Swimming Through Life: Patty Lyn's Journey

Join hosts Mike Ergo and Lindsay Hiken as they dive into an inspiring conversation with Patty Lyn Tweten. Discover Patty Lyn's journey from starting swimming in her 30s to becoming a seasoned open water swimmer. Learn about her experiences with the Donner Lake swim, overcoming personal challenges, and the camaraderie of the swimming community.

Key Highlights:

Patty Lyn's introduction to swimming and her first open water experience. The mental and physical challenges of swimming at high altitudes. Insights into the supportive and inclusive nature of the swimming community. Patty Lyn's personal story of resilience through health challenges. Tips for adults looking to start swimming.

Quotes:

"Every day was his best day." - Patty Lyn Tweten referring to her friend and international swimming hall of fame swimmer, Ray Taft 

"If you're here, you're a swimmer." - Patty Lyn Tweten

#SwimmingJourney #OpenWater #Inspiration #mastersswimming #usms #mastersswimmer #swimming #swimmer 

Call to Action: Find a US Master's Swim Team near you!

Thanks for listening to the Ginger and Chocolate Podcast. Check out our website at gingerandchocolate.com to get in touch with us. Follow us on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram @ginger_and_chocolate_podcast; and please subscribe to the show and select automatic downloads on your podcast app.

Transcript

Mike Ergo (00:01.977)
Hey everybody, welcome back to Ginger and Chocolate. I'm your co-host Mike and alongside my good friend and co-host Lindsay. Lindsay, how are doing today?

Lindsay Hiken (00:10.744)
Hey, what's up? I'm all right. I slept like garbage last night, which is par for the course, but I'm on vacay, which I'm excited about. you know, one thing about vacation, staying in like a VRBO is that you don't have access to your normal coffee situation and routine. And so I haven't had mine yet. So if I don't make any sense, that's why.

Mike Ergo (00:23.397)
Thanks.

Mike Ergo (00:32.921)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (00:39.349)
that makes sense. I've had a little bit. It looks like our, guests is having some confident day and just a quick update before we introduce her special guests. let's see, I I've been doing some good training. I've been putting a lot of miles in the road and I'm actually at a point now where it feels like running is fun again, which unlike the first two weeks, it was a, it was a big struggle that to put the miles in there and

and, do anything past a maybe three miles, but I'm up to about 13 and a half right now and, feeling pretty good. So that's where I'm at. Got my Marine Corps marathon coming up in October. So yeah, we're, halfway there training wise. What about you, Lindsay?

Lindsay Hiken (01:25.066)
Nice. Well, I'm not training for anything right now, so that helps. I'm doing a lot of bike riding, but I'm in Tahoe right now. We like to come up here in the summer and ride our bikes. And so I have my mountain bike with me and my road bike. And I've done some mountain biking at North Star, which is really fun. I'm yeah, I'm stoked to be here.

Mike Ergo (01:31.823)
that does.

Mike Ergo (01:56.003)
Awesome. Let's bring on our guests. It's my friend, Patty Lynn Tweeten, who I've swam with a lot and Patty, Patty Lynn, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being here.

Patty Lyn Tweten (02:07.883)
my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.

Mike Ergo (02:10.809)
Yeah, I got really excited. We signed together in the past in Petaluma and I got really excited when I saw you completed a Donner Lake swim. Was that last month? Or earlier in August? Last week, yeah.

Patty Lyn Tweten (02:21.42)
That was last week. Yeah, it was, no, was on the ninth. So we can go.

Mike Ergo (02:25.957)
Yeah, so swimming at elevation, what's that like? it a trip to find your breath at what, 7,000 feet?

Patty Lyn Tweten (02:37.304)
It's a 5,500 between 5,500, 6,000. think it's 5,500. And yes, it is. When you first go up to the mountains, and I know that Lindsay knows this because she's there right now, even walking up a flight of stairs, you definitely notice that there's no air there. There's a lot of molecules that aren't attached. so part of the challenge of the swim is just really, it's a mental thing. You have to kind of just not panic.

Mike Ergo (02:39.471)
Okay.

Mike Ergo (02:56.388)
Yeah.

Patty Lyn Tweten (03:06.86)
When you don't feel the air there, you have to know that it's coming. You have to just really trust in your body. And that's the metal challenge of a, and it's a distance swim too. It's not just at altitude, it's almost three miles. So yeah, the whole length of Donner Lake, which is in Truckee, California.

Mike Ergo (03:19.897)
Yeah, that's.

Mike Ergo (03:25.541)
Yeah, that's a that's a long way. That's a it takes a little while. Did how was you know getting right into it? How is your your pace? Were you swimming about the same speed you usually swim open water? Would you slow it down because of the altitude?

Patty Lyn Tweten (03:40.056)
No, you tend to panic and just speed right up. No matter how much you're inside your head. So this is my fifth swim, my fifth on our lake swim overall. And Lindsay, you may be interested. We had a house up there for 15 years. And so I swam in that lake all the time. And so I'm very comfortable. It's like my home. It's like my backyard, that lake. I've had me in it. I've had my daughter in it. I've had the dogs in it.

Mike Ergo (03:42.628)
Hahaha

Lindsay Hiken (03:43.564)
and.

Mike Ergo (03:49.603)
Wow.

Mike Ergo (04:03.502)
Yeah.

Patty Lyn Tweten (04:07.09)
so going there is no big deal, but the altitude is, know, cause we're at sea level here and, the is a function. but I found that training really can help overcome that. and the training isn't so much about, I did a lot of aerobic training this time. but it's not so much about that. It's just about the idea that you, you know, just like when you do your marathons, you know, you put in the time. You know, you've trained, you know, your body is ready for this.

Mike Ergo (04:12.933)
Mm-hmm.

Patty Lyn Tweten (04:35.412)
And so you just trust in that. You're like, hey, I got this. Whether I do faster this year or slower, it doesn't matter. I mean, it's an altitude swim. It's open water, which means if I don't navigate well, I'm going to go slower. My whole distance time is going to be longer. So, but this year I was lucky. I navigated well and my splits were faster. So my 100 split was three seconds faster.

Mike Ergo (04:51.812)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Ergo (05:00.421)
Wow. Yeah. And when you're, when you're training up for this, do you train siding in the pool or do you train just siding open water swim and practicing or how do you, how do you get ready for that?

Patty Lyn Tweten (05:11.864)
This year part of the benefit as you know the the team that we I was with before I don't know whether you know but we've actually The salty cracklings closed down our coach moved to Texas and our pool was closed for a while and then I moved So I'm in another city so I've been training with the Santa Rosa Masters and they have a huge cohort of people who do open water and They have an unofficial

gathering of people who like to swim in Lake Sonoma on a weekly basis. so, yeah, it's just, you people meet up and then they swim, you we wear a buoys and make sure we're there. so I jumped in with them and because of that, I was doing weekly one, one and a half, two mile swims, which really helped me prepare mentally because the other, in addition to oxygen deprivation, was just a...

Mike Ergo (06:06.799)
Yeah.

Patty Lyn Tweten (06:08.598)
the long-term aches and cramps that you get in the water and not panicking when you get a leg cramp. That's really, for me, that's my issue is leg cramps. And this year I didn't have any, so was so excited.

Lindsay Hiken (06:20.142)
Did you, did you wear a wetsuit? Cause I was going to say Donner Lake swims on my, my list and my bucket list. And I was actually registered for it one year when we had, there was a big fire and it was, they said, well, we're still doing the swim, but I mean, it's going to be in, I have like exercise induced asthma. I chose not to, but

Mike Ergo (06:20.901)
that's gotta be a blessing, yeah.

Patty Lyn Tweten (06:37.485)
Yes.

Lindsay Hiken (06:48.066)
I always feel like I do so much better in my wetsuit because I'm used to triathlon and so I wanted to be part of the group, the sort of non-serious, yeah.

Patty Lyn Tweten (06:56.588)
There is wetsuit division. Yeah. No, I don't wear a wetsuit. I have my own installation.

Lindsay Hiken (07:01.646)
Mmm.

Mike Ergo (07:05.285)
How long have you been open waters? yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (07:05.646)
And it sounds like your form is pretty good too.

Patty Lyn Tweten (07:11.64)
Okay, so quick answer to both questions. I started swimming 30 years ago. I've been swimming masters for 30 years. And I started when I was 32. And I came to the pool early one day. I was swimming down in the peninsula, lap swimming, and I came to the pool early and there's all these people in the pool and there's like four people to a lane. And I'm like, what the heck is this about? And I saw a guy standing on the deck and...

I went up to him and I said, is this lap swim? And he says, no, this is masters. And I said, what's that? And he said, well, you know, we compete, we swim, we do coordinated workouts. He says, jump in. And I said, knew one stroke. And I said, you know, I don't know. says, but Mike knows me. And he's like, okay, yeah, sure. So I jumped in. And within a year I was swimming with him regularly. And I think a year later I did my first open water swim.

Mike Ergo (08:01.605)
Yeah.

Patty Lyn Tweten (08:09.568)
which is a biggie, it was the Trans Tahoe.

Lindsay Hiken (08:12.398)
Mmm, mm-hmm.

Mike Ergo (08:13.413)
was your first open water and within a year? Sure.

Patty Lyn Tweten (08:15.384)
Yeah, it's a relay. The copy had, it's a relay. But yeah, so that was maybe 94 or five, no, was probably 1995. And we had a team, somebody needed a whatever, fourth or fifth. And I'm like, oh, I'll do it, you know? And they let me come with them. And it was amazing. It was, I was halfway through the lake. You go the crosswise, it's like 11, 12 miles.

Mike Ergo (08:19.877)
Sure, but...

Patty Lyn Tweten (08:43.992)
And I was halfway through the lake when it was my turn to get in and the water's 55 maybe and no, no wetsuit. And you jump in and it's like being in outer space because it's 1600 feet deep and the light just goes down and disappears. It's like something out of alien. and it was the most amazing feeling. was just really awesome. So cool.

Mike Ergo (08:49.925)
Yeah.

Patty Lyn Tweten (09:12.792)
That was my first open water.

Lindsay Hiken (09:16.0)
Is that do you do for relay? Yeah, that is kind of a big one for the first first open water swim. Do you for that swim? Is it is the relay time like you swim for half an hour and the next person swims for half an hour? Are you doing distance before you trade off?

Mike Ergo (09:16.419)
Yeah, jump in the deep end.

Patty Lyn Tweten (09:17.644)
We're training.

Patty Lyn Tweten (09:33.964)
You start out, yeah, you start out swim for half an hour and then you go to 15 minutes because everybody gets cold and you don't want to get hypothyroid. Cause then you get off the boat and like, you have to time it so that you get off the boat and somebody jumps in at the same time. and then I try to think this was, you know, so long ago. and I, the rules may have changed now. I don't know at the time that I did it, that's the way we did it. And the first was a half hour swim. And then after that, it was 15 minutes. So for me.

Lindsay Hiken (09:39.628)
okay.

Mike Ergo (09:39.813)
Mm-hmm.

Patty Lyn Tweten (10:01.366)
you know, more guts than brains. I was like, I can do a half hour swim. That's not bad. So it was really awesome. And it really introduced me to the concept of just the camaraderie of being with swimmers at an event, before an event, after an event.

Mike Ergo (10:07.823)
Yeah.

Lindsay Hiken (10:19.374)
Swimmers are a lovely welcoming crowd. That's been my experience as well. Master swimmers are so, you know, there's these, maybe you're one of these fast swimmers in the pool and then there's people who are not, now you're shaking your head. You know, you'll see people that are just blazing fast and people that are just learning how and everything in between. And it seems like everyone still enjoys each other's company.

Mike Ergo (10:21.359)
Yeah.

Patty Lyn Tweten (10:46.764)
They're so welcoming. even though I've been swimming a really long time, I didn't start swimming until I was an adult. So for age group swimmers who competed in grade school, middle school, high school, college, they're always gonna be faster than me in the pool. And kind of the beauty of when I started swimming at my age, I was 32, I'm like, I'm never gonna be fast. So the only thing that I have are my personal records, my personal best, how I feel that day.

And I was going to share with you a story. There was a guy on my team down at the Sametail Masters. name was Ray Taft. And he's actually in the International Swimming Hall of Fame. Ray was, according to what I recall from my conversations with him, he was supposed to be at the 1936 Olympics that we didn't go to because it was in Germany. And he was a competitive swimmer.

Mike Ergo (11:38.522)
Mm-hmm.

Patty Lyn Tweten (11:45.046)
with Johnny Weissmuller and if you know your Tarzan lore, you'll know that Johnny Weissmuller was the original Tarzan in like the black and white movies. So anyway, Ray was pretty elderly when I was swimming with him and he'd had so many experiences and I asked him one day, said, Ray, what is your best time in the pool? When it was the, like when you were so in tune with your environment and he looked at me and he said, today.

because that's the way he looked at it. It was a reset. Every day was his best day. And it was really inspiring to me because I realized that I could swim for the rest of my life and have a sport that I could do for the rest of my life. And it was an epiphany, really, it was. something that even if I did a little bit, I swam through my pregnancy. I remember my coach at the time, she's like, use the ladder, use the ladder, because I was...

Lindsay Hiken (12:14.158)
Hmm.

Mike Ergo (12:17.765)
Hmm

Lindsay Hiken (12:26.733)
Mm-hmm.

Lindsay Hiken (12:42.286)
Thank you.

Patty Lyn Tweten (12:42.966)
I swam up until a week before I gave birth. And it turns out your swimming suit just expands with you.

So it's just been, it's been a lifelong pursuit and I've gotten so much more out of it than so many things. I do a lot of different things, but this is by far the most rewarding. I mean, except for parenthood, sorry.

Mike Ergo (13:07.663)
Hmm.

Yeah.

Patty Lyn Tweten (13:24.664)
Open water wise, I would say my favorite swims are not necessarily the competitions, but where I'm with a group of people that are similarly excited to be there. I will say this most recent experience and my family will confirm was probably one of the best. And the reason it was one of the best is that there were, I think maybe a dozen to 14 swimmers from the team I'm on.

Mike Ergo (13:37.957)
Hmm.

Patty Lyn Tweten (13:52.788)
We all got into Donner Lake and Donner Lake isn't a lottery, you have to register right at the time it sells out in about eight minutes. And so a big bunch of us got, you know, got to go in and I, I didn't know at the time because I registered before I, like in June, before I really knew all these swimmers. And so as I started talking to people and I started going to these ad hoc open water swims up at Lake Sonoma,

Mike Ergo (13:54.151)
wow.

Patty Lyn Tweten (14:20.118)
I realized how many people were gonna go to the swim. They'd already arranged their lodging and everything. And I have a friend up there because we had a house up there for 15 years. So on the day of the swim, I went with them and it was like being at a swim meet with a team. There were so many people there and our coach is so enthusiastic and just, her name is Allie Davis and she is young and

Mike Ergo (14:23.621)
That's great.

Patty Lyn Tweten (14:49.652)
a great swimmer. She, in fact, on this event, took, she was the first woman across the finish line. So I was 36 minutes behind her. that's, that's an enthusiasm we have. So I would say that going the whole thing, coming and having my teammates with me at the end, cheering me up the ramp, staying for the awards, which I've never done before because

Lindsay Hiken (14:57.826)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (15:00.029)
wow.

Patty Lyn Tweten (15:18.264)
I'm not getting any awards. And then watching, they had this like makeshift podium and watching people in all the different age groups come up and there, the last age group was 85 to 99. And it was a man who swam it in under two hours. I have no idea how old he was. He needed help to get up the podium. But there were, and a huge number of women in their seventies and eighties. It was like,

Lindsay Hiken (15:24.216)
you

Mike Ergo (15:33.999)
Whoa.

Patty Lyn Tweten (15:47.938)
Yeah!

Mike Ergo (15:49.367)
Wow.

Lindsay Hiken (15:51.694)
That's amazing. That is one of my plans for continuing to be on the podium is to just age, just keep aging. Eventually.

Mike Ergo (15:53.017)
That's amazing.

Patty Lyn Tweten (16:00.77)
yeah, exactly. There's a woman in my age group and I think she might be my age who always takes first place in these things. And of course she was there. So, I mean, I have to wait until there's only three people in my age group and then I'll be on the podium. Yeah, exactly.

Mike Ergo (16:15.94)
Haha.

Patty Lyn Tweten (16:19.912)
Yeah. And the thing just going back to the lifelong swimmer, I've seen people, you know, basically use walkers to get to the edge of the pool and then get in the pool and they're 30 again. And it's like that because it's just a completely different muscle memory than walking. There's a woman I know who I swam with, she did this swim and she's extremely fit, but

Mike Ergo (16:34.266)
Hmm.

Patty Lyn Tweten (16:49.496)
but she's had some, she's had both her knees replaced. at where we swim at Lake Sonoma, it's so steep that she uses walking poles to get in and out of the water. But she gets in there, she kicks ass. Sorry.

Lindsay Hiken (17:01.102)
Yeah. We don't care.

Mike Ergo (17:04.76)
Yeah. No, you can say all that here.

Patty Lyn Tweten (17:07.744)
Yeah, it's a podcast. Yeah.

Mike Ergo (17:11.001)
Yeah, that's, I love the lifelong swimming mentality because I'm similar to you, Patty Lynn in that way that I didn't start swimming into my thirties. And it was a similar kind of intro where I didn't know if I'd be welcome at a master's team is where I started training with people and I was completely welcome, completely welcome. I started of course the slow side of the pool, but

What I love about is just the inclusivity and hey, you're here. What are you about? Let's let's see where you fit in within the team, because you do fit in and let's help you get better.

Patty Lyn Tweten (17:48.984)
It's interesting because I was a little worried when I went to Santa Rosa, because they have a much bigger membership. They have some highly competitive and accomplished swimmers of all different ages. And I found the same, if not more inclusivity there amongst women my age who are, you know, I'm in one lane and women my age are in all the faster lanes too, all the way up. so to sort of be welcomed by them in the locker room.

Mike Ergo (17:59.471)
Mm-hmm.

Patty Lyn Tweten (18:18.39)
And yet know that, you know, especially if they're on Strava, I know at the end of the day that they did a thousand more yards than I did in the same amount of time. yeah, kind of like, but anyway, it's just been, I, I was just reinforced with that memory of being welcomed. And I think it's something about the sport and what it takes to commit to it. It's not just a sport about speed. It's a commitment.

Mike Ergo (18:25.861)
Right.

Patty Lyn Tweten (18:47.864)
to being there and to being there at a certain time, especially if you swim at 5.45 in the morning like I do. It's a commitment to taking care of your body. And also, you're in a swimsuit. There are no secrets when you wear a swimsuit. And so there's the body positivity of what you look like. Seeing somebody, when I was 32, I was seeing people at my age now.

Mike Ergo (18:57.027)
Yes.

Mike Ergo (19:05.507)
Hahaha.

Patty Lyn Tweten (19:17.47)
in swimsuits and it really just let me know that's what I'm going to look like in a swimsuit and it won't matter because she's here and I can be here.

Mike Ergo (20:12.27)
Mm-hmm.

Patty Lyn Tweten (20:25.32)
it's different. There's definitely like a break off. There's the lifelong swimmers that there's like three groups. There's the Mike and I group where we came to it late and we're in there chugging every time. And then there's the age group swimmers who are no longer very competitive and they're sort of that middle group. And then there's the age group swimmers who are like, they're going to go to worlds. They're going to go to, you know, all the open water. They're going to go to all the meat.

Mike Ergo (20:37.573)
Yeah

Patty Lyn Tweten (20:54.552)
the pool meets, they're going to go to, they're going to do training in Colorado. They're doing all of those things and they all mix together, you know, in the pool, but it's kind of like three groups and it kind of works out to the lanes. But you can have someone, like if you have someone in that middle group, their BMI may be a lot more than mine and they're still going to have, they're still going to kick my butt.

Mike Ergo (21:02.191)
Mm-hmm.

Patty Lyn Tweten (21:23.51)
when they're and it's so much of it is technique, especially if you learned it in childhood, it's muscle memory and you can see people of all different shapes and sizes get in the water and be the most elegant thing that you've ever seen. I love that about.

Mike Ergo (21:37.583)
Yeah, that's so true.

Patty Lyn Tweten (21:49.878)
No!

Mike Ergo (21:52.473)
Hahaha

Mike Ergo (21:59.247)
Yeah.

Patty Lyn Tweten (22:44.344)
you

Mike Ergo (22:48.953)
Hehehehe

Mike Ergo (22:53.966)
Yeah.

Patty Lyn Tweten (23:03.468)
Well, swimming, to add on to what you were saying, when I raised my daughter, I gave her an option. She had to have one sport, didn't matter what it was. And she ended up choosing swimming probably because I was already there. And I'm glad she did. And she's not swimming now, but I know when she comes back to it, she's going to be one of those swimmers that is just, she has all the muscle memory. And it's a little bit like taking piano lessons when you're a kid. It's a lot easier.

to come back to it, just, there's, things are so plastic at that age, that you, and, it's complex movements for swimming as opposed to running, which is very much, you know, we all run when we grow up. but not all of us swim. And so I think that it's like skiing too, skiing also, you can get to a point, but if you're going to like every time I ski, I feel like I'm learning something because I, and every day is different.

Mike Ergo (23:48.665)
Mm-hmm.

Patty Lyn Tweten (24:02.104)
when I ski or and it's the same with swimming the water is different the temperatures different you have to it's as if you're always acquiring experience and there's never a day in the pool where I'm not either learning something new or recalling something new like like yeah I should do this and I don't know whether you guys when you lap swim but when I lap swim there's a whole thing going on in my head okay stretch out

Mike Ergo (24:09.082)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (24:21.666)
Mm-hmm.

Patty Lyn Tweten (24:29.484)
You know, don't get that extra breath before you flip. When you flip, explode off the wall. This is all, like, there's a whole bunch of stuff going on in there. And people think, swimming must be so boring. And you're like, my gosh, no. One of the things, one of the things I love about also master swimming is it's, better than Ginkgo biloba for trying to remember stuff. Because rather than.

Mike Ergo (24:43.205)
You

Patty Lyn Tweten (24:53.496)
And Mike, this might be different for you, rather than have the workout on the board, our coach comes to us and she goes, okay, you're to do this and this and this and this. And she repeats it. then you better remember it. Or you're like, Hey, did anybody get the teacher's notes? You know, cause you forget and you have to sequence the workout in your head. So you remember it. Um, and that's what you're thinking of too. And you're also thinking about your split. So if I'm doing hundreds on one 45, then I have to think about.

Mike Ergo (25:08.556)
Yeah.

Patty Lyn Tweten (25:21.942)
I'm looking at the clock and I have to think about what 145 looks like when I get back so I know when to push off again. While at the same time, I'm thinking about what my flip turn is going to be and how many strokes I'm taking and whether I'm going to breathe on this side or that side. So it's kind of a lot. And I think I don't know whether running is that way. Well, I've run, I've done a lot of running and I've done half marathon. So I would say that it's, it's not like that.

Mike Ergo (25:48.473)
Yeah, I don't think there's as much math involved.

Patty Lyn Tweten (25:52.076)
There's not much left here.

Patty Lyn Tweten (26:05.75)
yes.

Mike Ergo (26:11.781)
Yes. Yup.

Patty Lyn Tweten (26:13.47)
absolutely true.

100%. And that's when, especially when you're leading, that's a bummer. If you've got three people in your lane and they're counting on you to count and they'll tell you, they're like, no, no, no, we have another lab. okay.

Mike Ergo (26:22.978)
yeah.

Mike Ergo (26:41.199)
Mm-hmm.

Patty Lyn Tweten (26:48.504)
Yes, and I don't know whether Mike knows this, but one of the reasons we had that house in Tahoe is that I had breast cancer in 2005. it was, as it turns out, was a glancing flow, but we didn't know, and I had a five-year-old. And so I did everything. I did, we had surgery and I chemotherapy and radiation.

And that summer was our 20th anniversary and my husband and Lindy went up to Truckee and they found us a cabin and they're like, this is where you're going to heal is in this place here. And that's when I started swimming in Donner Lake. So that's why it has a lot of meaning to me. And my first Donner Lake swim was, think, let's see, I had my treatment in 2005. So I think 2007 was the first.

Mike Ergo (27:29.221)
Wow.

Patty Lyn Tweten (27:41.9)
the first Donner Lake swim that I did. yeah, so my daughter was like seven. I have a picture of, I'll send you some pictures later, but I have a picture of her standing next to me and I'm getting ready to do the swim. So yeah, it was really important in my pregnancy. I worked really hard to get pregnant and I was an older, one of those geriatric pregnancies. And so being able to swim.

Mike Ergo (27:42.405)
Wow.

Patty Lyn Tweten (28:10.168)
that whole time and just know that, you know, I was so in communication with my child at that time inside me and being able to take both of us for this nice, soothing moment. And she would fall asleep. You could feel I felt her fall asleep in there when I was swimming just... So she's a Pisces. I don't know if that connects or not, but...

Mike Ergo (28:21.253)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Ergo (28:37.263)
Wow.

Patty Lyn Tweten (28:39.672)
So yes, in many, many times, all forms of physical activity have been incredibly helpful to me. And I've had some challenges, definitely going through chemotherapy and just like having your life, understanding how short life can be when you're 40. Let's see how old I was, was 2005, 43 is definitely, it's like you stop up short and you don't take anything for granted anymore.

Mike Ergo (28:41.989)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (29:10.511)
Mm-hmm.

Patty Lyn Tweten (29:10.936)
You

Patty Lyn Tweten (29:17.08)
Oh yeah, it's been like, it's been a long time. 2005 was a long time ago.

Mike Ergo (29:18.916)
Yes.

Patty Lyn Tweten (29:25.933)
Yes.

Patty Lyn Tweten (29:31.116)
Yes, when I can. My team right now doesn't do as much open swimming, ocean swimming. Actually, we haven't done any. But the last team I was on, we did ocean swimming about once a month from like the spring through through the fall. We went to a number of different places in Sonoma County and Marin County and down to Aquatic Park. And I think that I would love to find it. I'm sure given time, I'll find one or two other people on this team who

want to swim at Aquatic Park. And there are people already I've met who have, they have a dolphin club memberships, which is one of the two. There's two little huts right there and they each have memberships and they actually share. So if you have a membership in one, can, whatever one is open on that day, you can go into the other one and like take a hot shower afterwards, which I haven't done yet, but I'm sure I'll find my ocean swimmers.

Mike Ergo (30:04.325)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Ergo (30:10.373)
Hmm.

Mike Ergo (30:25.093)
Mike Ergo (30:30.233)
Yeah, it's fun. I've done a lot of swimming.

Patty Lyn Tweten (30:30.648)
And it's a completely different cat as well.

Mike Ergo (30:37.242)
Mm-hmm.

Patty Lyn Tweten (30:37.378)
So I have a couple of things on my open water bucket list for ocean swims. I want to do Alcatraz. And I did have an Alcatraz attempt, but the winds were so high that they rerouted the swim. And so we didn't start at Alcatraz. We just went in and out of Aquatic Park, which was high adventure, but it was super windy. And I'm just as glad that I wasn't out there in the Bay. And then I want to do the Golden Gate swim, which actually is fairly short swim, but you swim the length of the Golden Gate Bridge.

that's on my to-do list.

Mike Ergo (31:10.788)
Yes.

Patty Lyn Tweten (31:14.92)
It, I think it can be a club event if you're with like the South End Growing Club or the Dolphin Club. Those are the two that are right there at Aquatic Park. And I think there are also, there's one or two open water swim groups in the Bay Area. And I don't recall their names, mean, but in the San Francisco Bay and they will do like, you know, a regular event of the Gold Gate swim, but you do need to have like boats going along the side and.

It's the kind thing that if you were to Google it, I'm sure you'd come up with probably one or two opportunities a year to do it.

Patty Lyn Tweten (32:11.114)
Is this one at a Berkeley, Oakland area? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I was, my daughter was a Cal and I was like, I should go over there and swim with those guys.

Mike Ergo (32:55.833)
Mm-hmm.

Patty Lyn Tweten (32:56.566)
Well, the caveat is that if it's January, February, March, or October, November, December, I'm in a wetsuit if I'm in the, I used to be hardcore about that, but now I'm like, you know what? I'm just too old to put in the wetsuit on.

Mike Ergo (32:59.193)
Wow.

Mike Ergo (33:07.129)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (33:11.573)
It's it's a lot. I think you got to swim in the ocean a lot to get acclimated to the temperature up here, at least in Northern California, because I tried weekly to do it. Skins just no wetsuit. And I got hypothermic a couple of times and I said, you know what? Perhaps the wetsuit is a good option for me.

Mike Ergo (33:38.5)
It's cold.

Patty Lyn Tweten (33:41.142)
Yeah, don't get, there's no points for getting hypothermia. You don't get cool points for that.

Mike Ergo (33:41.709)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (33:47.011)
Yeah, no, there aren't. I got zero cool points. I remember I was sitting there in the,

Patty Lyn Tweten (33:48.856)
Mm-hmm.

Hahaha!

Patty Lyn Tweten (33:56.792)
You're in your car and you're like...

Patty Lyn Tweten (34:05.836)
So.

Mike Ergo (34:06.499)
Nope. Nobody.

Patty Lyn Tweten (34:35.404)
Yes.

Patty Lyn Tweten (34:42.378)
You know, I would have to look at the amount of time that I'm actually in the water. Cause so at my speed that I'm, I'm that's one of the concerns even about Donner Lake and why I trained so hard this year, even though the water temperature was great. if it's cold, if you're slower, you're in that water longer and it just has, it's, it sort of has this effect.

Mike Ergo (35:00.451)
Mm-hmm.

Patty Lyn Tweten (35:02.192)
so that's why Donner is it's funny because it's getting really crowded now. And I was talking to some, I'll get back to your question, but I was talking to some swimmers who did Donner they're like, wow, it's so hard to get in. And I said, all we need is one cold water here and it's going to drop off. you know, we get in there and it's 63 degrees or something that nobody's going to sign up the next year. And, and so that would be the key for me in the bridge to bridge is what the regular, like what the average swim time is.

Mike Ergo (35:17.946)
Hahaha

Patty Lyn Tweten (35:32.086)
And I've thought about it, but I kind of like want to take little bites first and I want to get that Alcatraz and I want to get that Golden Gate Bridge. cause I'm just like, how long would I have to be in that water? And it's not so much, even if I'm in a wetsuit or something, you're still your face. it's psychology, of it. And, you know, just like the whole, I'm not a spring chicken. So, you know, I had to work up to that.

Patty Lyn Tweten (36:35.886)
that's it.

Patty Lyn Tweten (36:40.568)
Yeah, and she's not much younger than I am. mean, she's yeah. I think that's incredible. And I think that if you have if that's your goal to set goals like that, there's a lot of things that happen in that swim. mean, she's dealing with tides. She's dealing with open water. She's dealing with surf, depending on how far she's dealing with bigger animals in that water.

Mike Ergo (36:56.407)
huh.

Mike Ergo (37:04.505)
Yes.

Mike Ergo (37:08.185)
Yeah, same.

Patty Lyn Tweten (37:10.744)
Well, there's a swim and I haven't done it in a really long time, but it was one of my when I was down in the peninsula. It was the pier swim at Santa Cruz. And they have a peer to peer swim now. I don't know if they have the pier swim any longer. And it was just under a mile. And it was so much fun as to surf swim. So you're getting in with the surface rough and everybody's just like a mass start. Everybody runs into the water.

Mike Ergo (37:39.503)
Mm-hmm.

Patty Lyn Tweten (37:39.672)
And I did that without a wetsuit, but you're out there and the ocean's a big place. So even when you're out and you're in the rough water, you may or may not be swimming, seeing other swim caps. And all of a sudden you hear,

Mike Ergo (37:53.509)
Yes, I've done that there in Santa Cruz.

Patty Lyn Tweten (37:55.948)
And you realize they're in the water with you. And they're like seven times his size. they're curious. And I was always afraid of getting spyhawked by a sea lion. And you start thinking about that and that's how you get off. Or you start thinking about a great white shark or something crazy like that. We used to swim in Tomales Bay with the Petaluma salty kraken.

Mike Ergo (38:00.773)
Yeah.

Patty Lyn Tweten (38:25.272)
Twice we had jellyfish. And if you want to see people get up and walk on water, that would be the thing, is to hit a jellyfish. And you hit a jelly and you're like, I know what that was. I'm not, and there's another one. how can I, you you totally have a fight or flight response and you really just have to put your head. I'm going to hit a jellyfish. It's going to be okay. I'm not going to die, but it is very disconcerting.

Mike Ergo (38:30.223)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (38:47.321)
Yes.

Mike Ergo (38:56.069)
I'll agree. I've had a few jellies in Tamales and I wanted to quit immediately.

Patty Lyn Tweten (38:59.724)
Yes. Yeah. You wish you could just like apparate out of there and just.

Mike Ergo (39:04.545)
Yes.

Mike Ergo (39:44.815)
Yeah.

Patty Lyn Tweten (39:49.091)
right, yeah, what's he running from? And he's faster than I am.

Patty Lyn Tweten (40:07.826)
You're like, I'm ready to climb up this thing.

Patty Lyn Tweten (40:48.052)
Yes, when we would swim, we swam at Paradise Cove with the Kraken's. We swam at, there's a beautiful beach next to San Quentin of all places. So the last Marin exit right before you get on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. And it's very secluded. And there's always a lot of people there. It's a dog beach. So there's always a lot of dogs there too. And so we would go back and forth. But sometimes,

Mike Ergo (40:48.42)
Yes.

Mike Ergo (41:04.911)
Mm-hmm.

Patty Lyn Tweten (41:16.522)
It's as if you have to protect yourself from getting the thought in your head because then you start to run down the, you know, you start to go to the crazy place of, okay, you know, I felt something on my foot. It's obviously a shark that's going to eat me. And so this is, this is funny. have a friend of mine who doesn't like open water swims because she says it's not.

Mike Ergo (41:27.866)
Yes.

Mike Ergo (41:35.759)
Mm-hmm.

Patty Lyn Tweten (41:45.272)
She's even in a lake. And I said, well, why not? And she said, well, I'm always worried about the fish that's going to eat me. I'm like, you know, that's not right. She goes, no, then there's the dead body that's going to float up. like, never thought about that. Thank you. Because it's going to be there now.

Mike Ergo (41:56.409)
Yes.

Mike Ergo (42:01.689)
Thanks for that image. Yeah.

Patty Lyn Tweten (42:47.404)
The alligator guards. My sister-in-law. Go ahead.

Mike Ergo (42:49.413)
god, yeah.

Patty Lyn Tweten (42:57.128)
My sister-in-law, we flew out to North Dakota to do some fishing this summer. And Lake Sakakawea is a great big reservoir in the Western part of North Dakota. It's the Little Missouri River and it's been dammed up and it filled over years and it's flood control and does a lot of different things. So I've been there a bunch of times and this year she's out there paddle boarding with me while I'm doing my training. So we'd fish all the morning and then right before dinner we'd go out and I'd do a training swim.

in the lake and yeah I was waiting for that alligator car to come out of the bottom of the lake.

Patty Lyn Tweten (43:33.848)
You

Mike Ergo (43:34.169)
Yes, no doubt.

Patty Lyn Tweten (43:45.653)
Patty Lyn Tweten (44:17.752)
That is a true phobia and you should just work with that. Just go with it. Yeah. Go to the pool. I, you can't, yeah, there's no, I think we fall into whatever category of fitness we're in. We kind of want it to be like, you're not as good as I am because I can do this. And as I've grown into the number of different sports that I have done over the years,

One of the things that I recognize is self-limitation and that if somebody tells you they can't do something, it's not because they're not trying hard enough. There's a whole, there's a reason and you may never know it and it may not be any of your business. You can encourage them if they want to do it. You can say, I can help you through it, but you can't tell them, you know, it's all on your head. I mean, it's, we've all been through it and you really can't tell someone.

Mike Ergo (45:03.215)
point.

Mike Ergo (45:12.557)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Patty Lyn Tweten (45:16.44)
that the reason you can't do this is completely psychological and you just need to get over it. And I think that that is very much a young athlete's attitude is that the harder you try, the more pain you feel, then the better you are. no, no, because that pays off when you're 55, 60. That pain that you had when you were 35 will come back.

Mike Ergo (45:30.191)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Ergo (45:44.675)
Mm-hmm.

Patty Lyn Tweten (45:46.764)
Really teaching people how to take care of your body for your whole life is such an important thing.

Mike Ergo (45:54.105)
No, it's a good way. And that's probably a good way to go out for the show. I think we have more to talk about and perhaps another episode in the future. One last question for you, Pally Lynn. If you were to say any encouraging advice to anyone looking into getting into swimming as an adult, what would you say? What would it be a couple of good first steps for them?

Patty Lyn Tweten (46:22.552)
Stepwise, would say go to your local pool and start swimming laps and talk to the other swimmers. That's the easiest thing to do and you can do it. And it's so accessible and pool drop-in fees, even in California, they're like five or $7 for a session. So if you don't want to commit to joining a master's team or going and taking swimming lessons or joining a club, you can always go to your local pool and maybe it's only open, you know, during the summer, but you can start there.

Mike Ergo (46:29.604)
Mm-hmm.

Patty Lyn Tweten (46:51.864)
go to the YMCA. If you don't know how to swim, go to the YMCA and take swimming lessons. And you should take swimming lessons if you're an adult, especially if you have children. You need to be able to be with them in the water safely and you don't want to pass on your water phobia, if you have one, to your children. And you want to make sure if you have children, take them to swimming lessons and make sure they're safe in the water because

Mike Ergo (46:57.827)
Yeah.

Patty Lyn Tweten (47:21.73)
They're going to go out in a boat someday. They're going to have a friend who wants to take them water skiing and it will eliminate them from a lot of activities that their friends are doing. So make sure they're safe in the water. They don't have to be master swimmers. If you want to pursue swimming as a triathlete and you're already committed and you're loving your cycling and you're loving your running, that would be a good time to join a club or join a master's team.

Mike Ergo (47:31.524)
Yes.

Patty Lyn Tweten (47:50.22)
And joining a master's team as a triathlete is, it's so easy. there, if you go to usms.org, unitedstatesmasterswimming.org, there are a number of options there to lead you to master swim teams in your area. And there are a lot of ad hoc people and ad hoc master swimmers who are not affiliated with any team. And they are at a number of different clubs.

Mike Ergo (47:50.277)
Mm-hmm.

Patty Lyn Tweten (48:17.78)
across the country. So you can actually just go to USMS.org and you know go to their FAQs. You can email them and say I want to start you know I'm a triathlete and I want to start swimming. So that's the easiest thing is just getting in the water and then once you find a group of people that you're comfortable with then commit to it. Just as you commit to all of your other training and if you're already training for a triathlon you're committed. So that's not a problem and it's like

Mike Ergo (48:45.238)
Yeah, good point.

Patty Lyn Tweten (48:47.34)
how do I fit it in? Well, the good thing about swimming is swimming, you can double up with anything else. So if you're biking that day, you swim and bike. Remember that swimming when you get in isn't about speed, it's about technique and you have to do it well slowly before you speed up. And every time you change your technique or upgrade your technique, then you've got to slow down again. And that is why

Mike Ergo (48:52.293)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Ergo (49:00.974)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Ergo (49:06.349)
Yes.

Patty Lyn Tweten (49:13.6)
It's good to be with a master's team because part of your master's workouts usually are drills and techniques that drills and things that strengthen you like kicking sets, pulling sets, drills that make you more aware of your body in the water and how to be hydrodynamic. So it's all layered in there. Even a little bit is better than none at all. that would be if you're de novo, I wanna go swim.

Mike Ergo (49:30.393)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Ergo (49:37.977)
Yes.

Patty Lyn Tweten (49:42.018)
those would be the steps that I would take. Or you could do like me and just show up an hour early at your local pool and accidentally run into a master's book. That worked really well for me. And the other thing I would say is that I was in the pool yesterday and I was in with another swimmer who doesn't swim as regularly. he said to me, we're at the end of a set. And I'm kind of like, come on. I was encouraging him a little bit because I knew I could.

Mike Ergo (49:48.421)
It seemed to work out pretty well for you

Patty Lyn Tweten (50:10.936)
And he says, oh, I'm so sorry. I'm not a swimmer. And I'm like, are you here? If you're here, you're a swimmer. If you're in the pool, you're a swimmer. And that really is the attitude of 90 % of the people that you're going to run into at the pool. Another nice thing about master swimming versus lap swimming is we know how to share.

Mike Ergo (50:19.929)
Yes.

Patty Lyn Tweten (50:35.512)
Sometimes if you go in the latsman, you've got the lady who's doing the breaststroke like this, and then you've got to, you know, and then people get a little tweaky and territorial. So master swimmers, will you be alone in your lane? Probably not, but we know how to share and we're happy to. And we'll tell you if you're doing it wrong. We did it in a nice way.

Mike Ergo (50:35.983)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Ergo (50:40.73)
Yeah.

Mike Ergo (50:50.565)
Yes. Yeah, exactly. I appreciated that in a nice way.

Mike Ergo (51:04.855)
Yeah.

Patty Lyn Tweten (51:08.514)
So true. Or just roll your eyes, because sometimes that's all the energy I have.

Mike Ergo (51:13.509)
Good point. Good point.

Patty Lyn Tweten (51:47.281)
that's great. I love San Mateo. That's where I started swimming.

Mike Ergo (51:49.892)
Yes.

Patty Lyn Tweten (51:57.555)
okay. Yeah. Yeah. I was just going to ask the person like, where do you swim, but we can talk.

Mike Ergo (51:59.07)
So yeah, go ahead.

Mike Ergo (52:06.341)
though.

Patty Lyn Tweten (52:09.311)
they're pretty hardcore.

Mike Ergo (52:14.87)
Hahaha.

Mike Ergo (52:52.367)
Hahaha

Mike Ergo (53:01.029)
I it.

Patty Lyn Tweten (53:12.222)
Every Master's team has a SID.

Mike Ergo (53:15.535)
Yeah, that's perfect.

Patty Lyn Tweten (53:16.44)
Exactly. Well, God bless, Sid.

Mike Ergo (53:28.197)
Yeah. Well, Patty Lynn, thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate you taking time out of your morning to come on the show and share all your knowledge and experience about swimming. And it's a beautiful story. Um, so thank you for being here.

Patty Lyn Tweten (53:41.644)
it's a pleasure. It was a pleasure to share. feel I'm everybody I know has a story like this that swims. So.

Mike Ergo (53:49.146)
Hmm.

Patty Lyn Tweten (53:51.96)
Well, thank you for inviting me and I'll see you in the pool. Mike.

Mike Ergo (53:55.695)
Sounds good. Yes, I'll be there. Go ahead, Lindsay.

Mike Ergo (54:31.267)
Take care.