The Panthers are in sunny Fort Lauderdale, training at Pinecrest Academy, both short and long course. The team hotel is right on A1A on the beach for the fourth-straight year. They will be on the trip through the 15th of January before resuming the regular season schedule second semester against Carthage College on Jan. 16.
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The sixth blog entry comes from senior Ellie Gross:
Today began with a slightly colder temperature than we Northerners would have liked, shocking the newbies and bringing to mind memories of cold days past to those veterans from last year's cold spell (a.k.a the entire trip). Morning practice was uneventful, with people staying fairly positive through the cold weather and sore muscles. After practice, practically the entire team went to their respective rooms to sleep and mentally prepare for "The Pain Train," a most ingenious invention from our head coach Kyle, consisting of a 400 IM with a 100 fly tacked onto the end. Of course, butterfly is everyone's favorite stroke so this caused lots of cheers of excitement from the whole team. As a team, we hopped on the infamous "Pain Train" and vanquished it with flying colors, swimming faster than previous years and staying far more positive throughout the ordeal.
As a senior, I would personally like to make this statement: I hope I never have to do that set again. I think my fellow seniors would agree with me. I am proud of how well the team handled the "Pain Train" and at the end of the day, despite the soreness and exhaustion, I can definitely say it's great to be a UWM Panther.
Tomorrow will bring a new challenge and tradition, a biathlon including a mile swim and a three-mile run. For those of us who were born solely for the water (a.k.a me) and not dryland activities, this will be a completely new challenge, but I have my teammates to help me through it and to encourage in return.
And now, sleep. Panthers in the pool!! Rawr rawr rawr!!
