Training camps are great. The sun, the roads, and the like-minded company inevitably make for a brilliant time, and it is no wonder why athletes from all over flock to the warmer climes for their endorphin fuelled endurance fix year on year. But what if I were to tell you that your week away could not only end up being your yearly highlight, but could also be the catalyst that enables you to set that shiny new PB?
Skill Enhancement
When it comes to endurance sport, a lot is made of your engine. Quite rightly too, as it is often the most consistent predictor of how well you are going to perform in a given race. However, a triathlon isn’t a competition of who has the biggest FTP; it is about getting from the start line to the finish line as quickly as possible.
What I’m getting at is that in the sport of triathlon, there are a variety of skills that you should have stored in your arsenal, all of which can often be honed more sharply than most realise. These will then make you more efficient, getting you from A to B faster come race day without you necessarily being any fitter. With the help of a group of in person coaches over a short but focused period, it is very possible to make significant progress in just a week-long camp.
The first clear gain can come from improvements in your swim technique- only so much can be done remotely on this front, and nothing replaces having a coach on poolside giving direct feedback on your stroke to keep you accountable and aware of the mistakes you might be making. Efficiency is everything when it comes to swimming, and having a focused period to iron out bad habits will often result in significant jumps in swim speed, with the repeated day on day feedback helping drill in correct form.
Whilst on the topic of swimming, another benefit of a warm weather camp is the opportunity to get in the open water. Taking the chance to get comfortable swimming on feet or hips, as well as leaning how to sight properly will set you up nicely to get the most out of the swim portion of your races later in the year.
Triathletes get a bad rep in the cycling world for having tragic bike handling skills, and unfortunately there are many of us that do live up to that unwanted reputation. Camp is the perfect time to practice those skills, with the coaches there to offer technical tips, and the excellent road surfaces and long descents providing ample opportunity to improve and to build confidence.
Fitness Boost
A big part of a training camp is of course to get plenty of miles in, that’s a given. However, the benefit of the camp environment doesn’t purely come from the brilliant weather and roads, it also comes from how much more conducive to recovery it is relative to your usual surroundings. There is a long list of factors that negatively impact recovery in most people’s day to day routines: work, family commitments, shopping, cooking, socialising, the list goes on. Coming out on camp gives athletes the rare opportunity to optimise their nutrition, sleep and general recovery protocols to a degree that not only helps them tick off more miles than usual, but also allows them to actually recover and improve from the extra load.
Having coaches present also helps minimise the risk of going out and over-doing it: an increase in volume can be productive, but it is possible to have too much of a good thing, and all too often you do see athletes cooking themselves on the first couple of days and not reaping the full potential benefit of a camp. Coaches who know the athlete and what training they have completed in preparation for the trip will know what can and can’t be handled, ensuring that the athletes get a positive fitness boost rather than them coming home completely drained and/or injured.
Motivation Boost
Although discipline does beat motivation, that’s not to say that the latter isn’t nice to have. Knowing that you have a spring camp coming up can be what drags you up on those cold winter mornings to get to the pool or on the turbo; you want to be fit enough to get the most out of your trip after all! I’m sure the thought of a Sa Colabra Strava segment PB has been a powerful source of motivation for many cyclists and triathletes over the years.
In addition to this, athletes will often come out of the camp in a much better place mentally and physically than when they arrived, leaving them in a great place to push on through the last of the dodgy spring weather and onto their races in the summer.
Mindset Shift:
We all have our social ‘bubbles’ that we live in, and you might be one of the best/most dedicated/most talented athletes within your own bubble; but going on a camp will likely change your perception on this front. It will open your eyes to the fact that although you might lead the lane at your local tri club swim, you aren’t as good a swimmer as you might think you are. Same goes for the bike and run too, new training partners can and will help you shift your mentality on that front, pushing you to improve to a degree that you may not have done had you not been exposed to them.
The same goes for athletes who are new to the sport. They can often be prone to setting caps for themselves in terms of what they feel they are capable of. However, they then come on camp and get to know athletes who are maybe only a year or two further along in their journey than they are but who have made big leaps forwards with their progress. This can truly help these relative newcomers to believe that they too can really come on and improve to a similar degree too, removing that cap and pushing them to heights they wouldn’t have reached otherwise. Believing is achieving!
The ‘Fun Factor’
Freezing cold sessions, endless hours on Zwift and long dreadmill slogs; often the brutal reality for many athletes training through a northern European winter. Understandably, many can and do somewhat lose ‘the love of the sport’ when the conditions are so miserable, and the sessions so much harder than when done in the summer.
A camp can be the spark that re-ignites that love, to help athletes remember why they got hooked on the training in the first place, and subsequently get back home and start training far more than they had been doing prior. Not necessarily just to get fitter for their races, but just because they have re-discovered the joy of getting outside and pushing themselves.
It is impossible to surmise the full experience and benefits of a camp in a 1000-word blog post; however hopefully it has given you enough of a taste to be curious as to what the full meal might be like. We at Optimal Endurance are running a camp in Mallorca this spring, and still have a few spots available; please do reach out if interested, as once the spots are gone, they are gone!
Coach Finn