Day 2: Monday- The beginning of the work week. Even though we may be down here in Florida on our Christmas break, we still have to treat it like it is any other week of the season. Expect to come out, work hard, and set yourself up for a tough week. If there was a word to sum up today, I think every one of the guys would say just one word. Cold. Was it ever. Ok, we all knew that there were going to be some mornings that would be a little chilly, but I don't think we expected it to this cold this early. Come on, we are in Florida for gosh sakes. Especially when we have great weather right when we got off the plane. But anyways, last night we all got a little early Christmas gift from Greg when he texted the team letting us know that the bus was going to leave later than expected. Much appreciated Greg.A.M. Practice- We arrive at the pool and of course, we are all starting to shiver and imagine warmer places to try to dull the cold around us. We got dressed for dryland and we found a spot in a hallway in one of the adjacent buildings which gave us a nice place to warm up. Once that was over, we get ready to brace the cold and shimmy down to our suits. I do not think I was ever so eager to jump into a pool for morning practice ever. Practice turns out to be a nice and hard one. Swam with distance today which either can be a real enjoyably hard practice, or just a flat out HARD practice. Today was kind of in the middle. Except for this trip, I have only practiced in a 50 LCM pool once. So anything is going to hurt until I get used to it. But surprisingly, even though I was the caboose in the lane, I was holding my own better than I thought I could. It is a nice feeling to surprise yourself during a hard workout. Once we got done there, we headed back for some much deserved food and rest. Of course, I hit the sack right after my last bite of my sandwich.
P.M. Practice- We all hop on into the vans and headed down for afternoon practice. And to all of our surprise and liking, the pool was switched back to 25 yards. Oh man was it nice to only have to take 11 strokes and be at the wall ready to turn. And an even bigger surprise, Tom, Jeff, and I were told that we would be starting out in the sprint group. Again, thanks Greg. We ended up doing a stand up set consisting of 50's. Since we had heats, we had time to warm down in between each one of the 50's. Unfortunately, it was still as cold as morning practice. So cold that Greg even said we could hop over into the hot tub to warm up before our next 50. Haha, I don't think I have ever seen anyone shivering more or have more goosebumps than Isaac. He was just freezing from head to toe. But once we all made through it, Greg insisted we hop into the hot tub again just to warm up and get dressed. It was nice to have my coach tell me to go into the hot tub. After a quick 20 minutes on one of the stair-masters inside of the Y, we all head back to go relax and grab some grub to eat. A group of us decided to head on over to the restaurant across the street. Nice place. took longer than expected and a little pricey, but still, great food. It was a nice way to end a good day of hard work.As I sit down here in the lobby, the words that Greg spoke to us still ring in my head. The fact that we still have a long road ahead of us and the urgency to come together as a team. To be honest, that is the one thing I am most excited for. I can not wait to see how close this team will be when it comes down to crunch time. And we sure are going to need it. With such a tough 2nd half of the season upon us, we need to stick together when times get rough and be there to pick each other up. I know that this trip will do it. It has become more evident every day that everyone has to pull their weight. Even the shortest guy on the team who is always looking up at everyone else.
Time for bed. Goodnight everyone and take it easy :o).