How to Make the Most of Your First Triathlon Training Camp Experience
Now you are all signed up for your first training camp, you may feel slightly nervous, but there are some top tips to make the most of the experience and use the camp to propel your fitness for the season and in the larger landscape of your athletic development. This article covers how to make the most of this first training camp experience, and though it is aimed at first-timers, there are some valuable points for all athletes attending a camp!
Set specific goals and objectives for the camp.
Training camps should be part of the training plan programme. You should ask yourself, “What is the purpose of the camp?” It may be something really obvious – increase general fitness and spend time on the bike, or more psychological about breaking barriers or technique. A camp is an excellent chance to work with a coach on a specific area for a prolonged period. Technical gains are best made earlier in the season, whereas big sessions are better suited to a long-distance athlete if it is nearer their race season. As you can tell, camps can follow very different aims for very different athletes. So be clear about what it is you will try and achieve. If it is your first training camp, you will likely want a combination of the above: fitness, technique, confidence and fun! In which case, your goal or objective for the camp may be something a little less tangible, like: “Turn up and try everything”. More experienced athletes may have a specific impact they want to achieve on a camp, but that is okay! Let them! Our camps occur over various times in the season and, as a result, have a natural flow based on what most athletes need to do. However, to demonstrate the complexity of setting camp objectives: we must plan for several different athlete needs. So when setting your own goals, feel free to speak to a coach about them, or as we mentioned above, go in with an open mind and try and learn!
Communication leads to Personalisation.
Given that every athlete out on a camp will have different needs, it is valuable to make sure you get your needs heard. Our camps run a set framework, and we fill the blanks in based on the athletes. This means that every athlete follows a similar schedule but rarely the same plan, as every session is unique. The more you communicate your aims and goals for the season and how you are feeling each day, the more likely they will be able to tweak sessions to ensure optimum training dosage. Recognising that what is set on Day 1 is expected to be different from what is completed at the end of the camp is a valuable perspective for someone coming to the first camp. Yes, there is a training programme, but you may respond differently (better or worse) than expected from a training load so that you may
do more or less. Additionally, you may want to spend a little longer working on a critical area of technique with the coaching team around you. Working on this area makes more sense rather than rushing back into more challenging sessions. This can work for different ability levels of athletes. A more experienced athlete may initially feel frustrated if held back to work more on technique, whereas an athlete on their first training camp may need a little nudge to help them believe that they can stay with a faster group on a ride! The bottom line is to talk to the coaching staff, communicate how you are feeling, and work out what they are thinking. You will be surprised at how you end up doing.
Embrace the opportunity to learn.
Training camps can be really humbling. Given that triathletes are rarely good at all three sports, there are often chances to train with others and get something out of each experience. For example, the best cyclist may have much to learn in the pool! As a result, triathlon camps, more than single discipline camps, create an incredible learning environment. With our coach-led camps (where coaching is at the very heart of how the camps operate), athletes find themselves under the watchful eye of a coach at almost every pedal stroke, step or swimming stroke. This can have a positive effect on athletes. However, this is based on the athlete’s attitude to learning. For your first camp, or indeed if you are going to one of our camps for the first time, ensure you are in the right mindset to receive feedback.
Coaching staff are there to help you grow and also make the best decisions for you. This may mean a gentle nudge to have a go or a wise word to hold you back; either way, it requires trust and a willingness to learn. Again, communicate your feelings to the coaching team and recognise that you aren’t there to demonstrate how great you are at something; this is not a performance assessment or pathway trials. As soon as athletes realise that coaches aren’t there to judge them but are there to observe and help them improve, they quickly get significantly more out of the camp experience. They take a fantastic opportunity to learn from experienced coaches and make a considerable step change to their development as an athlete. However, as the saying goes, “When the pupil is ready, the teacher will appear”. The athlete must be ready for coaching to be effective.
Manage fatigue
By its very nature, a training camp will likely have more training than you are used to. This is part of it. In the beginning, the schedule may look like a lot, but it is balanced by the fact that training camps allow a focus on the components of training, including
recovery and fuelling. Therefore, with this increase in training in the schedule, take every opportunity to fuel and recover better as well. As the week progresses, you are likely to feel more tired. However, if managed properly, you should find you can still do a lot more than you realised. Nevertheless, you should always try and communicate with your coaching team about how you feel. As we mentioned, this enables an excellent opportunity to learn, but it also gives you a chance for the coach to make more informed decisions about things you should say. For example, if you tell a coach early on about any niggles or bits that feel a bit odd, there are ample opportunities to adapt a training session to enable you to get the most out of training but not exacerbate any niggles and create an injury. This only works if you communicate your feelings to the coaching team! So, it is a team effort, but it begins with you being aware of what you feel in each session and each day.
Finally, after the camp, it is easy for athletes to feel super strong and empowered – we want that – however, you will need a week or two off to really recover from the training and see the real fitness gains coming through, so you shouldn’t push that point at all. Try to recover after the camp before pushing hard again; then, you will see the real magic of athletic development quickly.
Make new friends
Training camps are amazing opportunities to make new friends or consolidate old friendships. Tough times help people gel, and there will be some tough times on a camp! However, going through it all with a smile can be very rewarding and help you get to know someone better. This is often a missed positive about a training camp! We regularly see athletes who meet on a training camp end up racing at events around the world together, catching up for training rides at home together, or arranging to come back all together, too. These are powerful friendships, and you should be excited about the ones you will make!
Philip is the founder of Tri Training Harder LLP. He’s a British Triathlon Level 3 coach, and has been coaching for over a decade and is involved with mentoring and developing other coaches.
Philip has have coached athletes to European and World AG wins, elite racing, many Kona qualifications, IRONMAN podiums and AG wins.
Alongside the conventional development through many CPD courses, he has also been fortunate enough to work alongside experts in the fields of Physiotherapy, Strength and Conditioning, Nutrition, Psychology, Biomechanics, Sports Medicine. Putting this knowledge into practice he has worked with thousands of athletes to various degrees, from training camps in Portugal and around Europe, clinics in the UK and online coaching.
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Tri Training Harder are one of the leading Triathlon coaching providers in the UK, using our wealth of experience to unite scientific and technological research with already well-established and successful best practices, to create a formula for triathlon and endurance coaching that works.
The result is an honest, dynamic, yet simple new way of constructing an athlete’s training to allow them to reach their potential.
If you’re planning your next season, just starting out in the sport or are looking for extra guidance at the very top end of the field, we are here to help, and our coaches would be delighted to hear from you. You can contact us via the website, and one of the team will be in touch.