As I write this I can't believe I'm sitting outside at a restaurant in the Bahamas in 81 degree weather. Last year was the first time we did this trip and we were here for a total of six nights (five nights for our swimmers), and this year we've been here since 2/15 and still have four nights to go. This is one of those times I can really appreciate owning my own business and the perks it can come with. Don't be fooled, this trip is a lot of work, before and during, and my downtime is usually limited to about 20ish minutes a day, but I know when to see things from a positive light when I need to.
Our first group of swimmers landed on 2/16 and we went right to work. Well, after a few drinks and some lunch that is. Less than 2 hours in the Bahamas and Dominic and I were already leading them to the pool for their first workout.
The days on this trip are setup pretty similarly every day. 7am open water swim, group breakfast cooked by yours truly, free time, 1:30pm pool swim, then it's time for more food before collapsing into the pillows and getting up to do it all over again the next day. Think that sounds like a lot of swimming? At the end of this week the ladies had each swam over 20K meters in 5 days. So yea, I'd call that a lot of swimming.
One of everyone's favorite parts of this trip are the morning open water swims, which we do in a gorgeous cove behind our hotel. The cove swims are used to see where everyone is starting at, then work on open water drills and techniques to get them better prepped for their upcoming seasons and work on their problem areas. We set up a course with two of our buoys and do workouts around that course. One day this week we brought our swim parachutes to have them work on adding resistance and bringing some of the drills we do in the pool into the open water. This helps familiarize what we do at SwimBox with the swimming they'll be doing when they compete.
After our morning open water swims in the cove we all shower/rinse the salt off (or not shower, I've decided the salt water is my favorite new product for styling my hair) and scarf down as many pancakes and eggs as I can whip up. Once everyone is done with breakfast our down time varied. For instance one day we explored the island on foot, another the swimmers napped while Dominic and I worked, the next we trekked to the nearby Lighthouse to take in the incredible views of our surroundings.
This year we added a well deserved (and much needed) rest day in the middle of the trip. We took a drive out to a place called Little Harbour and had freshly caught seafood and drinks at Pete's Pub and enjoyed not getting in the water in the attempts to break records at how much yardage we could get in. But before we did that we drove into the woods of Marsh Harbour and took in the natural beauty of the Treasure Cay Blue Hole. You have to be lucky to see this, because it's not listed on a map and there are no directions.
All in all we'd call the first week of this trip a success. Everyone had a great time, got some incredible swimming in and a ton of work done, and we got to know this group of our clients that much better. Ohh and I almost forgot. I got this delightful rum cake, which just happened to arrive the afternoon everyone left...oops?
