The women's rowing team is on their annual winter training trip in Miami. The Hawks will be documenting their trip in this daily blog:
Day 1
It was 4:00 a.m and an early start to the team's Miami trip! I board our 6 a.m. flight with nine other SJU rowers as we head down south. After a long morning of flying we finally arrived at the Casablanca hotel where we met up with the rest of our teammates. As each member checked in, we all gathered by the pool to catch the welcomed rays of sunshine. We are greeted by our coaches and head down to the Miami Beach Club for our first practice. Coach G planned a nice technical steady-state to ease the rowers back into our training. After our first day back, my roommate and I headed to the Publix Grocery Store to stock up on groceries for the week. On our way back to the Casablanca Hotel, we ran into more teammates dining at the infamous BurgerFi for a quick bite. As night came around, we all headed to bed early to wrap up a good first day!
- Junior co-captain Shannon Mulgrew
Day 2
Oh hello!
We started with an early 7:30 am wake up call in my room then headed off to practice. The morning consisted of some technical pair work and work in the fours. After practice we headed back to our hotel and hit the beach where my face burnt like a tomato. After some rest we headed back to the boathouse for some more work in the fours. I got to ride the launch and chill with my fav coaches, G and Bri. Oh what fun! Practice ended early to give us time to go watch the Birds! All the seniors and I headed to dinner together but were too stressed out to focus on our dinner. Thank god for that double doink! We ended the night with a quick Eagles chant and off to bed we went! A happy day for Philadelphia and even happier day for SJU Women's Rowing.
Day 3
After a peaceful and tranquil night sleep, knowing the Eagles won, we started off a beautiful Day 3 of training getting our namaste on. Waking up early can sometimes be a hassle, but to have an hour to just sit on the beach and connect with our minds before a hard day of training, makes for a more effective and focused day. Thankfully, our yoga instructor did not force us to do an excessive amount of downward dog, instead she taught us stretches that help with combing our hair and wiping our butts, the every day necessities. Needless to say, early morning yoga was a calming but comical experience, as it should be. :) We started off practice with some drills by pairs. Afterward we began our work: 2x9”, 3x7” and 4x4”. Initially, our four was really going strong; however, during our second 9 min piece, in the middle of Miami Bay, we faced quite a predicament... Out of the corner my eye, I saw my top spacers fly into the water and next thing you know, my rigger was about to fly off with it. Despite our misfortune, we overcame our challenge, with the help of Coach Patti, and we were able to fix the rigger so that we could finish our pieces. After practice, we hit the beach conducting some fun roommate challenges including the wheel barrel. Who says you can't work out during our time off the water?
- Junior Sam O'Connell
Day 4
Today was another great day in the Miami sunshine for the Hawks. It was definitely a hot one, that's for sure. Luckily, the coaches made the call to put the work in in the morning and have a more laid back afternoon. This morning the team met in the lobby and then headed to the beach where we were informed of our morning circuit. Let it be known that this wasn't just any circuit, it was a pirate-themed treasure hunt! The team was broken up into four teams and was sent on a mission to find clues to lead them toward the ultimate treasure. Some of the circuit exercises included donkey kicks, some lunges, some treading water, and, of course, walking the plank! After each team finished we put our prize letters together to form the word pizza (z^2) which was a hint toward the fact that we will have a team pizza party in the spring! Just because we aren't all out here training in Miami right now, we are all still one team. After the scavenger hunt, we had a brief break and then headed to our first row. We had a solid workout of 4x5' following a long warm up and some add ins. I definitely worked up a sweat in that sunshine and figured today would be a good day for an açaí bowl. I headed over to the bagel shop with some of my teammates and picked one up and quickly devoured it in my room afterward. After some brief relaxation time by the pool, we headed back for our second row, a nice technical row full of drills and some steady state. Even though we were promised a pizza party in the spring, we got lucky enough to have one tonight too. We had some team time by the pool and finished off 8 whole pizzas! Guess you could say we were a bit hungry. An early dinner lead to an early ending night which wrapped up with a quick 7-Eleven trip to grab some goodies. I guess you could say it's good to be a Hawk, especially when in Miami.
Day 5
Today was a fun-filled sunny day in Miami! My roommates and I woke up at 6:50, ate a quick breakfast then headed down to the beach to watch the end of the sunrise and to get ready for our beach yoga session! Our session was filled with some sun salutations, deep stretching poses, headstands and some fun balance exercises. After yoga we had a quick break before our practice, so I went to the bagel shop with a few of my teammates to grab some delicious iced coffees!
After drinking our coffees we headed to the boat house and got ready for practice, The workout this morning was 10x 9 minutes. We definitely logged a ton of meters during this long work out. After practice ended, our team walked back to the hotel to eat lunch and get ready for our fun night ahead in South Beach. The night consisted of paddle boarding, shopping, a team dinner and ice cream.
The upperclassmen left the hotel first to go to their 1:00 pm paddle boarding session. The underclassmen, including myself, hung out in hotel for a bit longer before leaving for South Beach. At 2:00 pm our paddle boarding session began! I really enjoyed paddle boarding. It was pretty windy so there were a few big waves but thankfully I never fell in! After paddle boarding for an hour, we walked the boards back into the shop, and got changed back into our clothes. We then walked around south beach and went shopping until 5:00 pm. The whole team and the coaches all met in front of Next Cafe, where we ate our yummy dinner. I ordered the Chicken Piccata, which was delicious! After a fun team dinner, a few of my teammates and I went to Ben and Jerry's to get dessert. We then went back to the hotel and hung out in our rooms before going to sleep. It was an awesome day in Miami!
Day 6
Hi everyone! Our morning practice today was very windy so instead of going in small boats we took out two 8s and a 4! Our practice for the morning was 2x (4x 1000 meter) pieces with a minute of alternate nostril breathing in between each piece! When we walked out of our hotel this morning everyone was saying how cold we were because it was in the 50s outside, if we were back in Philly though, it was in the 20s so the 50s is pretty warm haha! As we are getting further into the week we're all getting a bit more tired so today one of my roommates and I took a nap between practice while some of our other teammates went down to the beach to hang out for a bit before our second practice. Before we went to our next practice we all met with Coach Patti in the lobby to do a mindfulness session about mindful eating! We all got a piece of chocolate and talked about who had a part in getting it from the raw ingredients, such as farmers and factory workers, to in the bag in front of us, like Coach Patti for buying them! Then we unwrapped them and used all our senses to observe the piece of chocolate until we were able to take a bite of it and then we all were able to really appreciate it so much more than we would have had we been mindlessly eating! During our second practice we focused on technique and did add-ins. After our second practice everyone went back to the hotel to get ready to go out to dinner together. Last year a bunch of our team went to a Cuban restaurant and it was so good so we had to go again this year so we brought all 25 of us to Sazon Cuban Cuisine and it was delicious again!! After dinner we all headed back to go to bed earlier since we were doing pieces the next day.
Day 7
The final day of winter training in Miami. I started my day earlier than usual to watch the sunrise. A few of us gathered on the beach, our feet tucked into the cool sand, we sat in silence as the sun lit up the sky. The sunʼs rays, more pink than orange, bounced off the crashing waves and onto the sand beneath us.
It was breathtaking.
When the sun had risen, our team gathered for an early morning run, followed by a body circuit and core.
Our final practice of winter training. It felt good to end the week knowing weʼll be leaving Miami stronger than when we first started.
After a long week of hard rows, much needed sunshine, and lots of ice cream, its time to head back to Philadelphia and log some more miles on the Schuylkill River.
Until next time,
- Senior Fiona McKee
