Thursday, February 26, 2009

OCA camp thoughts

Well, I recently returned from the OCA training camp based out of Seneca SC. Although this wasn't my first time that I've gone south to get a week of good training in, it was the first time I did it in a structured group based format. This definitely opened my eyes to the emphasis that roadies put on doing large volume, and low intensity. I have been used to training such that every minute tries to get the most training benefit possible. This is mainly since I don't have that much time to train, and I want to get the most out of every minute spent on the trainer.

It took a few days for the shift to occur mentally. I usually just want to hammer all the time, riding tempo, upper endurance, or threshold ranges most of the time. At the camp, we did some massive mileage, and most of it was done at sub endurance, or just hovering around endurance pace. I'm still not convinced that this type of training is as effective as some people lead me to believe, mainly because the group typically has such massive variations in rider strength, that while one person is getting good fatigue, others are going too easy.

Looking on the bright side, although the volume was huge, due to the low intensity, I should be able to get a good boost in efficiency, and not have to take a recovery week after the camp.
Always climbing up, getting fitter, and hurting the same amount... life is good :)

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