Pre-season boot camp

Date first posted on eCommunity - 22 September 2009

Right now I should be in Norway, acting as trainer on XCuk's pre-season "Boot Camp" in Dalseter. However the course did not prove popular and we had to cancel it.

I decided to do my own DIY version anyway and I completed it last week. I wanted to see just what sort of results I could achieve in a week of hard work, and what kind of lessons I could learn about this sort of intense training.

Here's my diary of the seven days.

Day 1
0600 3 hours Nordic walking (NW). About ten miles
1000 30 mins strength: upper body
1900 30 mins Nordic Track ski machine: fast steady pace.

Total 4 hours.
Felt sleepy all afternoon but no major aches or pains.

Day 2
0600 2 hours NW. About six miles
0900 1 hour run. Six miles
1700 30 mins strength: core
1800 45 mins Nordic Track machine: long intervals

Total 4.25 hours.
Every workout today felt hard but I'm less sleepy than yesterday. Eating a lot.

Day 3
0600 30 mins brisk walk to warm up
0630 1.5 hours roller ski at Dorney Lake (alternating 2km lengths of classic and
skate).
Then I fell and pulled a hamstring. Limped back to car.
1430 30 mins strength: shoulders
1730 30 mins strength: chest, arms

Total 3 hours.
Shame about the leg. I had been enjoying the roller skiing.

Day 4
0645 1 hour swim: 60 lengths of pool (1500m)
1 hour bike in gym
30 mins cross trainer
30 mins walk on treadmill
2100 1 hour strength: upper body

Total 4 hours.
Morning session should have been swim, bike, run. But my leg hurt after the bike. Swim was hard but good.

Day 5
0600 Four hours NW. About 12 miles.

Total 4 hours.
I was tired this morning and the session was hard work from the first step to
the last.

Day 6
0700 30 mins Nordic Track machine
0900 45 mins power walk (leg too sore to run)
2000 Two hours mixed cardio in gym

Total 3.25 hours

Day 7
1430 Four hours mixed cardio in gym. Bike, cross-trainer, arm bike, stepper,
rower.
Then 30 mins "strength" (though by this time there was little strength left).

Total 4.5 hours.
This session was hard from start to finish. After about 3 hours I hit some kind
of wall and felt empty and a little dizzy for a while. Workout intensity for cardio was about 400 cals per hour.

Total for week: 27 hours.


RESULTS
The day before starting the programme I weighed myself and measured my body fat using a Bodystat machine. I re-measured the day after finishing the programme.

Weight loss: 2.3 kg
Fat loss: 2.5 kg
Muscle gain: 0.2 kg

I was pleased with the amount of weight loss. And I was relieved that it came all from fat and not muscle. (I upped my protein intake during the week; and the strength sessions must also have helped).

As well as changes in body-composition I had intended to measure any improvements in fitness (by comparing times on 1.5 mile run test, etc). But the hamstring injury precluded that. Subjectively - once I'd had a day's rest - I felt massively fitter after the week.

DISCUSSION
I don't want at all to recommend the specific programme I followed. Although it started out with a valid rationale (a daily mixture of stamina, strength and speed) the hamstring injury knocked it off course and made it much less varied than I would have wanted.

And I don't really want to recommend the general approach I followed. The emphasis on stamina work suited me but it would not suit everyone. And the workout durations would certainly not suit everyone.

But I do think that the general principle of a longish, intensive period of training is a good one - as long as you already have reasonable fitness and as long as you pitch it at a level that is appropriate to your own needs and abilities. For some people that will mean a much harder programme than the one I followed. For others it will mean a much easier one, and maybe also a shorter one.

If you prefer to join an organized boot camp, staffed by professional trainers, a Google search will find you lots of choices. And if you have a thousand pounds to spare, such a camp could be a good use of your money. But you can easily put together your own DIY version, using whatever kit and facilities are close to home.

Just take it easy and go at your own pace. (And if you happen to fall over and injure a hamstring it is of course prudent to stop training immediately . . .)
 

S. Montgomery, for XCuk

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