ÖTILLÖ Training June 5-11
Very Boulder.
This past week, Dr. Larry Creswell was in town for a block of training so some of my personal training was centered around that. Larry is a former triathlete-turned-ultra distance swimmer that I have been working with for many years. He is planning to swim across the English Channel in July 2024.
Monday:
Scott Carpenter Pool, LCM
3 x 200 fins on 15” rest
6 x 100 buoy only on 15” rest
7 x 100 swim on 15” rest
3x through:
4 x 50 fins as 25fly/25easy
200 cruise
3100 meters. This session was pretty lax as it was Larry’s first day at altitude and we were navigating around a lot of other people in the lane.
Later in the day I ran an easy 8K loop.
Tuesday:
Boulder Reservoir - Open Water
This morning we did an open water swim at the Boulder Reservoir. Boulder Aquatic Masters runs sessions on Tue/Thur with a course set with buoys of somewhere around 1000 meters. Larry got there a bit before me and managed to get in four laps whereas I only swam 3 laps. It was my first wetsuit swim in almost two years and I thought it went ok overall. I didn’t wear a watch so no idea on times of laps or distance covered. Call it 3,000+ meters in total.
A couple hours later, Larry and I did a 2 hour hike in Chautauqua Park, mostly involving the Mesa Trail.
A few hours after that, I did another easy 8K run.
Wednesday:
Switzerland Trail run. Same route as last week with an out and back to the P2P highway. Managed to take a couple minutes off the overall route from last week and even saw a moose cross the path right in front of me. 17.4K in 1:20:40. Avg HR 143, max 158.
Afternoon swim at the North Boulder Rec SCY
700 mix
6 x 50 fins as 25fly/25easy on 1:00
Main Set
60 x 25 as five rounds of
4 x 25 3 easy, 1 fast on :30
4 x 25 2 easy, 2 fast on :35
4 x 25 1 easy, 3 fast on :40
400ish c/d
2900 yards
Thursday:
I had to get caught up one some work this morning so I took it off training. Larry went back to the Boulder Reservoir and swam another 4000+meters of open water. In the afternoon, Larry, Brooke and I went out for a five mile walk before dinner.
Friday:
Track workout.
6K to start as 2/2/2K @ 130/140/150 HR.
2K 130 4:55/K
2K 140 4:37/K
2K 150 4:25/K
Pace:HR was off this morning (pace was slow), but when I went into strides afterwards (4 x 100), I felt pretty good.
Main Set of 8 x 600 on 1:1 recovery.
Times were: 2:01, 2:00, 1:59, 1:58, 1:56, 1:57, 1:55, 1:54
This went a little better than expected. There was a middle distance Olympian running 400’s during this session, so I probably got a couple extra seconds/600 trying to stay out of the way.
After the run, I went straight to the pool where Larry was doing a 10,000 yard session. I hopped in and did a mix of strokes for 2K as he finished out his workout.
In the afternoon, I went to see Dr. Heather North (Red Hammer Rehab) to help me out with some issues I had been having in my lower back. Heather has been helping me out as my PT since 2012.
Saturday:
Saturday was the Boulder 70.3 so I did not do any formal training this day. Larry, Brooke and I did some spectating on the bike course together and then made our way onto the run course. At this point, I was on my bike riding around to different points to help give splits. Afterwards I rode back home so there was some cycling today, but no training. I fell asleep for an hour when I got home so there was definitely some fatigue even if there wasn’t any formal training.
Sunday:
Goal today was to extend my long run out to 2 hours for the first time in a long time. A secondary goal was to close out the last 5K of the session at sub 4:00/K pace if I had the legs (on a gradual downhill finish). The route I chose ended up being 28.5K in total. The first 13K had pretty moderate terrain changes, then from 13-23K it was very hilly, followed by a 5K gradual downhill finish. The weather was perfect for running (cloudy and 60 degrees) and I was able to close out the final 5K section under 4:00/K (19:35 for 5K). 2:01:16 total run time for 28.5K. 153 avg HR and 168 max (this happened during a 1200m climb close to the halfway point of the run). This was my longest run since doing some pace work with Jeff Fejfar when he won Ultraman Florida in 2022.