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Tenerife Day Five

May 23, 2012December 25, 2009 by Nico

This entry is part 5 of 17 in the series Training Camp Tenerife

First things first … Merry Christmas! Today was a big day. No gym work but a three hour session in the morning and swimming in the flume after the workout. And of course back for anther two hours in the afternoon. With our rest day coming up tomorrow both of those workouts were filled with pace sets and pretty hard.

The channel (flume) swim was pretty cool. It was my first time doing this and I look forward to get the video analysis and learn a lot more about my strokes. Also I’ll be able to do another session in the channel next week to compare my two swims. I will try post at least some pictures of next week’s swim or maybe even better a short video.

Tenerife Day Four

May 4, 2012December 25, 2009 by Nico

This entry is part 4 of 17 in the series Training Camp Tenerife

Another day waking up with rain outside. They told us that it usually rains about four days a year and this was our third, so we’re positive it will be better soon. We keep sticking to the daily schedule and with two swimming and one gym session planned for this day there was plenty of quality workout time ahead.

We’re still keeping it rather low profile in the water going the distance and a couple fast 50’s mixed in. During the gym session we tried to take advantage of the new technology machines they have and did some strength tests. It was a pretty rough session but as most of the time I felt pretty good in the water afterwards.

Tenerife Day Three

May 4, 2012December 23, 2009 by Nico

This entry is part 3 of 17 in the series Training Camp Tenerife

Starting to get used to the daily routine here in Tenerife. Morning wake up at 7 am and a short breakfast before leaving for morning workout. Again not really nice weather this morning and rather cold water at the pool. But again, as we’re using those two weeks to build up a basis for next year, we stay mostly warm after a couple minutes of warm-up.

I forgot to tell you yesterday that the pool here is a salt water pool. That’s pretty cool and I really like the feel of it. No gym work on the program today so I went to the “Stretching Room” after the morning workout and enjoyed the Ocean view.

Tenerife Day Two

May 4, 2012December 23, 2009 by Nico

This entry is part 2 of 17 in the series Training Camp Tenerife

Our first day of training started with breakfast at 7 am. From there we went straight to the pool for two and a half our of swimming. It was mainly long and smooth stuff. We were really just warming up for the days to come. The water was a bit cold at first but as we were constantly moving this morning we managed to get warm after a few minutes for the rest of the workout. Although, the weather wasn’t that great (it was raining) the outside temperature was just about right with 20°C.

The thing we had to find out is that in Spain they don’t serve lunch at noon. So we were rather hungry when we finally got to have lunch at 1pm. But we’ll be better prepared with after workout snacks from now on.

Tenerife Day One

August 18, 2011December 23, 2009 by Nico

We left from Geneva airport early in the morning. Our first flight went from Geneva to Barcelona where we had an almost 3 hours layover before we took the next flight this time nonstop to Tenerife North. From there we had a bus ride of about an hour to the other end of the island to our hotel.

As Good As It Gets / Among the Best – Part 2

January 25, 2011August 12, 2007 by Nico

Lately, I was asked two questions. One of them was easy to answer because someone asked me the same question not a long time ago. The other one was kind of hard to answer on the spot, so I took some time to think about it the next day at breakfast.

Let me start with the question which was part of the table discussion the night I was invited to dinner by Gary Sr.:

“What can we do to make the camper’s (swimmer’s) experience even better?”

No answer that night, so I hope Gary Sr. will be reading this to finally get one. We figured out that I’ve been in the Keys quite a few times and that’s maybe why he thought I had an answer ready.

As Good As It Gets / Among the Best – Part 1

January 25, 2011August 1, 2007 by Nico

Can it get any better than this? Try to image the following – You’re about 12 hours back in the Keys and after a first short swim in the morning you’re already out there on the sea to chase some lobster for dinner – read up to the end for the answer.

Only one way to start this diary entry. Let me officially announce that the World Team has a new favorite TV channel – the high definition spear fishing channel.

Sounds weird? … I guess it sure does! But what do you expect from a bunch of swimmers of which, after my knowledge, most would answer the following question with a YES.

“Would you like to be a professional spear fisher and/or lobster hunter?”

Okay, to make a long day (story) short, we’ve been out on the boat for most of the day hunting for our dinner and bringing in a couple of lobster and one fish speared by George.

Brotherhood

January 25, 2011July 28, 2007 by Nico

Yeah…me again. So if you’re tired reading my diary entries you should stop right away. Because I started this entry a long time ago and never really came to an end and so it got a bit long. Ever since I started to write after my last visit in February, I started to feed this entry with all the stuff (interesting or not) that came to my mind. Yes, I assume, I sort of “abuse” the platform I’m given, but maybe you like it? And if not, STOP reading further.

Still Trying to Catch the Green Flash

January 25, 2011September 8, 2006 by Nico

Good times – really bad summer weather in Switzerland brought me “back home” to Islamorada. Enjoy some sun and outside swimming that’s exactly what I needed to start my winter season. Another good reason for me to come back of course is that I still need to catch the Green flash.

Green flashes are “rare” optical phenomena that occur shortly after sunset or before sunrise, when a green spot is visible for a short period of time above the sun, or a green ray shoots up from the sunset point. It is usually observed from a low altitude where there is an unobstructed view of the horizon, such as on the ocean (so Islamorada in the Florida Keys should be a perfect place to catch it). Its explanation lies in refraction of light in the atmosphere and is enhanced by atmospheric inversions. Whilst we would expect to see a blue light, the blue is dispersed (this is why the sky is blue) and only the green light remains visible. With slight magnification, a green rim on the top limb of the solar disk can be seen on most clear-day sunsets. However, the flash or ray effects require a stronger layering of the atmosphere and a mirage which serves to magnify the green for a fraction of a second to a couple of seconds. And I was told that it is a good thing to see the green flash. Can’t say if it’s true or not, but I really would love to see a Green flash once.

Jorge & Yolanda Caragol Masters Invitational

January 25, 2011February 21, 2006 by Nico

The best way to get your body used to swim fast is to race. For this reason, Saturday morning in Islamorada is race day. Warm-up and get ready to swim fast. Even better than race in workouts is to race in meets.

Somehow in the first part of your preparation cycle, the most important point is not always to swim your personal best but to get the effect of fast swimming. After two weeks of hard work in a camp, I was really happy to join the local Masters swimmer Tanya Hanson for the meet in Lauderhill.