This year our National squad headed to Torremolinos, Spain for our annual overseas training camp. We had 12 sessions planned across 7 days as well as 5 gym sessions.
Across the week, we had planned in a variety of training sessions which would test swimmers across a multitude of areas. The sets were 2 hours and had an extra element to contend with as Torremolinos is renowned for its windy conditions. However, as a lifeguard informed us, it will die down by 11am every day which was absolutely true. Our gym sessions included a combination of core work and the dreaded hill repeats which if you have ever been to this part of the world, you will know what I’m talking about.
After 3 double session days of hard work and gym, we came to our first afternoon off where the swimmers decided we were going to go and sit on the beach for an hour and chill. As with most families, the girls lay and listened to music and the boys dug a hole which was so big not only did most of them get buried in but one of the locals complained it was too large.
As we moved through the week, the tough sessions were incredibly becoming harder and harder particularly as we started touching into race pace sets. On the Monday, we had the morning off and after a little bit of table tennis (which coach Matt dominated the whole week leaving unbeaten) we headed off on the bus to a nearby town to visit the huge shopping mall. Swimmers treated themselves to some food and retail therapy before heading back on the train for our afternoon session.
As we closed off the week and completed our last session and sets of hill runs, we decided to check out and head to the local pizza shop for a team meal. We had the chance to reflect on the week and discuss what went well and what lessons we could take home.
Congratulations to all swimmers for a fantastic week of work. Everyone was a credit to the club and we hope that they can all springboard into the final meets of the qualifying window and into the Summer competitions.
