ötillö | Team Lost - Ett av Sveriges största äventyrsteam

Swimrun premiär

mars 31, 2020mars 31, 2020
av Team Lost

I helgen var det dags att testa swimrun ute för första gången i år. Strålande sol, en kall nordlig vind och ett par minusgrader. Toppen tänkte vi och åkte iväg mot Axamo motionsområde. Ett område som har en egen swimrun bana som kom upp förra året. Banan har relativt korta simningar men vi tänkte att dessa nog skulle vara för långa då det var lite is i kanten av sjön.

Vi sprang en bit som uppvärmning innan vi hoppade i för att simma runt bryggan. Det kanske var lite väl kaxigt att börja med en 100 meters simning. Det iskalla vattnet gjorde oss snabbt påminda och när vi började springa igen var våra händer som isbitar. Just händerna är det vi tycker var kallast.

Det blev en kort liten första runda och vi hoppas såklart det blir fler snart.

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Why we are using Vivobarefoot shoes

december 9, 2019december 9, 2019
av Team Lost

When someone explains for you how shoes and feet work we think the most people react the same.

– But why haven’t anyone told me this before?

When we look at our feet and how they should look like and compare this with todays shoes it doesn’t match. Most of the shoes are not shaped after our feet.

Background
Patrik use to run a lot with barefoot shoes a couple of years ago. Building up the feets since he had problems running, and pain in the legs. Nothing he got from the doctors worked and he read on the internet that he should try out barefoot running. It was like starting over and he finally found something that worked and he could run again. 5 year of crossfit later he had a lot of different shoes with more cushion. The last year have been much more focus on running and swimrun, so he want to come back to barefoot running again. He love the feeling of running barefoot and feeling the ground under the feets. With Vivobarefoot he can accomplish that feeling again. The ambition is to get used to running with minimalistic shoes and do long races “barefoot”. Vivobarefoot seams to be the perfect match for that.

Fanny have a background from horseback ridning, kickboxing, boxing, climbing and ninja warrior training. She have always loved running but have been struggling with different kind of running related problems since she was around 13 years old. Shin splints was a big problem for many years and the solution was always insoles. She have had 4 stress fractures also been struggling with runners knee. She thought the solution was bigger shoes and more support but she was wrong. Last year she took the time to not stress to comeback after a injurie. She took away a lot of workouts and focused on getting stronger feet and legs with time for recovery. She was up north in Sweden and running/walking in mountains. A lot of barefoot walking and running in thinner shoes. She realised that she started to trust her feet more and they got stronger at the same time.

What are we doing now ?
You can’t just switch to barefoot shoes over a night without getting injuries. We have started to use Vivobarefoot shoes more and more in our daily life and right now are we both using Vivobarefoot daily. Patrik is running with them almost every session and Fanny are variering shoes at the same time when she are trying to get stronger. Barefoot shoes makes your feet tired and we are using a foot massage from Flowlife to get the best recovery for our feet. We are aslo spending more time barefoot without shoes.

What we like about Vivobarefoot
We like Vivobarefoots vision about reconnecting people and nature. Sustainability is having the health of ecosystems and people embedded in its DNA.

We also like that the company thinks a lot about sustainability. By 2020 they want to use 90% sustainable materials across their product range. You can read more about it here.

Our favourite shoes from Vivobarefoot
We have picked out our favourites below.

Patriks favourites:
PRIMUS KNIT LUX MENS
MAGNA TRAIL MENS

Fannys favourites:
KANNA II WOMENS
PRIMUS TRAIL FG WOMENS

This post is in collaboration with Vivobarefoot.

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Weekend in Malta and ÖtillÖ swimrun

december 2, 2019december 2, 2019
av Team Lost

November in Sweden is normally gray and rainy and this year was pretty much the same. A weekend in Malta with sun, crystal clear water and a swimrun race couldn’t be better.

Check out our vlogg with the whole trip.

Thursday
We started our trip to Malta with a short stop in München. You can find direct flights but the best one for us included a short stop and food break. When we arrived in Malta we had a pickup to take us to our hotel, Dolmen Hotel. We got a big and nice room with a view over the sea. The hotel was central and there was a lot of restaurants and some supermarkets close to the hotel.

Friday
We started with a great breakfast buffe at the hotel.

At 09.00 the guide picked us up. Our guide was a nice old lady who has been working with guided tours for over 44 years. We started with a walk in the old town Medina also called the silent city.

Medina is located in the Northern Region of Malta with enclosed bastions, and the history dates back to more than four centuries ago. The town was the old capital of Malta, and with its narrow streets, few inhabitants and beautiful views over the Island it is truly a magical town. There’s a lot of known films that have been recored here.

Our driver picked up us and drove to our next stop. A visit in the capital of Malta, Valletta. There was more people here but still not a busy town. We started with a short visit in one of Valletta’s best views, Barrakka Garden.

St.Johns co-Cathedral
Malta and is known for its giant domed churches, and the most impressive of all is St John’s Co-Cathedral. It looks pretty normal from the outside, but when you come indoor it’s a magical place. Every surface is coated with colour and sparkling gold and everything is handmade.

The cathedral – or co-cathedral as it shares the job of Bishop’s residence with the cathedral in Mdina – was built for the Knights of Saint John. But it was revamped in Baroque style in the 17th century, and they really went all out on the decor.

Lunch – We had lunch at the King’s Own Bar & Restaurant. The food in Malta is a little mix of everything and we tried some socialites like goatcheese, Snigels and of course grilled tuna.

Adventure
We spend the afternoon with activities. The original plan was kayaking but since the weather could be a little stormy during this time of the season we changed it to abseiling.
MC Adventure doing a lot of different activities and we had a guide that took us to a super cool place.

Abseiling is a real adventure. Standing on the edge of a steep incline, with the rope disappearing off the edge to the bottom somewhere beneath you.

We started with a small one before Patrik tried two longer that was between 45-50 meters.

There is so much more adventure to do at Malta. We didn’t have time to do more but if you have time we suggest to do more cool things.

Saturday
We started the day with a short swimrun and gear session to check so everything felt ok.

We had a great breakfast at the hotel before we went to the ÖtillÖ event area, hotel Golden Sands. Our plan for the day was checking out the sprint and experience race during the day.

During the afternoon we also attended a clean the ocean event. A important event to make awareness about the problem.

We picked up our race kit and at the race briefing we got to know all about the ÖtillÖ race. We also got to know that is was storm and rainy weather so they did some changes along the course.

Sunday
Raceday and woke up early and it was storm and rain outside. We had some breakfast before we had a taxi to the startbus. The bus took us to the start in Valletta. We started with running and swimming in the city. This day was very special and though race and you can read all about it our race report from ÖtillÖ Malta here.

Monday
We woke up and both of us felt tired. In 6 hours where we out running and swimming and that makes you a little bit tierd. We had a great breakfast before it was time pack our bags and check out and travel back home to Sweden.

Short about Malta

Travel: It’s easy to travel to Malta. We took flights with a short stop in München but you can also find direct flights. When we arrived to Malta it took around 30 minutes to the hotel. Malta is perfect for a weekend.

Language: Most natives speak Maltese, and nearly 90% speak English, while another 50% also speak Italian.

Cards or Cash: The best thing is to have a mixed of both. Most big retailers and restaurants accept cards but you still want cash on hand for small purchases. They use Euro

Climate: It’s never too cold in Malta because they have a Mediterranean climate. We traveled in November and it’s a little stormy and vindy period.

You find your best Malta tips at visitmalta.com

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ÖTILLÖ Swimrun Malta, race report

november 27, 2019december 2, 2019
av Team Lost

What a race we got to experience. This was our first World Series race! We have done ÖtillÖ sprints before that you can read about here – Hvar , Utö , Engadin. We did this race powered by Mr Green.

If you want to read about our whole weekend in Malta we have a longer post about it HERE.

Race video

Saturday
The forecast was storm and rain and the sun was shining. We looked at the sprint race, attended the Clean the ocean event, picked up our race kit and got to know all about the race at the race briefing. It looked like the stormy weather was coming for our race day and they changed the course a little bit. We were happy for that afterwards.

The course along the island with a total of 39,6 km with 13 swims of which the longest was 1 600 metres. A total of 8 700 metres of swimming.

Fanny felt extra nervous because she felt a little bit sick and didn’t know if she would be able to do the race.

Sunday – Race day
We had an early breakfast at our hotel room and at the same time it was rain and thunder outside. Fanny felt better and we decided to do the race! We had a pick up that took us to the race bus. The bus took all participants from the finish line at hotel Golden Sands Beach to the start in Valletta.

The start was in the middle in the city Valletta and we started with 1300 meters of running.

We started out pretty slow in the start due to the slippery stones and came far behind on the first swim. It was a great wake up call to realised how many teams who were in this race. Over 200 teams and 400 people. It was crazy in the water. So many people everywhere and it was a real struggle. With that in mind we should have pushed harder from the beginning so we’d swim with those with a little more speed than the ones we fought with. We came up whole and kept on running. The other swim was much better and the field had split up a lot.

After that it was a really nice course with quite short swims and running a long the coast of the town. We met a running race and everyone was cheering on each other in the rain. We came to some longer swims and it was a little bit hard to see the end point. The waves and the rain maked it harder. We switched who was in the front when we were swimming. We both felt a little bit more tired than we use to do.

Crystal-clear water and around 19 degrees warm

We think everyone who did the race will remember mudland. Holy shit. Tough mudder, Tjurruset etc, you have nothing to compare with this. It was a real struggle but we manage through without falling. Some long swims later and we had done like 2/3 of the race we started to reach the top of the island and the stormy side. Yes, it was like Koster Swimrun 2018 all over again, but worse. It was sometime a little bit hard to see the markings because the wind took them down but overall it was an amazing job from ÖTILLÖ marking and remarking the course. We ran about 100 meters wrong at one point but we had our map in our watches so we just checked the watch and realised that we need to run back to find the right path.

The last bit of the race was the most interesting bit. Amazing trails on the hills of Malta. It was a real adventure. We both felt much stronger uphill and could run slowly uphill when we normally needed to walk. We came to the third last swim and that was the one they had taken away. When we saw how the water looked like we were really happy that we were running and not swimming at that place. The waves were big.

We ran a bit more before we reached a village, Popeye Village build for a film. We had some energy and got some motivation words from Rikard at Mr Green before we should do a short little swim across the bay. It was like 100 meters. The waves were sick and hard currents under the surface. Patrik swam first on this one and when we had around 10 meters left we couldn’t swim to the ladder, we stood still. Fanny came up with the idea to swim to the side and climb the rocks up. A dangerous stunt but we managed it. We came up and we both were really tired. Just some more teams got to do this swim before they closed it and the other teams had to run around instead.

We just had the last run left before we should reach the last swim. They had done the last swim shorter and we thought it should be a short and nice one. We hade it all wrong. When we saw the entry of the last swim we were like, omg are we gonna swim in that?! Yes we are… it was really hard wind and the waves were like 1,5-2m high. A man stood there and screaming. “You have to swim out first then to the beach or else you’re going to hit the cliffs. Omg?! Ok let’s go!

We started to swim out and the waves were big and when we started to change direction to the beach big wave started to hit us hard. We went down under the water and Patrik loosed his googles. Fanny got some panic and just wanted to be still and wait for the waves to leave. It didn’t go fast but we made it to the beach and to the finish line.

This race was and adventure of its own. We have never experienced anything like this before. Thank you MrGreen, Visit Malta and ÖtillÖ for an amazing race.

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Ångaloppet race report 2019

augusti 11, 2019augusti 12, 2019
av Team Lost

We had a race weekend again. Just one week after Rockman Norway but our bodies felt ok so we decided to do Ångaloppet both 11k and 3,3 k family.

We left Jönköping on Friday night to stay at The Box hotel in Linköping. A super nice hotel and we like that they have a eco friendly approach.

The kids got their own room and were super happy. Early on Saturday morning we picked up breakfast bags, checked out and then went to the start.

Ångaloppet is slightly difference from other swimrun races with equipment you may not use. There’s less equipment on this race and most people run without wetsuit. We also choosed to do so.

We picked up all the stuff and warmed up a little quickly before the start went.

We started running at a good pace before entering the forest and slowing down a bit. The race included a total of 10 swims and 11 runs and a total of 11 km. There were short quick changes.

We tried to have our pace and do our race. There was some super strong mixed teams so we are happy to take the 3rd place.

We had a short break and food after the race before it was time for family race. The distances were 1.5 k or 3.3 k. We choosed 3.3 k and Patrik ran with Noah and Fanny with Leya. Both of the kids really impressed and made super good races and it’s very fun that they are so motivated to train and want to compete in swimrun.

We really recommend Ångaloppet, they have a race for everyone.

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Workout plan and goals!

juli 21, 2019juli 21, 2019
av Team Lost

We still see ourselves as beginners in swimrun. Ok maybe not in the sprint races but in the longer races. We constantly learn during training, about all equipment and during competitions. We have a long-term goal of qualifying for ÖtillÖ World championship next year. 65 km of running and 9.5 km of swimming. We want to be prepared and strong. In the recent months we have received a lot of tips from Oscar Olsson – o2tri. Now he will also help us with training plans. Oscar have been competing in swimrun for many years and have 3 second places in ÖtillÖ World championship. The goal we have this year is to continue to improve without stressing about the results. We want to have fun and inspire others to try out the sport. Our podiums the last months are extra bonus!

We have a lot of things coming up so Oscar is planning our training with this things in mind. We’re looking forward to get better and stronger with Oscars help.

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Switzerland and ÖtillÖ Engadin

juli 9, 2019juli 10, 2019
av Team Lost

Switzerland is a country with dream views. The reason why we went to Switzerland (except that it’s super cool) was to participate in ÖtillÖ Engadin. – You can read more about the race HERE.

We flew from Gothenburg to Zurich and then we took the train from Zurich to St Moritz. We booked train at this page and it’s easiest to download their app. There were some stops and changes to the train and it took 3-4 hours and we got to see amazing views. You don’t have wifi on the train and it’s an extra cost to use mobil data in Switzerland. In St Moritz we took the bus to Silvaplana. Silvaplana is a small village with a supermarket, a few restaurants and hotels. Many people also come here for kite surfing.

We came some days before the race and it’s a great thing to do since Engadin is about 1800 meters up and the air is tinnier.

We stayed at Conrads Mountain Lounge and had a big room with a little kitchen. We had a fantastic view over the lake and the mountains.

The hotel felt very friendly and it was a great breakfast buffet in the morning. You find all you want and you can order scramble egg and bacon direct.

When you stay at Conrads you have cabin cars and rental bikes included. We decided to take us up to one of many mountains the first day. We walked around 20 min to come to the cabin pace ( you can also take the bus). The cabin that should take us up to the Corvatsch top 3303 meters up with one stop half way up. Amazing views on the way up and from the top!

We took the cabin half way down and then we walked down. Not the best thing to do the day before race but it was super beautiful.

Saturday was race day! So much fun and you can read more and see a video from it HERE.

Sunday and we went up early. The hotel had opened the breakfast extra early for those who had race day. The long course at ÖtillÖ started on Sunday. The start was at 8.00 am and around 10 k from Silvaplana and the racers traveld with a bus. We borrowed bikes to follow the race. Biking around did that we got to see a l ot of cool places when we followed the race. It’s fun and exiting to follow the race without racing.

We went down to the lake for a little morning swim the last day. The water was cold but it was a great training for next years ÖtillÖ Engadin. We had the last breakfast before we checked out and took the train back to Zurich.

Thanks ÖtillÖ Engadin for this year. We hope to be back next year for the long course.

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ÖtillÖ Engadin 2019, Race Report

juli 9, 2019juli 10, 2019
av Team Lost

Engadin, Switzerland is a dream location for a swimrun. If you want to know how we traveled there and where we stayed check HERE.

Saturday – Raceday!

The plan was to do the longer ÖtillÖ race but since Fanny had a struggle with her foot we decided to change to the sprint.

We hade breakfast and went down to the ÖtillÖ area and picked up our start bag with bibs and caps. Our legs were a little tired from yesterday in the mountains.

The course included 4 swims and 5 runs and the total length was 15.3 k. We started with a short warm up, a little bit of running and swimming. The water temperature was cold but not too cold. We are used to colder water home in Sweden.

We started fast and was one of the first team down in the water. Patrik first and Fanny behind. Patrik swam like a king and we were first of all teams up from the first swim. Crazy feeling.

A 2 k run until next swim and the thin air reminded us that it can be hard breathing. We slowed down a bit and there were all ready teams and solo racers in the water for the next swim. This time was Fanny first and Patrik behind. We got closer and closer to the other racers when we were swimming and came up side by side with the leaders.

Happy and a little groggy after the swim and we know what’s coming, Uphill! We walked and all the others also walked uphill. There’s not so much uphill on the sprint if you compere with the long course but uphill always feels hard. This was a 5 k run until we came to next swim. A mixed team had passed us and we just tried to do our best and have fun.

Next swim went well and then we had a short run until the last swim. It was current and harder. It felt so much longer than the other swims (it wasn’t)

Up from the swim and ready for the last run, we ran faster than some solo racers and passed a mens team.

Seeing the finish line with a lot of kite surfers down in the water was super cool!

We finished happy and proud. 2nd place in mixed team and over all. Engadin Swimrun Sprint

Check out the short video from our race.

Race video

Thanks ÖtillÖ for a fantastic race and thanks Nocco for the support. We hope to be back next year for the longer course.

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ÖtillÖ Utö, race report

maj 22, 2019september 3, 2019
av Team Lost

Ötillö Utö is a special race. On this day one year ago we got the idea of doing swimrun together and this was the race we were looking at. We didn’t think that we would do som many races before this.

We took the ferry to Utö at the race day. Started with some Nocco ice pops and rested before the race briefing. This time we knew a little more about everything and could be more relaxed. We didn’t check the course so well. Maybe something that we should do next time. Fanny wrote the swim distance at here hand and we got info that it was between 6-10 degrees in the water. It was cold but we have been practiced in this so it would be ok.

We started with a 2,2 k run before the first swim. The running felt ok and we started quite fast. The first swim was interesting. We tried to have a tow rope for the first time. It ended up with some problems and in the middle we decided to swim without it. We need to swim more with a tow rope so we can use it at races. We could feel that our legs was still a little tired after the races the weekend before in Croatia.

The coming swims went better but it was a little cold and we didn’t get warm at the runs. It was 7 swims in total and the race was 13 k. We where in 4th place after the first swim and hold it until we reached finish line. Super happy and we still know that we have many things to work on.

A fun race and we looking forward to do the longer one next year.

Läs om loppet på Patriks blogg.

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Weekend in Hvar, Croatia

april 13, 2019maj 31, 2019
av Team Lost

Croatia is our favourite country. It may be because we met there. This time we were back on the island to participate in ÖtillÖ which you can read more about here.We stayed at the amazing Amfora Hotel. There were great nice rooms and amazing views over the sea.

The day after the race we had the opportunity to go with a sponsor boat to follow the longer ÖtillÖ race. (We did the sprint) It was fun to see the race from the other side.