I surprised myself intensely. That's amazing, but that's my story.

Speaker 1: 11:06

Yeah, what individual events did you enter in Japan and share with us the results that you got?

Speaker 2: 11:13

OK, so my favorite event, which interestingly enough didn't exist when I was a child, and that's the 3K open water. So open water swimming in South Africa kind of started around about the time that I stopped swimming as a child and more as a teenager. So one of the first things I wanted to try out as such in my recent years was to go and do an open water swim because I had done the few mid-mortemiles with my children, but you know it was limited, if I could say that. So yeah, so I entered the 3K because I've really come to love that event. I enjoy the long distance open water swimming. It's probably a favorite. And then I entered all the freestyle events, so all five, because you can enter five events. I thought, look, this is it, I'm doing worlds, I'm going to do it. Enter five races. So I'm not a sprinter, I'm really not at all.

Speaker 2: 12:22

I don't embarrass myself, but it's not good. So, anyway, I entered all of them and so I ended up winning the 3K, which was the first event that I swam, and I was just so. I was so like, oh my word, just imagine that, you know. And so I had a really good swim, I did a good time, I was really happy with the swim and I feel like the bonus was that I came first. You know, it certainly wasn't what I was aiming for, I was just. My aim was to participate, you know. And anyway, then I swam the other races and I managed to win the 200 and the 400 and the 800 as well, which was totally amazing.

Speaker 2: 13:08

And you know, the thing that's interesting is is I actually age up next year, so I move up into the next age group. So I was the old lady in my age group, so yeah, so, and then the sprints. I actually don't remember exactly. I think I was placed seventh in the in the hundred and I think 11th in the 50. So, but for a non-sprint, I was actually quite chuffed with that too, because it's not my happy space. So so I, it was just an amazing. It was an amazing two-way race, two weeks, and I am just all I can tell you is is my heart is full and I'm so grateful for this second chance and this opportunity. You know.

Speaker 1: 13:55

It's fabulous. I mean it's so wonderful that you had that career in your in your teenage years and the the injury, and now you're back and you probably appreciate it so much more than when you were a teenager and are grateful for every day that you can swim without that shoulder injury. It's fabulous.

Speaker 2: 14:16

Absolutely, absolutely. So. I think as a child, you just, you know, I mean you're young and you're strong and you go swim and you actually think when you do something, well, you think it's you. You don't realize maybe so much that you actually have talent. You know, I mean I it's. I have lots of friends who train exactly the same as I do and they just say, how can you go fast? We don't. I just said it's got nothing to do with me, it's talent. I've been given talent, god has given me talent and you know, if you train with talent, you've got a higher chance of a better result, I think. And so so, yeah, so. So I'm probably, in terms of my swimming career, by far the most grateful I've ever been. Just to be able to actually dive in and go and train is just huge feels huge.

Speaker 1: 15:14

And how did you find the atmosphere around Marine mess in Japan when you were there? What was the feeling on the pool deck and in the call room and leading up to the race? Can you give us a bit of an on the spot report?

Speaker 2: 15:27

You know, you know it was interesting for me. So, as I said, I did the three K first and so I'm not a nervous competitor. I never have been. I mean there's some adrenaline rush, but I'm not, I'm not anxious and I don't go to that space.

Speaker 2: 15:45

However at the three K, I felt some pressure that I had never felt before and I sat there and I thought this is a new feeling. You know, I'm actually feeling the pressure of the event. I was just aware of all of these people I mean there were 102 countries represented, I believe and I was aware of all these women around me as we waited in this big, huge marquee tent on the side of the sea where we were swimming and I could just see, I just thought, these people are from all over the world, you know, I mean you recognize the different people, and so I was just very aware of, you know, the bigness of the actual event and I had some butterflies in my tummy that I'd never felt before, without a doubt. But I must tell you something that's quite interesting there. So we swam in these waves, which is something I've never experienced before. So they would group some of the age groups together. So we swam three waves. So in my wave I was the middle age group out of the three age groups that were swimming together, and they explained to us at the race briefing that we would have different color caps for the different age groups. So I thought, oh, that's quite cool because then you'll be able to see, you know, who your competitors are. Because I thought I mean, if you're three age groups that you don't know who you're swimming against, you know? And anyway, so I was. I said then I thought, oh, that's quite cool, that makes good sense to me and I'm like, please let my age group have pink caps. I love pink, hence the color of the glasses. But anyway, so I do think, and can you believe it, we got pink caps. Oh, so interesting. I was like, yes, it was like a little extra funny on the side.

Speaker 2: 17:51

And then we started our wave and, and you know, so I was just so aware of the pink caps swimmers, so I was having a good look at them before we started thinking, ok, you look like you could be, I need to be careful of you, just like in terms of, ok, you look like you could swim well. And I started the race and I could. I just went out and there were no pink caps with me, you know, and I just thought, am I going out too fast? It was feeling like my rap pace and I just thought, all these extra butterflies I'm feeling inside, you know, or they have they kicked in, and, but I had a good pace and it went well, yeah, and so you get back to the, you know, at the pool and those events I felt like the us had been broken at the open water in terms of the nervousness and whatever. So I was a lot more settled.

Speaker 2: 18:53

The first race I swam in the pool was the 800. So I was much more, much more settled before, before the event. But once again, I just I thought the atmosphere was incredible. I mean, the professionalism of the officials was just something else. I just I just thought these are like proper people doing amazing. Just, I mean, it was just so professional, you know, and it was just I felt so well organized, you know, you knew exactly where to go, what to do. It was just such an amazing experience but, without a doubt, quite a way of just the pool of talent that you're up against. It was very different to swimming just locally here in South Africa. It really was.

Speaker 2: 19:51

And in fact the last event that we swam was the 200 freestyle, which was a touch and go event for me. I had the second time in and of course by that time we had gotten to know each other a little bit in my age group. So I said, oh hi, and I you know this little kind of connect. And in that event I came to find out, before we swam it, that I was the only long-distance swimmer. The other nine in that heat were sprinters. And I'm like that's why I don't like this race, is what I was saying to myself, because it's not actually a long-distance swimmer's race. But the sprinters were saying but it's not a sprint either, which I hear, so it's this kind of no man's race. And so I just thought to myself, if I am to be the lady who had a faster time in the knee, I cannot let her get away from me as a sprinter, but I also need to maintain the pace. The pacing of that race is very important, anyway.

Speaker 2: 21:00

So we swam, but the part that was just a little scary for me in that particular event was when we turned on the third length to come in for our final lap. I turned in front, but I was maybe a half a body length in front, and as I pushed off the wall, what went through my head was is I have got nine sprinters behind me? And it was like I don't know if I can hold them off, because I mean it's now, you need to sprint into the finish line and I'm like thinking this is not my epic space. I've got to just hope that they are tired now because they've swum three lengths and I can hold it on a long distance hold, if I can say that. And I ended up winning quite well. So yeah, but that was. It was wonderful.

Speaker 1: 21:52

It was just wonderfully. What time did you end up doing for that 200 freestyle?

Speaker 2: 22:00

2.31,. I think Lovely 2.32 minutes. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 22:04

Yeah, great time.

Speaker 2: 22:06

Yeah, fantastic For an old lady it's not bad, and what?

Speaker 1: 22:12

lessons. Do you think you learn from racing in Japan at your first world championships that you'll take forward into the next major competition?

Speaker 2: 22:20

The thing that my takeaway is is how important your training is.

Speaker 2: 22:25

I think I really was well prepared and in the pool and my head I was ready for it. And maybe I felt well prepared in my head because I had waited for this event, or the possibility of this event for decades. And so I think my takeaway is is to be well prepared. Your head and your heart and your body. You need to, all right, be ready for it, and I really think that that's an important thing. So if you have a weak space, so if you're not a good head person, you need to be well prepared in that space.

Speaker 1: 23:16

So I think that's my big takeout.

Speaker 2: 23:19

So you probably do know that there is another world's now in Doha as a result of them having missed one because of COVID. So I am going to be going to Doha and so I'm training hard and but for me it's the participation, you know, just to go to go there, I'm just excited. It's like imagine that I'm not going to do two of these and my whole life I just hope for one. So I feel like I'm being spoiled to be able to do another one.

Speaker 1: 23:52

Yes, so will you age up to the next age group? Next year.

Speaker 2: 23:56

Yes, yes oh that's.

Speaker 1: 23:57

That's good, isn't it?

Speaker 2: 23:59

So it works out nicely for me.

Speaker 1: 24:01

Yes, it works well, so what take us through a typical week of your training schedule, what you're doing right now for working towards Doha and maybe give us a bit of a glimpse of your preparation?

Speaker 2: 24:15

So I hop up early. I'm in the pool at 4.45 in the morning I still work, so I need to to train early to get it in. At the moment I'm training five sessions a week. I don't normally train as much as that, but in preparation I am doing that. What I have included in my program which I did do for Japan as well, which is very out of my comfort zone is to actually train, do sprint training as part of my training, so not just the long distance stuff which is my happy space. So I have a couple of seats a week that don't make me happy.

Speaker 1: 24:57

And I've yeah when I said yeah.

Speaker 2: 25:00

I just know that they're good for me and I need to do it and I actually enjoy it. It's not like I don't like it, but it's just I prefer, I prefer the longer seats, like this morning. Set was a whole lot of four hundreds, you know, and I'm like, yep, that's me, give me a whole lot of four hundreds, I'm happy. So yeah, so I'm doing both lots of training and probably doing about 15 kilometers a week.

Speaker 1: 25:27

Yeah, OK. And when you say you're adding in some more sprint sets, what's an example of something that you might do that complements that long distance training?

Speaker 2: 25:38

OK. So we would do first of all, including quite a bit of kick, so some sprint kicking which is foreign for any long distance swimmer, because we don't kick so to find out that they actually have got legs and they can work, which is good, and then we would do. I would do 25s and 50s would be mainly what would be in a sprint set and my coach mixes. It mixes the strokes a little bit for me so that's also a little bit of a push out of my comfort zone because I'm just a freestyle swimmer. I enjoy the other strokes I find in my older age butterflies are a little challenging these days. So I can. I can do a 50.

Speaker 2: 26:22

I can do a couple of 50s, but I get done a bit quickly, yeah, so but maybe 25s and 50s in a mix of stroke.

Speaker 1: 26:33

Yeah, and do you add in any dry land strength training and conditioning into your routine?

Speaker 2: 26:39

I've been told that it's a very important thing to do, like dry land training, but I don't, I don't know, I don't like doing it.

Speaker 1: 26:51

So I have tried.

Speaker 2: 26:54

But you know, if you have to see me in the gym doing something, it's it would be because I'm out of the water for some reason, you know. For, yeah, so as much as I agree that it is probably good for me and I don't do it, Are you a flexible person Like you're, very flexible in your shoulders and your joints.

Speaker 1: 27:14

Yeah, I am feeling, and so do you do much flexibility, stretching.

Speaker 2: 27:19

I do a little bit. I do do a little bit of flexibility stretching, yes, and I feel like that's important for me. You know, being older, it feels like that's important.

Speaker 1: 27:32

Yeah, and let's take a bit of a look at your nutrition. Do you do anything special in your, in what you eat or the diet you follow, or give us a bit of a glimpse into how that works for you?

Speaker 2: 27:45

So I'm not a supplementary person, so I don't take like sort of vitamins and things like that. Never have done so, I don't do anything like that. What I am, what I try and do, is keep keep a consistency in what I eat and how I eat. So I've always been a fairly healthy eater. I like to, you know, without being you know, somebody offers me a chocolate, I'll eat it. You know, I don't have a problem with it.

Speaker 2: 28:15

But, from day to day I choose to eat, you know, food with little preservatives, as little preservatives, as little processing. So I try to go the healthier route with my eating rather than taking supplements. That's kind of been a lifelong kind of philosophy belief, whatever. What's interesting for me is as a child I also did most of my training early morning and I have never, ever, enjoyed eating anything before I swam. So it doesn't matter how long my training session is or what I'm doing, I don't eat anything.

Speaker 2: 28:54

So I mean, even now, when I swam my 3k, one of my friends that was in Japan, that was there with me, she said you need to eat something. I said no, I don't, I don't. So I never I don't eat before I swam and I think it's just that's what my body is used to. So. So I don't do like you know, sort of you know like a drink of sorts or an energy drink or anything like that before I swam. If I've done a long race I'll drink an energy drink afterwards and an electrolyte thing to just get the fluids right again, but otherwise I don't. So my nutrition is very basic if I can say that I just keep it simple.

Speaker 1: 29:40

Yeah, well, it works for you. It worked for you. So, I think, keep on doing what you're doing. And you mentioned your head, your heart, your body. Tell us a little bit about how you prepare mentally for those races.

Speaker 2: 29:54

So I think, I think some people are just bored with a head that can race and other people really struggle in that space. So I know of friends who can swim the most amazing times training and then you pop them onto a block and they can't do it, you know. So I just think I'm fortunate that I have a head that doesn't wobble too much. So I'm clear.

Speaker 2: 30:26

So in preparation for a race, I will think the race through. You know I will think about my pacing. You know be a long distance. That's really important. I will you know. On my warm up I will be able to gauge how I'm feeling in the water and if I'm feeling good I will you know, like if I just think, take that 200 in my warm up I felt really good in the water and I just thought I can actually take this out a second faster today because I'm going to be okay. So I will prepare my head to be. So by the time I get onto the block I know exactly what I'm going to do. One of the things I've also I had to train myself to do, especially as a child I think I do it better now as an adult is I don't watch the other swimmers, I don't mind what everybody else is doing.

Speaker 2: 31:20

I focus on what I'm doing and because, you know, for me, I'm actually swimming against myself. That's how I see swimming today, you know, and if I come first in the race, well that's a bonus, but it's actually how did I do today against myself. So I'm on my own gauge. That's, that's how I rose, it's it's it's me in the water and and I and I really enjoy that space and I think my heart, as I said just now, I think, because I'm so grateful for this second opportunity that every time I swim, I'm so happy for the opportunity that my heart is just in probably the best space it's ever been in in its life, in its swimming life, because I'm just grateful for the opportunity to be able to give it another shot, you know. And and then, in terms of training, I am very disciplined.

Speaker 2: 32:23

I will not miss a session. I don't. It doesn't. I don't think. Oh no, you know, I'm going to bed late. I'm not going to get up early too. I don't. That doesn't even don't think about that. I'm going to have a harmful training and get up and I'll do the whole set, even if I'm really tired and my coach has been trying to tell me you need to listen to your body, and I agree with her, but I'm really not good at not finishing the set. If the set says A to Z, I must go to Z, even if I'm tired. Even if I'm tired, I'll be X, y and Z, maybe a bit slower, but I won't get out.

Speaker 1: 33:03

I'm disciplined in that space and with your pre-race warm-up for a competition, do you do the same one you mentioned? Obviously you went in the 50 all the way through to the 800 in the pool. Did you do the same warm-up for each of those races or did you change it depending on what it was?

Speaker 2: 33:20

Yeah, no definitely different.

Speaker 2: 33:21

So I will do a longer warm-up for a longer race. Definitely so for an 800, I would do at least an 800 warm-up, if not 1000m 1, 2. So I don't warm up so much for this race and so much for that race. I really do it on how I'm feeling in the water. So actually if I'm feeling nice and light and strong in the water, then I'll keep my warm-up shorter because I can actually feel that I'm loose and I'm ready to race. If I jump in and I feel heavy in the water, then I'll actually swim that out until I feel myself actually get lighter in the water and then I'll get out, but as a general rule I will do a longer warm-up for a longer race.

Speaker 1: 34:17

Yeah, I like that. I have the same feeling too. It's sort of disconcerting when you've done a lot of work and you're heading to a competition and you do hop in for the warm-up and you feel that heavy feeling and you have to get rid of it, don't you?

Speaker 2: 34:32

Because actually for me, if I don't get rid of it, that will mess with my head. But then I don't know how to think through my race because I'm not sure, I'm not confident in my pacing, because I'm feeling a little not so sure. Where am I. So that's why I will swim until I can feel okay. Now I'm ready to swim. A bloodless, yeah.

Speaker 1: 35:01

I love that. Now, everyone that comes on the podcast, ingrid, I like to ask them the deep dive five questions, which is a bit of a snapshot about your swimming, so you can just tell us the first thing that pops into your head what is the favourite pool that you've ever swum in?

Speaker 2: 35:16

I think it has to be Japan now at the.

Speaker 1: 35:19

Misi. And what about a current or past swimmer that you admire the most?

Speaker 2: 35:26

Shane Gould, so she was my absolute hero with Aberdeen.

Speaker 1: 35:33

Yes, and she did dabble in a bit of master swimming. I don't think she does it now, but she did do it a few years ago. Is she in your age group?

Speaker 2: 35:43

Okay, so I think she may be a bit older than me. So she was really like I'm sure she is a bit older than me because I remember when I was swimming she was at Olympics and that you know, swimming as a young teenager. But I have to say I did scroll through the entries for Japan, thinking I wonder if I'll see her name.

Speaker 1: 36:04

Yes, yes, or maybe one day you never know how about your favourite freestyle training drill?

Speaker 2: 36:12

Catch up would be my favourite.

Speaker 1: 36:16

Do you do that with fins or pool boy or just straight kick?

Speaker 2: 36:21

Probably all of those Favourite would be with a pool boy. Especially recently I've got this pool boy from Finesse that you clip onto your ankles so it's around your ankles rather than between your upper leg, and I like that guy that, yeah that, and catch up in even pedals. So if I think of, my most favourite is to work with pedals.

Speaker 1: 36:51

And how about your favourite freestyle training set?

Speaker 2: 36:55

100 repeats. So I would do like a 400 warm up and then I would do 30 or 40 100 repeats on us on 145.

Speaker 1: 37:10

Yeah, I love doing that. You love doing that, and what time would you come? How much rest do you get on the 145?

Speaker 2: 37:18

At the moment about 20 seconds. I feel like there's, you know watching the clock on each one. There's that feedback on each. You know each. 100 on, you know, are you maintaining pace, are you able to keep up with it? You know that kind of thing.

Speaker 1: 37:36

Yeah, nice and looking ahead to next year's Olympics. It's pretty tough competition in the women's middle distance and distance events. Who do you think out of all the swimmers around the world are going to be successful in the four, eight and 1500? And 1500 freestyle? Who are your predicted winners?

Speaker 2: 37:59

Yeah, so I think Katie Ledecky you know, even though she is getting a little older, the girlie is strong and she's good. So you know, if she is training and preparing for the Olympics, I think I'd put my money on her.

Speaker 1: 38:14

Yeah, for the 1500 or 800 or all those long ones.

Speaker 2: 38:19

Yes, so 400, 800,. Do they do the 15 at the Olympics as well? Yeah just introduced, yeah.

Speaker 1: 38:28

Fantastic. Well, ingrid, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. It's been lovely chatting to you and hearing all about your swimming journey, and congratulations on that great swimming in Japan, because that's just amazing.

Speaker 2: 38:42

It surprised me and I'm grateful, thank you.

Speaker 1: 38:45

Yeah Well, thank you very much and have a merry, merry Christmas, and hopefully we can get to meet on pool deck one day soon.

Speaker 2: 38:54

That would be amazing. That would be amazing. Thank you, Mark.

Speaker 1: 38:59

Thanks for listening into the podcast today. I hope you got as much from my chat with Ingrid as I did. How great is it to learn from all these different swimmers in the pool and the open water? I really hope that you're enjoying the episodes as much as I enjoy bringing them to you. Until next time, happy swimming and bye for now.