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.
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.
Last fall I decided to attempt med third 21+6 race at Vidösternsimmet. I had recovered from my 2021 injury and my 2022 Vidösternsimmet swim felt good at 6:23 (8th place) and missing lots of winter swimming. But of course I got hurt again this past winter, and I missed out on nearly 7 months of training.
Being able to swim the 21km was a real positive for me, not swimming fast enough to join the 6km was not great, but probably best for my recovery in the long run.
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.
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.
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.
It has been well over a year since I swam the first Viking edition of Vidösternsimmet, 42km. I knew from before I finished the race that I would want a tattoo if I managed to finish. I have two from my Ironman races, and swimming 42km is up their with Ironman challenge status.
When the starting list for The Viking came out they organizers used a viking ship to indicate which swimmers would be doing the 42+km swim.
It feels wrong to call the 21km race for the half race, but considering I did manage the Viking swim 42km last summer it will be for me considered “the half”. I thought about referring to it as the shorter, but don’t want to confuse it with the 6km or 500m.
For the last 11 months I’ve been going through shoulder rehab. Nothing directly connected to the 42km swim, but more my lack of ability to allow my body to recover properly. Last year I went back to pool swimming the day after. Before 2021 I had accumulated 850km from January but before this years swim I was just below 250 km swimming. It basically meant I was not going to swim fast and my focus during the race would be to hold back and trust that I could reach the finish line. It’s not in my nature to quit, so if I started the race I would finish, no matter the damage to my shoulder.
My wife and I arrived to Värnamo Friday afternoon with my oldest daughter and our dog. Friday is very relaxing for me, after all I have no expectations about my performance. I eat a really nice burger and fries from Shady Burgers with a nice cold IPA.
Around 18:00 others I know start to show up to the hotel. Some I see daily, others I only meet once a year in Värnamo.
18:45 pre-race. I’ve heard this 6 times before but it’s always exciting to be I room full of crazy people. Nothing really new, but they decide to reinforce the rules for following the buoys. Previous years we’ve been told how to swim but not boats/ volunteers around to make swimmers follow the course.
After the meeting it’s time for pasta dinner. At 21:00 I head up to my room. It’s like 27C in our room. Try to go to sleep at 22:15, but I’m waking up all the time. Not nervous, but hot, sounds from outside and maybe I drank too much during the day.
04:50 my alarm goes off. I was already awake playing games. Get down to breakfast around 05:00. I’m a simple person so eggs, bacon and juice. Go back up to my room to get my bag and head out to the bus to go to the start.
As we pull up to the lake we can see the Viking swimmers about 1500-2000m off the shore line. Last year when Ted, Hampus and I came out of the water none of the “half” swimmers had arrived. So it must have felt good for the five of them to be greeted by over 100 people.
For the next hour or so, it’s meet and greet the others. Finally I put my wetsuit on and walk into the starting area with about 5 minutes to spare. Previous years I wanted to be on the front line. This year with no expectations, I stood about 4-5m back from the water. My non-wetsuit swim from 2018 was 7:30 and the second half of my 2021 Viking swim was roughly 7:40. So I really only hoped to swim under 7:30. The canon goes off and the long walk begins. I think I was able to swim after 150m. Felt like lots of people were in front of me and a few swimming past me. After the first kilometer I stopped adjusted my goggles and cap, mostly to stop thinking about the other swimmers since it felt like I was swimming too fast. Turns out to be the right decision. I was swimming 1:23/100m. After the short stop I was able to hold 1:40/100m for the next 7km.
When I arrive to the first depot, a float, I see 2 swim away, and we are three getting served. As I leave another swimmer arrived. At this point I’m guessing 20 swimmers in front of me. Swimming feels forced but ok as I head to the next depot.
From 4-8km there are four of us swimming within 100m or so with me farthest back. Something happens around the 6th buoy. Swimming gets easier. That was my longest warm up ever. I get a better flow with everything. Recognizing I am close to the second depot I think I unintentionally speed up. My 1:40 pace was 1:35 as I walked into the depot. And the four in front of me are now one behind me and the others around me.
With no intention of trying to beat anyone this year, I took my time at the depot. My oldest daughter had a red bull and water mix in a bottle, and I enjoyed some of the snacks they had at the depot. I give my daughter my swim cap. It was too hot in the water to be wearing that. I asked her to bring it to the next depot in case I changed my mind. As I head back out to start the third leg of the race (5+km) I put an extra gel in my wetsuit.
During the third leg I focus on one buoy at a time. The water temp is starting to be the focus of my wondering mind. Around 10-10.5 km I stop to take another gel. I am not sure I needed it, but I was getting hot so removing the gel allowed for the water to fill up my wetsuit and gave a cooling affect. The swimmers that were around me were now in front of me again, but my focus was not beating them, but finishing the race. around 12km I call over a boat, I needed a drink. It was not as easy to order from the boat as I had hoped. Asking for a sport drink mix, I got thrown a gel. Asking again for a sport drink mix I was given a water bottle. I put the gel in my suit and drank the water, gave them a thanks and swam on. Again the four around me were now longer in front of me. 300-400m later the gel I got from the boat was itching me chest, so I had to take it out and eat it.
Going into the third depot I felt fresh, but warm. I can see how the other are also red, and seem to be having similar issues with the warm water. I tell my daughter that she can toss the cap in the car, because I won’t need it again. I eat a Bounty (coconut chocolate similar to a Mounds) take in lots of liquids, eat another gel and take another one with my in my wetsuit.
This time going out there were only two others around me. One seemed to be stronger than the other. the fourth leg is the shortest, but for some reason always the slowest part of the race for me. During this leg I was all alone. One swimmer 100m ahead and the other more than 100m behind. Going out of the water at the last depot I am in no rush to go back out. I eat, I drink, I joke with my wife and daughter. A volunteer asked me if I could see anything in the water when I was swimming. I jokingly said, my hands. It turns out that I actually swam away from four I was with the previous 13km and now I see the person in front of me is a woman, and as she went back in the water I thought to myself, there is no reason to chase after her, since it will not effect my ranking. My only goal today was to finish. Had it been another man, I might have reacted differently since I was feeling really good. I tell my family that i will be in the finish line in no more than 2:02. That would give me a 7 hour swim.
During the last leg there where other rules to how to approach the buoys. No 18 was to be passed on the right, then angled back over to No 19. I stopped for one last coke and gel around the 19.5km. At this time the swimmer in front of me is just leaving, and the swimmer behind me comes in as I am leaving and I can see he is really struggling. Knowing I am feel great, and that I am very familiar with the last part of the race, I head out. I also notice that I am well under 7:00 pace that I had just told my family and looks like I could swim under 6:30. After swimming by No20, I start to angle against No 21 that also has to be passed on the right. Luckily for me the volunteers on a boat near by see this and signal to me that I had to pass through the two yellow pins. I knew this, but after nearly 6 hours of swimming I had forgotten. I adjust again and swim through the right side of the two pins. Looking up I notice that the swimmer in front of me is drifting to the right, I stay on line with No21. I round the buoy with less than a meter gap, she was more than 15-20m out. No22 is far to the left, and as we swim towards that buoy I notice she is again drifting to far to the left. As I swim by No22 I am now ahead of her. I focus on the finish line and keep swimming relaxed. I pass the last buoy, swim under the bridge and cross the water finish line in 6:23:43. An hour faster than I had hoped, and 27 minutes faster than I told them at the last land depot.
Turns out that I was the 8th fastest male wetsuit swimmer and 15th overall.
Extra good news as I get up into the finish area is that my teammates did well. Hampus came in second place overall, and Iris was the 4th fastest female, fastest Swedish female swimmer.
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.
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.
SwimRykno 