Venturing off to warmer climes to join a training camp is an exciting opportunity during the cold and wet of the British spring time. Spending time on a dedicated training camp can help give a real boost to your preparations for the season ahead while offering you the opportunity to enjoy your hobby under a blue sky, on dry tarmac and away from your day to day routine and commitments. It’s an opportunity that needs to be taken advantage of and made the most of, here are my top tips on how you can make the most out of your training camp;

-Pack well: Ensure you are thorough with your packing to ensure you turn up on day one with everything you need in full working order. Don’t lose a day on camp through poor preparation and faulty kit.

-Arrive fresh and relaxed: Reduce your training load ahead of your first day on camp, you will almost certainly be completing an increased training load above that of your normal training week so don’t turn up carrying high levels of fatigue.

-Build into your camp: Be patient and don’t try and race your way through the first part of the week, it’s a long week and balance is required to ensure you don’t burn out and lose training opportunities in the second half of the camp.

-Recovery is key: Motivation will be high to train, train and train so ensure your support this with adequate rest. You are away from your normal routine which often gives greater opportunity for down time so make the most of it and allow yourself the luxury of recovering like a pro.

-Nutrition: An increase in training volume is going to place a real importance on making sure you are consuming enough calories to fuel your activities. This will place importance on standard meal times but also consuming calories during your activities. As well as adequate fuel intake make sure you are increasing your consumption of Iron and Vitamin C as these are key for recovery as well as being pivotal for aerobic energy production. (Iron transports oxygen within your body and Vit C increases iron absorption as well as bolstering your immune system).

-Hydration: Depending on your location the sun may be high in the sky so increasing your fluid intake will be important, as well as water ensure an increased level of electrolytes. This can come from supplementing your diet or from natural sources. With the increased down time and temperature, you may also be tempted by the beach bar so keep in mind that alcohol consumption can lead to dehydration so keep everything in moderation and never drink alcohol ahead of training sessions.

-Sun safety: The sun provides us with Vitamin D which is essential to our health but do ensure you cover up and apply appropriate sun protection while you are out training or relaxing by the pool. Being out in the sun can also lead to dehydration so be sensible and ensure you don’t lose any training time due to baking yourself in the sun and getting sun burn or sun stroke.

-Post camp recovery: Schedule a lower volume training week post training camp to optimise your recovery and adaptation from your training efforts. Its very tempting to push on from your camp which may push you over the edge towards over training. This in turn could lead to missing training time due to illness and heavy fatigue levels, losing / reducing any gains from your camp.

If you keep these points in mind you will certainly have a fantastic training week and one that will leave you in a much stronger position on your return. Make the most of your camp wherever your location and make sure its value is much higher than just a week away in the sunshine during a cold and damp British spring time.