ÖTILLÖ Training July 24-30

Monday:

Six weeks to race day (exactly, since the race is on a Monday).
Decided to take a little break from swimming and running and ride my bike this morning. Went up and over the front side of Olde Stage, climbed Lefthand Canyon to Mile 15, descended back to Lee Hill and climbed up and over the backside of Lee Hill to close it out. Power meter is out of commission, but used my HRM: Total ride 52K in 2:10, 3612 feet of climbing. Average HR 139, max 158. Pretty toasty out, was over 80 degrees at 8500 feet of elevation and mid 90’s down low.

Afternoon strength session:

Hex Deads: 1 x 12 @ 135, 1 x 8 @ 185, 1 x 6 @ 225, 3 x 4 @ 245/55/65/75
Reverse Lunges: 6 each leg @ 80/90/100/100
RDL DBs: 4 x 8 @ 100/110/120/120
Alternate: 12 Dips/6 Pull Ups
Incline Bench DBs;: 3 x 8 @ 80
45 minutes in total.

Tuesday:

Morning run/walk/hike up Hogsback; same session as last week. Went a touch faster than last time, but I felt fairly tired for most of the session. Warm and windy this morning as well. Total session was 6.71K in 44:26.

Short afternoon swim at North Boulder Rec (SCY)
500 easy; then
15 x 100 pull as 4 on 1:20, 1 on 1:40
Rotated three different sets of paddles to see how they all compared. Mostly swimming 1:08’s
200 easy
2,200 yards in total

Wednesday:

Morning run with Matt. We started at the Lefthand trailhead and did a little over 30 minutes on the single track to warm up. Then we transferred to the dirt roads and ran a fartlek set of 2 x (30/60/90/90/60/30) with equal time recovery. First quicker session in a while and it felt that way. Also pretty warm outside which I could feel with the higher intensity. Glad I had Matt along for the session as the second round was a bit challenging for me. Total run was 14.8K in 1:06:17 with 12 minutes of faster running.

Afternoon swim at North Boulder Rec (SCY)
Three rounds of
400 on 5:20, 300 on 4:00, 200 on 2:40, 100 on 1:20, 100 easy
Used small paddles on first round, then compared two different paddles on rounds 2 and 3 that are the same general size, but swim a bit differently in terms of stiffness and water flow through the holes. Swam similar times in both sets, but first set of TYR paddles felt like I could hold better tempo. Still playing around with gear.
3,500 yards in total.

Thursday:

Early open water session at the Boulder Reservoir. I made a tether last night and Gordo and I tried it out together for a couple laps exchanging pulls. G got out after two laps then I swam one additional one solo. Felt pretty good overall. Somewhere around 3,000 meters in total.

After swimming I met up with Chris and started his run session with him before he took off with his main set. My legs were pretty tired from yesterday, but lower leg issues are finally starting to feel more in check. We’ll see how that plays out over the next three day block starting tomorrow. Total run of 10.1K in 45:02.

Afternoon Strength Session:
Hex Deads, 1 x 12 @ 135, 1 x 8 @ 185; 6,8,10 @ 225
Squats: 4 x 5 @ 135/45/55/65
RDL DBs: 4 x 8 @ 100,110,120,120
Shoulder Press: 4 x 8 @ 65,75,75,75
Pull Ups: 4 x 6
Dips: 4 x 10
45 minutes in total.

Friday:

Friday MonZ session at Scott Carpenter (SCY)
600 easy
Four rounds of
75 on 1:10, 50 drill on :50, 3 x 25 on :30 as kick, build, blast
Main Set
24 x 100 as 1,2,3 of each with a send off of 1:30/25/20/15
Pull Set
3,2,1,1,2,300 on 1:20 base
With these send offs, I could swim the whole main set. Mostly at 1:10/100 on the 30/25 send offs and about 1:08 on the 20/15 send offs.
5,000 yards in total.

After the swim, I ran home from the pool on the same route (as last week) on the west side of town that is a net uphill. I forgot to mention that last week on this route, I had a bee or wasp (not sure which) fly into my mouth and sting my tongue mid run. I have actually been stung in my mouth before so wasn’t too concerned (while working at Camp Longhorn in college). I bring this up because I got stung again on this run, but this time they kindly stung the back of my leg on my hamstring. I used to get stung a lot while cycling, but never running. Now I’ve been stung twice in the span of eight days. Total run was 11.4K in 52:42. Pretty hot for this one.

When I got home, I opted out of running back to the pool. Instead, I took a long loop on my bike back to the pool. This ended up being about a 30 minute easy spin.

Afternoon PT session with Dr. North. My lower leg has been improving, but is still not 100%. I haven’t been recording the sessions in this training log, but I do a ~15 minute routine almost every day that works on single leg balance/strength. My right leg is substantially less stable than my left and it shows with some of the symptoms I’ve been having. When I was 14, I was playing a game of pickup basketball and came down hard on my right ankle, spraining it significantly. To this day, I have a tendency to roll this ankle on technical terrain and have to be mindful of various flare ups. My ankle has a bit of play of it and so certain muscles have to work a little bit harder to keep everything stable. This ends up causing bouts of tendinitis which vary in location, but it’s something I’ve had to manage off and on over the years.

You can test your stability at home if you’d like. All you have to do is stand up (I prefer barefoot) and just lift one leg up and balance on the other. Alternate each leg for 30 seconds. If there is a significant balance and stability difference between the two, that’s all it will take to clearly recognize that. For me, standing on my left leg feels almost like I have two feet on the ground. For my right, it immediately feels like I’m on a a bit of a wobble board. I can balance, but I can feel my lower leg working hard to keep things stable.

Saturday:

Morning session of run/swim/run/swim/run/swim. Last weekend I dropped distances in running as the workout progressed. This week, I wanted to go a bit longer overall and also wanted to keep the runs about the same length. Each run was planned to be 8K in length heading out in a different direction each time. The swims would be 2000/1500/1000ish of pulling (SCY). The first swim was planned to be a little more demanding to simulate the opening swim of the race, whereas the others were more relaxed.

Run #1 8.08K in 36:07
Swim #1
2 x 100 on 1:10
2 x 100 on 1:15
1 x 100 on 1:10
2 x 100 on 1:15
3 x 100 on 1:20
1 x 100 on 1:10
2 x 100 on 1:15
3 x 100 on 1:20
4 x 100 on 1:25
Was swimming 1:05’s on the 1:10’s and about 1:07/08 for the rest. Felt a little stressful which was what I shooting for.
Run #2 8.06K in 34:15
Swim #2
3 x 125 on 1:50
3 x 125 on 1:45
3 x 125 on 1:40
3 x 125 on 1:35
Was holding 1:27’s for first 6, then 1:25 on last 6
Run #3 8.02K in 33:27
Swim #3
1 x 1100 straight, no pacing pressure
200 easy
Adds up to 24K+ and 4800 yards for the day. Pretty good day overall. After several good days with my lower leg, I was feeling it a bit more today. So it goes.

Sunday:

Morning run with Chris. He had a workout to do so I joined in (at my own pace, not his). Main Set was 3 x 3K on 5:00 recovery. After a 25ish minute warm up we started the main set on a route that had the same start and finish on a lollipop circuit. I held 3:41/K avg on first rep, then dropped the avg by 2-3 seconds on rounds two and three. Our recoveries were pretty much full stop so not on an active float. I actually prefer this to light jogging in most instances, particularly when it’s hot. Lower leg felt improved from yesterday, but still started to feel it about 2/3 into the session. Total workout time was a little over 80 minutes with 17K+ of running (9K of tempo). This went pretty well overall as I haven’t done any sustained tempo running in quite some time.

+++

For anyone that is interested, I have an apparel order open with all of it gear available for order until August 9th. You can find some photos of the various pieces of gear in the photos below.

Click HERE to access the team store.