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Tell me your CrashWeek/Camp Mistakes
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Going to try a crash week for the first time after 5 years in the sport. Been training 14 hours a week pretty consistently, doesn't take much out of me. Could do more but limited by work. No significant limiters, crashing volume for 140.6. Friel says a good starting point is 50% overload which would put me about 21 hrs. I was thinking more around 25 going ballistic on the bike if my rear can handle it. Anybody got any advice, things to avoid, mistakes, crash and burn etc.
Thanks!
Last edited by: TravelingTri: Dec 9, 17 9:39
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Re: Tell me your CrashWeek/Camp Mistakes [TravelingTri] [ In reply to ]
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Eat lots, rest lots, and make it an easy week at work if at all possible. A common mistake is that the overhead of your normal life adds to the workload of your big training week.

Eliot
blog thing - strava thing
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Re: Tell me your CrashWeek/Camp Mistakes [TravelingTri] [ In reply to ]
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TravelingTri wrote:
Going to try a crash week for the first time after 5 years in the sport. Been training 14 hours a week pretty consistently, doesn't take much out of me. Could do more but limited by work. No significant limiters, crashing volume for 140.6. Friel says a good starting point is 50% overload which would put me about 21 hrs. I was thinking more around 25 going ballistic on the bike if my rear can handle it. Anybody got any advice, things to avoid, mistakes, crash and burn etc.
Thanks!

I would say its not so much what you do in the camp week , if you get enough rest and sleep,( apart form doing the classic mistake trying to race/ destroy everybody in the first 2 days of the camp and then falling apart...) but how you deal with the training overload and potential stress on immune system ( especially if you fly back form a warm climate to a cold climmate ) at the end and after the camp.

the biggest issue i see is that people get sick after camps as they dont take that into consideration.
stuff to help there
dont go crazy on last day of camp the last long ride or hte last hammer session ..
the typical get drunk on last day of camp should be avoided at all costs ( well more than a class of wine a day should anyway be avoided at all times )
and go easy for some days after the flight home as flying is just not great for immune system.
and of curse the first question is does it really make sense to fly to a camp or drive for many many hours that is less than 10days in the first place.
avoiding the stress and hassle can go a long way. and yes at the same time change of landscape can be nice.
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Re: Tell me your CrashWeek/Camp Mistakes [TravelingTri] [ In reply to ]
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1. Recovery is key. Sleep lots (and more than that), eat well

2. Keep it Z2, modest Z3. Avoid threshold like the plague

3. Avoid truly massive days. 3hrs - 4hrs / day for one week is MUCH easier than several days at 5 or 6hrs in the week. Ie consistency is key

4. Overload on bike and swim is fine. On the run... beware.

Enjoy
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Re: Tell me your CrashWeek/Camp Mistakes [ejd_mil] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks for the feedback all. Some good points in there and my main takeaway is that I am going to moderate this. Going to stick to 21 hrs and try to learn from it. I am crashing volume only on the bike and swim, definitely only Z1 and Z2. To tell you a bit more it's not a camp I am just going to do this from home, I am on vacation for the whole thing plus the recovery week after so that is good. Kids will be out of school so that will actually free up time for me. I have a framework from a Gordo Byrn book that looks solid with 3 days on day off 3 days on then recovery weekdays, back to the routine for the next weekend long workouts. Should be able to get a solid 8-9 hours a night of sleep, find I can't absorb much more than that, but we will see as the week progresses.... Nutrition after will be a bit tricky but am going to try to have some go to foods already prepared. Lastly, going to avoid the blowout party after the last day. (boo!) I will post how it goes, fingers crossed.
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Re: Tell me your CrashWeek/Camp Mistakes [TravelingTri] [ In reply to ]
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Ask yourself what you want to get out of the crash week. Whilst a big week can be beneficial as others have mentioned it can also derail you if it triggers illness or injury.

Use the extra time to nail key the execution of key sessions, work on technical improvements and a little extra easy volume.

One crash week will make little difference, consistent work week in week out will give more benefit.

if you can cruise through your current training week look at how you can add extra stimulus to promote improvement. There's lots of ways to bake this cake and the best option is going to depend on your strengths and weaknesses.

http://www.tri-monkey.co.uk
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Re: Tell me your CrashWeek/Camp Mistakes [TravelingTri] [ In reply to ]
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I have tried a HUGE training block on 3 separate occasions. All 3 times I was overtrained and I under performed at my target event.

Any benefits seemed to take a year to see. All 3 times I ended up having a really good season (for me) and on one occasion had a breakthrough race in the year that followed.

So for me big training did not benefit in the short term, but did eventually show benefit once I recovered from the fatigue.
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Re: Tell me your CrashWeek/Camp Mistakes [kbd] [ In reply to ]
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if you're going to go big you need to do everything big.
Recover big
Feed big
Mobilize big

I've done 7 day camps the last few years. Big 1500-1600 TSS bike weeks. We typically do a active recovery day half way through just to give the body a slight break. Otherwise days are 300-500TSS.
As prior posts have pointed out not getting sick after is something you need to watch. Your immune system will hate you by the end of these weeks.

It helps to have all your food on-site, minimizes amount of up-time and maximizes recovery time. Have meals prepped and ready and know what you're making each morning and night. I've only done bike camps but I assume the same goes for a tri-camp. Small things become big things quickly. Make sure you're taking care of stretching and mobility work to avoid injury while you're at camp.

Plan out your camp in advance. Know your routes, know your training zones and goals. Once you get there its simply execute.
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Re: Tell me your CrashWeek/Camp Mistakes [RONDAL] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks to everyone above for the advice. Wanted to give an update. Just finished up today. It went pretty well. I wasn't overly tired at any point. Schedule was 6 days of training in a 7 day window with one off day in the middle. Since I did this out of my house with my wife and 3 daughters around I had to mess with things once I got going due to time constraints and one day of inclement weather. Still hit all the sessions but it ended up being 4 days training then a day off (which was converted to a single session 30 minute recovery swim) and then 2 more days. I did 24:05 worth of training with an overall IF of .69. 478km on the bike at 17:00, 13.6km swimming at 4:08 moving time, and 34km running in 2:55.

My big take-aways in no particular order
1) my butt is tougher than I thought. I always train in tri shorts on the bike but for this I went with cycling shorts the whole time. I felt it would give me a better chance and not getting any lovely saddle issues that could derail things, especially with the back to back longer rides.
2) I woke up each day on my own and not with an alarm. This was huge. If I had to get up at 4am to do these sessions I don't know if I could have done it
3) I think I could cautiously add a bit of Z3 work into the next time I try this.
4) This would be a lot more fun in a camp environment with other athletes. Not going to happen with my lifestyle though, c'est la vie.
5) Overall I have a lot more capacity and durability than I thought.

Again, thanks for the tips. It would be great try this one more time before IMTexas but doubtful. Time will tell.
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Re: Tell me your CrashWeek/Camp Mistakes [TravelingTri] [ In reply to ]
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TravelingTri wrote:
Thanks to everyone above for the advice. Wanted to give an update. Just finished up today. It went pretty well. I wasn't overly tired at any point. Schedule was 6 days of training in a 7 day window with one off day in the middle. Since I did this out of my house with my wife and 3 daughters around I had to mess with things once I got going due to time constraints and one day of inclement weather. Still hit all the sessions but it ended up being 4 days training then a day off (which was converted to a single session 30 minute recovery swim) and then 2 more days. I did 24:05 worth of training with an overall IF of .69. 478km on the bike at 17:00, 13.6km swimming at 4:08 moving time, and 34km running in 2:55.

My big take-aways in no particular order
1) my butt is tougher than I thought. I always train in tri shorts on the bike but for this I went with cycling shorts the whole time. I felt it would give me a better chance and not getting any lovely saddle issues that could derail things, especially with the back to back longer rides.
2) I woke up each day on my own and not with an alarm. This was huge. If I had to get up at 4am to do these sessions I don't know if I could have done it
3) I think I could cautiously add a bit of Z3 work into the next time I try this.
4) This would be a lot more fun in a camp environment with other athletes. Not going to happen with my lifestyle though, c'est la vie.
5) Overall I have a lot more capacity and durability than I thought.

Again, thanks for the tips. It would be great try this one more time before IMTexas but doubtful. Time will tell.

Thank you for the update..

Your next update should be to let us know if it helped and if so, how long before you saw any results..

"Good genes are not a requirement, just the obsession to beat ones brains out daily"...the Griz
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Re: Tell me your CrashWeek/Camp Mistakes [TravelingTri] [ In reply to ]
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I'm going to try the same while my kids are on spring break.
Leave running as it normally is. just add a lot of volume on the bike.
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Re: Tell me your CrashWeek/Camp Mistakes [renorider] [ In reply to ]
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renorider wrote:
Eat lots, rest lots, and make it an easy week at work if at all possible. A common mistake is that the overhead of your normal life adds to the workload of your big training week.

Add: don't drink. Stresses the liver and you need the recovery time.
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