Little 500 teams take a working vacation

While many IU students were taking spring break as a week to sit back and relax, the students that are training to ride in the Little 500 were hard at work. Many stayed in Bloomington to participate in the IU Student Foundation's sponsored training camp, while others packed up their gear and headed south with the other hordes of college students.\n"I think that there are many differences of going to Florida and staying in Bloomington," IUSF assistant director and Little 500 coordinator Alex Ihnen said. "When you go to Florida or leave Bloomington, you do a lot of bonding with your team and you get away and have fun with your team, which is really important. Bloomington is a different place over spring break, and you get to concentrate on riding," \nThe Little 500 training camp was offered to all potential riders as a chance to gain track experience and have time to ride the track without it being full of riders, which is typically the case while class is in session. Many riders took advantage of the week long camp; three of the top five women's teams participated in the camp and nine other teams stayed for the training.\nThe track was open twice a day with a morning and afternoon session. The morning session lasted from 9 a.m. to noon and the afternoon session from 3:30-5:30 p.m. Many riders that stayed in Bloomington took the time to get to know their teammates. \n"It was nice to be on the track without a lot of people there," junior Rachel Clark said. "It was better than being somewhere else because we could train on our home turf. It was nice to be in Bloomington because we didn't have to worry about wearing ourselves out playing on the beach and there were no distractions so the workouts were more intensive." \nClark and her other teammates, the Single Speed Sprinters, had a chance this year to train together and to get to know each other outside of the track.\n"It was better this year than last because last year we didn't do anything to train over break," Clark said. "We really gained this week instead of losing it. This year we have a rookie on our team so we got to get to know her a little bit better and just be able to hang out together."\nDespite the advantages of training in Bloomington with the help of the IUSF, many Little Five riders made the trek to Florida to enjoy the March weather and were still able to train at their spring break destination. Phi Delta Theta took its week off from books to train in New Port Richey, Fla. with members of Alpha Phi. The Phi Delts traveled to Florida to escape the distractions of Bloomington and had the chance to stay for free through an alumnus of their team.\n"The week was definitely beneficial, senior Ryan Hamilton said. "We had the week to really focus on our training, and we had a lot of gains from it. The week was completely centered around training. It was also a bonding experience for the team. Anytime you spend the week with a group of guys you are going to bond in some way"