In this post, we’re chatting with Southern California-based Ambassador Mel Latt!

Follow along on her journey (@mellatt) to reach her goals in masters swimming, open water swimming, and check out her amazing photos she captures along the way.



Meet Mel Latt:

My name is Mel Latt, I live in Venice, California and I am 55 years old! I have been swimming since 5th grade. I swam through high school although not super hardcore… I was actually a better runner! Then I swam club in college as I attended UC Berkeley. After college I was more into running… doing several marathons and half marathons.

I managed to hurt my knee when I was 40 and ended up back in the pool. I kept an eye spying the masters program at my pool… kind of comparing myself, when finally the coach was like, “you should join us!”

The rest is kind of history. I began competing again and soon had many close swimming friends. My kids were still young at this point, but they loved having me come home with medals and stories.

I have two girls now ages 17 and 19. I do believe my active lifestyle was infectious with them, as both of them went on to participating in various sports, gaining confidence and winning awesome competitions.

While yes, I’m a proud mama, all of their achievements came from them. I simply gave them the means and the way to find their passion. I think it helped them to see me passionate about my sports – and really, I feel I am just beginning to find that passion!


Her Love For Swimming:

I happen to swim with some CRAZY fast ladies! I am truly thankful for finding my swim community and for having friends around me who push me everyday to become a better version of myself.

I am so thankful that swimming has shaped who I am.

It is sometimes a challenge to stay happy and focused but one of my current goals is to be proud of the fact that I am OUT THERE and trying to find my badass EPIC self!!

I started open water swimming about 7 years ago when my brother passed from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. I decided to take on things that challenged me in his honor.The significance of the open water is that it scares the crap out of me, so every finish is a SUCCESS!

The significance of the open water is that it scares the crap out of me, so every finish is a SUCCESS!


How She Trains with MySwimPro with Masters Swimming:

I use MySwimPro ELITE on my phone to track all my analytics, and on my Apple Watch so I can seamlessly record each workout.

I swim with my local Masters Swim Team a lot, and I love tracking the group workouts on the MySwimPro app on my Apple Watch. It logs the workouts pretty darn well and I can look at my splits after and see where I am at with my speed.

Pairing my Strava activities with my MySwimPro account is awesome, I love being able to track all my workouts in one spot.

Logging all my miles helps keep me in check for the bigger swims which is invaluable. I swim an hour straight once a week, just to see what I can sustain and the app is so helpful to see my consistency or lack thereof!


Why She’s Thankful for Swimming:

I am hoping to do some longer open water swims and I am also hoping to complete my first Ironman in July of 2020 in Whistler. I was signed up for it this year, but in March 2019 I came down with the flu that within 5 days turned into Pneumonia. I went to the hospital one week after the swim and was diagnosed with severe pneumonia along with very low sodium and two hours after being admitted they found I was septic.

In other words, had I not come in that night, I would have died. Talk about a wake up call. I was in the hospital for 15 days and they found that my right lower lung had collapsed and required surgery to clean out. All in all I was very luck.

The special disease doctor kept telling me – “Just keep doing what you are doing because most people would be in the ICU and here you are still roaming the halls to keep your lungs moving!”

So this year has been a year of celebrating being alive and able to do things that quite honestly may not have been.

Me finishing the Waikiki Rough Water Swim this year was a badge of honor! I can’t wait to go back an KILL IT next year!!

I have a few more swims ahead of me to round out the season. Looking forward to them all!

Thank you so much for sharing your story, Mel! We’re so excited to have you on board as an ambassador, and can’t wait to hear how you swim this year! 

Ready to start your Personal Training Plan? Use code MEL20 for 20% off ELITE.

Download the MySwimPro app and start your free 30-day trial of ELITE COACH!

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