How To Train - Chapter Three
An Exchange of Knowledge
In 2010, I won the ÖtillÖ World Championships in Sweden.
ÖtillÖ is a unique event covering 69 km (~43 miles) across the Stockholm Archipelago. Competitors race down the archipelago, running (~60 km) across 24 islands and swimming the channels (~9 km). My partner in 2010 was a good friend, Jonas Colting.
The jersey I wore to win ÖtillÖ is hung at the entrance to my home gym. I didn’t keep any trophies from my elite career but I’m glad I kept a memento of a special day with Jonas.
June 9th, 2022 – Day 45
As fate would have it, not only did Coach Johan know about my ÖtillÖ victory, but he was entered in the September 2022 edition of the race. When I offered a coaching exchange, Johan agreed, and a friendship was born.
We had our first call on Day 45. While it was awesome to learn about Nils’ training, the key issue I was facing was returning from a 10-year break from run training. While my body would tolerate long hikes in the Rocky Mountains, each time I attempted to return to structured running, I would breakdown with sudden injury.
It turned out that Johan had experience coaching ultrarunning. Nils had been a keen ultrarunner until a snowboarding injury forced him onto the bike. Johan put me on a conservative protocol of three runs a week, all easy, all short duration. I was given a short, daily barefoot mobility routine and agreed to never run through tightness.
The key takeaway for you is not my return to running program. The key takeaway is I had an expert coach on my team by the 45th day of my 1,000 Day Plan. I achieved this by being friendly to a (seemingly random) Swede who reached out to me. Who you surround yourself with will make a material difference to where you end up.
July 1st, 2022 – Day 67
Canada Day 2022 was my first run back. I drove to the flattest course I could find, walked for ten minutes then jogged (what I thought) was an easy 5K. I sent Johan a note that the run went great.
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