I’m planning my own “training Camp”, I am trying to decide on the best structure for this, any advice would be welcome.
Some details about me and my Goals.
Illness over Christmas/New year 3 weeks off the bike. Basically started from Scratch 20th Jan.
Training for Season long Road racing league (April-August), but looking to peak at the end of June.
Due to having a new born (Second child) my training time has been reduced. I am going through the low volume plans. Plus about 6 hours of Zone 1/2 a week (Commuting and short weekend ride)
Very few rides will be over 1.5 hours
I have a space and permission from the Mrs to do a Training camp from home i’m planning on doing this 22-27 March, taking a week off work. I will be based in my own house but not working (And probebly sleeping in a diffrent room to the baby).
First race is 8 days after the end of this (I’m content i won’t be flying at this point) then there will be another 9 races spread out through the season up to August.
I’m not sure weather I should use this time to simply Do as much Zone2 as i can handle as I don’t have time for long rides most of the rest of the year. Of if I should be including Intervals within these longer rides (And reducing the volume) as I am getting very close to the season at this point.
Feel free to ask more questions, if i have missed anything important here, I want to try and get the most from this week.
I’d use the time to do a lot of long aerobic rides. With the low volume plans, you get a lot of intensity during the week, but, as you said, your time on the bike is limited, so I would use this chance to bank some long rides.
Not sure if that’s a good equivalent, but looking at some of the pro cx riders over the winter, they don’t get a chance to do much training during the season because of the amount of racing. Most of them instead put mini training camps in somewhere warm and do long rides, exactly to build a bit more endurance.
Can i bump this thread as well, for i am looking for advice for almost exactly the same ( same situation as well with second kid ). How did you go about it @hollandgdavid
Although i dont have a race series coming up, i will try as well to be fit end june for an A race.
Any advice for a home “training” camp is well appricated.
Couple of things. Try to be somewhat fit before you do it. A couple of months of consistent training before hand
.
Focus on easy volume as that’s what you are missing. Maybe something like a week of the low volume plan +10-15 hours of zone 1-2 (depending on how much your doing currently).
Last year I did the same thing but only took half days off work, I have a sedentary job and it’s actually more restful to get 3-4 hours ride in the Morning then Go to work than to go home to the family.
Plan your food, you need to eat a lot.
Plan your rest week the week after as that can be challenging with a family too.
I came back from a trainingcamp this sunday.
I had the luck to go somewhere away from home.
Out of 7 days, i rode for 6 (3 days riding, 1 day rest, 3 days riding)
I did as much endurance riding as i could always keeping a little bit in reserve.
day 1: 5 hours
day 2: 2 hrs
day 3: 5 hrs
day 4: 2 hours walk in the mountains, because i love it, not exactly recovery
day 5: 4.5 hrs
day 6: 2,5 hrs
day 7: 3 hrs
After each ride i had one job, recover. That means getting off your feet and resting, eating A LOT. I made pancakes as my recovery meal each day. Had a soda right as i got back. Get those energy stores topped back up. Training camp is not a place to loose weight, not if you plan on doing big days. I still lost a little bit of weight though.
I was in a mountainous terrain, and not exactly in my best shape, so my average speed was very low. but that is a good thing, i wanted as much volume as possible. Out of all those rides, only on the last day did i do a 48 minute time trail at threshold to try to set a PR on a climb. All the rest was just easy pace.
The rest of the year i’ll be, as many people, time limited, so doing that much volume is not sustainable. The training camp was as much about doing long endurance riding as it was about just being on my bike seeing beautiful scenery and interesting places in a different area than at home. And unlike the rest of the year, i had a beer at dinner.
If i had to have done this at home, doing the recovery would have been difficult, because you are at home, with family and family things. So then i would have done a bit less volume.