Rice Reports From Florida Training Trip
12/18/2014 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
FT. PIERCE, Fla. - From Dec. 15-22, the Pitt swimming team is spending a week in Florida on its annual winter training trip.
Rising bright and early, the team departed Pittsburgh for Orlando on the morning of Monday, Dec. 15. For the first six days, the team will stay at Ocean Village and have two pool workouts at Indian River State College along with a dryland workout each day.
Before heading back north, the team will have the opportunity to explore Orlando and spend some time at Disney.
Each day on the trip, junior captain Mack Rice will check in and report on the team’s progress throughout.
Below is his daily blog:
Day 5 (Saturday, Dec. 20):
Today was our final day of doubles. We had our final weight session with a little dryland. Middle distance had somewhat of a recovery practice in the morning to get ready for the evening. Distance had their famous 6-times miles set, while middle distance and sprint had speed oriented sets. We finished with 20x 100s with fins and paddles as a nice way to wrap up training trip.
Each group had their "family dinners" tonight as well. It felt like the week went pretty quick although the days were long and challenging. The coaches seemed pleased with our efforts, but we still have one practice left in the morning.
Day 4 (Friday, Dec. 19):
The practices are moving quickly now. We had another beach workout and two water practices. In the morning, we had the infamous 20 x 200 best stroke set, which set up poorly for race day in the evening practice. Luckily, we had an extra hour in between practices today. A large group went to the beach today. We're looking forward to our last full day of practices before we head home.
Day 3 (Thursday, Dec. 18):
Things are moving along pretty quickly now. We had a weight session this morning before our pool session. It was arm day with a dryland portion that used med-balls. We then got in the pool and each group had their own practices. We ran home and had lunch.
A few people went to the beach and some people found a jelly fish. Some random guy fishing caught a 6-foot shark, which freaked the girls out. Evening practice was recovery for middle distance. We had a short kick set followed by a tower set. We finished with some underwater work in the dive-well. This is a good indication we will be racing sometime soon.
Day 2 (Wednesday, Dec. 17):
Today was a pretty rough one in Ft. Pierce. We woke up to a 9 a.m. dryland session on the beach, followed by an intense distance IM practice with coach Marian Cassidy Clark. We then did our usual run home and had a big lunch.
By this point in the trip, most people are exhausted from double practices today so I think most people stayed in the condos and slept in between practices. Evening practice was just as hard though, as we did stroke specific work and a kick set with tennis shoes. Using shoes in water makes it very difficult to move anywhere. We had a nice sunset to end the day, though. Now it’s time for dinner and probably bed for most.
Day 1 (Tuesday, Dec. 16):
We spent most of Monday traveling and getting settled. But yesterday was our first official full day of training. Day one consisted of a nice sunrise and breakfast before the morning session of weights and a water practices. It was surprisingly cold, but warmed up once the sun got into the sky.
It was leg day in the weight room and my water practice (middle distance group) had an aerobic based IM main set. After our water practice, we had our daily run home from the pool to the condos. Some of us then either napped or went to the beach to relax. Not a cloud in the sky, which made for a nice ocean view.
We then headed back to the pool for our second water practice of the day. Middle distance had a leg based workout that consisted of a lot of kicking. After practice we headed home to make dinner. We had chicken parmesan in my condo. I know some other people had left over pizza that the coaches had got for us the night before.