Saturday
The inaugural Belpark ‘Freezing Cold Weather Training Camp’ kicked off on a foggy Saturday morning in Phoenix Park with the esteemed Tanja Slater (former ITU triathlete and professional cyclist) at the helm. For many of us, it was our first triathlon training camp so we didn’t quite know what to expect; it all felt a bit serious. It only took Tanja 10 seconds to put us all at ease, insisting if Frank could make it through a week-long camp in Lanzarote, we could all manage a two day camp in Dublin. At the expense of Frank, we scoffed and happily hopped on our bikes to start the day.
The cycling session was focussed on pedalling technique – smooth pedal strokes, quick cadence and putting an appropriate amount of power into the pedals. We practiced group work (nobody fell down) and cornering (nobody fell down). Success. Tanja gave us notes on how to find our optimum cycling power by feel, without the need for expensive gadgets or data overload. Brilliant.
We dropped our bikes, pulled on our runners and moved onto a run technique session. Tanja demonstrated drills to improve our technique, including proper posture and body position, arm swing, forward lean, cadence and overall efficiency. As an aside, this was absolutely hilarious!! I cried laughing as some of our best Belparkers awkwardly hopped, skipped and jumped themselves into an uncoordinated knot. No ballerinas here. With a bit of concentration we mastered the drills and were leaping around like the Von Trapp family in no time. Tanja went on to film our new and improved running techniques. The filming was really useful as it gave us a visual of how we run (usually a terrifying thought, but remember we were the Von Trapps by now) and Tanja gave great advice on where we could make simple improvements.
Next up was a dynamic mobility session which was focussed on improving our flexibility for running. This involved a lot of twisting and turning and showed that we had a lot of work to do in this department! Luckily Tanja was able to modify all the exercises to suit each person so we all got a great session out of it.
After lunch, we moved on to Terenure Swimming Pool for a swim technique session. Tanja is a superb swimming coach. She breaks down the stroke into a number of manageable components and gradually rebuilds the stroke with simple cues. The one-to-one attention she gave each person – even in a group of 15 – was excellent. Many of us left the session with brand new swim strokes. Day one was a huge success.
Sunday
The alarm on Sunday morning was a shock to the system! Coffee in hand we made our way to Templeogue pool for another technique session.
This time the focus was on the arms – after seeing my very strange underwater waving technique on Saturday’s video I knew this was going to be interesting…… Tanja was great, explained every drill and was quick to spot any errors (and there were lots!) that needed to be corrected. Some interesting one arm drills which involved swallowing plenty of water – all part of the fun!
We finished the session with a 100m time trial – I’ve gotten used to the 50m pool in UCD over the last few months so 4 lengths of the 25m pool seemed like a long stretch………… and it didn’t help that with 2 very fast guys in the lanes either side of me I was trailing behind…… Got there in the end though!
After a quick change and some fuel we were on to Memorial Hall for some turbo work. Tanja had suggested an outdoor turbo in Bushy Park, which would definitely have gotten us some strange looks, but the warmth of the hall won out in the end. Although we were overheating and hoping for some cool air soon enough! I got some good suggestions for positioning on the bike and we got some tips on cadence and pedal efficiency. We went through some leg strength drills to mix up the turbo sessions to prevent boredom, and also to torture our legs some more!
Next lunch, cake, coffee, and then on to some core work. Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten so much… That was really testing my core!
Some great exercises for the core and overall body strength, all which can be done at home which is great, now just need to make time to do them…
We finished the day with a review of our run videos from the Saturday morning. It’s always strange to see yourself on film, especially when your technique looks nothing like you thought… Lift those knees!
This was my first Belpark training weekend so I wasn’t sure what to expect in advance. Overall it was a great weekend, no matter what your level of ability. Tanja is very knowledgeable and everyone got individual attention which was fantastic. Highly recommended!
Biggest test of the weekend – not having enough time to get in my usual quantities of food, I like my food!!
Training Camp Itinerary
Saturday
Phoenix Park:
09.00 – 11.00 Group Cycle with technique work & Group work
11.00 – 12.00 Run Technique in Park & Filming
Memorial Hall, Rathfarnham Road
12.30 Dynamic Mobility Exercises for running
Lunch
Terenure Pool
14.45 – 16.15 Swim Technique & Filming
Rathfarnham Club House
16.30 Watch Video’s of Running & Swimming
Talk Open Water Swimming & Awareness
Sunday
Templeogue Pool
09.00 – 11.00 Technique & Paced / Relays Session
Memorial Hall, Rathfarnham Road & Bushy Park
12.00 – 13.30 Transition Session then Bike / Run Session
Lunch
14.30 – 16.30 Conditioning & Stretching
Talk on Smart Training, Skills, Timelines, Race Goals and Q&A’s