Ben’s Pan Am Diary: At the US Training Camp in Tampa

This is the third installment of US team member Ben Michaelson's Pan Am Games diary.

By Ben Michaelson

TAMPA, Florida, August 6. TRAINING in Florida has been going extremely well the last couple of days.
My speed is really coming around and I feel stronger every day. Everyone seems to be getting more and more focused on the job at hand as we get closer to the competition.

At yesterday's afternoon workout, the pool was open to media and local swimming fans to watch us train. After practice, we were able to meet lots of local age group swimmers and sign autographs. Its pretty awesome to know that the 250,000 members of USA Swimming are behind us 100%.

Getting to talk to the kids is one of my favorite things to do. There was even one swimmer from Connecticut (my home state) that was here on vacation and came out to see us!

I swam my main workout for today this morning. Some of us are going to see a movie this afternoon, then a light workout with some speed drills this afternoon. I'm definitely enjoying relaxing and being able to completely focus on swimming fast.

Six days until my race day…and I'm going to be
ready to race!!!

Talk to you all again soon.

Ben

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