Torpedo Swimtalk Podcast with Masters World Champion Swimmer Mike Hodgson

Join us on this episode of Torpedo Swimtalk Podcast as we dive in with world-class British Masters swimmer, Mike Hodgson, gold medalist at the Masters World Championships in Japan. He shares insights into his triumphs, like the 50-breaststroke and 100-breaststroke, equipping you with his winning strategies and tips that could just be your game changer.

Mike shares one of his trade secrets, the high altitude training in the Alps that he completes each year. It puts him in good stead for racing when he comes back down to sea-level.  We discuss his foolproof tactics to beat jet lag, his tapering techniques for the world championships and his strength and conditioning training, which all offer fascinating insights.

Mike opens up about his passion for swimming, plans for the future, and even spills the beans on his favourite drills and training sets. Ready to get your feet wet? Dive into this episode with Mike.

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Transcript

Danielle Spurling: 0:06

Hello Swimmers and welcome to another episode of Torpedo Swimt alk podcast. I'm your host, Danielle Spurling, and each week we chat to a master swimmer from around the world about their swimming journey. Mike Hodgson is my guest on the podcast today. He's fresh from gold medal wins at the recent Masters World Championships in Japan. He's a committed and passionate swimmer and shares with us a lot about his training and competing. Listen in for some tips and details for us all to take on board. Let's hear from Mike now. Hi, Mike, welcome to the podcast.

Mike Hodgson: 0:51

Hi, thanks for having me on.

Danielle Spurling: 0:52

Oh, you're really welcome. Congratulations on your recent success at the Masters World Championships in Japan Fantastic.

Mike Hodgson: 1:00

Yeah, I had a really good meet. Yeah, really enjoyable good meet and good swim, so that's always good.

Danielle Spurling: 1:07

Yeah, what individual events were you in and share with us the results that you got.

Mike Hodgson: 1:12

So I did the 50 breaststroke and the 100 breaststroke and then I did the other 350. So 50 freestyle, 50 butterfly and 50 backstroke. And then with my working teammates we did a mixed 200 relays in the medley and the freestyle. So the first up I did the 100 breaststroke which I won with 110. The next day was the 50 fly. I went 26.8, went that one, 25.3, I think on the freestyle to win that one it's always going well. Then we had the relay day. We managed to do. We had some tough competition but we managed to win both relays. And I had a particularly good split, I would say, on the freestyle which I let off. I did a 25 one on that. So I was pretty happy with that. And then we got to the final day at the 50 back and the 50 breast. 50 back didn't go too well, had a bit of a bad start, bad finish. So I only got a bronze on that, went 31-0. And then went the same time on the breaststroke 31-0. So I managed to win that one.

Danielle Spurling: 2:15

Wow, okay, wow. Do you ever put those together for a 200 IM?

Mike Hodgson: 2:21

Not often, but I did do this last weekend. We had our Masters Short Course Nationals in the UK here this weekend, so I managed to put together a 219 for a 200 IM, but I prefer to stick to the 50s. But every now and again I do do it.

Danielle Spurling: 2:38

Yeah, look, that's a mammoth effort, and particularly in the 50s, because that is the one event that gets the most participants in. So you've done a brilliant job to get there and win those. That's great. Congratulations on that.

Mike Hodgson: 2:51

Yeah, thank you very much.

Danielle Spurling: 2:53

What race out of those were you the most happy with in a tactical sense?

Mike Hodgson: 2:58

I think the one I was most happy with was the 100 breaststroke, which was my start. Reason being was I slept on some ice in January and I hadn't actually done any breaststroke from January through to about mid-April and I wasn't 100% sure whether I was going to do the 100 breaststroke because I was still when we were entering. I was like I've done about two weeks breaststroke, so I'm 100% sure here. So I hadn't actually raced a 100 breaststroke long course since June 22. So I was over a year out since I'd last raced a 100 breaststroke long course and it was the first race up, and the first race is always one you want to do well in, because that sets the tone for the rest of the meet, and I did the best time I've done since 2017, so I was really happy with that one.

Mike Hodgson: 3:49

I swam it technically pretty well and, yeah, I was happy with that one. So then I think the next one I think will be the freestyle leg. In the relay we had some pretty tough competition from a Japanese team called Edge, but I had a great first leg on that freestyle, which I hit my second best time ever as a master. So I was pretty happy on that one as well.

Danielle Spurling: 4:16

Hawkerz through that 100 breaststroke. Do you count strokes while you're racing? What do you think about as you dive in?

Mike Hodgson: 4:24

So dive in. I try and get as much of the underwater as possible. So if anyone goes and watched the video they'll notice that I'm last up. I mean, the guy next to me has maybe done two strokes before I'd surface, but I'm level or ahead at that point as well. So I really concentrate on getting that, because that's sort of a bit of free speed almost, you know, in not wasting energy doing strokes on top if I can get that underwater phase right. So I did concentrate a lot on that. I do count strokes. I sort of do it. Naturally I can't not count strokes on breaststroke.

Mike Hodgson: 5:02

I don't count strokes on breaststroke and butterfly but not on freestyle and backstroke. So I'm normally about 18 strokes down the first length and then it can be maybe 21. Down the second, depending how much you're rubbing it up into the finish, depending how much lactate in the arms and stuff.

Danielle Spurling: 5:24

Do you stay as long underwater off the turn as you do on your start?

Mike Hodgson: 5:28

I try to. Obviously, you don't get quite the distance because you're pushing off the wall rather than diving in. I try to hold that April as long as I can Just give my arms a bit of a rest so that you can attack the second 50.

Danielle Spurling: 5:44

Do you find that that puts you into a bit of oxygen debt in that last 10, 15 metres?

Mike Hodgson: 5:50

Not on breaststroke. I tend to get more oxygen debt when I do freestyle for some reason, and even on backstroke, because I think the legs just seem to get more burn on freestyle and backstroke particularly short course, but also a bit long course.

Danielle Spurling: 6:06

Yeah, absolutely Do. You get pre-race nerves.

Mike Hodgson: 6:11

I do, but I quite like them. I actually perform a bit better when I get the pre-race nerves. I think nerves can affect you positively or negatively For me. I like that energy. It gives me a bit of an extra boost. I actually find it more difficult in meats where I'm not getting nervous, which are maybe smaller meats and stuff, to really gee myself up. I don't get that extra boost. The bigger the competition, the better for me because I can use some of that energy to help me perform. Yeah, I do get nerves, but I use them to my advantage if I can.

Danielle Spurling: 6:44

Do you practice much race visualization before going to the competition?

Mike Hodgson: 6:50

I do a little bit, certainly for the 50s. I do more when I get to the pool because I want to see. I like to see all the markings on the bottom of the pool. I like to know exactly where I am on the length. I'll pick my breath points, particularly on freestyle and butterfly. It's more a little bit of visualization as I've got to the pool and seen the pool and what it's like. The pools these days I want in Japan the Mercer pools. They're all very standardized. They have actually good markings on the bottom of the pool. You can figure out where the breath points are, etc. Not a huge amount of visualization during the training period, but certainly just as you're coming into the race, once you've seen the pool, you can start to visualize a bit better.

Danielle Spurling: 7:44

What do you like in the ready room or the call room? Are you someone who likes to chat to other swimmers in there, or do you like to stay within yourself listening to music?

Mike Hodgson: 7:54

I stay just focused on myself, Just getting ready to execute the race. I find that way less stress free for me. I just get focused and get ready. All the chit chat and everything I'm not overly fussed about. But there's plenty of time for that afterwards or earlier in the warm-ups. As you're getting close to the race, particularly a big race, then I just want to be focused on the execution of that race.

Danielle Spurling: 8:23

Do you listen to music in the call room?

Mike Hodgson: 8:27

I blow hot and cold with that In Japan. I didn't In some of the other world ones I have. I don't think it does anything for me either way. If I'm not listening to anything, it doesn't affect me either way. I don't think my performance goes up or down whether I listen or don't listen. Whatever I feel like on the day is really where I'm at.

Danielle Spurling: 8:51

Can you walk us through the training that you used in the lead-up to the championships? What was the secret to your preparation?

Mike Hodgson: 8:58

I do a few things. I actually spent the last few years. I spent the winter months in the European winter months in the mountains. I have quite a block where I'm actually training, an altitude by myself that gives me a bit of an aerobic base through the winter period. When I'm back in the UK training with the Working Swimming Club, we train four to five times a week, mainly in the morning. Four sessions are in the morning, one in the evening. They're all two hours, 25m pools. I have a pool at home which is 15m and I train in that once or twice a week. I do a couple of gym sessions, I do a Pilates session and I do a lot of stretching. It's a reasonable program and it's really sort of aerobic base at the start of the season, I would say. And then you build more into 200 race pace type training and then, as we get closer and closer, we're looking at 100 race pace and full-out max sprinting to get ready for it.

Danielle Spurling: 10:04

Where do you train at altitude in Europe?

Mike Hodgson: 10:07

In the three valleys which are in the Alps in France. The place where I stay is sleep at 1,850m and the pool is at 1,550m. It's a place you can really enjoy doing kick, because the views are just massive glass windows, stunning, looking across the Alps. It's quite pleasant.

Danielle Spurling: 10:27

Right, wow, and how long do you typically stay there?

Mike Hodgson: 10:32

I think I did 12 weeks last winter in total, so we do a mix of skiing, snowshoeing, hiking and swimming as well. So it's good, it's nice lifestyle.

Danielle Spurling: 10:45

How do you mix that in with your professional life?

Mike Hodgson: 10:49

Well work-wise. I managed to retire, fortunately, about nine years ago, so really I spent most of my time swimming, skiing and playing golf, so, and then spend some time with the family. So, yeah, I don't have to worry about that side of it too much.

Danielle Spurling: 11:07

That's nice. And what did you do in your professional life?

Mike Hodgson: 11:10

I worked in the city in London trading on the financial markets, so when that was going on it was quite long hours hard work, pretty stressful, but it forwards you the option of retiring early, so that was good.

Danielle Spurling: 11:27

Yeah, that's nice. Well, it's good reward for all those long hours that you put in.

Mike Hodgson: 11:32

Yeah.

Danielle Spurling: 11:33

Yeah, and flying from London to Japan or wherever you're going for a competition, it's a pretty long haul flight. How did you cope with the jet lag and how did you recover from that and sharpen up for your swimming?

Mike Hodgson: 11:46

So I did a lot of traveling when I was working. So going abroad, foreign countries, and coping with the change in atmosphere and food and stuff like that is that sort of second nature to me from what I was doing when I was working. So I wasn't fazed me at all. But with that I knew I needed to put Japan to go out earlier. So I flew out on the first, I think we arrived on the second and I didn't swim until about the sixth, I think it was. So I had quite a few days to get in time zone and it probably took three days, I would say, to get in time zone. But I think that was just the right, perfect amount for me. Other people can do it quicker, other people take more time, but my experience suggests that was about the right time. So that's why I picked that day to go out.

Danielle Spurling: 12:37

And as soon as you got there, did you, did you. Oh, what I should say? Did you start your taper before you left, or did you start that when you got there?

Mike Hodgson: 12:46

Yeah, it's a pretty slow, slow taper, but we probably only a week before we went and I didn't really rest down too much More, resting when I got there, but probably just in the last few days before I left, we were resting. I'm doing a lot of stretching in that period, really making sure that I wasn't going to be getting any injuries or anything like that. And then, yeah, when we got there, got there in the afternoon, so the first day was just get the accreditation and the actual training pools weren't the main training pools, weren't open. So we just got the accreditation, had some food, tried to get a little bit of time zone, you know, and to get some sleep at the right time, et cetera. And then the next day we went to the main pool.

Mike Hodgson: 13:31

I did a two-hour session in the main pool, just getting used, as I said, to all the floor markings, getting used to the blocks, doing a few starts, everything. And then there was two pools in Japan. The other pool was about, maybe about an hour away, quite a distance away from the main pool. So the next day we went over to that pool and did the same process, went through all the markings on the bottom of the pool, did the starting blocks they were the same and just go through that process there and then the next day I think the 800 started that day on the first day, so that day was just a complete rest day. Just did some stretching in the Airbnb we were staying in and had a complete rest day ready for the 100 breast rate the next day.

Danielle Spurling: 14:18

Do you hold off on your strength work or do you do that right up until your race?

Mike Hodgson: 14:23

So for the world, what I did was, I think, two weeks before I stopped all of the free weights and just did body weight for that week. So I did the sort of the heavier weights a good two weeks out from when I was racing.

Danielle Spurling: 14:58

And do you have someone that helps you with your strength and conditioning, or do you do your own program?

Mike Hodgson: 15:02

I have had a while ago, but then I learned so much by doing that I now do my own program. So I have a small gym here at home, so I use that and do my own program. In that it works. I do my own program each year. Maybe I'd wanted two different things in or pick up, and if they work, then great. If they don't, then I've been there. But yeah, I generally do a program I'm now pretty happy with.

Danielle Spurling: 15:38

And you mentioned, you do Pilates as well.

Mike Hodgson: 15:40

Is that Reforma Pilates or Matt Pilates? Reforma Pilates, yeah, really good for body posture and just stretching me out and then engaging some of those core muscles. I don't find this finding it difficult, but I do find I feel better when I've come out of it sort of more stretching wise.

Danielle Spurling: 16:02

Yeah, it definitely gives a good stretch. I feel as well. I do Pilates too. Yeah, it's good in that way. And you mentioned you train at working. Is that quite a large master squad there? Give us a bit of a sort of picture of that.

Mike Hodgson: 16:15

We only set up Woking Masters, just like a couple of years ago, twelve of us left another club and we knew working we're looking at setting up masters but they didn't have enough critical maths to set it going. So twelve of us set it up with part of the Woking Swimming Club and they've been fantastic. They've really been welcoming into us. We all like training mornings, some people like evenings, but we like mornings. We just get the exercise done and get it and then get on with the day and they give us four morning sessions, which was just perfect to study what we were looking for. Yeah, really integrated into the club. So we started at 12, two years ago. We've just done Nationals. I think we had 22, 23 people at short course Nationals and I think, including all of the triathletes, open waters swimmers etc. We have maybe 35 plus in the squad in total.

Danielle Spurling: 17:10

Have you got a dedicated Masters coach or the coach from the swimming club?

Mike Hodgson: 17:15

They're from the swimming club and they all do various bits of sessions within the swimming club, but we have three people that actually coaches over the five sessions, but they're all talking to each other. Sometimes we don't think they do, but apparently they aren't.

Danielle Spurling: 17:33

That's good to hear and give us a bit of a walkthrough of a typical training session that you would do. I know you mentioned it goes for two hours. What does it look like?

Mike Hodgson: 17:44

So we typically do a warm-up. It would be 1500-2000m, I would say that's normally something like a 400. Just to loosen up, you know freestyle backstroke type thing. At the start We'll do some kick and we'll do some skills which will be skull drills, that type of stuff. We may do some pull with breath control. That gets you into the 1500-2000m range. Then we'll do a preset. Normally so that would be something like rolling through some 50s with a Max first 15, race pace turns, race pace finish, or something like 825s where we descend 1-4 just to get some speed going through the system and then we go into the main set. So the main set depends what we are in the program really, but it could be aerobic, which would be maybe 2000-2500m, 200 race pace maybe sort of the 1500-2000m type range. We're trying to hit the 200 race pace times and 100 race pace would be less meter-age but more speed.

Danielle Spurling: 19:03

And do you typically do a lot of kick and pull within that. Does that sort of fill up your main set as well, or is that just in the rev up and the warm up?

Mike Hodgson: 19:12

You don't tend to do much kick in a main set. The kick will generally come in the warm up bit. There will be some hard kick in that warm up. You know, if it weren't necessarily just the warm up kick it would be some fast kick. So we do do some kicking, like almost in swim down, where we sometimes do some underwater flight kick. We need to work on that in the swim down Pull. We do have that in main set, Particularly if we've done maybe some 100 pace work. We may then do a pull set afterwards with breath control just to bring the heart rate back down and just put a little bit more extra meter-age in that.

Danielle Spurling: 19:46

And do you do a lot of those main sets breaststroke or form stroke or do you typically swim a lot of freestyle?

Mike Hodgson: 19:53

We do multi-stroke and I switch around, because I do some all four strokes and we do. I mean, we do a lot of IM as well. We'll do IM aerobic sets as well as freestyle aerobic sets, and the warm up will generally be multi-stroke as well. It won't necessarily just be on form and I switch around. Yeah, I do a lot of freestyle, but I do some breaststroke, backstroke, and every now and again, if it's not too bad, I do some butterfly.

Danielle Spurling: 20:24

If you are enjoying the pod, how about leaving a review on Apple or Spotify or even through our website? It's really easy to do and helps other swimmers find our show. Help us spread the word about torpedo swim talk podcast and get all your friends, family and interested swimmers involved in listening. Any have you had any injuries along the way with your shoulders or anything?

Mike Hodgson: 20:51

I had. Well, I stopped swimming as a kid when I got a very bad shoulder injury and that sort of I could tell when I was going to university at the same time. That was the sort of thing that you know, the final straw that made me ease off. I had a little. I had a banks buzzing just before we went to the Guangzhou World Masters Champs. A couple of weeks out it had gone by the time I get there, but it did affect my preparation in that last couple of weeks. So I do, and I think after that I realise I need to spend more time stretching. So you know, touch wood.

Mike Hodgson: 21:30

Since then I haven't had anything sort of was brought on by swimming. I did have that knee injury, considering on some ice a little bit, which was a weird one because I could do everything apart from breaststroke. I could ski, I could run, I could jump, I could do all the strokes, everything. But you give me breaststroke kick and I just can't do it. So I try to keep the injuries at bay and it's not. You know I do get niggles but you know, not too much.

Danielle Spurling: 22:02

And with your stretching. Is that mostly a sort of a pre-activation before you swim, or is this something that you do sort of at any time?

Mike Hodgson: 22:11

I will do it at any time. I do after all the gym sessions I do. I have a steroid gun, so he's a massage gun, so I do half hour stretching routine with that and the steroid gun and just I can sense when things are getting tight. And if they are getting tight I'll do even more, because if I don't then it will go and create an injury. So I spend a lot of time making sure that doesn't happen, because you know that's the worst thing that can happen is injury, because it just takes a long time. As you get older it certainly does Recovery so part of?

Danielle Spurling: 22:51

obviously the stretching is part of the recovery sort of process. What else do you do to help with your recovery, because you've got a pretty heavy program that you follow for training.

Mike Hodgson: 23:01

Yeah, I make sure I eat well. My wife is pretty clued up on that. I mean, she's just writing a book on nutrition at the moment, so she does look after me in that area. So you know I do make sure I'm getting all the right nutrients, keeping my immune system strong and really making sure that I feel enough for training. So I will eat before I go in the morning.

Mike Hodgson: 23:30

So I will have I go up maybe at five, have a coffee, a spear which is like an Icelandic yoga a banana, so I've got energy. When I get to the pool, because you're going to be left two hours, I'll have another breakfast when I come back which will be sort of like porridge or smoothie, a fresh made smoothie, and then I'll eat lots of protein and carbs throughout the day and lots of fruit and veg. So I have a wide ranging diet. I keep away from the ultra processed food as much as possible and really concentrate on real food, and I don't really have many supplements either. That I add, because I have such a wide diet that I think I pretty much getting everything from the food I'm eating. If you're eating real food, you can generally get pretty much everything.

Danielle Spurling: 24:20

Yeah for sure. And you continued that fine form from Japan into last weekend with the British Short Course Nationals. Did you put in another block of work and taper again, or did you just follow through on sort of stretching out your fitness?

Mike Hodgson: 24:38

I sort of followed through. I had a week off because I spent a week just travelling around Japan and just experiencing that. And then I came back and I was just some easy sessions until the main training started in September. So it was probably only a week or so, or I was just doing some easy swimming just to keep the feel of the water. And then we put in a hard training block from start of September through to basically a week before Nationals when we started to taper down for that. So I really did carry out fitness. I didn't lose anything through the summer, I don't think so that helped.

Danielle Spurling: 25:12

And what events were you entered in this last past weekend?

Mike Hodgson: 25:18

I did 11 races in three days, so I did a lot. I did two, two hundreds, four one hundreds and five fifties including relays. So five individuals and six relays. We had 21 relay teams from the club so there was a lot of relays going on. So yeah, so that was a bit of a heavy one. I felt pretty sore yesterday.

Danielle Spurling: 25:46

Yes, yes, do you structure your relays at the end of each session?

Mike Hodgson: 25:51

I tend to look at the program. The relays are all over the place. They're all over the place in the program, but I just tend to look at the program and make sure I'm not doing more than a couple of swims in each session. There's nine, eight sessions we have at the nationals. There's three on Friday, three on Saturday and two on Sunday, and I try and make sure I'm not doing more than two in any races in any one session. So that's, and I generally pick the individuals and relays to try and do that.

Mike Hodgson: 26:18

I'm fortunate in that I don't necessarily have to do one single stroke. So actually in this, in this me I didn't do any breaststroke races. I didn't do even though those were two of the ones I'd run at the world right. So I didn't actually do any breaststroke races. I was doing freestyle butterfly and I am in the main. So yeah, I tend to structure it around, around that. But it's still a pretty heavy program and everyone is doing those sort of number of events is always feeling a bit, a bit tight, jaded towards the end of the meet.

Danielle Spurling: 26:49

Yeah, it's different to the world chance, where you might have no more than probably two races a day.

Mike Hodgson: 26:54

But yeah, you can't race more than two in a day. Yeah, yeah, they limit your individuals to two in a day. You could do four relays if you really wanted to.

Danielle Spurling: 27:02

You mentioned that you swam when you were younger. How many years off did you have between swimming as an age group to coming into Masters?

Mike Hodgson: 27:11

My last competitive race was when I was at university, so I was probably I used off the big training probably at the end of 86 and I still swam at university a little bit until the end of 89. So my last competitive race was 89 and the British University champs at that point. But what I also did was take up water polo at university. So I actually played National League water polo in the UK for 10 years after I started for it and then I took 10 years off when we had young kids and work was pretty manic. So I probably had 10 years off from doing nothing. But I had another 10 years where I played water polo. So it's probably 20 years from swimming in total.

Danielle Spurling: 27:53

Okay, and what attracted you to Masters?

Mike Hodgson: 27:56

My two young girls are swimming. So I was sat on poolside watching them and after they got out there was a Masters squad that jumped in. So while they were getting changed, I was watching this Masters squad and I watched them for a few weeks and I was thinking I could do with getting a bit fit. Well, actually I could just do with doing something. It's got us doing no exercise at all. I thought I could do that, so I inquired and got a spot and joined in. So I started on one hour a week, which absolutely killed me and I need two, three days to recover. And then I gradually built it up from there and then within about, I would say, maybe 18, 24 months, I improved so much that I actually ended up swimming with the youngsters in the age group, in the sort of 17 year old plus group, and I started training with them. My daughter's got older and faster and in the end I was actually training the same language as my daughter's.

Danielle Spurling: 29:02

How did they feel about that I?

Mike Hodgson: 29:03

was alright. Part of the reason I retired was to spend a bit more time and enjoy some time with them before they grew up too much and went off to university and went to the wide world. So that was actually quite good because I could spend a lot of time. We could chat swimming and how tired we were and how horrible a set it was and all that sort of stuff. When we'd go to open meets together I'd enter the age group open meets and go and swim those. So I got a better view on poolside watching them swim and got to compete myself. So that was all quite a good period. And then when they went off to university I switched back into doing master's swimming and a master's group.

Danielle Spurling: 29:48

Do either of your daughters swim still.

Mike Hodgson: 29:51

Yeah, my youngest one, amy. She swam at the nationals this weekend. My oldest one, she swam the channel when she was at university, so she was still swimming a bit. Then she's threatening to get back into it. They're both threatening that they will come to the world championships in 2025, when they're both over 25. So we'll see.

Danielle Spurling: 30:15

That'd be a nice trip for you.

Mike Hodgson: 30:17

Yeah, that would be good. Yeah we've got the whole family there. That would be good.

Danielle Spurling: 30:21

Yeah, does your wife swim as well, not now.

Mike Hodgson: 30:24

She's 20 levels swimming when she was younger, but she's leaving that to the three of us.

Danielle Spurling: 30:29

And what's the current state of master's swimming in the UK? What are your thoughts about that and how it sits?

Mike Hodgson: 30:36

I think it's in pretty good shape. I mean, the number of people that were there this weekend was just phenomenal. It was packed three days of swimming. They have it's in a 50 metre pool but they put the boom in the middle and they have two 25 metre pools going out at the same time. They have females in one, males in the other, so just a phenomenal amount of swims going on and the amount of records breaking was just off the charts.

Mike Hodgson: 31:03

We had a lot in woking but in total there was world records, european records and British records going left, right, centre. There was a lot of records going. So phenomenal swimming. So I think it's good and I think when I think we had over 100 people in Japan which, given us so far away, is good and we had a lot of medals as well. So a lot of good results. So whenever we have the Europeans, they generally quite a big meet for the Brits and they generally have a big contingent that go when they have a long course Europeans in the summer. But yeah, the meets are well attended. It's a big, active community.

Danielle Spurling: 31:45

And looking ahead with your master's swimming. I know you mentioned just then 2025 in Singapore. What else have you got coming up in the next few years?

Mike Hodgson: 31:55

So this next year is looking pretty light. I mean there's a national championships a bit earlier this year, in April, so I've got that Probably not going to Doha Just sort of the wrong time of year. It's a little bit too close to Japan. I mean, if my teammates want to go for the relay I'll go, but otherwise I'll not go and then I'll probably just start prep for for 2025. So that'll probably be, you know, really start focusing probably from September next year on that. But yeah, just do national competitions over the next 12 months and a couple of weeks here and there, just to keep everything going.

Danielle Spurling: 32:38

And when you say you'd start your prep next September for Singapore, would you sharpen up for any events along the way? Would you just build into just the one taper just before Singapore?

Mike Hodgson: 32:51

So definitely sharpen up for the, the short course nationals again, which will be the end of October next, next year, so this time next year, and then I look at what I generally look at, the end competition, and then come back from there and work out what I'm trying to achieve and what, what meets I want to do in order to get to that point. So I mean, the best way I can describe that is from what I did this year. So I looked at August as the the world's in Japan I had, the meets in our nationals were in June. So I went and did those ones.

Mike Hodgson: 33:34

I had a short course meet just shortly afterwards in in June where I wanted to do some some sort of fast short course swimming, which it did. I mean I managed to break the world record on the hundred I am in in that one. And so then, coming back, I had another. I did one meet in March or I just wanted to get the rust off when I just did a relays when, and that was it. So I was really doing a block of work, a meat, to shake off the rust, a meat where I wanted to go and practice the race plan and swim fast and then really focus on the world and be in my best shape for that.

Danielle Spurling: 34:19

Well, it certainly worked.

Mike Hodgson: 34:21

Yeah, it worked well. Yeah, I was happy with it.

Danielle Spurling: 34:23

I like to ask everyone that comes on the podcast deep dive five questions. So just give me the first thing that pops into your head what's the favourite pool that you've ever smum in?

Mike Hodgson: 34:33

Winner in Budapest, loved it. World Masters there in 17. Yeah, fantastic pool, fantastic complex.

Danielle Spurling: 34:40

Yeah, loved it, best race you've ever completed.

Mike Hodgson: 34:44

I am going to say mixed medley relay in Budapest, 200 plus. It was our first world record. We went 159.99 as a mixed team and we were ecstatic, absolutely loved it. So if you could send me back and say, look, mike, I can take you back to 2017 and you can experience that again, I'd do that in a heartbeat. That was such a good race. We have a great video of it. We've got our teammates commentating in the background and every time I watch that it still gives me goosebumps. I love it. Yeah, for sure that's my best race.

Danielle Spurling: 35:21

Nothing better than doing it with you, with your teammates in a relay? Yeah, absolutely. And what's your favourite training drill?

Mike Hodgson: 35:29

I love putting my fins and snorkel on, so that would be the first thing I would do. I think on freestyle I quite like I don't know what other people call it it's like a rewind drill. So you're kicking on your side, you've got one arm out in front, one arm by your side, and then you bring your arm over, you touch the water and then bring it back in, reverse, back to your hip over the water, just keeping body posture, and then switch sides and do it with the other side so you keep a nice body line and body posture through the water while controlling your arms slowly coming forwards and backwards. So, yeah, I do like that one for freestyle Breaststroke I really like doing kick on my back. Yeah, I find it just gets the angle of my hips and my knees and legs, everything all in right shape. So when I flip over on front, everything's in order.

Danielle Spurling: 36:19

How about a butterfly and a backstroke one?

Mike Hodgson: 36:21

Butterfly, I like doing the ones where you do two right arm, two full stroke, two left arm, two full stroke. For sure, like that Again, I can have my fins on. That's better Backstroke, single arm.

Danielle Spurling: 36:38

Yeah, very nice. And what about your favourite training set?

Mike Hodgson: 36:41

I think I like the 100 race pace type stuff where we maybe do some 15s from a dive, so maybe four 15s from a dive, two 25s from a dive, 35 and then a 50 max. I really like 200 pace stuff. I quite like the I think it's a Bob Bowman set. It's like 40, 50s where you go for 16 or three easy one max Sorry, three easy one at 200 race pace and then the next 12 or two easy one at 200 race pace and then one easy one fast and then four fast at the end. Trying to hold 200 race pace on that is quite tough. I quite like that one when we're doing 200 race pace type one.

Danielle Spurling: 37:25

And what kind of rest interval would you take for that?

Mike Hodgson: 37:30

I think we start on about 55 for the first 16 and then it goes up maybe five to 10 seconds, I think, probably ending up on like a 110, 115.

Danielle Spurling: 37:40

And last question which UK swimmer should we look out for in next year's Paris Olympics? Who do you think is going to be top of the pops?

Mike Hodgson: 37:50

Well, certainly, our 200 meter freestyle is hopefully going to be there. I've actually got tickets for the 200 freestyle finals, so I hope yeah, awesome.

Mike Hodgson: 38:01

A couple of those guys are going to be on the podium. So you end then with that, the four by 200 team. I mean, they've got to get that world record pretty soon, I think. So you know, tom Dean, duncan, scott, matt Richards, james Guy and there's a couple of others that are going to be fighting for that relay spot. So I think that'll be good. So, yeah, the freestyle has really moved on in the UK. When I was a youngster, even when I first started master swimming, we didn't really have that many great 100 to 200 freestylers, but we seem to have a huge amount of them now. So, yeah, I'm really looking forward to seeing all of that crew do that well.

Danielle Spurling: 38:43

And do you think Adam Hote can come back? Get to the top.

Mike Hodgson: 38:48

He has the potential, but it's not an easy path, but hopefully you can. But he's got some serious competition now so it's not going to be as easy as it was in the previous Olympics but, yeah, hopefully we can see him on top of the podium.

Danielle Spurling: 39:05

Mike, thanks so much for joining us on the podcast today. It's been lovely hearing about your swimming journey and thank you for sharing all your insights with us today.

Mike Hodgson: 39:13

Great, it's been great to be on. Thank you very much for inviting me.

Danielle Spurling: 39:16

Yeah, thank you. Okay, take care and best wishes with your training.

Mike Hodgson: 39:20

Thank you.

Danielle Spurling: 39:22

Thank you, Mike. Thanks for listening into the podcast today. I hope you enjoyed my chat with Mike. He's kindly given us one of his workouts, which we've put up on our website. So if you'd like to take a look at that and give it a try, have a look at torpedo swim talkcom and you'll find Mike's workout there. Today's episode was brought to you by Amarzi Swimwear. Take a look at all their new seasons gear at amarziswimcom. Until next time, happy swimming and bye for now.