A Day in the Life: Andrea Hupman, Day 1

HONOLULU, Hawaii, December 10. IN a special super-sized holiday training edition of "A Day in the Life" on SwimmingWorldMagazine.com, Northwestern junior Andrea Hupman will check in during the Wildcats' training excursion to Honolulu, Hawaii. Instead of the usual five-day run, Hupman will stay with us throughout a seven-day stint.

Hupman is an NCAA All-American sprint freestyle originally hailing from Lawrenceville, Ga. Last year, the two-time World University Games qualifier finished 16th in the 100 free as a sophomore after taking 14th in the event as a freshman. In her maiden season, she nearly made the championship heat by finishing ninth to miss the big race by 06 seconds. She is also the school record holder in the 200 free.

Saturday, December 9, Day 1
Today is the first day of both my blog and my team's training trip to Honolulu, Hawaii. The day started out in Evanston, Ill., around 5:30 a.m., with me packing a few last-minute items. I devoted an entire bag to snacks: PB & J sandwiches, bagels, granola bars, apples, and a bag of chocolate chip cookies. I like to have a little something sweet on hand, just in case. I tried to pack light, but somehow I still ended up with two big bags to check and two to carry on. I think I was carrying more stuff through the airport than anyone else, but that's pretty normal for me.

The flight itself was better than I had expected. Before I knew it, I had left behind the snow and was enjoying the sunny skies in Hawaii. I made sure to drink lots of water to stay hydrated. I thoroughly enjoyed my snack bag. I only wish I could have slept more on the flight. Sleeping sitting straight up has never worked too well for me, and curling up into something resembling the fetal position is only slightly more comfortable. But the in-flight movie, Elf, was really good. And, I always enjoy quality time with teammates.

Getting our luggage and rental vans took longer than expected. Then our assistant coach [Nichole Ellis] and trainer [Corey Hojnicki] got slightly lost finding the hotel from the airport. We fell a bit behind schedule, so our pool time got cut short. But we stayed flexible and positive; any amount of swimming after traveling all day felt really good. We focused on stretching out and working out the stiffness from the long flight.

Our warm-up (long course meters) consisted of:
1×800 every 4th 50 kick
1×300 kick, alternate 25 build/25 moderate
6×100 choice, 2@1:40, 2@1:35, 2@1:30
4×50 stroke, 25 build, 25 concentrate on technique
100 easy

It is now only 9 p.m. local time, but is past 1 a.m. Central Time, the one I'm used to. So I must end today's entry here, but I'm really excited about the sun, beaches and blogs yet to come.

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