​ÖtillÖ - Body & Mind take aways

It's that time of the year again...physical tapering and mental charging is well underway for the ÖtillÖ Swimrun World Championships. Stop training and start writing is what works best for me in these final days. For us (Team Say No! to Doping) it’s the fourth time we participate in this classic swimrun event. I guess the main reason we keep coming back is simply because without pain there is no scale for our emotions. It’s only when we suffer, we learn to appreciate the value and meaning of things.  Of course this does not mean that we start hitting each other with a hammer on race day...even though we have come close to throwning things at each other but that’s a different story.

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Master Mind
When you move in different terrain the body and mind are subjected to different stress levels. The trick is to do something clever with the signals your brain receives. The rational brain processes this enormous amount of data and tries to make sense out of it. If you think of your body as a complex machine than the rational brain is the control center where an army of brain cells is flicking back and forth through pages of an ancient book with the title: "Pain signal interpretation for Dummies". Unfortunately there are quite a few pages missing and this is where the Feeling Brain comes in. It will just come up with something and does whatever it feels like. It’s a bit like playing the game Master Mind: it's a repetitve process of logic and intuition to figure out the correct 5 colors…we’ll get back to that later.
 
Course knowledge vs Body knowledge
So, every year there are heaps of swimrunners at the start line of ÖtillÖ. A lot of them have never put a foot in Sweden let alone Utö or Sandhamn. It’s true that one of the biggest advantages you can have as a team is to practice the course. If you know what’s coming you can adjust your pace accordingly. Also, your brain can be “in the moment” because it has already build a visual memory of the last 3km on Utö, the exit point of the pig swim or that nasty 1,5km trail section on Kymmendö Bunsön. End result: optimum pacing means less muscle fatigue and as such there is more stored energy left in the muscles to turn it into speed at the latter stages of the race. 
 
So, what to do if you’re new to ÖtillÖ or simply don’t live in Sweden. Well, you study the maps. Certain terrain and weather conditions will cause specific (stress and pain) signals. As long as you engage your brain to recognize them and react with an appropriate action then the race will be a meaningful experience if not, then all these signals will be nothing more then an “unpleasant distraction” and that's a serious waste of energy, if you ask me.
 
So, in order to make things easy I summarized my personal “Swimrun Signal Play List”:
1) Lactic acid production ( i.e. running or swimming too fast on gravel or road sections, steep uphills, cold starts, not enough electrolyte in-take)
2) Muscle fiber/tissue damage (i.e. eccentric running on rocks, steep descents, sudden stops, sharp turns, sudden alterations in terrain conditions mainly)
3) Body temperature mismanagement (i.e. overheating on long runs or shivering cold on long swims or where run sections between swims are technical)
4) Brain drain fundamentals (i.e. over analyzing, thinking too much ahead, wrong focus, talking non-stop, negative team spirit, lack of mental preparation)
 
1. Lactic acid signals come in “different frequencies and strength”. Below are a few examples:

• Early stage of the race when the body is still cold and adrenaline is numbing your sensors as a form of protection and / or ignorance. You feel like Superman but maybe it’s better to save your muscles and run/swim on reserve until later in the race. Some teams opt to sacrifice energy while drafting off faster teams. It's a strategy that works for some but it comes at a risk of premature energy burn-out.
• Steep uphills or fast trails trying to keep up with the competition – better to keep your own pace following your own energy game plan. Not every battery is build the same way.
• Underestimating the length of a run section by going out too fast only to find out half way that the aid station is on the other side of the island by which time your legs have turned into spaghetti bolognaise
• "Don't put all your eggs in the same basket"...runners “over-do it” in the run sections and swimmers “over-do it” in the swim sections. Basically, don’t blow yourself up in your strongest discipline even if you're both good runners or both good swimmers. Everybody has a tendency to train and race their favorite discpline but neglect investing in their weaknesses. It's like eating but never doing the dishes...it doesn't work in the long run.
• Once lactate is in your blood stream it’s hard to get rid off. The only thing you can do that has some positive effect is to bring your heart rate down for several minutes by significantly reducing your pace (i.e. jogging or walking). Remember that once you have crossed the red zone, your lactate thresshold tolerance is less meaning that you maximum maintanable speed has reduced and that's bad news.
• Your heart rate tends to be slightly lower during swimming compared to running because the key muscles are closer to the heart and you are in a horizontal position (not fighting gravity). Also, your legs don't move and the majority of the blood is directed to the working swimming muscles (i.e. arms, chest, shoulders, back and core). Redirecting blood and oxygen to your legs takes a bit of time so don't start sprinting out of the water. Instead slightly lower your swim pace and start moving your legs and ankles 50m before coming out of the water. This will bring your heart rate up in a more controlled manner preventing dizzyness.
• You might be saving energy where the other one is already in the red zone burning excessive amounts of energy - Team harmony is key to avoid excessive energy consumption fluctuations especially if one team member is strong in swimming and the other one strong in running.
• "Save the best for last" - As you get mentally and physically fatigued your body will demand more and more energy to maintain a certain pace. 5 min/km pace at the start will feel easy but friggin impossible after 7 hours of racing. It's like releasing a balloon: the air pressure (energy) will be released fast at the beginning acelerating the balloon but then, as the balloon shrinks the pressure becomes less and the speed will drop.  Key is to  throttle (i.e. control) the release of air pressure (energy) over time.

 
2. Muscle pain and fatigue signals are like "snipers in a war zone": they take their time to infiltrate but when they are strategically positioned and pull the trigger you will be lethally wounded. This trigger point will normally happen after 4-5 hours of racing after which it's the same for everybody: Are you mentally tough enough to cope with the pain while maintaining a certain pace to get to the finish line? Really, that becomes the question and it's not something you can train for. It's your primal survival instinct which only comes out on race day.  Below a few ideas on muscle fatigue:

• Over the course of the race micrco-ruptures are formed in different muscle groups for different reasons. A lot has to do with how you exert stress on your muscles or in other words how you move in nature. Be humble, gracious and smooth to preserve your muscles.
• Avoid sudden stops, jumping, tripping, acclerations / decelerations - these are all eccentric movements (i.e. extensing the muscle under tension) and have a tendency to accelarate damage on muscle tissue
• Train a strong core before race day because it's more than often that the smaller (supporting and underdeveloped) muscle groups get fatigued fastest deteriorating your economic running posture. Muscle fatigue resistance can be trained by doing down hill sessions but don’t do them in the final build up to a big race.
• Like Johnny Walker says: “keep on moving”...even when there is whiskey at the aid stations. Complete standstill can cause muscle lock-up and cramps.
• Precharge your body with an extra dose of magnesiun before race day to minimise the risk and effect of cramping muscles
• Keep your muscles hydrated and fluid so drink plenty of water and sports drink (i.e. electrolytes). When you dry out your muscles will feel like "a roller bearing without grease"....you get stiff and your pace will steadily drop.

 
3. Body temperature mismanagement
Swimrun is one of the few sports where heat management plays a vital role to ensure optimum performance. During ÖtillÖ your body (36 deg C) has to manage well over fifty transitions where the temperatures ranges between air (20 deg C) and water (15 deg C).

• Exposure time is what matters. Long swims will become a ballance between swimming fast enough to stay warm and economic enough not to burn too many calories.
• Short swims in between runs can serve a different purpose: cool down and rest the legs as if it was an interval training session using the cold water as a muscle recovery treatment
• Short runs in between long swims are dangerous as there is a tendency to run too fast in order to get warm increasing the chance for muscle damage and / or lactic acid production. It's worthwhile considering sleeves or an extra top if you struggle to get warm after consecutive swims.
• There are 9 aid stations on the course which means that an 8 hour team get’s to drink something roughly every 53 minutes. For teams with an estimated finishing time of say 12 hours this time interval goes up to: 1 hr 20 min! Come up with your own hydration system in the form of bladders or soft flasks to bridge the gap between aid stations.
• Before a long run, cab down your wetsuit upon the swim exit or even swim with your zipper open for a while. At the start of the run take of your swim cap, don't wait. Let the lead swimmer determine the start running pace and then the lag swimmer can take over so the lead swimmer can switch off for a while
• Who ever feels most fresh should run at the front but the lag runner should run slightly behind. If it's hot run a bit on the side so he / she also get's a share of the cooling wind. When it's cold hide behind the front runner for wind protection.
• At aid stations don't forget to cool your head with water or throw some water in your wetsuit.

 
4. Brain Drain Fundamentals
Roughly 20% of your energy is spend "between your ears" so if you want to race economic it’s worthwhile figuring in advance how best to engage your brain on race day. It basically boils down to ensuring a "happy marriage" between our rational brain and our feeling brain. As we all know, the feeling brain is “the boss in the house” but just a bit slow when it comes down to decision making. The only way to get some action out of "the Diva" is to keep it short and simple. It's almost like a restaurant menu, if you put 40 options there you spend double the amount of time to make a decision. While encountering different terrain and swim conditions I put my Signal Play List on a "3 seconds toggle mode". This engagement between body and mind shortens the time between sensing the slightest signal of “feeling crap” and an appropriate action to reduce the source of the problem by: reducing speed, adjusting stroke rate, cabbing down wet suit or taking a gel. Train it enough and it will become a subconcious brain routine which will burn the least amount of calories. Strong Neural pathways will be build between cause and effect according to the following body and mind algorithm:
 
 Sense - Recognise - Judge - Process - Act - Fine tune (repeat ).
 
It's just like dancing....the Rational Brain is the Dance Instructor and is teaching the Feeling Brain to recognise each Song (Signal), come up with the right dance moves (Judge & Process) then adjust the moves according to changes in rhythm (Act and fine tune).

• If knowing the course is important in terms of factual knowlege than knowing your partner's emotional resilience in terms of strengths and weaknesess is equally important in terms of subjective knowlege. In the heat of the fight I sometimes forget that I am racing with a girl...and girls have simply more than one ON/OFF button. If you know how to find the right frequency under different conditions then you're in for a great time. If not, then you might as well pack your bags and take the first boat home....
• Be Patience, supportive, flexible and understanding. Gold medailes fade but memories last.

 

​Our preparation slides for ÖtillÖ:

2019_ÖtillÖ_slide_1.pptx
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