If you haven’t experienced a mega training day, skills clinic or destination training camp, you might wonder whether the cost and effort are worthwhile investments. Anyone who has done one will probably tell you that it’s beyond worth it! Why? Here are just a dozen reasons why.
- Focused Training for Mental and Physical Fitness – Putting in a long weekend or week at a training camp allows you to focus on yourself and your training without the other stresses of day to day life. Even just this short focused time makes a BIG difference to your fitness and mindset.
- Motivation – It can be hard to start putting in long hours or doing intensity workouts when the triathlon season is months away, but the training you do now forms an important foundation. Going to a later winter training camp, or a focused ‘mega day’ can give you the motivation you need to get up and get going. Training for training camp is real!
- Work Harder – Most athletes will admit to working just a little harder when in a group or coached setting.
- Friendly Competition – No timing chip to record your results, but other athletes to spur you on to push up that hill or hang in for that last interval. That’s an ideal setting for athletes who thrive on being competitive.
- Coached Workouts – When so much of an athlete’s training is done alone, having a coach to provide both a program and feedback on form and performance is invaluable. This is especially true for training camps because over the course of days, you can put their feedback into practice for more feedback.
- Bonus Learning – Training camps and mega training days often build in talks or clinics that go beyond swim/bike/run skills. Core strength, foam rolling, nutrition, and understanding performance metrics are just a few of the bonus lessons.
- Learning From Other Athletes – The wealth of diverse experience and knowledge the other athletes bring with them that can be tapped into during the sessions and rest times shouldn’t be overlooked. Find out about different races and gear, how they solve challenges, and what they have learned from their mistakes. Read our post about this here.
- Total Immersion – What do you get when you put athletes together with athletes? You have the opportunity for constant talk about their sport that isn’t usually tolerated by friends or family who don’t share the same passion. You can revel in that without guilt.
- Social Interaction & Inspiration – There is nothing like the bonding that takes place from grinding up a long hill or completing a tough run with fellow athletes. The social and inspirational aspects can be as rewarding as the training.
- Break In The Routine – Winter blues, spring rains, hours on the trainer, or hitting the pool early so you aren’t late for work can get pretty tiresome, but having a mega day or training camp in the midst of it will give you a huge boost.
- Try Out A Race Course – Training days or camps on the course you’ll be racing helps build confidence because you know you’ve done it once – even if it was one piece at a time.
- Practice Packing – It seems like a small thing, but figuring out what to bring and how to pack it all for a mega day or training camp is a great way to help you feel prepared for the real thing.
As you can see, attending a training camp may seem like an investment in time and money – but what you take out of it is worth a lot and can make a big difference to your fitness and your upcoming race season. CLPT is taking athletes to Clermont at the end of March and to Muskoka in June. Consider joining us! You can find details on both camps here:
https://clperformancetraining.com/services/training-camp/
