The Morning Swim Show, Sept. 15, 2011: Ashley Twichell Training to Swim Fast in Pool and Open Water

PHOENIX, Arizona, September 15. ASHLEY Twichell is one of a few people aiming for a spot on the USA Olympic team in the pool and open water, and on today's edition of The Morning Swim Show she talks about her goals for the upcoming months.

Twichell, a member of the world championship team in open water and the Pan-American team in the pool, talks about training for both disciplines, and how the sport of open water continues to grow and find its footing internationally.Watch the full show in the video player below and visit SwimmingWorld.TV for more video interviews.

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Show Transcript: (Note: This is an automated service where some typos and grammatical errors may occur.)

Peter Busch: This is The Morning Swim Show for Thursday, September 15th 2011. I'm your host, Peter Busch. In the FINIS monitor today we'll talk to Ashley Twichell. She'll swim the 800 at that Pan-American Games next month in Mexico. Ashley joins us right now in the FINIS monitor from Mission Viejo, California. Hi Ashley, welcome to The Morning Swim Show. How are you?

Ashley Twichell: Hi Peter, I'm good, thanks for having me on.

Peter Busch: It's a pleasure to have you. So most people know you for your open water swimming but you're going to swim at the Pan-Am Games. Are you excited to show what you can do in the pool?

Ashley Twichell: I am really excited. Open water is kind of new for me and that was a lot of fun this summer when I went to Shanghai and then about two weeks after Shanghai I went to Pool Nationals and I was really excited drop more time in the 800 and earn a spot on the team for Pan American Games.

Peter Busch: After the Pan-Am Games, what's the priority – open water and trying to make the Olympics or pool training and trying to make the Olympics that way?

Ashley Twichell: I'm actually still doing both. We do the majority, if not all, of our training in the pool so I'll definitely be going into a pool meets. We're going to the Olympic Training Center right from Pan-Ams and then to the Minnesota Grand Prix from there.

So I'm definitely planning on still competing in the pool and then I also want to continue on to Open Water Swimming so I'll hopefully be doing some World Cups and I'm doing Tiburon this weekend so that will be exciting too.

Peter Busch: From the Olympic Training Center to Pan-Am Games?

Ashley Twichell: From Pan-Ams to the Olympic Training Center and then to the Minnesota Grand Prix.

Peter Busch: That makes a little bit more sense – I guess they don't do too much tapering up there at the Olympic Training Center. You swam the 5K this summer at the World Championships, what is the big difference for you between the 5K and the 10K which is what you'll have to try and qualify in the Olympics for?

Ashley Twichell: I mean they're both pretty long swims with an hour and two hours so I think the most important thing for me is just to – for either race – is just kind of get to the front of the pack in the lead pack if I can, get a strong steady pace going and hold on, and then whenever I feel that I can make my move I will and so in the 5K the pace is a little quicker and for the 10K I just need to be careful not to make a move too quick and make sure I have enough of it at the end.

Peter Busch: No American women qualified for the Olympic 10K World Championships, that means there's just one spot open for the American women – that's going to be a tough spot to grab.

Ashley Twichell: It is, and there are a lot of great girls out there and I know it's all in my mind, we're all competing, but until then it's just training and getting excited and then when the race comes we still aren't really sure when Nationals will be so it's kind of up in the air for now.

Peter Busch: There's a lot about the Open Water Swimming selection that seems like it's up in the air. It's kind of a confusing process. I would imagine you swimmers and coaches, not just us in the media, would like to see a little bit cleaner selection process. Am I wrong?

Ashley Twichell: Yes, I mean it's definitely still a new sport and they're still working out the kinks for now. You just kind of have to go with the flow and that's a lot about what open water swimming is anyway, any given race, anything can happen, you need to be ready for anything so that's kind of into all you have and just ready and willing to go with kind of whatever they throw at us.

Peter Busch: Well the great thing for aquatic sports is open water swimming is definitely growing. You've got more events including this team event that you swam at the World Championships with Sean and Andrew. It's kind of a strange setup, could you explain it?

Ashley Twichell: It is – so it's three members from each country on each relay team and each country starts one minute apart. So it's different from the individual races in that you're not necessarily racing the other countries unless you pass them or they pass you. And so we started fast so we were five minutes back from the first country and there were four countries ahead of us. It's the last member of each team to touch the wall that is your finish time. And each country has different strategies, some countries did two people, usually it's two guys and a girl, and lot of countries had two guys in the front side by side and the girl right behind them, kind of in between dragging half of them. The US did it three straight in the line so Andrew led the entire way, Sean was in the middle, and I was in the back. And our strategy was just for Andrew to start at a pace that I was comfortable enough with and I was constantly touching Sean's feet for him to know that I was right there behind them. And if they ever felt me not touch their feet for maybe five or six seconds they'd slow down a little bit, let me catch back up. And Andrew just kind of built the pace as we went along and I know that I was right there behind them comfortable and at about the last 500 meters it was kind of a sprint to the finish.

Peter Busch: So it's a race where you're literally only as good as your last swimmer? And you kind of won it for the team – I know it's a team but I mean your time was the winning time in the event.

Ashley Twichell: It was – we were only I think 1.2 seconds ahead of Australia which was just crazy since it's an hour race and we weren't even right next to them but Andrew did an amazing job of sliding the whole entire way and went a straight line the whole way and Sean was really good about being aware of where I was, if I was right behind them, if I [inaudible 2:28] a little bit so I could catch back up and we just worked really well together as a team.

Peter Busch: Given how close it was do you think they might tweak it and make it a little bit more exciting by having teams race each other simultaneously?

Ashley Twichell: I'm not sure, I don't know if that's feasible. I think it was really exciting to like when we finally knew but we did have to wait about ten minutes after we had finished to see the final times. But I know the people watching said it was really cool because they had splits up, like the 2.5K and then as we finished so the audience was aware of that which was nice for them.

Peter Busch: Well that's really neat. Well good luck next month in Mexico. I hope you enjoy your time down there and that you swim fast.

Ashley Twichell: Thank you so much.

Peter Busch: We'll talk to you later Ashley.

Ashley Twichell: Thank you.

Peter Busch: That's Ashley Twichell joining us in the FINIS monitor today from Mission Viejo. That's it for today's show – I'm Peter Busch reminding you to keep your head down at the finish.
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