I have given a lot of thought as to why camps are so good for us age group athletes and why you should consider attending a minimum of one per year if you want to truly breakthrough and reach the goals you have set for yourself in our sport.
I am not so concerned with whose camp you attend, but that you attend one that is a good fit for you. Obviously, I feel pretty partial to what we are doing in the way of camps here at IMJ, so I would hope you would seriously consider coming and spending a week training with us.
For most triathletes, there is a fear factor in training outside our normal habit patterns. Being able to stretch boundaries in a family environment that is not threatening is a great mechanism for growth in the ability to reach new levels in athletic performance. It takes five times longer to correct something learned incorrectly than to teach something correctly the first time, so it is always my hope that my newer athletes will attend a well coached camp sooner rather than later, as proper training habits can be instilled right from the start.
In our camps we work hard to help athletes realize that training is just that- training. It is not racing. A few years ago I had the opportunity to train with Swedish pro triathlete, Clas Bjorling, for 9 straight days. Sitting on the front of the bike pack with Clas for hours each day was hugely instructional. Clas is an inside job and doesn’t say much. In one of our few lengthy conversations, I asked Clas what he thought the difference was between training as a pro and training as an age grouper. His comment was that age groupers tend to race each other in their training; everyday they see if they can beat their training partners. Pros train with each other, as they know that the races are where the truth will come forward. So in our camps, we put a big emphasis on training with each other, not racing each other day to day.
In training camps, we have the ability to get tired the right way and recover daily because we don’t have any other responsibilities except to call home in the evenings to tell family we are alive. I have seen athletes that attend training camps in their local area and return home every night to attend to life’s duties, family responsibilities, etc. I have yet to see someone who has done that get the full benefit of the camp because they are doubly challenged to recover from the overload principled nature of the camp. The ability to travel to a camp and just train, eat and sleep is a powerful combination that optimally sets up an athlete to dramatically improve their fitness. Joe Friel reminds us in his writings that by training twice daily and taking a nap, the dedicated athlete gets four hits of growth hormone daily resulting in higher levels of fitness sooner. If they take that fitness and continue to apply proper protocols that take advantage of that camp experience, significant breakthroughs on race day are the norm and not the exception.
Along with the specific training skills that we try to teach and reinforce daily in our camps, a good training camp will also reinforce the daily living habits that create an environment for the triathlete to get faster each year. Consistency, frequency, along with keeping the majority of your training in the appropriate range of volume, duration and intensity will reap considerable benefits. Continually working on nutrition, sleep, life balance are all areas of focus in our camps. It is our belief that if one is to abandon all other aspects of their life to just live triathlon, there will be a significant personal cost. It can come in ones profession, but unfortunately, it usually comes in the quality of their personal relationships, and when forced to the breaking point, the athlete typically leaves the sport. We try to address this in our camp talks during our time together to reinforce that this magical, wonderful adventure of a multi-sport lifestyle has a cost, and if not careful, the sport can consume the athlete and the athletes’ family can suffer as a result.
Age group athletes, including myself, need to be extremely careful to avoid the inappropriate application of intensity in training. Inappropriate intensity, stacked in the wrong amounts, at the wrong time and at the wrong degree can potentially shipwreck a proper build toward a race. For other than true elites, the ability of the age group triathletes to bounce back from the really hard stuff is not there. A good camp is a great place to learn the proper way to insert training that will continue to boost fitness and optimize that athlete’s protocols to continually improve the speed, endurance and strength required to get faster in our sport, while maintaining balance in their personal and professional lives.
Here at IMJ, our camps incorporate longer runs in the hills at altitude along with moderate duration runs so as to emphasize the difference between steady state vs. tempo efforts. It is critical to an endurance athlete’s success to truly understand the real value in training in that aerobic sweet spot with quickness/tempo stuff being properly applied in short, meaningful doses in lieu of running at inappropriate efforts and suffering an injury as a result.
While other camps focus on mind numbing volume, IMJ camps take a different approach. Our athletes will still experience significant breakthroughs such as learning how to properly execute a 2-3 hour sustained climb, sit in a pack at 22-23 miles per hour for hours at a time without being dropped, as well as become comfortable swimming 5k sessions that include specific speed added in late in the session.
One of the skill sets we emphasize with our newer athletes that attend the camps is on maximizing AeT(Aerobic Endurance Threshold) run pace. Running at threshold paces is good from a pure aerobic power standpoint, but the majority of age groupers need to be able to run steady and strong after 6 or more hours of racing in an ironman or 3 hours into a half ironman. Our camps are dialed into building that skill by teaching the athlete that the appropriate run pacing (off a well paced bike effort) optimizes an athlete’s ability to perform late in a race.
Ultimately, we want to teach in our camps that there are no real secrets, but the formula on how one puts all this together to be an impactful and powerful protocol is an art. Training in a camp environment with coaches that are further down the road to optimizing that formula can be a game changer for the athlete still piecing it all together. I say it all the time, but I say it because it is a pillar in the basics of endurance training- it takes patience to build the capacity to absorb, not just endure, the training that is required to truly be a superior endurance athlete, regardless of whether it is ironman, ultra running or long distance swimming.
Obviously, this piece is a primer for attending an IMJ Coaching Camp, but whether you attend my camp, or find another one that suits your fancy, it is my opinion that participating in a well run camp can absolutely set the stage for a season of breakthroughs. There is just no substitute for taking a week of your life and training like the pros. Chris McCormack has said on more than one occasion that the major difference between the top end age group athletes and the pro ranks is a lifestyle that puts the training and recovery into the proper doses at the optimum time, and that the working age grouper is at a distinct disadvantage in that he or she just cannot get the same recovery as the full-time pro. Attending a training camp or two each season is an opportunity to bridge that gap a bit and give you the opportunity to live according to Macca’s equation for success!
Train with joy or not at all!
Feel free to contact us with any questions on future IMJ Coaching Camps.
