Hey everyone, welcome to a new edition of \u201cThe Alpine Seven Letter.\u201d
\nThis week has been a whirlwind of physical breakthroughs and logistical puzzles as we get closer to the next big milestones.
\nFrom 60 Seconds to 300 Meters
\nThis past Sunday, I headed into the lake for a training swim in 4\u00b0C (39\u00b0F) water. To give you an idea of the intensity: the moment I submerged, my breath simply vanished.
\nIn that moment of \u201ccold shock,\u201d I leaned on one mantra: Focus on the stroke. It\u2019s amazing how narrowing your world down to a single movement can help you overcome the most extreme environments.
\nThe big takeaway: Back in November, I couldn\u2019t last 60 seconds in 8\u00b0C water. By showing up nearly every second day\u2014starting with seconds, then minutes, and now reaching 10-minute sessions\u2014I\u2019ve just completed a 300-meter swim in freezing temperatures.<\/p>\n
Next Challenge: This Saturday, I\u2019ll be putting this training to the test at the Austrian Ice Swimming Championships, competing in the 250m and 500m events. Wish me luck!<\/p>\n
Watch to my swim in 4\u00b0 degree cold water here. <\/p>\n
Logistics of a 66km Swim: Lago Maggiore
\nPlanning for lake #4 of The Alpine Seven challenge the 66km swim across Lago Maggiore (estimated at 26 hours of non-stop swimming) is becoming a masterclass in logistics. We finally secured our \u201cbase camp\u201d Airbnb!
\nFinding a spot for a team that fluctuates from 4 people to 10 people over three days is no easy feat.<\/p>\n
Day 1 – 4 people: Just me and the core team (Coach Sammy, Captain Erik, and my Dad).<\/p>\n
Day 2 – 6 people: The team will spent the night on the boat; my family arrives at the base.<\/p>\n
Day 3 – 10 people: The whole \u201ctribe\u201d reunites under one roof.<\/p>\n
Watching Neil Agius and his 60-hour swim recently reminded me why these projects take so much coordination. He had a team of 35! As a \u201cone-man show\u201d for much of the planning, I\u2019m learning a tough lesson: Patience. It takes time to build something this big, but it\u2019s all coming together.<\/p>\n
Decision Making: The Power of Vision
\nIn the second part of my series on decision-making, I\u2019m exploring why Vision is the ultimate tie-breaker.
\nLast week, we talked about Values. You can find last weeks article here. This week, it\u2019s about how your goal dictates your choices.
\nWhen I was looking at dozens of accommodations for Lago Maggiore, I used both of them:<\/p>\n
Value: One of my main value is family, so the place had to be big enough for everyone. <\/p>\n
Vision: My vision is to conquer the lake, so the place had to be close to the water.<\/p>\n
When your vision is clear, \u201cNo\u201d becomes easy, and \u201cYes\u201d becomes purposeful.<\/p>\n
Stay focused and keep swimming,
\nBernhard<\/p>\n
Follow The Alpine Seven journey and learn how \u201cimpossible\u201d goals become a natural byproduct of the right systems and tools.<\/p>\n
P.S. I plan to send my letters out every Friday morning 5 am CET. But as this is a human-to-human connection, please bear with me if life (or my kids) decides to \u201creorganize\u201d my schedule. I\u2019m a pretty good swimmer, but I haven\u2019t figured out how to swim through a family emergency at a good speed yet! \ud83d\ude09<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hey everyone, welcome to a new edition of \u201cThe Alpine Seven Letter.\u201d This week has been a whirlwind of physical breakthroughs and logistical puzzles as we get closer to the next big milestones. From 60 Seconds to 300 Meters This past Sunday, I headed into the lake for a training swim in 4\u00b0C (39\u00b0F) water. […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bernhardhengl.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bernhardhengl.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bernhardhengl.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bernhardhengl.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bernhardhengl.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bernhardhengl.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6552\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bernhardhengl.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bernhardhengl.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bernhardhengl.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}