Blackwater Triathlon Club Winter Camp

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  The BTC crew in Gran Canaria. Back row l-r Jim Crowley, Peter O’Brien, Jeff Roberts, Dave Bartley, Vinny McCarthy and  Conor Bartley. Front Row l-r Sean Lomasney and Mick Beston

Following the success of last year’s Blackwater Triathlon Club springtraining camp in Lanzarote, 8 of the club’s finest athletes once again bravedthe balmy temperatures and spectacular scenery of the Canaries in an effort toget a head start on the triathlon season. This year the winter camp moved from Lanzarote to theneighbouring island,  the majestic andscenic Gran Canaria. The crew were based in the south of the island in the townof Puerto Rico. The Blackwater contingent was made up of Vinny McCarthy, SeanLomasney, Peter O’Brien, Jim Crowley, Jeff Roberts, Conor Bartley, Mike Bestonand Dave Bartley. The week was coached by two experienced triathlon coaches, LiamO’Reilly, who worked on the bike side of things, and swim coach Warren Terry.Liam also brought over 4 other non-BTC triathletes who were training forIronMan Youghal. The 8 BTC athletes had been in training for about 8 weeksbefore the training camp so that they would be fit enough for the gruelling 6 daystraining ahead of them. Those hours on the bikes and in the pool certainly paidoff before the week was done! Liam had a specific training schedule for eachday’s cycle, which was a mix of hill work, speed work and endurance. Warrenalso had a particular training session for each morning swim, focusing onendurance and speed work. The days started early with the crew gathering on thebeautiful beaches by Puerto Rico for an 8a.m. swim. Usually this was about1.5km and Warren put everyone through their paces with a variety of drills andtips. On one of the mornings Warren decided to up the ante a little and theswimmers found themselves swimming from Amadores beach to Puerto Rico beach andback, a total of 3km. This swim was particularly challenging as there were highswells and a current to deal with. As if this wasn’t bad enough they wereswimming approximately 150m from the rugged coastline so extreme care had to betaken. The daily swim was followed by a much needed breakfast to refuel andprepare for the second part of the day’s routine. Most mornings everyone was ontheir bike and ready for road by 11a.m. The cycles varied during the week; fromlong gruelling cycles up into the mountains of Gran Canaria to speed work downin the valleys. The Saturday morning cycles since January really paid off here,but it was still very hard work. Over the course of the week they completed inexcess of 500km cycling which included 7,500 meters of climbing. They also swamin excess of 10km. Following the cycle it was back to the pool in theapartments to cool down and chill out for an hour or two before

heading out for refreshments. M&M soon became thelocal watering hole for the boys (you will have to attend next year’s trainingcamp to see why). They were spoilt for choice of restaurants each evening asPuerto Rico has something to suit all palates. After a few refreshments and ameal it was off to bed to rest for another tough day of training ahead. Thetraining camp was a huge success. The guys enjoyed themselves tremendously andcame back a lot fitter that they were going over.  All felt that they are now much betterprepared for the challenges of the triathlon Season ahead. This was anespecially useful exercise for Vinny McCarthy and Conor Bartley, both of whomhave signed up to do the Ironman in Youghal on 23 June. Well done to all ofthem. The rest of us aren’t jealous at all….