Swim Training Trip Blog 1/1/11: Breanna McCann
December 29, 2010 11:30 PM | General
Posted by Breanna McCann on Saturday, January 1, 2011
11:21 p.m.
Today was our full day off after swimming against UCSB yesterday. We were all looking forward to the different activities we could do today. Some of us chose to go to Disneyland, others chose to go to see the Rose Bowl Parade. Another option we had was to go to one of the members of our team's house out that lives nearby. I was part of the group that chose to go to Tim O'Malley's house for a team BBQ. We left around noon to go to his house in Riverside, where we just hung out as a team for a while. It was nice to be able to get away from all of the hard training and just enjoy ourselves as a team. We played some football, ate some GREAT food and just hung out. It really was a lot of fun just spending time with the team, laughing and having a good time, and I think I speak for the rest of us when I say a huge thank you to the O'Malley's for having us over. It really was a great day, and now that we're nice and relaxed from our day off, we're ready to get back to work tomorrow.
Posted by Graham Kauffman on Thursday, December 30, 2010
10:20 p.m.
I hope everyone is having a very good holiday season and enjoying their time off from school or work. This is my second winter training trip and they are a great chance to train with no distractions at a warm and sunny destination. They give us the opportunity to work toward our ultimate goal of swimming well at the BIG EAST Championships as well. Everyone is taking the challenges thrown at us by the coach’s head on and rising to the challenge. Our morning began as many others do, bright and early. Our morning practice started at 6:45 a.m. and the sprint group began our morning with an hour of dry land workouts. As most of us haven't done much since we left for break, this was a pretty challenging workout. We then got into the water around 8 a.m. and had a kick/swim main set that emphasized working kick into our swimming. We followed that up with a short speed set. The middle distance group completed a very challenging 5000 meter stroke threshold set.
Our afternoon practice began at 1:30 p.m. with thirty minutes of abs followed by a team stretch. The sprint group then warmed up and went right into a very challenging sprint set consisting of 33’s and 66’s for the next hour and fifteen minutes of practice. We all pushed each other to work harder throughout the set. Everyone was swimming very well and putting up fast times considering what we have been through the past couple of days. Through these sets, we were able to see where we were with our training so far and what we need to work on for the rest of the week. We finished our day relaxing and getting ready for our meet tomorrow against UC Santa Barbara. This has been a very fun and enjoyable trip and I am looking forward to the meet tomorrow and our break from training to go to the Rose Bowl Parade on Saturday. It has been great to see the team so enthusiastic and can't wait to see what the rest of the trip has in store.
Posted by Mandie Nugent on Wednesday, December 29, 2010
10:30 p.m.
On the second day into the camp and after our double sessions yesterday, we were all feeling tired and sore. The weather was really bad today, it was pouring down with rain, cold and dull, but everyone worked hard during the team set. Practicing in the 33 meter pool made the set a little harder, but everyone pulled through and pushed their limits. We were given 800 meter pull, 4/3/2/1 lengths stroke, 600 meter pull, 4/3/2/1 stroke and so on in pattern. Having to swim fly constantly wore out my arms, but with the team supporting me and everybody pushing each other with encouragement, we all completed the set to the best of our abilities.
Today was one of our longest sessions in which we were in the water for about three hours and with the rain we had to skip on dry land training, which has been abs every day to improve on our core. The team is being really positive and after practice we got the rest of the day to relax where most of us went out for Mexican food. I'm really enjoying being on the trip and even though there is a lot of hard work involved, the team and coaching staff make it worth it and I hope the rest of the trip continues to be really fun.
Posted by Jeff Byrd on Tuesday, December 28, 2010
10:45 p.m.
On December 27th, my fellow athletes and I cruised into Fullerton, Calif., for what will be my third winter training trip for WVU swimming and diving. The training trip is an intriguing and exciting time of the year for me. As dedicated athletes, we bid farewell to our families after Christmas and depart to another part of the country. Once we meet, we focus our collective energy into becoming a better and stronger team. There is no school or social distractions to deter us from our duties. Our entire world consists of the team and the pool. Together, we push and support each other through increasingly difficult trials presented by the coaching staff. We all recognize that our season will soon be coming to an end, so this trip marks the beginning of our fight to the finish. To me, it’s a wonderful thing to watch a team come together and in the face of insane physical conditioning, emerge as a single, unbreakable unit.
To convey how we’ll accomplish this, my teammates and I will chronicle the days of this journey in our blog, beginning with my entry for Day 1. Our first workout began with a dryland ab session at 7:30 a.m. (a refreshing change from our usual morning start time of 5:30 a.m.). Several of us hadn’t practiced since Christmas Eve because most pools were closed. Consequently I was mildly hoping for a day that would sort of ease us into our training (maybe with a long pull set). But this is the winter training trip, and there’s no time for garbage yardage. We were whipped back into full training this morning, with a fast 200 IM set. Our afternoon workout was only a few hours later, we continued with a 3,000 meter threshold set which challenged every single one of us. We were all proud of ourselves today and I can’t wait to see what else we can achieve in the following week. I can’t wait to see us grow and unite as a result of it.
11:21 p.m.
Today was our full day off after swimming against UCSB yesterday. We were all looking forward to the different activities we could do today. Some of us chose to go to Disneyland, others chose to go to see the Rose Bowl Parade. Another option we had was to go to one of the members of our team's house out that lives nearby. I was part of the group that chose to go to Tim O'Malley's house for a team BBQ. We left around noon to go to his house in Riverside, where we just hung out as a team for a while. It was nice to be able to get away from all of the hard training and just enjoy ourselves as a team. We played some football, ate some GREAT food and just hung out. It really was a lot of fun just spending time with the team, laughing and having a good time, and I think I speak for the rest of us when I say a huge thank you to the O'Malley's for having us over. It really was a great day, and now that we're nice and relaxed from our day off, we're ready to get back to work tomorrow.
Posted by Graham Kauffman on Thursday, December 30, 2010
10:20 p.m.
I hope everyone is having a very good holiday season and enjoying their time off from school or work. This is my second winter training trip and they are a great chance to train with no distractions at a warm and sunny destination. They give us the opportunity to work toward our ultimate goal of swimming well at the BIG EAST Championships as well. Everyone is taking the challenges thrown at us by the coach’s head on and rising to the challenge. Our morning began as many others do, bright and early. Our morning practice started at 6:45 a.m. and the sprint group began our morning with an hour of dry land workouts. As most of us haven't done much since we left for break, this was a pretty challenging workout. We then got into the water around 8 a.m. and had a kick/swim main set that emphasized working kick into our swimming. We followed that up with a short speed set. The middle distance group completed a very challenging 5000 meter stroke threshold set.
Our afternoon practice began at 1:30 p.m. with thirty minutes of abs followed by a team stretch. The sprint group then warmed up and went right into a very challenging sprint set consisting of 33’s and 66’s for the next hour and fifteen minutes of practice. We all pushed each other to work harder throughout the set. Everyone was swimming very well and putting up fast times considering what we have been through the past couple of days. Through these sets, we were able to see where we were with our training so far and what we need to work on for the rest of the week. We finished our day relaxing and getting ready for our meet tomorrow against UC Santa Barbara. This has been a very fun and enjoyable trip and I am looking forward to the meet tomorrow and our break from training to go to the Rose Bowl Parade on Saturday. It has been great to see the team so enthusiastic and can't wait to see what the rest of the trip has in store.
Posted by Mandie Nugent on Wednesday, December 29, 2010
10:30 p.m.
On the second day into the camp and after our double sessions yesterday, we were all feeling tired and sore. The weather was really bad today, it was pouring down with rain, cold and dull, but everyone worked hard during the team set. Practicing in the 33 meter pool made the set a little harder, but everyone pulled through and pushed their limits. We were given 800 meter pull, 4/3/2/1 lengths stroke, 600 meter pull, 4/3/2/1 stroke and so on in pattern. Having to swim fly constantly wore out my arms, but with the team supporting me and everybody pushing each other with encouragement, we all completed the set to the best of our abilities.
Today was one of our longest sessions in which we were in the water for about three hours and with the rain we had to skip on dry land training, which has been abs every day to improve on our core. The team is being really positive and after practice we got the rest of the day to relax where most of us went out for Mexican food. I'm really enjoying being on the trip and even though there is a lot of hard work involved, the team and coaching staff make it worth it and I hope the rest of the trip continues to be really fun.
Posted by Jeff Byrd on Tuesday, December 28, 2010
10:45 p.m.
On December 27th, my fellow athletes and I cruised into Fullerton, Calif., for what will be my third winter training trip for WVU swimming and diving. The training trip is an intriguing and exciting time of the year for me. As dedicated athletes, we bid farewell to our families after Christmas and depart to another part of the country. Once we meet, we focus our collective energy into becoming a better and stronger team. There is no school or social distractions to deter us from our duties. Our entire world consists of the team and the pool. Together, we push and support each other through increasingly difficult trials presented by the coaching staff. We all recognize that our season will soon be coming to an end, so this trip marks the beginning of our fight to the finish. To me, it’s a wonderful thing to watch a team come together and in the face of insane physical conditioning, emerge as a single, unbreakable unit.
To convey how we’ll accomplish this, my teammates and I will chronicle the days of this journey in our blog, beginning with my entry for Day 1. Our first workout began with a dryland ab session at 7:30 a.m. (a refreshing change from our usual morning start time of 5:30 a.m.). Several of us hadn’t practiced since Christmas Eve because most pools were closed. Consequently I was mildly hoping for a day that would sort of ease us into our training (maybe with a long pull set). But this is the winter training trip, and there’s no time for garbage yardage. We were whipped back into full training this morning, with a fast 200 IM set. Our afternoon workout was only a few hours later, we continued with a 3,000 meter threshold set which challenged every single one of us. We were all proud of ourselves today and I can’t wait to see what else we can achieve in the following week. I can’t wait to see us grow and unite as a result of it.
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