How much cycling should I do before attending a Triathlon Training Camp?
For many athletes attending a triathlon, or any training camp which includes cycling, there is often a question of how much cycling they need to do to survive the training camp schedule. This article explores how much training an athlete needs before turning up for a week of cycling.
Firstly, recognising a training camp is supposed to be exactly that: training. This does not mean it is a race or event where you must peak your fitness levels but something that will help get you fitter! Nevertheless, being prepared to maximise your training time on the camp and get the most out of the sessions is worthwhile. For many people, attending a training camp earlier in the year is a way of riding in warmer, nicer conditions than at home. As a result, many training camps have a significant amount of cycle training. At first glance, the schedule can be quite daunting. So, how do you prepare to do so much cycling?
For many new athletes to this sport, there are three body areas that they should consider preparing before attending the training camp. The most obvious one is their saddle. Can they at least sit on the bike for a prolonged period without getting sore? Most riders can improve this by riding their bike more frequently. We can get away with this by increasing the number of consecutive days on the bike. For example, they ride for five days in a row but don’t need to do significantly long training rides. Just jumping on a bike for a few days successively will help them prepare themselves down there. Sometimes, less time in one go is more helpful.
This will also help them with the second area that needs to be addressed: their neck and shoulders. However, if their neck and shoulders are hurting and they have a painful saddle, it is usually a pretty good indication that they should invest in a proper bike fit. If they haven’t had a professional bike fit, doing so before a training camp would be an excellent idea. An improper bike fit is the easiest way to pick up a cycling injury, especially if there is a sudden increase in training volume (also known as a camp!).
Finally, the areas most people think will be the issue, but often, is not as bad as people believe: their legs. The limiting factor is not usually the athlete’s legs. We recommend being able to train for several hours at a time to enable “strong enough” legs for rides. For most athletes, a training ride on a training camp would likely be between 2 to 6 hours. Therefore, athletes should try shooting for the middle and be able to ride for between two and four hours in one go. If they can do this once before their training camp, they will feel more confident about areas like nutrition, saddle, comfort, neck and shoulder comfort, and generally, it will improve their fitness, too. On our camps, even our longest ride is punctuated by a cafe stop every 1.5-2.5 hours to ensure everyone has time to fill water bottles and go to the loo; being able to ride for 2 hours non-stop means you just set yourself several mini goals of 2-hour blocks for longer rides and you will be surprised how well you do.
Finally, we remind athletes that the training camp is not an event or a race; they should treat it as part of their preparations for the season. Therefore, if they can only do a few shorter rides through the week to get used to the saddle and have a good fitness level, they will still be absolutely fine on a training camp because they can always slow down! They don’t need to go crazy fast all day long! Pacing themselves will undoubtedly yield better results in the long term.
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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