Coach Carter

Another Spring training camp over. Perception of time is a weird thing - once Dan, Pete and I had been there a couple of days, we all felt we'd been there weeks, such is the routine one develops: sort of like 'Groundhog Day'!. And now having been back in the UK for 4 days, already it feels like a distant memory...I think the weather has something to do with that!!

The camp went very well - the weather was not just kind to us, but idyllic. By late morning, the arm and leg warmers were off, and temperatures of late teens were being lapped up by the 11 athletes. A far cry from last year when we had snow on the beach at Port Pollensa! Another contrast was people's 'form' - last year we were hit by a bad food poisoning bug which lowered people's spirits and also their resilience for training. This year could not be a more drastic difference. Pete our chef prepared some adorable meals: and they ensured the troops were performing at amazing levels even in the back end of the week. I was worried for Pete at one point - returning from the big day in the mountains on Day 2, Pete returned to our apartments looking quite lack lustre. I was just getting in to the car with Tony to go off and do the shopping and he asked me for a 'small whiskey'. No problem I thought, he deserved some TLC. When I came back and produced some malt for him, he looked a little confused...as it transpired Tony was right, Pete had actually asked me to buy a 'little whisk' for that night's dinner!! I think this account proves how sunny it was out there, I am a known sufferer of sun stroke :-)

Taking our own chef was part of our new approach to camps - we don't want PBscience camps to be cycling holidays: we want them to be about physical preparation. Pete, Dan and I planned the meals based on nutritional strategies known to augment recovery (ok, one exception was the roasted peach pudding and ice cream dessert, but it was a BIG ride that day and the athletes deserved the reward). It did however have its 'downside'. Compared to other camps, this is probably the most full on that Dan and I have experienced. The planning, the shopping and general logistics that self catered apartments demanded meant even less downtime than usual. By Tuesday, I wondered how I was going to cope through the week. At that point I had to re-assess my own camp goals - and it was the 'me' time that had to go. I still managed my morning meditations (which were a great support), but I had to switch to total work mode and gather my resources by knowing it was full on until the weekend. I think this is the only way forward if we want to put our athletes first and give them the experience they need to maximise their week's training.

All my other camp goals were hit: whilst the initial problems with WiFi made keeping in touch with people back home, I found a rhythm through which I could spend time with everyone on camp and also maintain the file analysis demands with all my 1-2-1 athletes. That was essential to me: before the camp, Dan and I were keen to bring each day's training to life - to feedback on rides the day they were completed in order to make sure the next day's ride was optimised; and that people's overall training plans were kept in mind.

I think the highlight of the week was the time trial up the Lluc climb: what has come to be an annual feature of the PBscience camps. The weather helped (as we knew the TT was safe in the week's plan given the 'scorchio' long range forecast); but also evident was that people are in BRILLIANT shape! Dan and I were really pleased with the numbers we saw across the board. It is nice having an early season benchmark of form, and repeating efforts on the same climb or course is ideal. What was especially encouraging was how the TT data was pleasing as a standalone effort, let alone at the backend of a week containing long rides and ample zone 3 efforts. That made it MY day of the week - I think the athletes would say this was also their favourite day, but because it involved what is fast becoming the second annual tradition: back to Richard and Jillian's for lunch and cake!

I've said this before, the key to a good camp is ensuring people do not empty themselves out and leave all the good work behind in Mallorca. Yes, its important to make the most of the camp, but there is a temptation that 'making the most' of the camp is mis-construed as 'making the most of the time I have to train a lot'! The fantastic weather in some ways made that harder to control. Dan and I were keen not to be overly dictatorial this year, and to let the athletes make more of their own choices on what they needed. This worked well in some cases, and not so well in others. I am noticing in this week's training who made beneficial choices, and who has pushed themselves a little too much. I am a great believer in the "choice - consequence" model. Going hard on camp means being able to go less hard when one returns. Those who left Mallorca with a little in the tank are now hitting the ground running. It doesn't necessarily mean one approach is better than the other - chances are the two will converge in a few weeks time. But, it does require reflection and honesty. It also means we cannot look at others and compare our workload - we may have operated at different levels of our tank last week, and we are now needing to balance that up slightly differently.

The people who will come out of a camp stronger are those that used camp life to focus on the two other aspects of what I call the 'performance triad'. Yes, training is important: but one thing that the extra time open to us can ensure is that we look more at recovery and nutrition. The athletes that were big in to 'self care' will be the ones that bounce back stronger. Take ride nutrition: there was a wide range in approaches to how rides were fuelled. Even with 'perfect' feeding, a 6h ride will abolish the muscle glycogen stores and make training the next day a challenge. The body takes at least 24h to replenish muscle stores of carbohydrate after a normal ride. Add in some zone 3 work, increase the length of the ride - and suddenly we are talking more like 48h. If we take the muscle glycogen stored to be like a battery, camps mean over a week we are going to gradually discharge: a cycle of emptying, 80% re-charging etc until camp end, levels are low. And, what happens when glycogen levels are low? Our immune system is compromised and we are going to take longer to recover.

The hardest thing about being a coach is sometimes standing back and watching people make the same mistakes over and over again: riding too hard, riding too long, not drinking enough, not eating enough, eating the wrong kind of foods, not stretching. It can be very disheartening: but one has to let people learn these lessons - in their own time. I have learnt that no amount of instructions speeds people up - even in athletic terms, there is no putting a wise head on young shoulders.

I don't want to sound too negative, as indeed the camp was very successful: and the majority of people have come back looking strong. And, those who did dig a little too deep in to the reserves will soon bounce back: it just needs self awareness and some patience. I'm watching everyone very carefully. The same is true for those people not able to come on camp - whilst away, it was hard knowing that two of my athletes are coping with injuries, and one had a bad cold before attending their next camp with his team in Italy. Even though we were in contact daily, somehow the miles across Europe made the feelings of helplessness hard to deal with.

We're moving in to a 'critical' phase now - transfering base endurance to race performance. Dan and I sat down and gave thought to our forthcoming workshop yesterday - and its going to be well received given the conversations I had with people in Mallorca. The TT up LLuc gave us reason to be optimistic: now we have to capitalise that and transfer endurance to speed on the road. The season is not far away now!