Miami Marathon Training – Day 31 of training – 84 more to go

Sunday:

Wow, I’ve been following a planned training routine for 31 days! Time flies!

Today was my 26km (16miles) run! After having consulted with Marathon veterans, I decided to take their advice, and started my run in  a very slow pace. I really think it helped, because I felt like I was able to hold the tempo for a longer period than in my other long runs. It was still tough, though. My legs are not used to that kind of training. The impact from running affects joints and tendons alike. My muscles are shocked, my knees tingle, and my back is pretty stiff. I’ll have to stretch my legs out really good after such a practice.

 

Goodbye My Love

My love,

I laid in bed crying, and thinking of you all day. After all these years with you, the time has come to say goodbye.

I want you to know that I have always loved you. You have given me so much – more than I ever could have dreamed of. Of course I disliked you at times, but I have always loved you.

You are the reason I came to America. Through you I found friends for life. Thanks to you I became who I am today.

I can’t believe that after 17 years of swimming I have completed my last practice, finished my last race, done my last stroke.

I am going to miss you.

Thank you for everything.

At North Texas

We’re about to race SMU and North Texas…

Mountain West Conference Championship 2008

I know, I haven’t updated my blog in a while – I was busy, ok?! Stop whining! I just came back from this years Mountain West Conference Championship Meet in Oklahoma City (By the way. Why is North Texas so windy? ‘Cause Oklahoma sucks!). The Utes traveled all the way down there to compete against other schools of the MWC. Even though we finished last on the men’s side, we can be happy with what we achieved this year. We broke a couple of school records and kicked some “old fools” off the Top 10 lists.

I did my part. I got third with the 800y free relay (6:36.42), my split was a phenomenal 1:37.24. My 500y free was not as stellar, i finished sixth with a 4:29.44. – It was still a best time. The 200y free (1:38.52) went a little better, I finished fifth. On the last day I swam the mile, which took me 15:43.61 to finish (sixth), and the 400y free relay, where I split (44.98).

Ich weiss, ich habe schon seit längerem nichts mehr aktualisiert – ich war schwer beschäftigt, ok?! Hör auf rum zu wimmern! Gestern bin ich vom diesjährigen Mountain West Conference Championship Meeting in Oklahoma City zurückgekehrt. Wir haben uns relativ gut geschlagen obwohl wir am Ende nicht über den letzten Platz hinaus kamen. Dieses Wochenende wurden mehrere Teamrekorde gebrochen.

Ich habe meine Pflicht getan. Ich war Teil der 4×200y Crawl Staffel (meine Zeit in der Staffel war 1:37.24), welche mit 6:36.42 den dritten Platz einnahm. Zusätzlich schwamm ich über 500y Crawl auf den sechsten Platz, mit 4:29.44. Über 200y Crawl landete ich auf dem fünften Platz mit einer respektablen Zeit von 1:38.52. Am letzten Tag hatte ich das vergnügen mich über 1650y Crawl zu bewerben. Ich schlug mit 15:43.61 als sechster an. Mein letztes Rennen allerdings war die 4×100y Crawl Staffel, welche den vierten Platz einnahm und mir eine neue Staffelbestzeit bescherte (44.98).

Converted Times / Umgerechnete Zeiten (into LCM)

200y free (1:38.52) in 200m free (1:53.90)

500y free (4:29.44) in 400m free (4:03.84)

1650y free (15:43.61) in 1500m free (16:17.83)

Spartans in Bangkok

We shave, not just the face, but the entire body. Being Italian means being blessed with heavy hair-growth. It takes me more than an hour to get rid of my “Armani-esque” fur coat. The point of shaving is not for “silky smooth legs,” but to exfoliate the topmost skin layer in order to feel the water better; like aerodynamics in water — aquadynamics. This traditional ritual that every swimmer goes through is reserved for momentous occasions only. Deep gashes on the Achilles tendon are customary —  the dark streams of blood in the shower don’t seem to bother me anymore.

Utah Swimming Event Schedule

October 12	Reddish Relays			4pm		Salt Lake City
October 13	New Mexico (W)			12pm		Salt Lake City
October 26	@ Denver/Arkansas(W)		4pm		Denver

November 9	@ Arizona State (M)		2pm		Tempe, AZ
November 10	UNLV				2pm		Salt Lake City
November 16	Boise State (W)			4pm		Salt Lake City
November 17	San Diego State (W)		11am		Salt Lake City

December 14-17	UNLV Invitational		All Day		Las Vegas, NV

January 1-6	Winter Training OTC				Colo Springs, CO
January 12	Texas Christian 		11am		Salt Lake City
January 19	Colorado State (W)		11am		Salt Lake City
January 25	@ Wyoming		         4pm		Laramie, WY
January 26	@ Air Force			1 pm		Colo Springs, CO

February 1	@ BYU 				6pm		Provo, UT
February 27-1	MWC Championships	        all day		Oklahoma City

March TBD 	Women's NCAA Champs				Columbus, OH
March TBD 	Men's NCAA Champs			        Seattle, WA

Come and Cheer for us!!!

GO UTES…

My Time in the Relay [en]

Since a lot of people asked me about my time in the relay, here is the exact break down…

• Reaction time from the time the swimmer in front of me touched the wall until my feet left the block: 0.37sec. – that’s a decent reaction time, it’s rather a save exchange than a fast one. A good relay exchange is somewhere between -0.03sec (the minimum that is acceptable, before it becomes a false start), and 0.10sec.
• The first 50m: 26.31 that was already a 0.06 improvement to my morning swim (26.37).
• My second 50m in the final was a 28.57. This was also a step-up compared to the 28.62 that i swam in the morning.
• Therefore my 100m split time was a 54.88, which was more than a tenth faster than in the morning (54.99). – It’s actually a really fast first hundred for me. I never went out that fast.
• On the third 50m I swam a 29.05 in the morning and a 28.96 at night, which is a OK third fifty, since I’m not getting too slow compared to my second fifty. This fifty is mostly the slowest and crucial one for a good race.
• I finished with a 28.70 (28.93 in the morning). That is almost as fast as the third fifty and that is without a flip-turn, which means that it was almost just as fast as the third fifty. That split is a good indicator that I died a little at the end. For all of you non swimmers, that last fifty hurts – a lot.
• My end time: 1:52.65 (1:52.97 in the morning).

Swiss Record with the Relay [en/de]

As I announced in my earlier post, I was ready to swim a fast relay. Our time in the morning (7:27.60) was just enough to enter the final and drop the old swiss record by a good 3 seconds. Everybody (David Karasek, Dominik Meichtry, Christian Schneiter, Marco Ferraro) was able to step it up in the final and drop the newly set record by another 2 seconds to 7:25.49. This time is also a qualification time for the European Championships in Eindhoven (Netherlands) that will take place in March 2008.

Wie ich es schon angekündigt hatte, war ich bereit um in der Staffel schnell zu schwimmen. Unsere Zeit am Morgen (7:27.60) war gerade schnell genug um als letzer in den Final zu kommen und den alten Schweizer Rekord um gute 3 Sekunden zu verbessern. Alle (David Karasek, Dominik Meichtry, Christian Schneiter, Marco Ferraro) konnten am Abend noch einmal etwas drauflegen und nocheinmal den neu aufgestellten Rekord um 2 Sekunden auf 7:25.49 zu drücken. Diese Zeit sichert uns zudem ein Ticket an die Europäischen Meisterschaften in Eindhoven (Holland) welche im März 2008 stattfinden werden.

My times / Meine Zeiten:

Prelims / Vorlauf:
David Karasek (1:52,04), Dominik Meichtry (1:49,45), Christian Schneiter (1:53,14) und Marco Ferraro (1:52.97)
Final / Endlauf:
David Karasek (1:51.99), Dominik Meichtry (1:47,77) Christian Schneiter (1:53.08) und Marco Ferraro (1:52,65)

Getting ready to swim fast [en/de]

Tomorrow I’ll be swimming fast, therefore i had to get rid of all the unnecessary body hair.

Morgen werde ich schnell schwimmen, aber um dies voll zu gewährleisten, musste ich mich zuerst von der überflüssigen Körperbehaarung trennen.

University Games? Universiade? [en]

What are the World University Games or the Universiade?

A lot of people have asked me this question, and I never really knew how to answer them correctly. “It’s like the World Championships of different sports that are held at one venue and is only for students” or “Olympic Games for Students” were my best answers. But here is the official explanation as it was given in the “Universiade Daily” the local University Games Newspaper.

“The Universiade is an international multi-sport event and cultural festival, organized for university students by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name is a combination of the words “University” and “Olympiad”. The Universiade is often referred in English as the World University Games or the World Student Games.”

Here some more facts about the Universiade:

• The Universiad is staged every two years in a different city and is second in importance only to the Olympic Games.
• The Summer Universiade consists of 12 compulsory sports (athletics, basketball, fencing, football, gymnastics, judo, swimming, diving, water polo, table tennis, tennis and volleyball) and up to three optional sports chosen by the host country.
• The biggest Universiades on recored were in 2005 when 7805 athletes took part in Izmir, Turkey and in 2003 when athletes from 174 countries contested the games in Daegu, South Korea.
• The Winter Universiade consists of seven compulsory sports (alpine skiing, Nordic skiing composed of jump, cross, country and combined, curling ice hockey, short-track, speed skating, figure skating and biathlon) and one or two optional sports also chosen by the host country. A record of 2223 participants from 50 countries contested the Winter Universiad in Innsbruck, Austria in 2005.
• For this years Universiade, the Organization comity is expecting more than 10′000 athletes from 151 countries.

Source: Universiade Daily, August 5, 2007