Jan. 12, 2009

January 9 - Sarah Dunleavy

We made it! After eleven days of hard training in Ft. Lauderdale, we reached our final day of training with just a meet to go tomorrow afternoon. Most of us enjoyed the last morning of sleeping in past eight am by lounging around the room and eating in, while others hit the beach or went out for breakfast. And, of course, some of us enjoyed our coffee at Ocean Manor’s Coffee Corner. We arrived at Pinecrest for our final afternoon workout and began practice with some abs and team push-ups. We practiced with the men’s team today, which was a nice change of pace. After a long warm up, we did a set of twenty 50’s on 2:00. The first four were getting the feel of your stroke, the next four were to be one second above your goal 200 pace and the last 12 were at your goal 200 pace or better yet, your goal 100 pace. The sprinters and breaststrokes did the set short course yards while the rest of us did it in the meters pool. It was a great atmosphere with both teams cheering for one another, and even though the set was challenging there was a lot of smiling and laughing between 50’s, which made it seem a little easier. Everyone seemed to do really well. After practice, John even stated that our effort as a whole was “unbelievable” and that the workout was one of the best of the training camp. Everyone appeared in great spirits leaving the pool, which was a great way to gear up for a final practice.

Between workouts, some enjoyed the honey-glazed bread and delicious food at the ocean front restaurant Aruba’s for lunch, while others grabbed some subway or ate in the room. Most people took their daily nap, read, watched TV or surfed the Internet before the second practice of the day.

We arrived to Pinecrest for the final time expecting a practice full of fun. Little did we know our “modified” dry land would consist of 45 more lateral lunges than usual, and crunches on the pool deck. Before we began our practice, Leah Henninger spoke about confidence and Lauren Roth spoke about toughness, two of our team core values. After some motivating words and a long warm up and a number of mini sets we finished with a little fun. We have had some really challenging practices this training trip, but a lot of fun too. It is hard to believe that the camp has nearly reached it’s end.