Family Training Camps
Tried something different the past two weeks. My wife and I took our two youngest kids to Italy for a bike vacation.
We learned a few things that might help you, even if you don’t have kids.
Clip-On Pedals & Recreational Riders
If you’re new to cycling then don’t try to learn clip-in pedals on vacation. You’ll have enough going on without adding a new skill.
We kept the kids on flat pedals. Our son (13) has been pushing for clip-ons but we are keeping him on flats until we notice he’s become road safe.
Who’s Qualified To Teach?
When I ran a triathlon camp business, we learned we should guide athletes who were “one level down” from the coach’s fitness, and skill, level.
It’s the same with kids and cycling. If you’re feeling stretched then you will not have the ability to teach.
Worry reduces our skill level.
How Much Volume?
Our hotel offered daily, guided rides at all different ability levels. My son rode 5x in 11 days. I’d place that at the high-end for a kid (or adult) who doesn’t ride a lot at home.
When riding with the guide, my role was to sit on my son’s wheel and act like his second brain. He had near-zero experience with roads, roundabouts, groups, hand signals and traffic. He was on a steep learning curve and it went well for him. Our last ride was the two of us riding alone, 40km through countryside.
For a fit kid, 40 km/25 miles with 500 meters/1650 feet of climbing is plenty. The kid can hit the climbs as they feel and finish up feeling like they have achieved something. On the rides where we went longer, I could see his attention and co-ordination fading after two hours.
Our son figured it out.
Our daughter, about a year younger, didn’t.
She switched to a “swim camp” after the first day. Daily swimming is our typical summer program, so she was in her normal routine, only in Italy. She loved Italy (but not road cycling).
Optimize For The Kids’ Experience
I’ve written about this previously:
My son didn’t want to miss any ride opportunities (with me) and our daughter didn’t want to be left alone… so my wife shelved her riding ambitions.
Similarly, he really needed me as his second brain so I shelved my ideas for a “big week” to ride with him. I was amazed to discover this worked.
My rides with him saw average heart rates under 90 bpm.
5 kid-rides totaling 16 hours of ultra-low heart rate training.
I feel like this helped me adjust to the time zone (+8 hours from home), and speed my recovery. I kept my running and swimming going, at a lower level than back home.
For “my rides,” I did three:
4-hour Ride with Tempo,
10-hour Endurance ride
9-hour Endurance Ride with a Tempo climb towards the end.
Intensity profile of the rides:
The Tempo Rides saw a max heart rate of 15 beats below max.
The Endurance Ride saw a max heart rate of 25 beats below max.
All rides saw an average of 50 beats below max.
By moderating intensity, I recovered well and wasn’t wasted on the days I was with my family.
A Change In Mindset
Historically, I can be a nut on training camps.
Big Volume
Random Racing
Lots of Hard & Very Hard efforts
While we would tell the campers to take-it-easy (see Justin’s recent article), we didn’t set the best of examples with our own approach.
Having the constraint of family worked in a way I didn’t expect.
As you can read in my interview with John, elites have the ability to recover while training. In their case, it’s Zone 1 training.
Riding with my son showed me I have the ability to recover while training, too. In my case, it’s “Zone 0” cycling.
I’m going to experiment with including more “kid rides” in my program. Good for both of us as it enables me to continue to teach him bike skills.
So what did my “don’t be a nut” training camp end up looking like?
1 Strength
7 Swims
7 Runs
8 Bikes
11 Days, 52 hours of training
Kinda of a lot when you add it all up.
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