Bucknell Men's Swimming and Diving Blog - David Iselin
1/7/2010 7:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
Jan. 7, 2010
Aloha from sunny Lewisburg! This year, we are spending our training camp in the familiar surroundings of the Bucknell "bubble." The entire team returned a couple of days after Christmas to begin the three-week adventure of another training camp. With the start of the New Year, the team has begun to look towards February, and the Patriot League Championship meet.
While it may not be the same as lying on a sunny beach in Puerto Rico, it is always nice coming back to Bucknell for training camp. Without classes and homework, it is much easier to focus on our goals in the pool. Most days we practice in the morning and afternoon, with dryland exercises thrown in the mix. But we do have some time to rest, and even sleep in (a foreign concept for swimmers). The team has Wednesday mornings off, as well as all of Sunday to rest and recover!
With our free time out of the pool, a lot of us look forward to taking long naps and relaxing, usually with a movie. However, we have found plenty of time to do fun activities as a team. On New Year's Eve, the entire team went to a local bowling alley, where we competed for high scores and spent the night dancing to music. This past Saturday, our second annual swim team talent show was held, with duets, lip synching and a trip back to the 90s with the Carmen San Diego theme song. It was a lot of fun, and a good chance to show off our talents outside of the pool. Senior Abby Atkinson and I practiced all week and performed "A Whole New World" featuring leaps, summersaults and confetti! We won the most creative choreography award, and got to show off our singing skills!
As a team, we have begun to turn our focus to the last few dual meets of the season, as well as our championship meets. Each lap, turn, and start that we do in practice seems to have a much greater significance as what we have been training for the entire season becomes a reality. Especially as a senior, these last few weeks of swimming have become bittersweet. While my career as a swimmer comes to a close, I am excited to see how the team performs in our championship meets. I have seen first-hand how hard every member of our team works in and out of the pool. Hopefully with the next few weeks of training, our team will succeed at the end of the season!