Torpedo Swimtalk Podcast with Markus Marthaler - Former Swiss Swim Champion, current IRONMAN and Open Water Swimmer

Our guest on today's Torpedo Swimtalk Podcast lives by the mantra, "I never lose, I either win or I learn". Former pro Swiss swimmer Markus Marthaler shares how that thought powers his current swimming and triathlon journey.  His passion for swimming now also includes inspiring others on social media with his sublime freestyle technique and daily training log.

Markus shares pearls of wisdom on how to upgrade your swimming speed and efficiency. The transition from a catch-up style to a windmill freestyle and the importance of changing strokes for varying speeds are just a taste of what we chat about. He also reveals his impressive time for a 100m freestyle race and his future plans of undertaking the daunting Ocean Seven challenge.

So buckle up for this exciting ride packed with insightful stories, tips, and a whole lot of swimming wisdom from a seasoned professional!

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Transcript

Danielle Spurling: 1:03

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. His podcast is former pro swiss swimmer, marcus Mothila. Marcus shares with us his journey from pro swimming to Ironman racing and open water swimming, which had about his training and his approach to swimming, and also the massive amount of social media follows he has organically collected while sharing his daily swimming journey. And if you have time to check him out on Instagram, you'll see why so many people enjoy watching his beautiful freestyle technique. Let's hear from Marus now. Hi Marcus, welcome to the podcast.

Markus Marthaler: 1:59

Hi, how are you Danielle?

Danielle Spurling: 2:02

Very well, thank you. Where are you based in Switzerland?

Markus Marthaler: 2:05

I'm based in Zurich

Danielle Spurling: 2:09

And were you born in Zurich or did you move there later in life?

Markus Marthaler: 2:13

I was born and raised in Zurich. I had a very good life as a youngster and also I started everything in Zurich Fantastic.

Danielle Spurling: 2:22

Well, I'm really excited to learn all about your swimming journey. Can you share with us a little bit about your background in swimming and how you got involved in it?

Markus Marthaler: 2:29

Yes, I can. So it actually all starts with my mom going, like she usually says, I could swim before I could walk, and so that says a lot already For me. It was more I have ADHD and we needed to find something. When I was young you could also already see it I was hyperactive, I had too much energy, I was I don't know. It was a bit all over the place, also as a kid already, like as a youngster already, and then we were about five, six years old. Yeah, first school.

Markus Marthaler: 3:09

I went into school very early and then I threw around, I had tantrums and threw around stuff and they wanted to give me special classes and everything to do. My father at the time said no, no, no, we need to find something. And then I did a swim course and although the coach, the person who taught me swimming, said that will never be a swimmer, the mother of that person said maybe just send him to a club close by in Ustras, which is very close by. And then she said let's go there and try to do it. And I came there and, yeah, it was a match made in heaven, some sort of. So it all started there. It was five, six years old and then I had automatically had an outlet to let go of my energy or to be able to channel my energy.

Markus Marthaler: 4:06

And so, yes, as the years went on, I got better and better, first on national level and then international levels. You know World Cups and European champions and the likes, but it was never really enough for the top. Top you know it was. It was good, it was a stew or stewing. I was one of the bests in Switzerland or out of Switzerland, and we were in a time where we actually came up in Switzerland to be part of the World Elite. But it was never really like that, that little gap I could never really feel. And, yeah, that pushed some sort of through.

Markus Marthaler: 4:44

And then, yeah, this is how it all started actually. So I've done my trainings and with 80 years old, I was already six to eight times at the pool. 10 years old, eight to 10 times at the pool. So I was good at the time. I mean, if I put our times now, you, there is nothing close to what it was back then. Right, because now we had all the suits and now everything is being more, more specialized, I think, or more enhanced to back in the days. But I was, I was quite, quite there, but, as I said, that little thing was missing, some sort of yeah, what was?

Danielle Spurling: 5:22

what was the the highest level competition that you were in? Was that the FINA World Cup you mentioned, and the European Cup?

Markus Marthaler: 5:29

Yes, yes, yes, it was national team. And then obviously, you went to all these competitions. I could compete and I got the limits for it and I could go there, but, as I said, it was. You know, for example, that Olympic dream always some sort of was crushed because something happened. So it was always one year. It was my. I broke my ankle my ankle on a skiing trip and it was just in a lead up to actually finalization of the qualification time. You know you always need to come and it's written. You always needed to confirm the time afterwards, in the same year of the competition, right, and that was the first time. The second time I got sick, and yeah, it was, it was some sort of something you chase but you never really get some sort of. So I, I, I'm not, I'm not sitting here and I have all these trophies. I have trophies, that's not the problem, but I don't have these international trophies like other people would have. That's what that way.

Danielle Spurling: 6:34

What races did you specialize in back then? What distances and strokes?

Markus Marthaler: 6:40

So there it was really butterfly, 200 butterfly, 400 medley, 200 medley and 400 freestyle in that area. So there there was my specialization in, so I could actually do basically everything, but yeah, I don't know. So my favorite race of them all was 200 fly. Funny enough, I started off as a freestyler, so I did always freestyle and yeah.

Danielle Spurling: 7:08

And looking back on that time in your life, what was the most memorable race that you participated in and what made it so special?

Markus Marthaler: 7:16

Most memorable? That's a good question. Actually I'm thinking of rushing through all these, all these events. One race. It's very hard to find. It's very hard to find.

Markus Marthaler: 7:28

I mean I was known as the guy who could could at the beginning. Especially I was known as the guy who could start off the race slow, so I usually had a negative spit. So I would do the second half faster than the first half and usually these events when I really could pull through, so I would be lost, dead lost in, in, in, in, in, in, in. After 200 meter, for example, in the 400 meter freestyle, I would have been dead lost. I could turn it around in the second half just being faster than the first half. So that happened a couple of times. But actually now I think about one.

Markus Marthaler: 8:07

It was a Swiss championship and I my training all year wasn't that great and it was towards the summer, I remember, and there I changed, it, actually changed my strategy for the first time, and I was in the, in the, in the, in the, it's four, on the way to freestyle, and it was in the heat of the Swiss championship and there I knew I was in. You know, always the last three heats were the fastest people and I was in the fourth, and so I knew I needed to go out fast to, first of all, eliminate a lot of people and secondly, to make the cut some sort of getting in, because I was nowhere near prepared properly. It wasn't at the end of my, more or less at the end of, I think, the eight and 20 or something, and so I went out and did the front running stuff. I went out fast, really fast, and a friend of mine he used to train with me and he was at the same heat and we went out together so we could push each other. And I remember after 200 meters I said, oh, I'm flying, I need to go and go.

Markus Marthaler: 9:13

I think I don't know it was a four or something time, or even I don't know what time it was, but it was so fast that we eliminated all the current favorites of the year. So in the end and I stood on lane four afterwards in the final it ended up I got fourth, I think, in the end. But for that that was magic. I think that was that race for me actually.

Danielle Spurling: 9:40

That sounds great. So you completely changed your strategy from what you said earlier. Where you went, you were able to negative split and in that race you went out front end speed.

Markus Marthaler: 9:51

You started actually could push it through. So it actually lasted, because I was always afraid that I would never make it home and that's why I used the other strategy. But that time I sort of just changed it, and afterwards I tried to change it over and over time, but then I never really got it that way anymore. So it was until then it was great, and then it was too late to do it.

Danielle Spurling: 10:14

And in your 400 IM, what was your strongest leg in that one?

Markus Marthaler: 10:19

Butterfly and afterwards freestyle. To come home I was a good butterfly, obviously, and a good freestyler and breaststroke I could also do to certain speeds, like people would look at me and say what did you now do? There was in a relay all of a sudden I swam a 30 on a 50 meter, which was good at the time, and or I could swim below 110 on 100 meters, so that was all really good. Backstroke was my worst, so I usually could swim breaststroke as fast as backstroke or like very close to it. So people would know oh, we don't need to look at the backstroke, you will come back and do a breaststroke freestyle.

Danielle Spurling: 11:06

And how old were you when you retired from your professional swimming career?

Markus Marthaler: 11:09

I think I was 23. 23 years old. That was really the end when I quit. You know, life kicked in that sense that you went. It was off the university, it was about to find a job. That nice time you had about just doing school and train as much as you could Changed, the focus changed. So there was about yeah, with 23. I quit everything. I always kept swimming afterwards, but never to that level anymore. It was maybe two or three times a week. And, yeah, the afterlife came. You tasted it when you were young or when you went out once or twice and afterwards you said, oh, you know, I need to have more of this life.

Danielle Spurling: 11:57

I guess yeah, happens to a lot of swimmers, I think.

Markus Marthaler: 12:01

It does, it does, but for me I always kept on missing something. I think I'm funny enough. A lot of my peers they don't swim at all anymore because they did it too often or it was too much or whatever, and they're fed up with it. They have never set foot into a pool anymore afterwards and I think it's sad because they trained for so much for it and for me it was some sort of I think I caught the curve, I just I finished just before it would have been too much and for me it was always done an outlet. So as it started it ended, so it became an outlet. So the day could be as busy and as how can I say it as horrible or as energy consuming. But when I went to the pool afterwards I came out of like even 2K or 3K of kilokilometer session. I came out of the pool. I was the coolest guy on earth, like it was okay, everything, the world was fine again.

Danielle Spurling: 13:10

Yeah, that's great to hear. Yeah, so many people, I think, have that stress sort of release when they're swimming and I think, aside from the racing and everything else that goes along with it, just being able to get in the water and swim is fantastic for mental health.

Markus Marthaler: 13:26

Yeah, it is. I mean, for me it was a life-safe. First of all, it helped me to channel and work with ADHD and to see more as a superpower than anything else. So I became it came from a got from a very bad student, very unrested child, to this very quiet, like not very quiet, but very sane person like this person who is in a quiet and most patient, and I could wait, and so it gave me a lot of, or it enabled other things. Then, because you are very perceptive, you can do a lot of things which other people can't do, because you can do certain things at the same time or manage it all Free. Play this free, free-dimensional chess properly, let's put it that way, and swimming has given me a lot through that.

Danielle Spurling: 14:18

Yeah. Well, after you had your professional swimming career, you moved into Ironman Triathlons. Tell us how you got involved in that and what kind of training do you do for that now?

Markus Marthaler: 14:30

Yeah, so it, how can I say it changed. So first of all it was when I quit. There was a lot of time there was nothing. And then when I was 32 or something around that, 30, 32, frank called me and said, listen, he was also. I went to sports school, right and with other sports people, and I knew him back then and he played in America, the NDNC WA Championship, a basketball, so it didn't come from endurance board. Like I came in and he said to me listen, I have on my bucket list, I have an Ironman.

Markus Marthaler: 15:11

And we talked about this and I said, yeah, that's great. I said, hey, can you help me with the swim? I mean, you know it, you coached. So like in your time when you were a swimmer, you coached you the kids and you had you have your expertise on that. Can you take? I mean, I'm a raw diamond, you can teach me, tell me everything. And we talked and talked. At some point I said let's do it together. Come on, I'm going to compete like I'm going to do it.

Markus Marthaler: 15:41

First, three trainings we did afterwards, San Diego, exactly. I can't just compete in it, I need to be, I need to go back to it, I need to go back at being trying to achieve the best I could for myself, so I ramped up the trainings, and now I'm between two and four hours a day of practice, and swimming is between four and yeah, the invent it's four and six times, and the rest is then filled, like. The rest of the time is filled up with it running and cycling, and then gym again. Yeah, it just came to me, it just it was just different now. Training is still, though, also the outlet, you know, where I need to have my rest, and it's the backbone of my training, as I usually say, but it is how can I say it? The rest needs to be done as well, and today, I would say, I would say I'm the fittest of her being, and it lets me reflect, although I don't look like I'm older now, don't underestimate it Like I've got us underestimated a lot, and then I realized hold on, then, that guy is still fast.

Markus Marthaler: 16:58

I mean not only in the pool, also on the bike. And yeah, the run is always, was always my weak part, but I guess, if you speak to 100% of swimmen, 99 will tell you no, running is not really mine. So, yeah, it's also the least favorite of mine so. But you get into it. The better you get, the more fun it does and how you are. When you've been in a professional level training there At some point, you don't really need to push yourself anymore.

Danielle Spurling: 17:27

It just works Like had you done much running and cycling before you decided to do the Ironman.

Markus Marthaler: 17:33

Cycling? Yes, I did. I had a bike with a friend of mine in Switzerland. I mean, it would be a bit silly if you're sporty and you don't get the cycling in because it's beautiful. You know, you get to see a lot, especially when you go into the mountains and do the mountain roads. But running up never got into. Never, never, no, no, no. But it's not part of the game. You need to do it and I will diligently do it.

Danielle Spurling: 18:00

Well, and so your very first triathlon. Was that the Ironman, or did you do some smaller ones to start with?

Markus Marthaler: 18:07

Well, usually in the off season back in the days, I would do triathlons there, olympic triathlons. So back then I knew I knew what I was going into and in Switzerland as a good as which is a village or sport in Switzerland is a village you know a lot of people because some of the triathletes they would train with us back in the days. So I've also I was lucky enough to be good at connecting with people and having a network so I could easily get into it, so I could start off properly with doing that. You know I could, I could reach out to them and how they helped me to get into it.

Danielle Spurling: 18:51

Let's put it that way and so how many Ks now would you currently do in each of the the swim, the run and the cycling per week in your training leading up to an Ironman?

Markus Marthaler: 19:03

Swimming is between 20 and 50 kilometers a week. Still, a lot of triathletes would tell me now, no, it's too much. But that is my thing, right. Cycling I can say it on a year it's between 8,000 and 10,000 kilometers a year at the moment. And running, it's maybe the weakest part, maybe 32, 60, maybe, like, if it's it's well, it depends on the season also, you know it's it really depends on the season. But yeah, it's, it's. I try to do as much as I can, and I mean I work full time next to it. I mean it's not that I and my job has nothing to do with Ironman, triathlon or swimming or anything the likes, or sport the likes. But yeah, no, it's, it's. It's quite quite a lot, but I need it. I need it.

Danielle Spurling: 19:58

Yeah, absolutely. I was just listening to an interview about Lucy Charles Barclay, actually the trifle triflate who won the Hawaii Kona Ironman just recently. She trains about 50 K in the pool each week, so and other people were saying, well, that's too much, that's too much, but it works, works for her. And I think if you're a swimming person, that leads you out, do you find that you're a head in the swim and that you come out, like Lucy does, first out of the water?

Markus Marthaler: 20:30

I did now. So you asked me before what was my first trifle. So that was back in days. But my first Ironman, which was the leader, was in Cloggingford. Due to COVID was pushed back to Cloggingford 2022. And I did Hamburg now as well, and in there I was always first out of water in both of the age group. So in Cloggingford even started to catch up with some pros. So on the way in, I would would would collect pros when I went in and on Hamburg was a bit different because the pack was quite fast as well, so I couldn't really get to it.

Markus Marthaler: 21:11

So for the, you know, did a good job, so he went up and then, yeah, I couldn't, although they started a bit closer to me was only a five minute gap. I couldn't keep up because they all had around the 50 minute, the slowest that also around the 51 minute time, and my time was around 50 minutes as well In Hamburg. So, yeah, but, as I said, but for me it's different. You know, if I do 3.8 Ks in open water, I won't go all out. I would would try to keep a decent, decent stroke, maintain it, and it wouldn't be as fast, but that would already get me to the front of the pack. So yeah, but I guess you never lose it, yeah you don't.

Markus Marthaler: 21:55

Yeah, and my philosophy is, yes, you need to get the kilometers in for cycling and running and you need to do that to be able to sustain it, but the stamina and so, and everything which comes from that, I will always know best to get it from swimming. Cycling I do because I love it and it's nice to get out, and you need to have these kilometers in your in your, in your body, and running you would, I guess, need to do it too, but there I tried to. It's a trade off between swimming and running, but I guess. So my, my, what came with it after I spoke to him and after started to to to train for Iron Man's, came with that.

Markus Marthaler: 22:39

I wanted to qualify for Kona. Everyone will say that, but I wanted to qualify for Kona in my age group and really diligently do it for that, and it was never thought of that I would win it on the run. I would try to get as much like would have been as fast as, as fast as I could on swimming, on cycling, and then just get it home some sort of I wouldn't fly through the finish line, it was. I would just like have a decent time and I would get it will be enough for a fast enough to qualify. Let's put it that way, and have you?

Danielle Spurling: 23:14

have you done Kona yet?

Markus Marthaler: 23:15

No, no, no, I haven't I have like it's unfortunate again, but I will get it there. In Frankfurt I fell on the bike ride off the Kona base. So I came back into the changing, into the changing zone, and I said, no, I can't do it and I don't want to have a further injury or anything. And in Hamburg I beat myself because four weeks before the race I did the marathon and two weeks before that I did a half marathon, and so that was too much to do that on the day, another marathon in the Riemann race, for my knees obviously.

Markus Marthaler: 23:52

So it was a bit too much, so I beat myself. But it was coming out of this position where I said, oh, I'm fit, really fit, so let me do it. So I have a good feeling to go for the run. Well, as that would work for swimming, it wouldn't, it can't be done for running, I think. And then this I will need to change. So I had to learn as well as a lot, I still learn a lot.

Danielle Spurling: 24:17

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Do you do most of your swimming training in the pool or do you do in open water like lakes around Switzerland?

Markus Marthaler: 24:26

I do most of it in the pool because intervals and then just getting the sets in and doing that is best to do in the pool. But I have a friend who lives right on the lake and this little island and we can go from there and usually he does the stand-up paddling and I swim next to him. We do it, we try to do it once a week, even in winter, just to get the open water also trained. Like I had it in another discussion with Jan Wolfgaard, a friend of mine and we also spoke of. He was good in the open water swimming, he was third once in the world championship and stuff like that and we had it there and he said like all the training goes, you're going to do field trips where you see how the vision, how the sighting is and how the conditions could be, some sort of. You train that, but most of the training you get into in the pool.

Danielle Spurling: 25:27

What is a typical pool session look like for you? Take us through your warm-up and your main set. What do you do?

Markus Marthaler: 25:35

So a typical session would look like I would do a warm-up between, let's say, what is it about? A one kilometer or 1.5? And then afterwards I would go to my first and in this warm-up I would do drills, kicks and everything, and often I would usually try to do three interval sets and in between these interval sets I would do again kicks and drills and then afterwards obviously the cool-down, which is another 500, 600 meters. The interval sets usually are adjusted to the time I'm in or the zone I'm in or lead up onto a competition. So first is obviously where we eat the kilometers, where we grind and where I get the volumes in.

Markus Marthaler: 26:26

So an interval set would look like 10 times 200, go on a certain time, or even 10 times 400, go on a certain time, and then obviously you will get the distance will get and you have less recovery time. And then obviously in the part which is after that, after the building time, you go into the time where you really try to enhance the speed and the stamina and everything, and there you reduce the distance. So it would be 10 times or 20 times 100. You have more time to recover. So the go time is a bit widened. And then also, instead of going every 130, you will go every two minutes, some sort of, and then afterwards the stop is a tapering part of it. So this is usually it warm-up, three interval sets and the cooldown.

Danielle Spurling: 27:29

Sounds good. And do you just train by yourself or do you train with the squad?

Markus Marthaler: 27:34

No, I mostly am myself. Well, it's funny actually, because I train for myself. I have my own, I know what I need to do, I have my ex sheet and I have my trainings in my head. I exactly know where I'm at. But at some point some people started coming and they asked me could I swim with you? And they do also triathlon. And now we are between five and seven people. They join one or two trainings of mine and they just swim what I swim, or maybe they reduce the distance, but they swim what I do.

Markus Marthaler: 28:10

So I can't really say it's my squad, but it forms a squad when I enter the pool. So we have a little chat where we say, hey, I'm going to swim, who is in? And then sometimes one is coming, sometimes all of them are coming, so it's or none is coming, I go, they come or not. So it's not really a squad, but also it's a group. It's a group. So I can't really say I'm also not in a club anymore, like I do everything by myself. I have a coach who does the overall planning for me. He gives me guys guidance when I do cycling and what I need to do in. It, tells me what exactly I need to do in the run and in the gym, and he tells me where the pool sessions are, and this is the overall planning. But when it comes to the swim, how I improve and all this, I mean he can't know more than I can Like. He's not the swimmer, right.

Danielle Spurling: 29:04

Yeah, and what pool do you swim out of in Zurich?

Markus Marthaler: 29:08

Yeah, it's actually. It's a perfect pool. It's not that often visited, not that it changes off to that cold, but it's close by. It's in the Etlikon. It's a 25 meter pool indoors and in summer they have a 50 meter outdoors, so I have a bit of both. So in summer I can switch between the both. Now a lot of triathletes would say now, oh, you can't swim in 25 meter pool and whatsoever. No, it's fine, it's, it works. You know, you get used to it. Right, the turning doesn't matter to me because yours, I mean I can do tumble turns and, like it's routine, some sort of yeah, yeah.

Danielle Spurling: 29:48

And when you do end up training by yourself, how do you keep your motivation high enough to keep pushing yourself?

Markus Marthaler: 29:57

Well, I don't know. Funny, that's the question actually. I mean no, I do. So the one part is always the getting to the training right, and once I'm there, it's my life like some sort of it's. It's the getting to my training is is my feet work on their own. So I just woke up and I woke there because now I'm in back in the routine like I was before. So I see myself as this I do this profession as I could and I'm back in the grind, back in days where you just there are days where you don't want to go, your features will go downstairs, get in the car, get to the pool and then I start my session. So it's, it's still just does it and I'm there.

Markus Marthaler: 30:44

I've never had a dull moment when I was in a pool. You know I find ways to challenge yourself, fun enough, and it's not a, it's not a, it's not a. I don't want to make it. I use this tool a lot. It's the forum goggles which I have, other than obviously I would have a clock, but at the beginning of when I started swim, they didn't have a clock. You know the hour clocks which you have which goes and does the seconds. We didn't. They didn't have it there. So I needed to have something. So it would always take a clock from my key or something and put it there with a second handle.

Markus Marthaler: 31:19

And then the forum goggles came out and then I used that and for me that's perfect because you see all your splits, you see where you're at and, as it is long distance, also for my future open water challenges, it is that I need to keep a certain specific pace. Over and over again. It's perfect because I can see I do, let's say, 10 times 200, I see, okay, I did that on a hundred, so I need to finish there. So I need to be equal everywhere. The forum goggles were perfect because I have it here.

Markus Marthaler: 31:51

It's like my coach in my head. So I don't have a coach, which I said I described this weekend. When we had a coaching camp this weekend in South Brickham, they asked me how do you do it? I said, listen, I don't have a coach who's walking up and down. It does the. Does that give me the times? So I need to have it somewhere different, because the rest I do myself and I know what I need to do. Right, and this is some sort of the coach which gives me the times I'm not here to improve. I don't have to improve distance per stroke.

Markus Marthaler: 32:26

I'm not going to the pool back, I'm not going to never do master swims, maybe for fun, but I will never go into masters, so I don't need to aim for the longest stroke or optimize there. It needs to work for the open board. It needs to be there and there. It doesn't need to be that accurate. I'm already on the best level. You can be there for that sense, and so times is very, very important, yeah.

Danielle Spurling: 32:53

Now, I was just going to ask about the form goggles, because I've tried those out. I just find it so close to my eyes I can't really read the numbers. You must have really good vision.

Markus Marthaler: 33:04

And I do. It helps that you have. I also spoke to other people and they said, no, I can't do it. And they say similar things because it's too much or they get distracted by it. For me I guess it comes with ADHD as well, because you just like say you name something and then it's for that, so you can't distract you anymore. So I could learn to channel it and say, okay, it's there, it gives me the time and as long as I don't need it, I look somewhere else. I don't know if that makes sense, so I can challenge it.

Danielle Spurling: 33:43

You can sort of block out that view on the side, because it's right on the side of the goggles, isn't it Just right?

Markus Marthaler: 33:48

Yes, exactly, it's probably below. Yeah, it's here on my side and, as I said, it has a purpose and it's for that purpose and I will always use it for that purpose.

Danielle Spurling: 34:03

And do you find that you have to change your stroke technique a little bit from training in the pool to moving into the open water?

Markus Marthaler: 34:11

Yeah, it depends. I mean yes and no. I think I mean pool swimming was always middle distance. I was a good middle distance swimmer, if you want to call it out. I didn't do open water swimming before I wasn't there because I was scared of not seeing the ground. That was also a challenge to overcome and that's why my coach always kept me away from it, and so I can't really like.

Markus Marthaler: 34:43

I come from the swimming style which you had in the 400 or 1500 meters, so you have your styles, but, yes, I changed in terms of that. I'm focusing on preserving energy, so I try to do. When you see all my videos on Instagram or which I put out on YouTube, it's more a catch up style. So I try to be as efficient as I can be. I have the lock that I'm that versatile when it comes or that broad when it comes to my technique that I can go from sprinting to a long distance style in seconds. I can change it up, which a lot of people don't can't do. So I can adapt to the situation very, very easily and that helps.

Markus Marthaler: 35:33

But I try to be as efficient as I can. So I try to minimize the maximized distance per stroke and minimize the strokes per length. So I try to do that a lot, just to not overdo it in a swim, because when I do an Ironman I know exactly that after this 3.8 case I need to get on a bike and have enough energy left. So my chain I can't really hope that makes sense. So my style adjusted to that that I would see to that I come out. For example, if I have 100% of energy, I would only use maximum 10% of it. So I still have 90% for the cycle, for the bike ride and for the run.

Danielle Spurling: 36:22

That makes sense.

Markus Marthaler: 36:23

Yes.

Danielle Spurling: 36:24

Yeah, Just just going back to what you said about being able to change your speed and your stroke depending on what you need to do. When you are going from that middle distance or longer distance stroke into a sprint, what do you actually change in your stroke? Do you shorten your stroke length to get your stroke rate higher? Do you bring in a 6B kick? What changes?

Markus Marthaler: 36:49

Yeah, so for me, yes, it would also actually be driven by the kick. So that would start to kick faster and faster and faster, and that would always have an. So it's a two sided change. So the kick would get faster, go to 6B kick, going more, and I would start to I see two, that I get through with my hand much faster. So the stroke rate would go up. And also I wouldn't care less what I do above the water, I would care only about the stroke, like crawling myself to the front. So it changes a bit the rhythm. So I would.

Markus Marthaler: 37:30

If I have a video up on my socials where I'm in a flume or in a stream, I have the stream coming from the front where we started, from slow swimming to I think what was it? 54 seconds per 100 meter speed, and there you see that I would first no kicks at all, so I'm in long-distance. I would also turn off my kicks or have a 2B kick and I would slowly start to do more, go to a 4B kick and then 6B kick in the bath and in front I would start to do the galloping and at some point it would be just like this equal sized movement, in the end this windmill. So you go from a catch up style over galloping or hybrid freestyle over to a windmill freestyle. So it's all out, some sort of. So this is how I can explain. I don't know if it makes sense.

Danielle Spurling: 38:30

Yeah, no, that makes sense, and I think that's really good for people to hear, because I don't think they a lot of people don't understand that you do have to change your stroke a little bit to get more speed, so that's really good that you were able to explain that for us. Thank you, that's great.

Markus Marthaler: 38:45

I mean I would always need to have a little lead up to like I can't go from zero to or from catch up to sprinting, or I can try to, but ideally you would start to actually do that, go over from catch up or let us half catch up to galloping and to the windmills and sort of.

Danielle Spurling: 39:03

Yeah, and I'm glad you mentioned your social media because that's where I first came across you, and you do have beautiful stroke techniques, so smooth, and a lot of your videos are filmed in the open water. Tell us why you started getting on social media and posting all about your swimming and what do you enjoy about it?

Markus Marthaler: 39:23

Social media started with the start of my Ironman journey and it was done as my daily log, or it's still my daily log. So I started off because I needed to have something to get me back into. Some people write it down because you need to get back into routine. So I thought let's open a channel and track what you do. So without the session, I couldn't post at the beginning and then I started to. Then you start thinking what is better to post instead of posting just video me at the pool. I'm not that good looking, I'm okay, but there are models out there that can do that and do that all. No, let me show something which actually gives value. I mean, cycling and running always looked a bit funny, but cycling much better than the running. So I tried to put up videos of what I did and over the time, yes, it transformed and I changed, it got bigger than I am because, also, I realized that people don't like my running or not so much, or they don't like seeing videos of me cycling, or at least when I do funny stuff, then yes, but not.

Markus Marthaler: 40:40

But swimming. Listen, I mean I would argue I have a world class technique still. I mean you can compare it to the names of Florian Welberg and everything. When it comes to the technique, for example, for the catch-up swim, for the many comes to sprinting or not sprinting, more developing. You can compare it to professional swimmers who do 204 on freestyle and win gold medals like this is how it's done. The luck for me was that the pro swimmer is not as often as I do, so in the end it worked. No, let's put that aside Now for me.

Markus Marthaler: 41:25

Then I started to change it up because people were asking me more questions about swimming than anything else, so then it became to post once a day and keep my daily training in the stories on Instagram.

Markus Marthaler: 41:37

And obviously with Instagram also, at some point YouTube comes and I started to because people wanted to know can you tell me about this? And instead of always writing them back, yeah, you need to change this. So you need to do that. I said how can I sit, stand on YouTube or be on YouTube to sort of have something there where I can say listen, go and watch it there? And then I tried to go myself in front of a camera and I mean, yes, talking to yourself is not really good. And then I came to the like we do now, where I said I take on people who are there are like a couple of them who are acknowledged about swimming and I would talk about certain topics and my feet, feet or my questions. I get in Instagram and YouTube feed, my topics some sort of, and so so that way grew, but still today I see Instagram as my daily log.

Danielle Spurling: 42:37

And do you do that, or do you do that all yourself? You post and take photos all yourself me swimming.

Markus Marthaler: 42:43

I like I have always someone who can take a camera which I have and film me, but I try to keep it as low, like I don't have a film production. I don't. I mean I have. I have. I have a good camera, it's a perfect camera. It's a 360 camera which can go into the water and out the water and and with that I pretty much record everything. So I usually I usually say it's an hour a day which I use for social media. This hour can be on the toilet, it can be somewhere else fun enough, it can be wherever. This is an hour a day which I use for finding out the video I want to do the caption, answering all the questions and and whatever comes, or I try to, and this is, this is how it works, as I think, just bigger than I am.

Danielle Spurling: 43:33

Yeah, absolutely. Well, it's great to follow along and those people listening will put your your handles in the show night so that they can check it out, because it's a beautiful technique that you have and I think a lot of people can be inspired by that absolutely.

Markus Marthaler: 43:49

No, thank you. No, it's actually it's. I guess it is because when I'm doing it, because it's my passion, the reason why I people also want to see it. It's also, oh, he's not 20, 25, he's not a pro, he's actually one of us who does it, so it's like it's achievable, it's, it's, it's something which you can aspire to. Yes, I have a background which is kind of like it's professional, but he tried to do it again after some time and he tries to do it in a field which he is not really like. He knew very little about. He knows how to train, but and I guess that helps and it keeps the authenticity of the whole thing- yeah, absolutely.

Danielle Spurling: 44:37

And so back to your actual training and racing. What challenges or races have you got coming up in the next few months or over the next year that you're sort of gearing up for?

Markus Marthaler: 44:49

Yeah, so the Ironman will stay. So next year we'll still have the, we'll have again Hamburg. I will try to do it again and try to qualify for Kono once more. And then I have also one other big thing, which is there is challenge Roth, because a lot of people told me that I need to do. If I do our Ironman, you're either gonna end up somewhere in Kono or you go to Roth because it's the event and so I got a sloth for that, so that will be next year as well. It's it's challenge Roth and Ironman is the same distance you do, just a different outfit or different organization.

Markus Marthaler: 45:27

And through my time with sport Instagram, youtube and why I started to do is as professional. That's also why question is I was not done with swimming or with sport in general and bit always what I talked about in the beginning always was missing and some sort of have a bill open with my career, because I know I have it, or I had it too. If I could go back now with how I train now and tell myself how to worry and what to worry about and what to do, yeah, medals wouldn't be a, wouldn't have been a question on, even on Olympic games, and I'm not saying this because I'm yes, I'm self confident, but it's a it's a different world. But how could I know when I was 16, 17, back then, all the things which I know now anyway put aside but I still had my bill open like this unfinished business and I couldn't get. I can't close it in triathlon. I need to find something else and that's why I start as of next year.

Markus Marthaler: 46:36

I also do open water challenges, and one, the first one will be I will try to swim from Tobago to Trinidad. It's about the 30k swim, also with currents and everything. It will be a bit more, but that will be my challenge to do. And afterwards the aim will be to start the ocean seven as possible, like if it is possible at all, and maybe other challenges going forward in the swimming part and some sort of create that not legacy, but finish like, finish like, get this core settled, some sort of, if I can say, yeah, that makes sense.

Danielle Spurling: 47:17

That makes sense. I had, um, I don't know whether you know Andy Donaldson. He just finished the ocean seven and in the fastest amount of time at the last year. So yeah, if you get a chance, listen to him because he's got some great tips about how to approach those swims, because I think for him Hawaii or Molokwai, was a pretty tough swim in terms of the weather and the conditions.

Markus Marthaler: 47:41

It is actually the one which I'm aiming for first. Also, if I can get it, I get it. I try to get it in next year as well, but towards the end of the year, and if I can combine it with Kona racing. And then, after it's doing that, I don't listen, it's all in my head. I'm preparing and doing it.

Markus Marthaler: 48:00

And yes, I know of Danny and Andy and we also spoke, I wrote each other and, funny enough, through Instagram, you connect with a lot of people which from the past, which you know, but also from now, because you're some sort of one of the players now too. And yes, socially, at some point you get to know all of them. You know or you write them. And yeah, I spoke like I wrote him a couple of times, not specifically, but we congratulate him and everything. And also, I just was now in in Sao Parican and and met with Andreas Waschburger, who has the record on the channel swim, english channel swim. Just this year he made it 645 and he also is trying to see if he can do the Ocean 7, or at least J's over the man. He has one record, so he now wants to get the other ones, or some other ones as well, but he has a different life in swimming than I have. I mean, he was the world champion in open water swims and stuff like that, so he was there, yeah, but as I said again, the soak it's the same thing as in swimming before.

Markus Marthaler: 49:21

Once you're in a certain level, you know a lot of people, a lot of pros and the people who are in the press and whatsoever. You know them because you have, if you're, if you open enough, you have a good network very quickly because you shouldn't be shy away or shouldn't shy away to speak to these people. My coach was also very well connected back in days so he gave me a chance to speak to to back in days it was Alex on the popo for you and train with them or like these kind of things. I would would have the chance and that's why now you reconnect with a lot of people through that, so they remember you from that time and now you start to talk properly about things, some sort of we grown ups now, some sort of yes, that's right.

Danielle Spurling: 50:05

Absolutely, absolutely. Well, marcus, everyone that comes on the podcast, I like to ask them the deep dive five questions, which gives us a bit of a snapshot about where your swimming is at the moment. So just tell me the first thing that pops into your head favorite pool that you've ever swam at oh, that's a good question.

Markus Marthaler: 50:23

So many pools have seen, I would say Geneva, it's a hate-love relationship. Geneva, a pool, le Verne is an amazing pool. I would say that it was the first really. They were one my first big medals in Swiss championships and stuff like that, and it's a cool pool either went all well and or it went all bad, so it's. It's also the race which I talked about, the four on a meter freestyle, where I went all out at the beginning. It was there, le Verne nice.

Danielle Spurling: 50:58

What about your favorite open water swimming location?

Markus Marthaler: 51:02

oh, that was this year actually a Ushinen sea in close to Kanderstijk middle, like in Switzerland. The Ushinen sea, you have these. I mean it's a beautiful scenery, you know you. I mean when you swim, you know exactly, have this cliff kind of yord likes surroundings. When you turn around, you have like a little it's like a little kind of like a circle of rocks around you and it's just cliffs going up on both sides. And there's even a video on it, on on on Instagram or on it, where I turn around and do backstroke and you can see it wow, amazing.

Danielle Spurling: 51:41

Yeah, that sounds great. What about your favorite freestyle training drill?

Markus Marthaler: 51:45

so favorite training drill will be at two left to right. Equally so, two left to right, but we've always paused.

Danielle Spurling: 51:54

Equal to the underwater freestyler yes, okay, nice, and now tell me your favorite training set okay, my favorite training set will be 20 times a hundred meter, go every 120 nice. How much rest are you getting on that?

Markus Marthaler: 52:10

not really that much, but I swim with swim between 104 and 105 and so you get about 15 seconds in, which is enough. But it's a challenge because once you get up, when you get a bit tired, and if you, if you, if you, if you get too tired, you can't catch up anymore.

Danielle Spurling: 52:30

Once you post the 110 mark, it's very hard to keep, just to stay there if you were to swim a hundred meter freestyle race now, what time do you think you'd be able to post?

Markus Marthaler: 52:41

if I could go all out, 56 maybe yeah, okay, still very fast, still fast. So if I really just warm up and then just do a lot, 56, maybe 56, let's, let's, let's define it more. 56 in the short course, 57, maybe I would get 56. 9 maybe on a long course, maybe let's put it up and last question, swimmer that you most admire pop off yes. Alex on the pop off beautiful stroke technician beautiful stroke, technician philosophy, amazing quality over quantity.

Markus Marthaler: 53:22

My coach coach me like that. They were good friends. Skinner the turrets can. My coach was they were good friends. They both Russian, they were under each of the fun and and himself they were good friends under each of the force. Used to be a synchronized swimming coach for the for the women's national team in Russia and and they would know each other very well and it was always quality over quantity. If you would ask me about the idle, it would be in Thorpe, but that's different. That's more because of four on a meter. And then this yeah, how he started is like he's how he came on to the world's platform. That's where that way.

Danielle Spurling: 54:04

But Alex on the book yeah, nice, I like both of those swimmers, so both worthy, worthy answers they are.

Markus Marthaler: 54:12

I mean, listen, it's, it's, always it's. If choosing one is very hard, but I guess in the, in the set, in the drill, in the drills, not in the drills, but in the in the into all said it's, it's, it's, it's, it's easier, I guess, but for people it's always hard to finish one for sure.

Danielle Spurling: 54:32

Marcus, thank you very much for joining us on torpedoes from talk podcast today. It's been lovely hearing all about your swimming journey and really wishing you good luck with your quality qualifying for a Kona next year.

Markus Marthaler: 54:43

I'm sure you'll make it thank you very much and thanks for having me was. It was really nice and an interesting experience.

Danielle Spurling: 54:51

Thank you so much for this you're very welcome and have a lovely, lovely Christmas thank you, you too yes, okay, then take care. Bye bye bye.

Danielle Spurling: 55:03

Thanks for listening into the podcast today and thanks to Marcus for sharing his story with us. If you're a friend of the podcast, look out for our November newsletter coming to your inbox soon with lots of great info and articles to read. If you aren't on our newsletter list, drop me an email at torpedo swim talk@ gmailcom and I will include you in our newsletter runs. Till next time, happy swimming and bye for now.