Winter Break is crunch time for the Virginia swimming and diving team. Free from class schedules and educational responsibilities, the Cavaliers used the last couple of weeks to re-establish their aerobic base and to begin grueling anaerobic training.
"Once the semester starts, we shift gears and go more towards the anaerobic model," Virginia coach Mark Bernardino said. "We emphasize training our speed energy system so that two months down the road we will have the background and foundation to continue to race fast, regardless of the distance."
Every other year, the team spends the better part of Winter Break in Charlottesville. Having traveled to Miami last year, this season the Cavaliers remained at school.
"There are positive elements to both traveling and staying," Bernardino said. "There are reasons to stay and reasons to go, so every other year, we go."
Regardless of location, Winter Break training provides a great opportunity for team bonding. Unable to stay in their dorms, underclassmen live with the older members of the team for the duration of winter training and have a chance to socialize with them outside of the pool.
"This training gave us the chance to stick together and remain as a team," junior Jess Lewis said. "After workouts we could hang out and do team dinners. It was a bonding experience."
Most waking hours, though, were spent either in the pool or in the weight room. Training not only included two-a-day practices, but the regular two-hour length was often extended to three hours, and in the weight room the difficulty of the sets was increased.
"There's usually five hours of swimming a day with possibly an hour of weights," sophomore Bjorn Falk said. "A basic schedule for the day is eat, sleep, swim."
Part of the Cavaliers' break schedule included a trip to Florida to take on the No. 11-ranked Gators; the Cavalier men lost 176-104 while the Cavalier women fell 159-122.
In fairness to Virginia, the teams were at completely different points in their training schedules when they competed. The Gators had already begun to taper because, as a member of the Southeastern Conference, Florida's championship meet is in a little less than three weeks. In comparison, the Cavaliers were fatigued going into last weekend's matchup. Indeed, not only did Virginia practice twice the day before, but also trained the morning of the meet.
Nevertheless, Bernardino insisted Virginia's fatigue is not the only explanation for the Gators' win.
"We are definitely at different points in our training schedules, especially relative to speed work and taper," Bernardino said. "But we lost because they beat the daylights out of us. Both their teams were better than we were and they deserve all the credit in the world. They are two outstanding teams and they deserved to win."
Despite the loss, Bernardino said he was pleased with the meet and saw it as an opportunity for his swimmers to compete against some of the best athletes in the country.
"Even though it wasn't a win, it was a good meet," Lewis said. "It showed that we kept our times pretty well considering we were coming off a hard couple weeks of Christmas training. The team really stuck together against Florida."
This weekend, Virginia is scheduled to host Duke Friday night and North Carolina Saturday at the Aquatic & Fitness Center.
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