GASC Swimmer, Hannah Miley trains with British Olympic Swimmer - Rebecca Cooke

In October Hannah was given the opportunity to spend 10 days at the British training camp in Cyprus with the City of Glasgow swimming team and in particular with Rebecca Cooke and her coach Steve Hill. Hannah has given us a short account of her stay in Cyprus, going by her diary she had to work hard to earn her keep! – Web Editor

In Cyprus we stayed in the Coral Beach hotel, which was right beside a beautiful beach and swimming pool, of course. Each swimmer was given a room and a roommate. My roommate was Rebecca Cooke (who came 6^th in the 800mfc and 8^th in the 400mfc at the Olympic Games in Athens). Everyday we were down for breakfast at 6.45 and trained from 7.30 till 9.30. The sessions were usually 7500m containing different sets, mainly IM. One session the main butterfly swimmers had to do 10x400m fly! That was hard. Some session I would be training with Rebecca Cooke, which was brilliant! She was so nice but had university work to do and was busy doing that in the afternoons. I was given Glasgow Swim Team hats and t-shirts and they made me feel part of the group. We were allowed Wednesday afternoon and the whole of Saturday to rest. After our second breakfast we would all meet at the beach to do our (what I thought was our land training) challenge. It turned out to be a 1/2 mile run and sometimes followed by a swim in the sea. Swimming in the sea was amazing and it was so warm but really salty. And it was really cool when you swam and you could see whole schools of fish right underneath you. We also did lots of team building so I got to know everyone really well.

On the last session we had to think up a 10000m set and the butterfly swimmers, which were mainly the boys, had to do 100x100's fly, luckily I was allowed to do it mixed up. Just before we dived in Steve (the head coach) said that those who had sweets for pudding the night before had to do the 10k set and the rest could do a sprint set! Steve set some strict rules for us to follow:

1.       Be in bed at 9.30

2.       No puddings unless coach gives permission

3.    Do not take food you can "pole vault over" and the only eat a small amount.

4.       No sweet and sugary things for lunch

5.       Always be rested for the next session

6.       12 till I was quiet time. Everyone in own room

It was great fun especially when we went to the water park on the Saturday before we left for home. On the last night we had a quiz and pantomimes.

Written by Hannah Miley