Did my first outdoor swimming during the week end... +13 degrees with a short wetsuit... that was ok after a while :)
//Pontus
Some photos of the course
13 years ago
Monday 27 June 2011
Wednesday 22 June 2011
Race report from the 2010 race
So, here we go again :)
Well, what happened last time? Let me start from the beginning…
Sunday - The boat leaves to Sandhamn, chat with some persons which Blogs we have been reading. Chat with people we don’t know but with the same goal…. Finish the race! We all knows that this is one of the toughest races in the world… what the hell am I doing here!? We arrive to Sandhamn and drop our bags – try to get something to eat – collect the equipment we need for the race – Information from the race managers. The race managers have a short information session where they talk about safety, rules, the course, etc… they show us a map on the course …. Damn it’s a pretty long way to go ;)
The race continues – up from the water – slippery rocks – cold water – up again to the heating sun – cold water – and so on… We reach the second last check point at 15:45 and it closes at 16:00… I was at the verge of crying here, my first thought was that we won’t make it! The very last check point at Ornö Kyrka (church) will close 17:00. We have 1 hour and 15 minutes to swim 300 meters and run 11 km! We managed the swim in about 10 minutes and started to prepare our self to run as fast as we could by pulling the top of the swim suit down. Jonas was trying to encourage me with: “Hey! 11 km under an hour is noting, we can do that any day in the week”! I just replied: “I know”! The thing is that we have been running and swimming for more than 10 hours now and we have started to feel it :-). Jonas said: “I am the slowest runner so I take the lead”. That was fine by me, I just replayed: “We need to have a 5:45 pace to manage it”. We start to run as fast as we can and the first 2 km took us 12 minutes … Too slow… We just start to walk instead and finally we arrive to the last checkpoint 30 minutes too late, if we had been running we might have been 15 minutes late. 15 minutes too slow over a period of 11 hours!
I often get the question: “How did that feel”? My answer is: “That’s ok”! We almost made it and we didn’t needed to quit after just 5 hours :-). I’d rather quit the race at the last check point than at the first one!
Now it’s time again and we are focusing on Ö till Ö 2011!! And this time I really think we will make it! Why? Because we now know what we did wrong the last time and what we need to focus on this time. I have been doing a lot of swimming during the winter and Jonas has been running a lot this winter :-). We will also have a different strategy this year and that will be the biggest change!
We are going to find out the best set of gear to use and we have been trying out different stuff. The new strategy will be:
* We will try to have as much as possible equipment inside the wet suite to minimize the resistance in the water, even the fluid bladder!
* We need to be quicker in the transitions!
* Be quicker at the energy stations, grab what we need and eat while walking – KEEP ON MOVING!
* Swim and run faster during the short runs and swims, not have the same pace as we have on the long run and swims.
* Use hand paddles again
* Train differently, much more intervals and not as many long distance runs and swims. Don’t train for the total distance, train for shorter distance, the average swim distance is 500m and the average running distance is under 3 km, think about it :-). It´s ok to feel tired from swimming, you can rest while running…
Well, that’s all for now, stay tuned for future updates!
//Pontus
Well, what happened last time? Let me start from the beginning…
Sunday - The boat leaves to Sandhamn, chat with some persons which Blogs we have been reading. Chat with people we don’t know but with the same goal…. Finish the race! We all knows that this is one of the toughest races in the world… what the hell am I doing here!? We arrive to Sandhamn and drop our bags – try to get something to eat – collect the equipment we need for the race – Information from the race managers. The race managers have a short information session where they talk about safety, rules, the course, etc… they show us a map on the course …. Damn it’s a pretty long way to go ;)
Race Day! The alarm went on at 03:30 (!)
Get up!
Breakfast 04:00 … try to eat as much as you can.
Put on the race clothes and equipment.
05:45 - Get to the starting line ... What’s in my head right now is hard to say but I feel prepared and motivated and not that scared (!) … BANG! The race is on and everybody starts to run the first 1,5 km to the first swim. It has been a pretty nice summer and the rumors about the water temperature say it’s around 13-14 degrees, nice!
The first swim (1600 m) feels like crap! Damn …. Why is that? After a while, that feels like forever, we get to the other side and I slip on the rocks and hit my knee pretty bad – Good Start! We start to run, I just ignore the pain and the bad thoughts that start to build up in my mind! We are no swimmers, but good runners which gives some self-confidence.
We arrive to the starting point of the first longer run and start to pass some teams instead of getting passed by :-). The weather is nice and we are not that far behind schedule, therefore everything feels good! We arrive to the first cut off at approximately: 11:20 which is 40 min prior to closing it! – Here we do our first big mistake – we decide to rest for 5-10 minutes ….
We continue the race and the good weather is now great! If you like the sun and don’t wear a swim suit and run… the heat starts to get to you and that affects the speed pretty much. I can see that Jonas is suffering more than me during the run but I am also getting to get a little bit slower when swimming… After a while we reach the Mörtö-Bunsö swim which is approximately 1600 meters and the water has quite a current. Let me put it like this: that swim took us 45 minutes …
The race continues – up from the water – slippery rocks – cold water – up again to the heating sun – cold water – and so on… We reach the second last check point at 15:45 and it closes at 16:00… I was at the verge of crying here, my first thought was that we won’t make it! The very last check point at Ornö Kyrka (church) will close 17:00. We have 1 hour and 15 minutes to swim 300 meters and run 11 km! We managed the swim in about 10 minutes and started to prepare our self to run as fast as we could by pulling the top of the swim suit down. Jonas was trying to encourage me with: “Hey! 11 km under an hour is noting, we can do that any day in the week”! I just replied: “I know”! The thing is that we have been running and swimming for more than 10 hours now and we have started to feel it :-). Jonas said: “I am the slowest runner so I take the lead”. That was fine by me, I just replayed: “We need to have a 5:45 pace to manage it”. We start to run as fast as we can and the first 2 km took us 12 minutes … Too slow… We just start to walk instead and finally we arrive to the last checkpoint 30 minutes too late, if we had been running we might have been 15 minutes late. 15 minutes too slow over a period of 11 hours!
I often get the question: “How did that feel”? My answer is: “That’s ok”! We almost made it and we didn’t needed to quit after just 5 hours :-). I’d rather quit the race at the last check point than at the first one!
Now it’s time again and we are focusing on Ö till Ö 2011!! And this time I really think we will make it! Why? Because we now know what we did wrong the last time and what we need to focus on this time. I have been doing a lot of swimming during the winter and Jonas has been running a lot this winter :-). We will also have a different strategy this year and that will be the biggest change!
We are going to find out the best set of gear to use and we have been trying out different stuff. The new strategy will be:
* We will try to have as much as possible equipment inside the wet suite to minimize the resistance in the water, even the fluid bladder!
* We need to be quicker in the transitions!
* Be quicker at the energy stations, grab what we need and eat while walking – KEEP ON MOVING!
* Swim and run faster during the short runs and swims, not have the same pace as we have on the long run and swims.
* Use hand paddles again
* Train differently, much more intervals and not as many long distance runs and swims. Don’t train for the total distance, train for shorter distance, the average swim distance is 500m and the average running distance is under 3 km, think about it :-). It´s ok to feel tired from swimming, you can rest while running…
Well, that’s all for now, stay tuned for future updates!
//Pontus
Wednesday 15 June 2011
Swimming muscles has died...
Me and Pontus was out for a swim (the first for me in a long while) and I realized that my swimming muscles has died?!?!?
I have spent a lot of time running since I felt that was my weak side. But I have changed my opinion about that.
Now I'm going to swim 3-4 times a week, tonight I'm going for about 2 km swim, no running. On July 3:d I'm off to Gotland for a two week training camp (vacation if you ask my wife) with great access to the ocean, that will get my swimming muscles into shape again!
//jonas
I have spent a lot of time running since I felt that was my weak side. But I have changed my opinion about that.
Now I'm going to swim 3-4 times a week, tonight I'm going for about 2 km swim, no running. On July 3:d I'm off to Gotland for a two week training camp (vacation if you ask my wife) with great access to the ocean, that will get my swimming muscles into shape again!
//jonas
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
