Category Archives: Training

Not where I had hoped to be physically at this point in time.

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With just over two weeks left until the start of my 8th Vidösternsimmet 21+km I have to admit I am not in the form I had hoped to be.
2023 started off badly because om my back to back lung infections. but I was able to swim a lot of open water in May-June-July-August, This year I was able to swim almost normally with only a few missed practices. But with Lily’s high school graduation and my parents here for 2 weeks, I was barely in the water in June. July started with 8 straight days with no swim practice. Most of my OW friends did not seem interested in swimming outside either…

I will not be able to make up for lost time, but I am hoping to be in the water every day I can. Not to swim fast, or long, but just to swim so my body remembers how it feels. I am not going to be able to swim the 5th-7th because of a business trip.

I have however been able to add over 180km running to 2024 that I did not have last year and I have been biking on a similar basis since November last year.

My first goal for this years race is just to finish. For the first time since I started doing longer races in 2013, I am more concerned about finishing, than what my time is. I am guessing that if I do manage to finish, it will be around 7:20.

To swim or not to swim…

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Vidösternsimmet is a 21km race in August. The race has been around for 12-13 years, the first year was a test swim amongst friends. They have added a 500m kids/beginner race, and a 5500m race that has been modified to be 6km. I have participated 8 times in the past. Twice I have finished the 21km fast enought to make it to the start of the 6km race. I even managed to swim the 500m race with my daughter. My first time was in 2013. I have since then swam the 21km 7 times, and swam their Viking edition which is 42km once. One year I swam the 21km without a wetsuit just to say I could do it.


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From sofa to 10 km in 10 weeks

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September 13th a few weeks after I started to run again, I joined a group called from sofa to 10km in ten weeks. A local running club runs the group as a way to recruit new members. It worked, both my wife and I loved running in a group and joined the club after just three weeks.

During the ten weeks, we got tips on how to run, to use our arms more, body position, running up hill, running down hill. We ran various types of intervals. 30/15-45/22-60/30, 1-2-3-4-4-3-2-1 min runs with half the running time as rest and my favorite was two 15 minute periods of running 300m + walking 100m around a track. I was able to keep most of my 300m around 1:30. I also learned that it is easier to run fast up to about 200m, then it get hard 🙂


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The Journey Continues

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The last thing I wrote about was my August swim challenge Vidösternsimmet. Since then I have started to run again. Yes, you read that correctly, I have started to run. It came as a shock to me as well. But on August 19th I decided to try a 5km Parkrun. It ranks in the top 10 things most difficult things I have ever done, but I did it. It took just over 36 minutes, 36:06.

Kalmar Swimrun 42km 2016 – DNF had a stroke with 500m to the finish
Stockholmn Swimrun 24km 2016 – DNF passed out with 3-4km to the finish
*** 5km Parkrun 2023 – first near death experience since 2016***
Jönköping Ironman 2016 – lack of training
Kustjagaren Swimrun 24km 2016 – lack of training
Vansbro Triathlong 2014 – turned into a biathlon because of water temps ( run-bike-run)
Kalmar Ironman 2015 – lack of training
Viking Open Water 42km 2021 – 13+ night swim
Vätternrundan 300km 2014 – lost contact with my group and biked solo the last 60-70km
Vidösternsimmet 21km 2018 – with out a wetsuit
Kalmar Ironman 2014 – first full distance triathlon
Växjö Marathon 2013 – first run over 22km


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The first half of 2023

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The year did not start off great, but is slowly getting back to normal for me. I recovered from my broken elbow and sprained wrist in December 2022, only to get pneumonia in January and again about a week after my last dose of penicillin.

I switch jobs on March 1st, struggled with the long term effects of being sick with pneumonia for the better part of three months. I was sent to Texas to work for 3 weeks before I had even been employed for a full month. I think being in the dryer Texas weather helped my lungs recover, and it gave me a reason to rest from all training. I returned home in time for Easter and since then I have been biking to work, and was able to swim the entire workouts with masters, even if it was with either slow, or a little faster with fins or paddles, or sometimes even both.


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So much for Christmas wishes…

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So 2023 could not have started off any worse, for me at leaset.

Christmas workouts seemed to be on track with me getting back to full strength in the water, but around the 3rd of January I started to have breathing problems. I assumed it was connected to my back and chest pain. I managed to swim about 25-30 minutes the 8th to the 15th, but on the 17th I January the pain was too much for me so I contacted a Doctor. After a few phone calls and a few visits at various clinics I was released from the Emergency room around 0200 on the 18th with a diagnos of Pneumonia. So 8 days with antibiotics I started to feel better. But I was still coughing up blood.

With an planned trip to India on the 30th I was given an inhaler that would help open up my lungs and reduce the coughing. It worked I was able to travel with minimal coughing.

This week I picked up a blood pressure testing device and started my investigation into high blood pressure. I was able to swim about 1400m both Tuesday and Wednesday. I am hoping to get in at least 1000m tonight. but the combination of the lingering cough/breathing issues and now this thing with my blood pressure I am starting to think i will not get much swimming done in February.

My new ambition for 2023 is to be OW ready by May.

All I want for Christmas is…

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to be healthy in 2023.

For the second fall (autumn) in a row I have had to struggle with injuries. In 2021 it was my shoulder that could not keep up with the amount of swimming I had done from September 2019 until August 2021. It took 7 months to get back to “normal” and I was able to swim all summer, jippee!

I managed to race twice in August, on long race and one short race. Things were looking up for 2023. Then I fell of my bike, broke my the top of my Ulna (elbow) in September. Back to rehab, focus on getting mobility back in my left arm. After ten weeks of rehab and starting to try to swim my right elbow started to acted up. It turns out that I neglected my right elbow during my rehab so much that I got tennis elbow.

This meant no Club Championships for me, this means no Swedish Nationals in March 2023 for me, and it means that I will have to struggle all winter to be able to get back into shape for OW season.

All I want for Christmas this year is a healthy body so I can practice again. I am so out of shape, I get easily irritated (more than usual) and there is a risk that I fall into a bad routine that will be really hard for me to break.

Vidösternsimmet 2022: Pre-Race

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So yesterday after managing over 24km swimming in a week with very little shoulder discomfort have decided I will start this years Vidösternsimmet, 21km.

I only signed up because my daughter Lily (17) was planning on swimming along with her friend Iris (18). There are currently three swimmers from Växjö SS signed up in addition to me. Iris, Hampus and Markus. It will be Iris’s first attempt, where as Marks swam last year, and Hampus has swam both the 21km and the 42km with me last year.

Over the next 11 days I am hoping to get in 75-90min swims at a nice and relaxed pace. I will not find any speed in two weeks, but I can get my heart more comfortable with the pace. Tonight I will have to try to send in my “who am I” text to the race organizers.

9 Months of Rest & Rehab

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For those of you that read about my 42km race, or the roughly 2,500km I swam from August 2019 until September 2021 this might not come as a shock.

After about one month of swimming with Masters after my long race, I could not lift my left arm. I had some discomfort during the month that I assumed was just soreness from swimming 13.5 hours. but on Sunday the 26th of September 2021, I was not able to swim more than warm-up. I made the mistake of kicking with fins and a board the 8x 400. When practice was over, I was not able to lift my left arm without a lot of pain. I tried to rest and only swim one 2000m workout a week in October, which led to not swimming at all in November and getting a Cortisone shot on December 2nd. This allowed me to swim the 50m breaststroke at Swedish Nationals, but that would later show to have been a mistake on my part.

I swam drills with fins for the rest of December and took a two week pause around Christmas. All of January I continued to only swim with fins, only swim drills and got out of the pool after warm-up. February 2nd I got a second Cortisone shot. For the rest of February and March I stayed patient with my swimming. Building up from only warm up to by May 1st swimming 5000m. (3700m pool + 1300m OW). The rest of May I took it easy in the pool with my only goal to be able to swim 75-90min OW in June. In June I only managed to get to the lake 10 times, but swam in a pool 5 times.

While in the US I swam zero meters. I didn’t even go out far enough in the ocean to get my whole body wet. So after 24 days of no swimming of any kind I have less than three weeks to test my shoulder, try to build up some endurance and decide if I am going to start my 7th Vidösternsimmet (5x 21km + 1x 42km). My problem is I am really looking forward to the Stockholm Golden in October.

1,000,000m Swimming & WaterAid

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I did it and nearly a full month faster than 2020. Last year it took me until Sept 30th to reach 1,000,000m. This year I had a chance to reach this mark on August 31st, but willing took a rest day on the 30th, so I would swim past the million meter mark on Sept 1st during our first Lane 1 distance workout of the fall.

Last year I lost a lot of motivation after reaching one million, but this year I am even trying to raise money for WaterAid. I am hoping this keeps me swimming, at least through October. It would be great if my friends could help me with this charity event.

https://wateraid.enthuse.com/pf/swimrykno

We have not had a Swedish nationals for Masters since 2019, and there are currently plans for holding them the first week in December. This would be another motivator to keep me swimming through out 2021. Last year I finished with 1221 km, so only 221 km over the last three months. With four months remaining this year, who knows this year I could reach over 1320 km. My dad asked last year, what’s next? I jokingly replied I am not sure from 1000 km to maybe 1000 miles. However, that is a huge jump from 1220 to 1609 km. if I am going to be able to race in a pool again I am not going to be able to swim just for the sake of swimming to get meters. I am going to have to focus more on speed, technique and recovery. All of those things have been neglected for the past 16-18 months. I can almost say for sure I will again try for a million meters next year, but I will most likely focus on the 800m pool race and attempt go sub 10. At the same time I have not given up hope on a sub 19 1500m either.