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ブランドコピー スーパーコピー スーパーコピー時計 ブランド時計コピー スーパーコピーN級品 スーパーコピーブランド スーパーコピー時計 ブランドコピー 激安ブランド スーパーコピー スーパーコピー ロレックス時計コピー スーパーコピー時計 ウブロ時計コピー ルイヴィトン財布コピー ロレックス時計コピー オメガ時計コピー ウブロ時計コピー パネライ時計コピー パテックフィリップ時計コピー  9 Things Swimmers are Thankful For, and a Few That We Aren’t

9 Things Swimmers are Thankful For, and a Few That We Aren’t

By Morgan Pestorius, Swimming World College Intern

Here’s a look at the 9 things swimmers are thankful for as the holiday season is approaching. People are often asked to remember what they are thankful for. So, I decided to ask swimmers what they are thankful for this upcoming winter. Swimmers in the New Jersey Athletic Conference answers differed from the average college student.

This winter we are thankful for:

1. Heated Pools

blog-steamy-swimming-pool-evaporations

As the winter onslaught of cold falls upon us, non-swimmers are constantly seeking the comfort of a warm place to hide from the cold. Swimmers, on the other hand, decide, for the sake of competition, to leave our warm houses and go get wet for a while and if not for heated pools we would be all too accustomed to hypothermia.

2. Goggles

james-magnussen

Swimmers may take these miraculous devices for granted, but goggles are probably the best invention ever. Just imagine attempting to complete your three-hour practice with the searing blindness of chlorine! Forget about trying to study for that calculus final when you can’t see for several hours after leaving the pool.

3. Parkas

parka-meme

One of the few things that kept me sane, alive and toasty during winter training was my parka. Parkas are the equivalent of a walking sleeping bag, providing the convenient option of taking a nap anywhere, at any time.

4. “30 Seconds Rest”

30-second-rest

There is no better gift to a swimmer than the gift of time. Just thirty-seconds rest can make all the difference when struggling through your second grueling practice of the day. “30 seconds rest” and “50 easy” are music to swimmer’s water-filled ears.

5. Food

turkey

To swimmers, food is everything, and the holidays just mean more of it. Thanksgiving is every swimmer’s favorite holiday, because they can stuff their faces and also get a day off from practice. For some reason, people just never stop cooking around the holidays and swimmers couldn’t be happier about it. The only problem is we never get full…

6. Training Trips

lafayette-college-training-trip

If we have to double up our training while everyone else is home on holiday break, we might as well get to suffer in a nicer location than the cold Northeast. The practices don’t get any easier, and the clock doesn’t move any slower, but practice is a little less arduous when you know you can lounge on the beach in-between doubles. Florida, Puerto Rico, Aruba, California? Doesn’t matter as long as it’s not New Jersey.

7. Taper

taper-meme

Ah, Taper – every swimmer’s favorite word and every non-swimmer friend’s greatest mystery. When we are being squeezed in the brutal grip of exhausting winter training, it is easy to forget what we are working for. Test sets on New Years Eve make even the most dedicated swimmers want to give up. It is all worth it though, because there is a light shining bright at the end of the tunnel, and that light is called taper.

8. Fast skins

speedo-fastskins

While many college students are asking for clothes or electronics this holiday season, NJAC swimmers admit that what they have asked for most is new tech suits. There’s no feeling quite like diving into the pool with a new fast skin on.  Where else can you spend hundreds of dollars for a few ounces of NASA inspired fabric that takes 20 minutes to get on?  It all becomes worth it when you surprise everyone with a blistering race.

9. Teammates

harlem-shake-georgia

The most important thing we are thankful for this season is our teammates. Nothing brings a team closer together than suffering through winter training. Teammates encourage you, crack jokes and make practice bearable. Fellow swimmers are the only ones who understand the commitment, sacrifice, work ethic and drive that it takes to swim in college. They are the ones who share your joy in victory and sooth your sorrow in defeat.

While there is much to be thankful for, there are a few things we could do without.

Doubles
What’s worse than pushing yourself through an agonizing practice? Coming back four-hours later to do the same thing. A break from schoolwork just means more time to be spent training.

Frozen Hair
Due to the constant practicing, swimmers seem to have permanently damp hair during the winter. Everyone knows that damp hair + freezing temperatures = icicles on your head.

Punishment Sets
Someone is bound to oversleep morning practice and nothing ruins the holiday spirit more 20x200s on Christmas Eve.

Wet Suits
With doubles every day, there is never enough time for your suit to dry between practices. Putting on a cold, wet suit in the middle of the winter is worse than getting coal in your stocking.

Morgan Pestorius is in her second year at TCNJ. After swimming as a freshman, Pestorius is redshirting this year to recover from an injury and has volunteered as the manager of the team.  Previously, Pestorius trained with the Bridgewater JCC Tide and Juniper Lane Swim Team in New Jersey. 

 

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flutterby
flutterby
9 years ago

We older masters swimmers swam our entire age group, high school, and college careers without goggles. Nowadays I see people freaking out when they get two drops of water in their eyes. I actually enjoyed walking home (with my frozen hair) and seeing rainbows on all the streetlights after a two hour “chlorine treatment”.

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