My cycling club is beginning to plan a 1-2 week training camp for the upcoming winter. We are in no way pros, but we take our training seriously and are looking for a way to get a jump on our annual training and build some more comradery within the team through a camp.

I was hoping you all could help me out with advice regarding a full 7 day week of training for the camp. Should I just rip some 4-5 hour workouts from the Hunter/Allen book every other day with easier days in between, or follow a 3/4 day "training block" approach.

Any input, especially from those who have attended a professionally organized camp, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

The training camps i've attended were run by my state institute of sport over two weeks, so they might be a bit different to yours. The first week generally involves about five five hour rides with some spin sessions for recovery thrown in. The second week focuses on intensity with two 2.5hr sessions (one in morning - lunch, sleep - one in the afternoon) these include TT practise, interval training, hill repeats. WARNING: training camps are always run by insane super human morans who take things like dieting and stretching way two seriously. e.g. during 3hr stretching sessions every day, micro analysing the nutritional makeup of everything you eat.

After two weeks you either start to feel pretty tank, or if your like me, your bodies wrecked and you've lost 3kg that you never really thought you had.

Have fun

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Norwood & Adelaide Uni CC

I love our training camps. Winter is completely different than spring. In winter, the focus is on getting in road miles. Rides are 4 or 5 hours of easy pace (like, 150 watt max) for 10 days, followed by a lot of 'beach' or 'poolside' workouts. In spring, it is totally different and is based in a mountain town where the only flat road is 500m leading to mountain roads on either end.

I would recommend the former programme for winter training...

Thanks for the input. It sounds like we will also do one in the Spring for the members unable to attend in Winter, so any input for Spring camps is greatly appreciated as well.

I think we will just focus on the distance in the Winter and alternate easy & hard days in the Spring, focusing on my distance on the easier days.

Our weather is like yours, only a lot colder. You can do Interval work etc. on the trainer or on the MTB in the snow at home. When you spend that kind of money and effort to travel to a warm climate, you should focus your attention on those aspects of your training programme that cannot be easily replicated in any other fashion. Accordingly, I tend to put miles on when at these types of camps.

In the spring, you should be in pretty good condition, so climbing becomes a viable option. Again, I stay away from structured Intervals, etc., which can be done at home.

Where are you going?

This is funny, I was gonna start more or less the same thread.

IME, if that is really a training camp, remember that you can rest a lot more than at home, so you can take a lot more training.

My general approach is something hard and focused the first day, when you're fresh, ftp or sweetspot the 2nd and just long the third, with 20 minute blocks at tempo thrown in, alternatively just longer pulls at the front. AR or full rest the next day, and by rest, I mean rest. No running around all over the place, trips with hiking up to a castle or stuff like that.

What I'd really like to hear more about is how you prep for your training camps and what you do afterwards.

I'll be heading south in February/March and am sure I'll do a great job at knocking myself out, but how do I make sure I'm ready for the training and how do I use the extra miles to be in great shape in May/June, not April and not burn out?

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"Nothing compares to the simple pleasures of a bike ride," said John F. Kennedy, a man who had the pleasure of Marilyn Monroe.

We are not necessarily going anywhere outside our normal climate. For the Winter "camp," we will likely just meet up at an area closer to where we all live. It is for this reason that I am asking more about the structure you all have seen in a week long training camp. For the winter camp, we will meet up to train as a team and go our separate ways at the end of each day. However, for the Spring camp, we will all likely head to Northern Michigan where there is much more hills and train, then rest.