Junior Endurance Camp Wrap Up

Written by by Steven Macklin & Joe Ryan 

The Athletics Ireland Junior High Performance Endurance Camp held in Alfa Mar Portugal was a chance for our young athletes to train in a high performance environment, away from life's stressors that can impact on training adaptation. At the first team meeting the coaching team asked the athletes to bring their best to every training session and every day as a whole. A high performance environment moves at pace, we need to be constantly moving forward in what we aim to achieve and we asked that the athletes set this tone from the beginning of the camp. Liam Moggan has coined it well in two simple words "Normalizing Excellence".

Training Emphasis

The camp never emphasized one particular day but a consistent 10 day block of training and returning home healthy & motivated. We chose to run this camp having a big "training" emphasis with educational pieces at the track, gym etc rather than indoors with a big focus on sleep, nutrition, mobility, stretching, S&C, drills etc. Each morning the athletes first task was to fill in a monitoring sheet giving the coaches specific feedback on resting heart rate, appetite, mood, motivation, quality of sleep, muscle fatigue, any injury issues etc. This should be best practice for every athlete on a daily basis, with honest feedback and communication with their coach. Something we hope the athletes will continue to monitor at home following the camp and feedback to their personal coaches. 

38 Athletes

At the beginning of the camp we had many athletes that didn't know each other but following 10 days together we had 38 athletes departing for home who have become the best of friends. This is a special part of the sport that we all love, those friendships that are fostered at competitions, training camps etc many of which remain for life. At a camp like this for juniors especially, it is important to find a balance between creating a high performance environment & culture but also having down time for the athletes to switch off, enjoy each other's company, relax and of course have some time for their study's. This team culture is important going forward, more collaboration and athletes working together fosters a stronger culture. 

Support

A word of thanks to Geraldine Nolan, Noel Richardson, Ray Shanahan, Pat Hogan, Paul Fleming, Sandra O Cathain and Joe Warne for their support throughout the camp. A key service provider at any camp is the therapist and here Thomas McBride was invaluable. A young aspiring professional in this field, he worked extremely hard each day managing any injury issues the athletes may have had. An integral part of the camp and one we were very grateful to have with us.  Also a word of thanks to our National Endurance Lead Coach Chris Jones, HP Director Kevin Ankrom, Junior HP Manager Jacqui Freyne and teams coordinator Gill Brosnan who's support for this camp was very much appreciated by all involved.

Personal Coaches

Another mention is deserved of the athletes personal coaches. When the planning process for this camp began in November and due to the numbers attending, collaboration with the coaches was critical for the smooth and efficient running of the camp. All the personal coaches were extremely open to the plans for the camp and their willingness for their athletes to engage in daily group runs and workouts allowed for a more productive and successful camp. It was also very beneficial to have some of our senior athletes such as John Travers, Darragh Rennicks, Shane Fitzimmons, Joe Warne, Deirdre Doyle, Ciara Durkin, John Coghlan etc in attendance, some positive role models for the athletes to look up to. 

Normalize Excellence

To the athletes - Your passion, attitude, drive, enthusiasm and hunger for knowledge was a motivating factor for us. In that kind of environment coaching is a joy and a privilege to be part of. Continue in this vein on a daily basis over the coming months/years and you will make us proud as a nation. Believe in yourself, keep working hard but smart, be open and honest with your coach, create a team of people around you that you trust, always aim high and continue to raise the bar. We asked you all to maintain a high standard from the start and you did, we asked you all to work together as a group and you did, we asked you to "Normalize Excellence" daily and you did.  

Challenges

Now the athletes aim to recover fully from the camp, allow the adaptations to take effect and plan towards their opening races of the track season. Many have highly challenging goals set, many dream of winning national titles, qualifying for major championships and bringing back medals to Ireland from major championships. Many will experience highs and lows this track season, be challenged and taken out of their comfort zone but the satisfaction gained by both coach & athlete on this journey is one that is worth the toil. We need to train ourselves and our athletes in what W. B. Yeats poetically described as "The Fascination of what is difficult" if we are to last the course.

Endurance Running

Endurance running is not an easy game, it takes time, patience, consistency and effort - some deep habit forming actions - with a strong degree of resilience to plough through the many failures on the path to mastery and success. Hopefully this camp has taught the athletes some of these traits and Ireland will continue its proud endurance tradition and continue to raise the bar.