4am rolled around quickly after the 4th of July festivities the night before. We left for White Lake just before 5am to embark on our first long OtillO training session. Our goal was to keep moving for a total of four hours while mimicking each leg of the race. I used a sharpie to write down the swim/run distances on my paddles so we could practice what we'll be doing in Sweden. In addition, we brought a bunch of gear to test out and determine what will work best for us in the race. We really wanted to get a feel for what works, what doesn't work, and what it feels like to run in soaking wet shoes for hours while carrying all of our swim gear and a bladder backpack containing our hydration and nutrition. With it being so warm, we did not use wetsuits or neoprene caps for this training session. We will test them at a later date, along with tying ourselves together!
At 6:30 we took off from the parking lot of the White Lake Town Hall. The only public parking / lake entrance didn't open until 7:30, so we figured the Town Hall was a safe place to park and start our journey. As previously mentioned, our plan was to mock the swim/run course distances as best as we could, given we weren't sure how that would work with our ins/outs around the lake front properties. Geared up in our hand paddles, pull buoys, swim caps and goggles and our camelback, we started off on our fist leg of the run. Jenny rigged her paddles and pull buoy on a race bib number belt she uses for triathlons, which worked out fairly well, but her paddles clanked around so loud at first that she nearly woke up the town. She also had some trouble running initially, because she was laughing so hard about how we must have looked.
Paddles and pull buoys came in handy, especially since we were swimming with our shoes on. The buoys gave us a little extra buoyancy which we needed...as we discovered that swimming with shoes on is not easy. That combined with carrying the cumbersome camelback can really make for a difficult swim. The wetsuits we will be wearing will provide more buoyancy, so we are confident that aside from the frigid water, the swims might be slightly easier with the gear in Sweden.
Some of ins and outs began or ended at private homes, apartment complexes, in the woods, at campgrounds, and at the FFA center, just to name a few. We startled a gentleman as we crawled into his yard while he was eating his cereal on the porch. He was kind enough to give us directions to find the main road...but can you imagine what he must have been thinking when he saw two oddly dressed women crawl into his yard at 7:00 in the morning?
For the next several hours we ran and swam, while taking turns carrying the camelback. We think it will work better for us to alternate carrying one, than for both of us to carry our own. Around 10:30 we stopped our watches. We traveled 18 miles in just a hair over 4 hours. With a total of 16 in/outs, somewhere around 15 miles of running, and 3 miles of swimming we had a really fun time and it all flew by very quickly! Thankfully White Lake had plenty of places to get in and out of, so sticking to the actual course distances wasn't that hard. Our nutrition and hydration plan worked well too, as neither of us had any issues :) But with the race being so much colder we talked about the need to eat more often and eat more overall.
This training session was alot of fun and a good confidence booster knowing that we could have definitely done another lap around the lake (we made it around twice with an extra little out back run). Until next time...
At 6:30 we took off from the parking lot of the White Lake Town Hall. The only public parking / lake entrance didn't open until 7:30, so we figured the Town Hall was a safe place to park and start our journey. As previously mentioned, our plan was to mock the swim/run course distances as best as we could, given we weren't sure how that would work with our ins/outs around the lake front properties. Geared up in our hand paddles, pull buoys, swim caps and goggles and our camelback, we started off on our fist leg of the run. Jenny rigged her paddles and pull buoy on a race bib number belt she uses for triathlons, which worked out fairly well, but her paddles clanked around so loud at first that she nearly woke up the town. She also had some trouble running initially, because she was laughing so hard about how we must have looked.
Paddles and pull buoys came in handy, especially since we were swimming with our shoes on. The buoys gave us a little extra buoyancy which we needed...as we discovered that swimming with shoes on is not easy. That combined with carrying the cumbersome camelback can really make for a difficult swim. The wetsuits we will be wearing will provide more buoyancy, so we are confident that aside from the frigid water, the swims might be slightly easier with the gear in Sweden.
Some of ins and outs began or ended at private homes, apartment complexes, in the woods, at campgrounds, and at the FFA center, just to name a few. We startled a gentleman as we crawled into his yard while he was eating his cereal on the porch. He was kind enough to give us directions to find the main road...but can you imagine what he must have been thinking when he saw two oddly dressed women crawl into his yard at 7:00 in the morning?
For the next several hours we ran and swam, while taking turns carrying the camelback. We think it will work better for us to alternate carrying one, than for both of us to carry our own. Around 10:30 we stopped our watches. We traveled 18 miles in just a hair over 4 hours. With a total of 16 in/outs, somewhere around 15 miles of running, and 3 miles of swimming we had a really fun time and it all flew by very quickly! Thankfully White Lake had plenty of places to get in and out of, so sticking to the actual course distances wasn't that hard. Our nutrition and hydration plan worked well too, as neither of us had any issues :) But with the race being so much colder we talked about the need to eat more often and eat more overall.
This training session was alot of fun and a good confidence booster knowing that we could have definitely done another lap around the lake (we made it around twice with an extra little out back run). Until next time...