In the past 2 weeks, a total of 14 athletes from the Venloop Running Team have been at a training camp in Bad Dürrheim (Southern Germany). A village at 703m altitude where you can train and also recover wonderfully in Therme and Salt baths.
We mainly go to training camp to prepare ourselves well for the upcoming games of the summer season. After a winter in which a broad foundation has been laid, we are taking an extra step here to further broaden the base and become even fitter and stronger. It is a transition period from basic training to competition-specific training. But we also train even more aerobic power by making more km’s at a leisurely pace.
Why go to Bad Dürrheim for training camp?
There are several reasons for this, such as the height at which we are. This is good for producing extra red blood cells and thus getting better oxygen transport to the muscles. In addition, there are hardly any daily worries and we “only” have to be busy training and resting. For extra rest and recovery, they have the above-mentioned, wonderful baths that promote recovery extra. Furthermore, the surroundings are beautifully sloping and the endurance runs can be run fantastically varied. The athletes can also learn and get used to training 2x / day.
Finally, it is wonderful to be on the road together as a team. The togetherness in our team has always been great, but by hanging out together, shopping, cooking, cleaning up, etc. it becomes even stronger. Great for team building.
Enough ingredients to start the competition period strong!!!
Of course, there are also pitfalls at such a training camp, such as:
- Overtraining
- Training too hard
- Taking too little time to acclimatize
Of course we have a good overview of these pitfalls and the training and the training structure are such that the chance of problems is as small as possible.
How was that done and how did it go?
- First of all, by doing very quiet endurance runs in the first days after arrival in order to acclimatize as well as possible. This means that the endurance runs are run 10-15 seconds/km slower than in the Netherlands. We also start with (not too long) endurance runs of 35-50 minutes.
- After a few days we do a1st training on the track. This is a sprint training. You will not be bothered by the height, but you will have an advantage. Because the air is slightly thinner, you have less resistance and you can sprint harder. Good for speed.
- After that, the endurance runs become a bit longer, with the longest being an endurance run of 70-90 minutes. That depends on the individual (what is the athlete used to and how is the load capacity) and the competition distance that is important next summer.
- The intention is not to train too much and still learn to train 2x/day. We do this by doing a short endurance run (20-30 minutes) in the morning and then doing exercises (strength, mobility, technique). This extends the aerobic stimulus without the running load.
- That the athletes train more than at home is evident from the number of km/week they run here. This is up to 1.5x higher than in the Netherlands. Yet everyone has only gotten fitter and stronger, despite that amount of km’s. That means the approach, build-up and paces have been good. So we didn’t train a combination of too much and too hard.
- It wasn’t until the end of training camp that the athletes were presented with a hard, very tough workout. The moment they were physically and physiologically ready!!! Mentally, some athletes dreaded this training. This training went extremely well and confirmed that it has been a very positive training camp. They are in good shape to perform strongly in the coming weeks.
The fact that the training camp in Bad Dürrheim is producing results was already evident last Friday in Utrecht. There, a number of athletes achieved huge improvements in their PRs. We also immediately settled at the top of the National rankings. With Noah Holten even as list leader. The season is still long, but this indicates the steps we are taking towards the Dutch top.
Sprinting to the next one!
Trainer Bob
