The Happy Camper

Instead of heading to Florida, this year I went to Gran Canaria where I had been last November as I was preparing for Ironman Cozumel.  The rugged terrain of never ending mountains gives great possibilities to train effectively and warm weather is a welcome change to Finland’s cold winter climate. 

While at home I generally train alone and this has been very effective for me but it can also be beneficial to train with a strong group at training camp.  This year I asked a few guys I am coaching to come along with me and share in the camp.  Coaching is something that has happened naturally over the past few years as I gain more experience myself, I want to share my knowledge and help guide others.  This camp was a great opportunity share with my athletes.

This was the first camp where I was training side by side with the athletes I coach and it was not only very effective training for myself, it really gave me a chance to learn my athletes better.  For example, I learned my own mixed nationality sense of humor combines well with the guys’ cool Finnish wittiness.  After a few days we all realized that core workouts would not be needed at this camp because we had been laughing non-stop.  This was maybe also due to my insistence that we watch Team America on the first night, which gave plenty of material for ridiculous man humor the rest of the trip. 

All joking aside, the camp was a massive success for all of us.  Each person had different needs with different upcoming goals in their seasons but we managed to work together each day to push each other and gain the real benefits of group training.  For myself the camp was my opportunity to transition from aerobic base training into building higher-level race fitness.  My first race is only a few weeks away now so the timing could not have been better.  I am satisfied where my fitness is now and I am excited to continue building for my upcoming race calendar.  I am also very excited to see how my coached athletes will use their hard work they accumulated over the winter and training camp with their own individual goals!  It will be an exciting next few months!