Running 34640m, Swimming 7560m, 11 runs, 10 swims and 22% swimming.
The Old-Man: Event number three on our list was the 1000 Lakes World Series event which is a point to point race from the German towns of Wesenberg to Rheinsberg with a total distance of 42,2km. I was still a little worried about my wrist. Rehab had been going as well as expected, although I still didn’t have full joint mobility/strength, nevertheless race day was upon us so there was nothing more to do. Suck it and see!
The course has 10 swims, totaling 7,5 kilometers with four swims over 1000m. The running was on hard packed sand through mostly natural beech forest and some imported scots pine. The Boy had been swimming well at Utö and Borås so I felt the longer swims would suit us, time would tell.
Travel was easy with a relatively short flight to Berlin then a hire car for the 75km drive NW to Rheinsberg. When we arrived at the picturesque little town it was basked in sunshine. Great start. We had been given an accommodation tip of the Gasthof Edler, a very traditional butchers come guesthouse which was right by the main square and finishing line. Perfect.
Registration, race briefing and dinner over, it was time for an early night. Breakfast at 07:00 as much as I was tempted by local specialty raw minced pork hackepeter we went for a more conservative carb centric choice with black coffee. Race kit sorted, the buses to the start at Wesenberg left at 08:45.
The start gun broke the nervous silence of the penned racers and we were in business. After ten minutes in the Boy rightfully suggested we take it down a notch. Running 4:30 tempo probably wasn’t sustainable and we were here to complete and have fun. After 3.8km of running the first swim was 1000m then 1.2k to another 1250m swim. These long swims split the field. The faster runners were already ahead but we had no problems taking places on swims against the evenly paced runners. We were having a good day.
On the last two races the Boy had run out of steam after half the distance but I knew from the training sessions we had been doing in Stockholm he was in much better endurance form. It could be a really tough day for the Old-Man! In the end we were evenly paced and although you can’t say six plus hours of exertion is easy we had a good race together. Running after some of the longer swims on freezing legs even made the Boy run like an old man but we pushed on.
The last run took us past the castle and a final 500m swim to a packed crowd of smiling, cheering spectators (great support) and the last few hundred meters to the finishing line in the square. Amazing place and an amazing race completed in 6 hours 12 minutes which was 29% from the time of the winning team. That is an improvement on 34% in Utö and 33% in Borås – forward never stops! Great work by the Boy and chuffed that the arm didn’t fail me – happy days.
Swimruns are special. The nature, the natural fartlek between running and swimming, the interplay with your partner and the camaraderie among competitors is unique. Add to that the carefully selected and impeccably orchestrated venues by the ötillö team, then that makes it extra special. Next up Malta 24th November.
The Boy: With injuries tainting the summer holidays this felt like some sort of revenge or test, to truly get back into the groove of suffering in order to improve. Tom falling off his bike and breaking his arm in early June and me having to recover from both a shoulder impingement and a possible stress fracture in the foot that came as a consequence of the prior Borås SR made the summer slightly less active than hoped for. I barely did any running or swimming until late august, which gave me 2 months to get fit.
The two previous races left me with the realization that I needed to fix the running and stay away from redlining from start to finish. I reckon I averaged an unhealthy heart rate of 180 BPM in both Utö and Borås leaving me delusional and completely drained halfway through. This time I was determined not to red line and to enjoy the race.
I had read previously about the advantage of nasal breathing when training aerobically and decided to give it a go. The basic science behind it is that nasal breathing increasing nitric oxide which stimulated vasodilation and thus allows more blood flow to areas in need of oxygen, it also allows less oxygen into the body which increases the carbon dioxide content of the blood which ultimately stimulates the release of oxygen from its carrier hemoglobin. To sum it up nasal breathing increases the speed at which oxygen and carbon dioxide is absorbed and released and allows more blood flow to muscles allowing you to have a lower heart rate at the same exertion.
So I started running only breathing through my nose. It felt weird and uncomfortable at first but it soon grew on me. Just a few weeks into it I was running faster than ever before holding my average heart rate below my aerobic threshold of 160bpm. There are a bunch more to go into about the science behind nasal breathing but I’ll leave that for another time, let’s just say that I am hooked.
This race was the best one yet by far. Utö was cold as hell and the suffering was intense, Borås warmer but my foot gave in halfway leaving me with a limp for 15K or so, 1000 Lakes was truly beautiful and it was my chance to redeem myself. The race started fast and ended fast. We held a steady running tempo of a little under 6 min/km and swam great. With half the race left it almost felt as if the suffering was unavoidable but it never came. I kept breathing through my nose and held my heart rate down. I felt clear-headed, invigorated, and strong. We did slow down but it wasn’t because I was redlining, it was because the legs after a long swim in 15 degrees just won’t cooperate. Looking around and enjoying the scenery was a new experience for me which I hope to recreate. The goal now is to be so fit that the Old-Man suffers as much as I did the first two races, onward!
#otillo #arkswimrun #doingmorewithless #forwardneverstops #semperanticus #fwdmotionsthlm #teamtrisport2019
@fwdmotionsthlm are chasing qualification to the 2020 ÖtillÖ World Championships through the 7 events in 24 months route. This was event number 3.
For the Sunday World Series race we for the first time had decided to start 90 minutes later, at 10 am. This made for an great start of the day. No breakfast in the dark and already pleasant temperatures at the start. No more cold starts. The day could not have been better. This became apparent as the speed of all was high. A total of 112 registered teams from 23 nations chased each other from lake to lake, from Wesenberg to Rheinsberg.
The current Women’s World Champions Fanny Kuhn Desiree Andersson -flew down the course and fought hard for the h place overall and finished just after Flinta Hedbys in h overall. We have OTILLO Cannes in less than 4 weeks and then we close the season with OTILLO Malta on November 23 24!