Coach Carter

“The Majorca Challenge” – no, I am NOT referring to the annual 5 day event raced in early February on the ‘sunny’ island. It is more a description of running a training camp with a group of riders at varying fitness, varying needs and varying health!

Dan and I greeted the 13 riders on this year’s camp at Palma on Saturday in temperatures of 19 degrees, and with clear blue skies. We had already enjoyed two nice rides having arrived on the Thursday to prepare the way: one ride taking in my favourite climb of Soller with Nic, our French pro rider; and then a ‘dicey’ ride out to Cap Formentor on Saturday morning...possibly my LEAST favourite cycling ride (although this time around I did enjoy it, my fear coming from my first trip to Majorca in 2002!). By Saturday lunchtime, Dan and I were in fine spirits, excited by a week of more sunshine and miles....well, that is what we thought!

Day 1 was great, with most riders heading out to San Salvador, a 5h ride. The first evening the riders were therefore also in fine fettle; by Tuesday even more so as several riders were able to tick off two climbs in the mountains. Even Wednesday, a ride ending in the pouring rain didn’t dampen people’s enthusiasm too much, as it was a quality session with all the riders putting out some impressive powers in the blocks I had set them. The winter’s training had gone well, and we were on track, if not a little ahead. Coach happy, riders happy. However, one person was not so happy: Dan had gone down with a bug by Tuesday night. I have to confess, I thought little of it, just putting it down to Dan’s having ridden hard in the first few days, plus his involvement in helping me set up the camp and each evening’s presentations leaving him susceptible. However, the next morning, a few more riders were complaining of illness, and word spread that others in our hotel were also suffering. I too had gone down with it

By the end of the week, only two riders had escaped: Dani, and Richard (the latter was staying off site nearby). It unfortunately put a cloud over the week. People’s individual training had been impacted, and our ability to schedule rides with specific aims within hampered: planning the rides each day was difficult without knowing who was healthy and how much energy they had in them to ride. I rode with the group on Thursday, riding up the Lluc climb on what was going to be a ‘test’ climb to check in on how everyone’s form was coming along. But as people discovered, a day of not eating due to sickness coupled with some previous hard riding is NOT ideal for keeping muscle glycogen stores topped up. Everyone, including myself, noted how as soon as they went above their lactate threshold power (top end of zone 2), there was ‘nothing in the legs’ and they had to back off. Thankfully, the bug was fairly transient, getting through people’s systems in a day.

The plans we went to Majorca with also had to be adapted because of two more factors out of our direct control: the Tour of Majorca pro race  I mentioned earlier, and the weather! After a winter of poor weather, Dan and I had deliberately planned a week with more volume in this week – a way of counteracting the predominance of turbo riding, and introducing some mental freshness to everyone. On the Friday evening of our first full day, we were just double checking route plans against the weather forecast – it was during that internet searching that we came across the final details of the Tour: every single day, their race route crossed our ride route...damn it, we would have to go back to the drawing board! As the week unfolded, it became clear that the best of the weather was to have been early in the week, so at least we got a few climbs in early on. Our ‘Mountain ride’ on the second Friday was scuppered though, riders having to turn back at the Orient due to icy roads. The whole of Europe has really suffered this year. The only way we could console ourselves was knowing it was some 10 degrees colder back home, and reports of 3 inches of snow in Eastbourne!

It is difficult not to look back on the week without a tinge of disappointment. When you run these camps, you want to give everyone a week to remember. It is an athlete’s one chance a year to live like a full time pro, and this time around, that was compromised – not entirely, but the edge was taken off. But, as Dan and I drove back to Palma airport, we knew all we could do was try to reflect and learn, and to adapt things for next year. We all have to prepared to adapt – we might go in with expectations of what is to come, but times like this deliver a lesson.

In so many ways the week WAS a success. On the final evening, our end of camp meal at Tollo’s, it was great to see a table full of smiling faces: a group of people sharing a common link of being a PBscience athlete. Many had not met before the camp, but in the 20 hours or so of riding had become friends. For me as coach, I was extremely pleased with the power data I was seeing across the board. Despite the poor winter, the riders have all laid some great foundational work – two or three riders are already putting out more power now than in the race season of last year...and that is VERY exciting for me. Furthermore, in each rider “1-2-1” chat I had, engaging with each of the riders was very fulfilling – feedback on how they felt their form coming on, and thoughts on work needed before the race season kicks off in earnest. I’ve returned home with a lot of ‘homework’ but I am excited to be putting the icing on the cake of each rider’s fitness now.

Dan and I will be de-briefing the camp in full this week. We already have some exciting ideas for 2011 Spring camp, and some we might even be able to introduce this year in the autumn camp. As they say ‘live and learn’....adapt and become better for it.