Lanzarote Training Camp 2022
On Monday 3rd January 2022, 18 swimmers and Zichen met at Gatwick Airport to escape the UK for a week of swimming in Lanzarote.
Unfortunately the team was slightly depleted having lost a couple of swimmers to COVID isolations.
The week-long training camp involved 20 hours of training, 3 hours in the gym, 69,000m of swimming as well as a trip to the beach, a few questionable games of Darts, some serious thrashings on the pool table and a little tease to the Cambridge Team.
Upon arrival on Monday evening the team quickly tucked into the extensive buffet to fuel themselves for the days ahead.
On Tuesday, the sun cream was applied (to most of the team) and we had our first two training sessions of the camp. Due to COVID, many of the team had not swum Long Course in a couple of years so it took a bit of adjusting in the first session, but by the evening, the team smashed their first threshold set of camp and started the week strong, showing Cambridge what it was all about.
Wednesday was gorgeous and sunny so after a gruelling quality session in the pool and some massive gains in the gym the team headed into the local town of Costa Teguise to the beach for the afternoon for some team rounders, a chilly swim in the sea and last minute secret santa shopping. The women’s team also decided to make a human pyramid and some of the men went to a local restaurant to test some Spanish paella.
A massive shift was put in on Thursday. Two more sessions in the pool and another gym session.
Waking up aching on Friday morning didn’t stop the team, and everyone smashed two more swims; a pull and a quality session. Despite the sub-ideal 6-8pm session in the cold and dark, some geniuses on the team had devised a puffer-towel transportation system to ensure everyone stayed as warm as possible during the quality set.
Saturday morning was the OUSC mini-golf championship. A tough competition, with many of the team proving why they are swimmers and not golfers, saw Zoe be crowned the OUSC Mini-Golf Champion, with Louisa and Miles in second and third place respectively.
After the morning of fun, the team smashed their final session in the gym before heading to the pool for yet another swim.
Sunday not only saw the last two sessions of camp, but also Sophie’s 22nd Birthday! The week of swimming ended with a test set in the sun, followed by the annual Chop-100 Challenge.
To celebrate all the hard work of the week, the team headed to Jester’s Karaoke Bar, for a bit more team bonding, only to be followed there by the Cambridge Team. Everyone had a great evening of friendly banter before heading back to the UK on Monday to get straight back into term and final preparations for the big shoeing happening in just under 7 weeks time.
The team are all back from the wonderful week of training and brought back a hardy mentality for an annual shoeing, some solid tans, a lot of massive gains, a few more words in their Spanish vocabulary, and a successful hat swap with the Spanish National Team (and one not-so-successful attempt from Matty).
