5 days that will change the way you think about sports

Every sport – both professional and amateur – requires an infusion. You just need to realize your goal, get used to the contact pedals of a bicycle or run the first 10 kilometers in order to understand: do you need all this? And the more serious and ambitious the goal, the more you will need to get into all the details of the direction you decide to master. Agree that you can run like a skilled runner on the track in a fitness club, but you will never reach your first ten on the race.

In one of our materials I already wrote that together with the readers of “Championship” I will go through this difficult path of preparation for my first triathlon-start and will try to tell as much as possible about all the details of the process. In order to get into the atmosphere of triathlon, in August I joined the Iron Babes By World Class team and went to the first (if you don’t count school) training camp of my life.

Where was it? Rosa Khutor
When was it? August 28-September 3.

You need a training camp even if you are 30 or 60.

Contrary to common misconceptions that only professional athletes can have training camps before competitions, it would be wrong to call our intensive in the mountains something else. Each of the team members received an approximate training schedule in advance. Approximate – because the weather in the mountains is capricious, so there is always a margin of error for unexpected rain/fog and other unforeseen circumstances.

I share with you our training schedule, further I will tell you about each item in detail:

Add to it improvisation in the form of functional warm-ups, light jogging in the morning, early rises and do not think that this program is not difficult at all. Here is the right place for the replica of our coach, inimitable Victoria: “Guys, if anyone has any strength left, I will play volleyball with you personally.”

Test one: a beginner on a road bike.

Before the training camp, I was asked if I knew how to ride a bike. Naturally, I mentally replayed in my head all my city bike rides around Moscow, smiled and answered that “of course I know how to ride a bike”. But trouble came from where it was not expected. Immediately upon arrival at Rosa Khutor we were handed very beautiful, very expensive, very lightweight road bikes. I must admit that I have never ridden on such miracle bikes in my life.

And ahead of me was “Test #2”: all road bikes were equipped with contact pedals. For dummies like me, let me explain: these are pedals that are sold in a set with special cycling shoes. Bicycle shoes are attached to the pedals on a road bike. And so, at your own risk, with strapped feet, you rush on the way to your first IRONMAN. I was allowed to learn in sneakers, but that didn’t make it any easier. A road bike itself is very light, maneuverable and allows you to develop a good speed, but compared to your usual mountain or city “bicycle friend” it is absolutely different, it is important to feel it. But that’s why the training camp is good, that after plunging into the real process with your head, you begin to realize that the way to the first triathlon start is a colossal work to overcome your “can’t” and “don’t want”. But first and foremost, of course, it’s a high! With that in mind, I’ll highlight two important points.

• Want to make friends with the highwayman and crank your triathlon start to the max? Practice more! The machines in the fitness room won’t give you a full picture of how it feels to be “in the saddle” of a road bike.
• When choosing cycling shoes, check the docking mechanism of the shoes and the contact on the pedals. Many of the guys in our group had soft bindings and it was easy to remove their feet from the pedals, but my triathlon colleague’s mechanism was quite stiff and it took a lot of effort to remove her foot.

A smart person doesn’t go uphill, a smart person runs cross-country

One of the items on our schedule was a “cross hike”. I went hiking, I ran cross-country a couple of times, but … that all at once and together … We ran at an average pace, because there were beginners in the group (okay, I’ll write honestly, there was one beginner in the group – it was me).

The whole road was divided into intervals: run, walk, stop, exercise, jog, run, walk uphill, and so on. A few conclusions to this paragraph.

• Cross training in the mountains is a great cardio endurance workout.
• Pay special attention to your knees when descending. Remember that your downhill movements should more resemble a free fall than constant braking.

Open water swimming: everything you need to know

All you really need to know is that open water swimming builds character as well as body. It’s also, perhaps, radically different from training, swimming in a pool. I will remember my first open water swim for a long time. We were guided by buoys. That is, first we all swam from the shore to the buoy, and then we started swimming between them.

In general, in my first training camp I had a lot of mistakes with equipment selection: I didn’t buy something, I forgot something at home, but here I made one of the unacceptable mistakes for a beginner – I came to Sochi and left my wetsuit in Moscow. Be sure to take note:

• A wetsuit for triathlon and a wetsuit for wake/surf are not the same thing. Your suit needs to be soft and flexible, as otherwise you’ll feel a lot of discomfort when you constantly bend your arms;
• A triathlon suit is needed primarily to help your body maintain the correct position in the water;
• No excuses! We swam in stormy seas in the rain. We’re alive, it’s real. You shouldn’t deny your desire to swim by finding weather-related excuses (within reason, of course).

The nearest triathlon training camp in the company of coach Victoria Shubina will be held from 25.10 to 31.10 on the island of Sardinia. You can find out more information by phone +7 (965) 315 04 57.

Recovery: detox for body and soul

In addition to everything described above, our busy schedule included lectures, morning jogs, and yoga in a beautiful studio with panoramic windows. These camps helped me and many of the guys fall even more in love with the sport we do.

So if you want to fall in love with triathlon at first sight, to “pump up” your knowledge in various areas, but you don’t know how, you urgently need to go to a training camp and organize a total reboot of your brain and body.