Vilamoura training camp 2025
By Barry Murray. Hi, I’m Barry and I joined T3 in January 2024 with my friend Ger who wanted to complete a triathlon as one of those items on his ‘bucket’ list – I was his support blanket! For us both, swimming 1.5km was the hurdle we both felt we needed some help with and so decided to join a triathlon club to help get us on the road. T3 was the nearest to us geographically, and Maria signed us up with her ever-warm smile and we started those tough 6.30am sessions in UCD with Will putting us through our paces. We were the one’s holding up the swimmers in the ‘less fast’ lane. As we were approaching race season, although Ger is a very strong cyclist, it was becoming clear that Ger’s knee wasn’t up to the running end of the triathlon and so unfortunately, he decided to hang up his runners and ultimately his T3 membership.
For me, I decided to soldier on ‘buddy less’, as I was ‘enjoying’ the challenge of the swimming and could see some improvements in my form. I signed up for the Sprint in Athy and on the day met Elenor, Fiona and Ariana from the club. Speaking for myself, I possibly only recognised the others as we all invested in the distinctive and brilliant T3 gear! It was really nice having a few people at the event that you could chat to before and after the race, compare notes and moan about how awful but necessary the gels were!
That long introduction was necessary for me to explain why I signed up for the Warm Weather Training Camp when the notification came through at the end of 2024. I was keen to get to know members in T3 and also push my training along. For anyone who attends Will’s swim training, you will know that there isn’t much chance for chatting when catching your breath is your number one priority. So, I signed up for the T3 Trip without really knowing what was in store from a training perspective, but hopeful that I’d meet and get to know better, some of the T3 crew.
Roll on late March 2025 and instructions come through the Villamoura ’25 WhatsApp Group (27 members) on the key items to pack. I realised on the Friday night before travel, that when I put in all the swim gear, including flippers, snorkel, pool buoy etc, that some other ‘essentials’ had to go to keep my bag below the 10kg level. Then up Saturday at 3.45am to get to the Airport for a 6.20am Ryanair flight to Faro, Portugal. Got to the Airport good and early but didn’t recognise any of the passengers waiting to board, nor did I see any bike helmets hanging off backpacks, so started to wonder had I booked the right flight! I hop on the plane still wondering and very relieved to see Sean walking down the aisle to take his seat – phew!
We arrived in Faro and all the travelling T3ers appeared at the baggage carousel, some I recognised, most I didn’t. We hopped on a bus for a short journey to Tiago’s ‘Endurance Lab’ school in Villamoura, where introductions are made and healthy and hearty lasagne was served up as fuel for Day 1, along with Isotonic drinks, gels etc etc. I think it fair to say, with the early morning flight, we were all knackered as we started into Day 1 of the training camp, but spirits were high!
I won’t describe each day, but just to say, each was filled with activity, with the bike rides being the mainstay of activities with swimming and running built in around the cycle trips. It was all done really well. There was a cycle group for every ability in terms of pace and on day two, there were two distances offered, a 70km or 100km. We only realised at the end of day two that some participants opted for the 140km version – although that may have been due to some dodgy navigating rather than choice! We had the excitement of on the road puncture repairs, where we had offers of help from other cyclists seeing us stuck. Thankfully, we avoided the offer of a car ride back to Villamoura – but it was a close run thing!
Over the four days we were well looked after in the four-star hotel which was just over 5 minutes’ walk from Tiago’s school. A super location which allowed for a 2-minute stroll to the Ocean for a refreshing end of day dip or morning wake up call! The facilities on offer overall were really good with the local municipal pool booked for our swim sessions. Again, these were excellent, a combination of a regular session one day, a tough session another day and a really interesting technical swim assessment on the last day, when the body batteries were low, but we could still absorb some learning. We also had a few run sessions, again a good mix of 10km endurance and more technical sessions on the local running track over the course of the 4 days.
So how did it all go? Between chatting on bike rides (when not going up hills!), stopping for coffee and/or lunch and catching up over breakfast, dinner, or walking to or from the other activities, I achieved one of my main goals of getting to know some of the T3ers much better. A really welcoming group with some great craic over the four days. This trip was a great way of getting to know T3 members better and for me to feel more integrated into the club. I also learned that I was way over packed with my 10kg bag with Tim winning the ‘lightest traveller’ award, which Fiona is determined to take off him next time around!
My second main goal of moving my training preparation along for the season ahead was also nailed – at least I’m hoping so. I managed to complete all the activities over the 4 days, just about. I think I’ll be known as ‘Sleeping Beauty’ as I was typically first heading to bed for the evening, and it was day 3 before I had my first beer. That was due to exhaustion rather than lack of thirst! However, I made it through each day with plenty of encouragement and support from the rest of the team.
So in a short, a highly enjoyable trip with a great bunch helping us to get, ‘season ready’. For next year, I’d thoroughly recommend for anyone thinking, – should I?