Ötillö Training June 1-7

In 2023, I kept an archive of the summer training I did in the lead up to the Ötillö World Champs in Sweden. My plan is to do the same for this year’s race, which I will be racing with Steven Zawaski on September 7th. I will try to add context when I can, but sometimes the information will be included without much detail.

Monday June 1:

North Boulder Swim (SCY)

600 easy fins 100k/100s

4 x 125 buoy on 1:55

12 x 50 fins IM order/25fr on :50

Main Set

2 x 400 pull on 5:00 in 4:36/7

4 x 50 kick on 1:10

2 x 300 pull on 3:50 in 3:26

3 x 50k

2 x 200 pull on 2:40 in 2:16

2 x 50k

2 x 100 pull on 1:30 in 1:06/5

1 x 50k

4400 yards

Tuesday June 2:

Morning run workout at Cottonwood Trail which is a 2K dirt trail that we typically use as an out and back for sessions.

Main Set was 2 × 1K/60” rest, 1 × 2K, 2’ rest. Then repeat the round one more time. Then run 2K straight as 30” easy/30” fast

Times: 3:35, 3:32, 7:14, 3:35, 3:30, 7:07. The 30/30’s for 2K came right at 8:00 total.

Total run session with warm up and cool down was about 17.5K.

Also commuted on bike to the workout which was about 40 minutes of total ride time.

Wednesday June 3:

Was originally planning to run in the morning, but left ankle and post tib were more sore than I would like, so opted to rest it. Late in the day I went to the pool to swim:

Nobo Swim (SCY)

600 easy

4 x 50kick on 1:05, 4 x 300 pull on 3:50

3 x 50k on 1:10, 3 x 300 pull on 3:55

2 x 50k on 1:15, 2 x 300 pull on 4:00

1 x 50k on 1:20, 1 x 300 pull

50k @ :48, 300s @ 3:26-7

4700 yards

Thursday June 4:

Aerobic run from the Scott Carpenter pool after coaching. Much hotter than it’s been so I kinda melted. Did a pattern of 14:00 Run/1:00 Walk for 12.6K total. Left ankle was better, but not 100%.

Swim after run:

Scott Carpenter (50-meter)

600 pull

6 x 50k fins 1-3 2x on 1:00

2 x 50k no fins, second one for time (:51)

6 x 50 pull 1-3 on :55

Main set

6 x 150 pull on 2:20 holding 1:48/9

200 easy

4 x 150 same

200 easy

2 x 150 same

200 easy

6 x 50 fins paddles as 2 easy, 1 fast (:29) on 1:00

200 easy

4200 meters total

Friday June 5:

Morning run of 10.3K with a 3KR/1:00Walk pattern. Ankle feeling better. Drove up to Avon, Colorado after this.

Easy swim in Avon, Colorado of 2400 yards with a mix of kicking, fins, and light pulling.

Saturday June 6:

Avon Rec Center swim (SCY)

Warmed up in the wall lane for about 700 while we waited to get a lane Steven and I could share, then started the following main set:

All Pulling

4 x 150 on 2:05, 4 x 100 on 1:15

3 x 150 on 2:05, 4 x 100 on 1:20, 3 x 50 on :45

2 x 150 on 2:05, 4 x 100 on 1:25, 6 x 50 on :45

1 x 150 on 2:05, 4 x 100 on 1:30, 9 x 50 on :40

4 x 100 on 1:35, 12 x 50 on :40

150's @ 1:40-43, 100's @ 1:05-07, 50's @ :31-32

300 social kick cool down

6,000 yards.

One of our goals is to have one swim per week extend a little longer than the others and that’s was the purpose of this one. Little more challenging as the elevation here is about 7500 feet instead of 5500 feet in Boulder.

In the afternoon, we rode our bike into Vail for packet pick up. Gradual uphill there and gradual descent back for a total of about 32K of riding and 70 minutes or so in total.

Sunday, June 7:

This morning was the GoPro 20K Trail Race. The race had 2500 feet of elevation gain, topping out around 10,000 feet at Mid Vail and some technical single track descending. About 2000 feet of the elevation gain came right off the bat and was covered in the opening 8K or so. The next big chunk came near the end with a single track section on a trail called Berry Picker that I essentially just power hiked.

I struggled quite a bit in this race, both physically and mentally. I was prepared to use this race as a high level training session, but I felt behind the ball most of the time. Total race time was 1:58 and change so that was by far the longest session I have had on my feet in quite a while.

We rode our bikes to/from the race as well for an additional 70ish minutes of riding.

Totals for the week:

13 hours, 39 minutes of aerobic training

~20,000 meters (22,000 yards) swimming in ~5.75 hours

~60K of running in ~5 hours

~3 hours of cycling