ÖTILLÖ Training July 3-9

Monday:
Morning swim at Scott Carpenter (LCM) with the MonZ group
600 easy
8 x 50 mix
Main Set
All pulling for me
300 on 4:10
6 x 150 on 2:10/05/00/00/05/10
200 on 4:10
4 x 150 on 2:05/00/00/05
200 on 4:10
2 x 150 on 2:00
300 on 4:10
The 200’s on 4:10 were done as 300’s by everyone else, but I chopped off 100 on those two reps to give me a chance to recover a bit. Everyone else swam 300’s throughout.
I finished with 500 easy with fins.
4,300 meters in total.

Strength session a few hours later:

Squats:
1 x 12 @ 95
1 x 8 @ 135
1 x 6 @ 155
4 x 3 @ 175/85/90/95
RDLs:
1 x 8 @ 135
1 x 6 @ 165
4 x 3 @ 185/195/200/205
Hex Deads
2 x 8 @ 135/185
1 x 6 @ 225
4 x 3 @ 265/270/275/280
45 minutes in total.

Tuesday:

Morning swim at Scott Carpenter (LCM)
Chris and I showed up and some folks were swimming 100 x 100 so we did the last 29 with them to start out our session.
9 x 100 pull on 1:40/35
10 x 100 fins on 1:20
5 x 100 fins on 1:30
5 x 100 swim on 1:40
400 easy
20 x 50 pull as two rounds of
3 easy, 1 fast
2 easy, 1 fast
1 easy, 2 fast
200 easy c/d

Felt alright throughout. Bit sore from the past couple days of swimming and lifting. 4,500 meters in total.

Following the swim, I did a run straight after finishing on the Boulder Creek path. Total run 7.44K in 32:21. Legs finally feeling a bit fresher after a couple days off of running. Travel day tomorrow to Boston before the race this weekend in Portland, Maine (Casco Bay Swimrun).

Wednesday:

Got up earlier than usual to run before we had to go the airport. Did an easy loop from house: 7.82K in 36:50. When I got home, we found out our flight was delayed three hours which actually wasn’t so bad because it gave me time to swim.

Went to the pool (LCM) about 90 minutes after running and met up with Chris. Sophie was kind enough to let us join her workout that was already in progress.
100 easy; then
3 x 400 on 5:40
60” rest
10 x 150 on 2:10
200 easy
I did the 400’s with fins for the first two reps then I swam the last one (5:30). To give context, Sophie was leading at sub 5:00/400 so quite a ways off the pace up front for me. I pulled the 150’s holding pretty steady at 1:55 or so. 3,000 meters in total.

Thursday:

Day off doing tourist things in Boston.

Friday:

Morning run on the hotel treadmill. The running from the hotel itself looked a little logistically messy so opted for the treadmill which is not my favorite. Listened to some recaps of Stage 6 of the Tour while doing a 30 minute build from 7.0 mph to 9.8 (add .2 mph every 2 minutes). Then walked/jogged to 35 minutes. 7.25K in 35:00. Driving to Portland, ME later this morning.

After we got to Portland, we went down to East End Beach. From there, I swam about 1300 meters along the promenade. Water felt cold initially, but once I got rolling it didn’t seem to bother me much.

Saturday:

Brooke and I started the day with an easy 5K run along the east side of town. I had initially planned to run a little more with some pickups, but I was feeling quite lousy so I shut it down early. A few hours late I met up with my partner, Nicolas, and we did about 1000 meters of swimming with the tether (my first time) to make sure the length was correct. This was my first time swimming with the tether and swimming with shoes on. It didn’t feel too awkward, but I had to resist my tendency to kick as much as I usually do.

Sunday:

Race Day. Up at 3:00 a.m., coffee, short 10 minute jog on the treadmill at 3:15, breakfast, left the hotel around 4:15, ferry from Portland left around 5:00. It was very foggy to start the morning, but we had not heard of any alternative plans as of yet. Once we got to the starting island, the fog was too thick so we were rerouted to another island where the short course athletes were planning to start. We got there around 7:00 a.m. and we were told we were going to do a loop on the island before picking up the course where the short course athletes were starting. Ostensibly the total race time would end up being about half of the long course’s planned duration.

We raced the first loop as planned, which included 3 runs, 2 swims and a section that would be a swim during high tide, but was a run during the low tide we had at the time. At this point, we were told that we would not be able to do the next island crossing because the visibility had not improved. While waiting for a ferry, we were able to do one more loop for training, but the race was called off.

We then loaded up the ferry and transferred over to Peaks Island where the race was originally scheduled to be finished. Once they gathered all the athletes into one location, they announced they would do a mass start 2-loop race around Peak island that included 2 runs and one swim per loop. Unfortunately, after the first swim on the first loop, my partner and I took a wrong turn. We eventually made our way back to the course, but decided to call it after one lap. Between the two sessions, it was about 2.5+ hours of swimrun or about 28-29K of total distance, though quite run heavy.

While I did not get a full race under belt, I was able to get in my first real swimrun practice. Interestingly, the things I thought would be an issue were not, and other things caught more of my attention. One major issue for me was simply being too hot on the runs in the wetsuit and swim cap. Even with 60 degree water, it was not enough to cool me off. Granted, we were going much harder at the start than we would for a long race, but I still think it is something that I will need to address. I have a few other thoughts on my mind that I will write about another time, but for now, it’s on to the next week. 8 weeks to race day.